Question about melding

[Estellios]

Even if lower level gear can't fully use the materia, higher level gear can and it is much less pricey to use a tier 1 if your gear would only need +3 Craftsmanship to cap it.

[MithrasInvictus]

Even if lower level gear can't fully use the materia, higher level gear can and it is much less pricey to use a tier 1 if your gear would only need +3 Craftsmanship to cap it.

With the HQ gear, you wouldn't be using a tier one until you were forbidden melding anyway. Everything has one or two tier fours that need to go into the guaranteed slots first (save for a couple of accessories that take a control 3 to start). You're already going to have to cough up the big bucks to get started melding your HQ crafting gear. I've put around a million into mine so far, and only have 3 forbidden melds across the whole set, with a long way to go!