Blessings, Bonuses, and Enchantments

I'm a big fan of rpg games, been playing them since the NES system. I was always the type of player who liked to max everything, collect every item and overwhelm whatever the next phase of the story had me face.While not everyone played this way, a good portion of the fan base did. I realize that this is not a straight up rpg, but ffxiv uses many elements from them.

Having said all that, I'd love to see some additional ways to be gain an advantage outside of just gear. Perhaps allow players a weekly quest that let them choose a small bonus to a chosen stat, similar to materia until the weekly reset. They could even be tied into the existing weekly challenge log. Speaking of which, I think it would be awesome if certain long term achievements gave out really small permanent bonuses, like a +1 to determination, or +50 hp. Nothing game breaking, but cool incentives for players like me who like having every small advantage possible.

It would have also have been fun if before any dungeon or trial for progressing the story there was the option to hunt down items to assist in the battles ahead. Maybe a Water based enchantment that gave addition damage or reduced damage during the ifrit fight. Once again, nothing that would ever be a requirement to do the content, but there for anyone interested.

nothing would ever be a requirement.....in the end all that would be a must....even if its as little as 50hp :P

I can understand the concern of these becoming requirements in the eyes of community, but they are certainly not requirements to complete content. I was almost thinking of them as free materia. Most of the time I run a trial or dungeon with people geared to that level I don't see folks bothering to drop anything into even the 2 free slots. You are right though when it comes to endgame content where victory balances on a razors edge. However the requirements to even get to that point look far harsher that what I was proposing to have those small advantages.

as free materia....like in other mmorpgs , enchanting gear , or runes/gems , that would be "optional" but in the end not upgrading the items that would last for a while was a reason for kicks / no inviting...ect ....same as now food / potions are "optional" in endgame.... but Alex Savage for sure is balanced with players using food and potions.

i think thats materia system is supposed to do in this game, but alas, they doing a really good job to keep materia as irrelevant as possible to battle class.

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Originally Posted by Aniforani

Most of the time I run a trial or dungeon with people geared to that level I don't see folks bothering to drop anything into even the 2 free slots.

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To give some insight on that:
1) leveling is so quick that the gear will be replaced too soon
2) materia can be a bit annoying to generate
3) end game uses of materia go through a ton of it due to low chance overmelds

I only slot in some elemental resist materia if I want to speed up the spirit binding process (usually because I leveled too quickly and want to use my next set).

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I can understand the concern of these becoming requirements in the eyes of community, but they are certainly not requirements to complete content. I was almost thinking of them as free materia. Most of the time I run a trial or dungeon with people geared to that level I don't see folks bothering to drop anything into even the 2 free slots.

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Assuming they have crafts leveled, or know any crafters, or want to go through the bother of doing something like that for gear that will soon be replaced anyway.

A lot of times you can't even put the most helpful materia into an item anyway because the item is already capped out on the stat. The game doesn't really do a good job at explaining to you *beforehand* what you can meld into a piece of equipment; you either have to find it somewhere online (and sites like xivdb do not even cover all the equips/caps), or actually buy the materia + attempt to meld it yourself to even be able to see if the equipment will accept that materia.