Coil ruined the craft.

[Failia]

As much as I wish that SE would give crafting as a better alternative to dungeon grinding, they've already stated that they won't be doing that. They intended for dungeon gear to be better than crafted gear. Personally, if they made at least SOME pieces of crafted gear better than dungeon gear, I would be happy. It would give materia an actual function. Right now both are useless.

[jgg1988]

As much as I wish that SE would give crafting as a better alternative to dungeon grinding, they've already stated that they won't be doing that. They intended for dungeon gear to be better than crafted gear. Personally, if they made at least SOME pieces of crafted gear better than dungeon gear, I would be happy. It would give materia an actual function. Right now both are useless.

I dont want craft gear is better than dungeon gear, what crafters need is, ilvl 90 of coil should be more difficult for get it so people will buy craft gear, and other will work hard for get the dungeon gear...
Problem is 1st coil is too easy now.

[Dervy]

. They intended for dungeon gear to be better than crafted gear

True, but when you then get items like the Wolfram Mask for the Dragoon, if melded correctly, is in fact better than both of the i110 Helms. People underestimate crafting too much. Proper and correct i90 penta-melds are far superior to some i110 items. Crafting items aren't useless, not one bit. People just don't know how to optimise them.

Name           STR     DET	CRT	SS	ACC	VIT	 Weight
High Allagan	24	0	18	0	25	28	 27.672
Astrum Helm	24	0	0	25	18	28	 28.45
Wolfram Mask	18	12	21	21	18	20	 29.922

Wolfram mask, being an i90 craft comes out on top.

A WAR, correctly melded in Wolfram can reach a surplus of 590 Skill Speed, meet accuracy caps AND have high Parry Rates. The increased SS is beneficial for WARs as they can get inner beast stacks out quicker, especially when Selene is out. 590 ss = 2.26 GDC. And with Selene: 590 * 1.3 = 767 SS = 2.09 GDC. So, a normal WAR with Selene will have 501 SS = 2.35 SS. It takes this WAR 14.1 seconds to get 5 Infuriate Stacks. The penta-melded WAR, will do it in 12.54 seconds, or 6.75 abilities in the same time.

So in 30s, WAR 1 would of pulled off 2.1 inner beasts, but WAR 2 will have 2.39 inner beasts. This value adds up a lot in longer fights.

Those are two examples of where Crafting gear can out perform normal coil gear. No one theorycrafts item melds, that's why. Thus, the community just sees the lower numbers and devalues everything.

[vp_cmc]

True, but when you then get items like the Wolfram Mask for the Dragoon, if melded correctly, is in fact better than both of the i110 Helms. People underestimate crafting too much. Proper and correct i90 penta-melds are far superior to some i110 items. Crafting items aren't useless, not one bit. People just don't know how to optimise them.

You aren't taking into account that items also have defense parameters. And 110 ilvl item defense is better than 90 ilvl no matter how melded it is. Yes, it matters.

[HumsterMKX]

You aren't taking into account that items also have defense parameters. And 110 ilvl item defense is better than 90 ilvl no matter how melded it is. Yes, it matters.

Agreed with you. For accessories, yes penta meld is better, in terms of stats. But for stuff that have def, dmg, no.

Then again... there are no i90 accessories

[PArcher]

You aren't taking into account that items also have defense parameters. And 110 ilvl item defense is better than 90 ilvl no matter how melded it is. Yes, it matters.

For DPS it matters not at all; you shouldn't be getting hit by anything but unavoidables, and those are more an HP check rather than a defense check. If you need that extra 2 points of defense (or however much it is) to survive...you're a bad DPS...

While it would matter for tanks, getting extra mitigation uses can potentially outweigh that cost. Testing would be needed to see if it is worth it or not (but, since you can clear T9 with <i100, I can't say it matters much)

[Dervy]

You aren't taking into account that items also have defense parameters. And 110 ilvl item defense is better than 90 ilvl no matter how melded it is. Yes, it matters.

Of course, the Defences on the gear from coil is far superior and out-weighs this quick little theory of mine, but it's just proof of concept that item melds can be better than coil gear to a certain extent.

For DPS, defenses means... Nothing, and we just need enough Vitality to survive hits

EDIT:

but, since you can clear T9 with <i100, I can't say it matters much)

Bingo

[TheRogueX]

As much as I wish that SE would give crafting as a better alternative to dungeon grinding, they've already stated that they won't be doing that. They intended for dungeon gear to be better than crafted gear. Personally, if they made at least SOME pieces of crafted gear better than dungeon gear, I would be happy. It would give materia an actual function. Right now both are useless.

Craft gear as a (nearly) equal alternative to dungeon gear should be considered, with Materia being the great equalizer. I don't necessarily want the craft gear to be better than the dungeon gear out of the gate, but it should be good enough to where Materia can make it practically as good if you overmeld. It would cater to a wider variation of playstyles, too, instead of everyone building their characters exactly the same.