Red scrip caps and lack of materia make favor gathering ill-advised

Currently, the only feasible way to get usable endgame DoH/DoL gear is by trading red scrip for the i180 gear. The favor gathering system, combined with the low weekly cap on red scrip gathering, makes the process to craft i170 even less appealing than it already is (due to the lack of reasonably available Tier V materia for gatherers and crafters).

It currently takes almost 3 months to gather enough red scrip to outfit a single class (and this is if you aren't wasting capped scrip on favors- heavily RNG-influenced chances to gather a tiny amount of the many items needed to craft a single piece of i170 gear).

Will this experience be adjusted/improved in the next patch?

Wut? Why are you melding V's? Wife and I did 2 full crafted sets each except for mh and accessories in ilke 2 weeks, and got them melded up to 3 star with minimal over-melds using only IV's or less.

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Originally Posted by Deathgiver

Wut? Why are you melding V's? Wife and I did 2 full crafted sets each except for mh and accessories in ilke 2 weeks, and got them melded up to 3 star with minimal over-melds using only IV's or less.

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So OP is pointing out that red scrip barter system is not good and all you get from it is tier V materia melds? GG.

Back on topic. Yes, red scrip barter system is terrible (not the idea itself but that horribly low weekly limit that needs to be raise by a lot).

I do not have a problem with the 450 per week limit on the Red Scrip. The real problem the OP references is the conversion rate to gear.

IMO there are two possible solutions to this. First, up the total allowed Red Scrip, from 500 to 2000. Or, reduce the amount of Red Scrip required to purchase the Red Tokens. 450 Red Scrip per week is fine. 9 Red Tokens per week is rather low.

As far as T5 Materia go, I have yet to get any crafting/gathering t5 Materia. My specialists are all able to craft 3 star without eating any food, and that was done primarily with t4 Materia and the 2 star crafting gear. You do not need t5 Materia to reach 3 star stats.

If the devs in their infinite stubbornness decide to retain the favor system (which in all likelihood, they will because fuck crafters), they need to make the materials more accessible and not reliant on DoL jobs.

1. In 2.x, crafting mats dropped predictably and reliably from dungeon coffers. This continued until the mats became obsolete. The drop rate in 3.x, however, is abysmal. Why gate crafting gear by limiting available materials? Make the actual crafting process of HQ gear difficult, but with an advantage (requiring fewer melds to reach cap) while still allowing NQ gear to achieve the same result, albeit more expensive and/or time consuming (more melds, for example).

2. OP's criticism of the barter system. Whoever designed favors in the first place needs to be fired. It's a completely unnecessary step in the process, and forces high end crafting gear to be wholly reliant on DoL jobs.

3. At one time, crafting materials could be bought using GC seals, tomestones, etc. Some still can. Removing i170 crafting mats from the poetics law vendor was a monumental blunder, given how difficult they are to obtain otherwise. If you got your gear early, congratulations. If you waited, you got screwed. Nice of the devs to change to rules on obtaining gear after the fact.

I'm not sure what kind of luck you are having, but I get on average 4 favor materials per favor buff used. 450 gathering scrips buys 9 tokens, which gives 45 buffs. Multiply by 4 (my average) gives you 180 favor materials, which is just enough to split 90/90 to make the 9 crafter scrip token turn ins every week. This buys you 135 nq materials, which is 27 2-star materials. This is almost enough to craft a full left AND right side withen 1 week.

Trading the npcs for 180 gear is the slowest thing you could be doing.

I would advise doing your favor nodes and buying the 135 favor mats, then have someone attempt to craft them into 27 hq 2 star mats. If you dont have enough gil to give them a proper tip, let them keep 3-5 of the favor mats, they will be happy to accept this.

I do this whole process every week (favor node gathering, red scrip turn in, 2 star mat crafting). This takes on average about 8 uninterrupted hours, but yields me about 10 mil profit. Once you get to a point where you have some gil from selling these 2 star mats, you can buy the favor mats instead of gathering them. A quick calculation on favor mat purchasing: 50k per favor mat = 333k minimum selling price of a finished 2 star mat product. 50k times 20 is 1m, to receive 15 raw material, to convert into 3 2-star mats.

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Originally Posted by Deathgiver

Wut? Why are you melding V's? Wife and I did 2 full crafted sets each except for mh and accessories in ilke 2 weeks, and got them melded up to 3 star with minimal over-melds using only IV's or less.

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This. There is no reason to be doing tier 5s at this point. Full 170 gear left+right takes only a few 4s, and a bunch of 3's. Its better to spend 200-500k melding each piece, then remeld later when 4 star comes out, then take the risk of melding tier 5 incorrectly because 4 star had different stats then you expect. You can remove materia from gear in central thanalan.

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Originally Posted by keyburz

I'm not sure what kind of luck you are having, but I get on average 4 favor materials per favor buff used. 450 gathering scrips buys 9 tokens, which gives 45 buffs. Multiply by 4 (my average) gives you 180 favor materials, which is just enough to split 90/90 to make the 9 crafter scrip token turn ins every week.

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Ahhhh ... If only they broke down this way.

You buy them in stacks of 5. 9 stacks of 5 per week, with Miner or Botany getting shorted one week. Your average, which generally matches mine, gives 80 mining and 100 botany favor materials in a week (or 80 botany and 100 mining).

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Originally Posted by keyburz

This. There is no reason to be doing tier 5s at this point. Full 170 gear left+right takes only a few 4s, and a bunch of 3's. Its better to spend 200-500k melding each piece, then remeld later when 4 star comes out, then take the risk of melding tier 5 incorrectly because 4 star had different stats then you expect. You can remove materia from gear in central thanalan.

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I agree for the most part, but the part about the melds. Unless you don't want max stats on accessories you have to meld almost exclusively T4 materia. Which is very pricey 200k each minimum. So even if Byregots touched your melding hand the neck, earring and bracelet would cost 1mil in materia with no fails. That's the problem I have with our current system. I have materia airships running non-stop trying to supply a very small FC like 5 crafters materia. ;-;

I could understand but for quite cheaply you can get every item in the game gathering wise with out RGS gear like me never had a problem but 3.3 Soon NEW Gathering set at last I was soooooo pissed we have crafting af that can be crafted but no gathering set >.>

They need to do away with this weekly cap junk...I hate it. I can set my own goals, I don't need the game to tell me if I can or can't :/

Yeah, it's the wrong time to talk about gear grind when we are very close to a patch that adds both new gear and a new method of obtaining crafter materia. Will the old gear become easier/faster to get? Of course, everything in the game is eased over time. You only need to put in a lot of time and effort if you want the latest and greatest stuff. And yes the grade V materia isn't needed to craft anything.