Concerning Materia Mending

This is a two part question.
First i'd like to say I found out the hard way that each level of gear has a set amount of stats allowed to be added to it per type. What i mean is for example when I was a level 20 arcanist i decided to level weaver to 20 so I could add materia to the "cotton cowl" which is the top you get at 15 and is the strongest top you get until the cowl at 27.

If I remember correctly it came with base stats +4 int as one of the stats, when i added a +1 int the materia mended but it was redded out which tells me that the piece of gear did not take the int. In other words it appears this piece of gear cannot have anything more than 4 stats of any type.

Thus my question is this, is there a diagram or list which tells me per level how many of each stat gears can have, currently i'm using the lvl 27 cowl which has a few base stats ranging from +8int and other stats lower which I assume means I can't give it any more than 8 stats of a given type...which still means i can't add int to a piece of caster gear >_>

My second question is, if I add materia and it is redded out is there any way I can pull that materia out so I can put something else in? Can materia be removed from gear? If so what is the command?

I linked 2 other materia to the gear, each simply melded and showed as normal without being "redded out". In truth, each materia melding said 100% probability to meld but only certain types of materia would turn out red, I suppose it could mean what you said if i just wasn't paying attention as closely as I think. Now i'm not so sure what does it being red mean lol.

Depending on item level, if it's an HQ or not, you can only get so much of every stat on gear.

Materia allows you to reach that cap, not go beyond it.

HQ'd gear often caps (or very nearly caps) the stats that the item has natively.

For your cowl, you could have added a full materia of stats like Strength, Dexterity, Determination, Accuracy, Piety.

You could likely have added some Vitality, but not as much as the others, as the Cowl already provides some of it.

Some items, like the Vintage Senechal Coatee, can actually receive full materia on its native stats (Can get +6 craftsmanship, despite being HQ'd), probably because its item level.

So far, I do not think anyone knows ahead of time which points will the materia cap on gear other than trial and error with various grades and values. It helps to carry around a lot of materias to see which ones you can get the most out of on your gear, but that's clearly not a practical answer for average/normal people.

Items have stat caps, thats why they turn red.


Go buy a cheap NQ and HQ of the same item.

Ex:
NQ has 2 INT and 3 Determination
HQ has 3 INT and 4 Determination

If you add a Int materia (+2 int) to the NQ you'll get +1 int
If you add a Int materia (+2 int) to the HQ you'll get +0 int

Both will be RED

You can do the same with Determination materia's.

Now say you add a +4 Crit, It will give the full amount. If you add a second +4 crit, you'll get 1-4 crit depending on what the cap is for that item.

Most if not all HQ will have the max allowed stats as base.

I think I understand now, but then I feel it also voids the purpose of desiring to link with materia because for example suppose i got a high quality item with stats for Mind, Int, and Vitality maxed out, i mean sheesh what more do I need? Would linking with determination +8 or whatever really make that much of a difference for a mage?

Determination is huge. At low level it seems bad, but it should provide significant advantage to your spells the higher your base stats are.

Crit rating is also pretty good, for both healers and nukers (Mostly for scholar healers, but I'd still use it for white mages). Spell speed, obviously, is a great stat to materia on your stuff, if it doesn't appear natively.

Hum... well, since i don't want to make a thread about it, I'll ask this here: did they nerf melding success rates? I litterally had 100% for four melds on a low level item for an FC member, it unlocked the 'Luck has nothing to do with it' Achievment, but it was stupid 'easy'. Back in 1.0, you were lucky to get two melds, and if you had three you spent millions trying to get it.

It's way easier because you don't lose progress, only the materia you tried to add.

Also, some items allow up to 4 materia (The body+hat or leg+feet armor for example), and then the 5th will have a chance to break.

It seems "stupid easy" to get the 5 meld, at least on those armors.

I too have made that mistake of putting materia on a capped item. Fortunately, there is a way to remove materia onto an item. If you go North East of Black Brush, there's an npc that will do it. If you did the level 20 main storyline then you've been there already.

As for a diagram, that would be great to have. However, Im wondering if such a thing can be produced, as each item can be different.

Being a BLM that is also building my gear, I am focusing on INT, Accuracy, Determination, then Crit Rate.

@Amyas: I dont know if the rates have been nerfed, but there does exist certain armor that has 4 slots on it, which could lead to 100% on all 4 melds. I tried putting on a Tier IV for a 3rd meld (the other two being tier IV) and it was about 15%. I wonder if HQ items affect meld rates as they did in 1.0.

i always wear HQ so i can never slot int or mind so i slot spell speed or determination or both.
sometimes i slot piety for extra MP...
i have never tried the higher tier materia...