The main problem with Novus now is the price of materia. I consider myself a rich player and I am simply not prepared to spend 10 million gil on tier 4 materia to get my Novus, it's not worth it. I imagine the time involved in earning that 10 million back is far more than farming a sands of time via hunts to upgrade a weathered soldiery weapon to i110. So I will likely sit with 75 alexandrite until the upgrade is worth doing.