What's the point of materia?

If players can't readily use it? I'm lvl 55 and because I have to level a crafter to max level (alongside my main job) just to jam a rock into a slot, I have never used materia. Most of the people I've talked to in game say the same thing. They just ignore it unless its a very high quality item and they have the gil to find someone with the actual skill needed to meld it.

Why bother with materia slots on low level items then? I mean I get that SE loves its asinine things but surely they don't have to put in a system that taunts the player with almost every piece of leveling gear? Just make materia viable for non max level crafters, or better yet, put stats on gear instead of materia slots so players don't feel like they're getting cheated with underpowered gear.

The stats on levelling gear are more than enough for the related content, so you do not need to add materia for stat boosts prior to end game. Adding materia will however increase the spirit binding rate significantly, which is the main reason people add materia to lower level gear.

That, and also you can click someone and select "Request Meld" to have the person meld it for you.
So you don't need to level up crafter classes at all.

Also, it's very likely the new relic will require materia at some point, just like the 2.X relic required it during the Novus upgrade.

If you wanna be a good crafter you need all crafts to 50 anyway for the abilities, so it was never really an issue pre-HW to meld your own stuff out.

I think Materia is a wasted opportunity. They could have done something interesting with it, but instead it's just basic stat increases that are often capped on the stats you would want anyway. It doesn't give you much freedom to customize your gear. That, and once you hit the level cap your gear makes no use of materia whatsoever anyway. Yes, there are some crafted items that can be BiS (or close) if properly melded, but overall I think it feels like a false sense of depth.

Dropped gear needs materia slots. Maybe make it so it can't be over melded.

I'd also like to see some more interesting materia added, but I feel like that's never going to happen.

I agree...Materia was not taken full advantage of in this game. The only thing it really is good for is High level crafters to hit max caps and for end game raider trying to do world first content and customizing their stats. Other than this they are just worth selling.
Materia melding gear that is below level 50 is a total waste of time unless you get the material for free because you go through the gear so fast doing dungeons that you will never have it long enough unless you don't play very much.
I hope that they make some improvement in the future but who knows. We will probably need it again for our next Relic Quest...I hope that by having our completed Zenith they will let us skip that phase for having it done.

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Originally Posted by Kalien

Dropped gear needs materia slots. Maybe make it so it can't be over melded.

I'd also like to see some more interesting materia added, but I feel like that's never going to happen.

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I'd be okay with materia as a way to customize stats on battle gear...even if it's just an 'illusion of choice' thing, I feel that's better than no choice at all.
But, people would complain that it's a gil sink.

They need to look at FFVII and do stuff like HP +%, MP+%, Speed+, or something like one per encounter you can do "something". just come up with something.

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Originally Posted by FoxyAreku

I'd be okay with materia as a way to customize stats on battle gear...even if it's just an 'illusion of choice' thing, I feel that's better than no choice at all.
But, people would complain that it's a gil sink.

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I don't understand why people are perfectly ok buying better stats with one type of imaginary currency (tombstones) but not with another (Gil). But yes, there would be whining.

It be nice if we could use it to enhance blue gear that will make it useful. To raise stats to a certen extent.

My 'ideal materia' system?
Remember the class quests that had you meld materia to certain weapons, turn them in for other weapons?

More of those that are then converted, once spirit bonded to specials enhancements.
So a White Mage for example could need to turn in a level 53 HQ cane with 2 Wisdom III melded to it. The white mage gets a 'Holy Cane' that is, when 100% spirit bonded, converted to a Holy Materia that adds damage to Holy when slotted. Materia would need its own inventory and each class could switch it out to slots available. Combinations of actions Materia could even unlock additional actions. Whm has all heal enhanced materia, a new AoE heal comes up that draws no Aggro, a Phoenix Down like ability. Loads of possibility, all classes. (including crafting)

The current Materia becomes a means to an end.

They used to be more useful before the expansion:
Half lv30,40 BiS pvp gears are melding gears (no one play them now)
Relic quests need materias
At the beginning of 2.0 we started with crappy gears and materias were helpful while lving DoH/L
Helpful on speedup materias SB when tier IV were super expensive
Helping on end game raid progress (2star, 3star, 4star, new 2star)

Materia is yet another system that is showing it's lack of polish and age in Heavensward. While the system was a nice hold over in A Realm Reborn, it doesn't match where the game is headed nor where it was towards the end of A Realm Reborn. Materia as it stands, is functionally useless except for crafters and gatherers who use it increase melding rates and their own stats. To be completely straightforward, I think the problem with Materia is three-fold. As some have said already, the effects they provide are boring or pointless (elemental resistance, I'm looking at you). The difficulty of obtaining Materia doesn't match the reward, grinding for 20-30 minutes to get a few pieces of random Materia that may or may not be useful (not to mention of the right Grade) isn't fun, nor is it satisfying. Lastly, Overmelding as a concept just sucks.

Overmelding is probably the biggest problem since it is highly random and extremely punishing, I would be happy to see Overmelding only doable on lower level equipment (as in, lv1-49 and lv50-59 equipment), and have any equipment of Uncommon (Green) or higher rarity come with Materia slots that can be slotted with Materia to add in some customization to gear. And the Materia we have should be changed, where are the fun effects like say "Lifestealing +#%" or even stats like "Critical Hit Damage +#%?" Even crafters and gatherers could benefit from Materia being changed to a more dynamic system, with effects like "Gathering Fortune +#%" or "Base Quality +#." Really, they just need to accept that the system is broken and needs to be remade.

It'd be nice if % spirit bind raised overmeld success rate by the same percentage. For example, an overmeld slot that has a 35% chance of meld success would have a 100% meld success when the gear reached 65% Spirit Bind.

That way the concept of pentamelding IVs/Vs in overmeld slots wouldn't seem that impractical from a cost stand point, you could just meld the piece later rather than immediately.

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Originally Posted by Ksenia

*snip*

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Don't worry—I've sent your resume and cover letter directly to Yoshi P. I'm gona call him on the phone too.
#YoshiPlease

Remember how the relic quest had scrolls where you could configure the stats of the relic weapon with materia? Would be nice if crafters could create scrolls (or similar) to rewrite the stats on raid/tome gear.

Although FFXI doesn't have a materia system, their horizontal gear progression would be an excellent case to rework XIV's system around. Ksenia and Miniprinny have the right ideas, and Sibyll's thoughts to over-melding would be extremely welcome.

Granted systems like those that are being suggested will take a lot of work to create, but such powers of customisation can change how BiS works, making it feasible for older gear to have a place in our armoury (other than piling on the MB or being vendored).

Hell, in XI there exists gear for Lv10s that are SO good in their utility that Lv99s probably still use them. If we can customise our gear with such usefulness from materia, they can probably last longer than a few major patch cycles.

I agree wholeheartedly with pretty much this whole thread, and it kinda ties into my thread about crafting battle gear. Plain and simple this is the problem we see SE, materia takes a lot of time and/or money and/or work to get/make, but once you use it you move on to a better piece and you lose it. Then there's the fact that most if not all of the gear we actually need or care about doesn't use materia. I really really want materia, and gear crafting in general to have more of a real use in the game and not just be something that we can do but is not needed or even helpful really.