New crafted i90 DoW/DoM accessories are awful

[Black91CRX]

Why even bother and throw millions at an item which can't be better than ilvl110 stuff?

Some people just have lots of money to spend. I think when the prices calm down you will see the potential of these items.

[Alistaire]

If you don't think 13 str 15 vit accessories are better than 21 vit accessories you got some things to learn about how tanks work. smh @ this whole thread.

[Argyle_Darkheart]

If you don't think 13 str 15 vit accessories are better than 21 vit accessories you got some things to learn about how tanks work. smh @ this whole thread.

While I strongly agree that they're very powerful for tanks (I crafted and melded a full set on patch day), it doesn't justify their poor itemization--at least not for other roles.

[Giantbane]

If you don't think 13 str 15 vit accessories are better than 21 vit accessories you got some things to learn about how tanks work. smh @ this whole thread.

To be fair, it's not all you give up. i90 v i110 means lower stat caps on everything else too, so you're also losing parry, acc, crit or whatever. With that said, I will say that fully melded i90 tank accessories are defintely worth using against i110 options in many situations. But the problem isn't just i90 v i110.

It's really expensive. 4x the myth of normal i90 accessories, in addition to other crafting mats and a GSM with max stats (either you find one, or do the grind yourself). Then you absolutely need a bunch of forbidden melds to make it worth using at all. It doesn't help that there's more demand for materia either. The novus and other i90 gear has increased the cost of some materia (particularly the Tier IV stuff) dramatically. Considering you only get 1 guaranteed slot, this can get extremely expensive if RNG hates you (oh man, you know what this game needs!? more heavy RNG content!).

The extra cost would be fine if it you were creating something awesome. But losing a whole secondary stat is quite a big loss to its overall potential. Whereas i70 stuff could be created with a lot of secondary stats, you're probably limited to only 2-3 with i90. It's still *good* when its max melded, but it's not quite what it was at all.

i90 gear also lost its flexibility. Used to be easy to create gear that could be shared between melee and tanks or all of your caster classes. This helped justify putting in expensive melds. But you really can't do that very effectively with the i90 stuff. So again, pay more and get less.

And if they had released these pieces in 2.2, even with the nerfs, you would have had the full 6 month gear cycle to create and use them. Now it's not a question of whether or not to get the crafted gear or the i100 or i110 gear, it's a question of whether you want to replace the i100+ gear you already have with this new crafted stuff.

The late release also brings into question their longevity. Since I'm not able to acquire these pieces until 3 months into the gear cycle, will they still be worth using into 2.4 when i120 and i130 gear is available? I'm still using i70 pieces for stuff like daily runs or open world content (NM hunts or alexandrite chests). Even even though the primary stats are lacking, each piece has 4-5 secondary stats to justify its continued usage. But since the i90 is going to be less powerful comparatively (losing at least 2 secondary stats), it may just be better at that point to just get i120+ DPS acc for my tank when I want to hit harder.

So, no, it's not that I don't think they're worth using if you're comparing max melded i90s to i110 stuff in a vacuum. I would have been happy if they'd have reduced the impact a little. Could have lowered the cost, they could have added an extra guranteed meld (2 slots on each) now that materia is *mandatory* or they could have made it easier to get Tier IV materia to deal with the forbidden meld failure rate. But they didn't do any of that. So with all the nerfs, they're not as powerful, not as flexible, won't be as useful for as long and are going to be more expensive. Is it still worth it?

Which is where I'm really wondering if they just don't like the gear and are trying to discourage us from using it. Delay it till 2.3, nerf it heavily, make it more expensive and people will generally avoid it. It's not even worth using for glamour. If enough people ignore the crafted options, then they can safely "phase them out" and they don't have to worry about balancing them. Is that the goal here?

EDIT: Oh, and seriously with the Skill Speed on DPS accessories. I'm not even sure you can make anything decent even if you pentameld them.

[Shinkyo]

Thank you!!! I had a huge disagreement in my FC on those ilvl 90 accessories.
I currently have a full set of Gryphonskin accessories pentamelded for my tank and they are awesome. I was really looking forward to upgrade to those new crafted accessories and have been saving mats and materias for it.
But OMG, what a disappointment!!! ilvl 70s were amazing and I still consider them BIS for my tank in most content due to the significant dps and accuracy increase.

And yeah, the STR ones are plain awful... The good thing is that I can now sell all my lvl4 materias.

Really, High level Crafting is only for Glamour purpose in this game... few 3 star gear are worth the investment for what they bring. Especially since ilvl 100 are so easily accessible.

[Shinkyo]

If you don't think 13 str 15 vit accessories are better than 21 vit accessories you got some things to learn about how tanks work. smh @ this whole thread.

13 STR 15 VIT is better than 21 VIT.

but 13 STR 15 VIT is not better than 9 STR 9 DEX 9 ACC 8 DET 10 VIT 12 Parry 9 Crit from a melded gryphonskin accessory. Not even mentioning all the secondary stats you'll be able to get from other gear because you'll be way over the accuracy cap.

[Ultimatecalibur]

13 STR 15 VIT is better than 21 VIT.

but 13 STR 15 VIT is not better than 9 STR 9 DEX 9 ACC 8 DET 10 VIT 12 Parry 9 Crit from a melded gryphonskin accessory. Not even mentioning all the secondary stats you'll be able to get from other gear because you'll be way over the accuracy cap.

HQ Pentamelded Topaz Accessories would be Str +13 Vit +15 Parry +16 Acc +9 and your choice of Dex +13/Crit +16/Det +11.

[Giantbane]

HQ Pentamelded Topaz Accessories would be Str +13 Vit +15 Parry +16 Acc +9 and your choice of Dex +13/Crit +16/Det +11.

pentamelding Tier IV materia is unrealistic for the vast majority of players when it's only a 7-8% chance to stick the last materia. I imagine on most servers there isn't even enough Tier IV materia available on the market to support 5-10 players doing that (given average fail rates), regardless of how much $$ they have.

The gryphonskin you're comparing it to represents 2 Tier IV (Vit + Crit), 2 Tier III (Parry), and 1 Tier 2 (Vit). A much more reasonable expectation for pentamelding a 1-slot accessory.

If the Topaz Accessories were a 2 slot item (seems appropriate since forbidden melds are now required for the item to not be junk), this would be a different story. Currently, this is not the case.

[AttacKat]

**deleted**

[Nyalia]

pentamelding Tier IV materia is unrealistic for the vast majority of players when it's only a 7-8% chance to stick the last materia.

Actually, to stick a IV materia in the 4th overmeld slot, it's a 6% chance. Ouch.