Help me Understand upgrading Animus to Novus

[Kanemano]

The difference between using Tier IV materia and melding 3 stats is so small it's not worth worrying about. If you're concerned with the cost about the Tier IV materia, just meld a 3rd stat and move on to Nexus. You'll get MUCH better benefit from moving to your Zeta faster with all that sweet, sweet weapon damage instead of derping around about a few secondary stats that do almost nothing.

Quoted for truth.

You don't need to spend the extra amount/time on the last T4's, and the quest is forgiving enough to allow you to meld whatever off stat you want in order to not touch them until later (all the way to the completed Zeta phase), while benefiting from a higher iLv weapon immediately.

[NyarukoW]

Quoted for truth.

You don't need to spend the extra amount/time on the last T4's, and the quest is forgiving enough to allow you to meld whatever off stat you want in order to not touch them until later (all the way to the completed Zeta phase), while benefiting from a higher iLv weapon immediately.

Don't you still need to get all 75 infusions done first before you can go farm light? What happens to the alexandrite that is consumed in the process when you are just melding junk stats?

[Kanemano]

Yes, you still need a total of 75 infusions, so infuse whatever you want to complete after you've gotten to a stopping point on the attributes you actually want (weapon-depending, accuracy is not necessarily a bad stat to substitute with, it can potentially free up acc in other parts of your build).

It DOES consume alex per meld, but if you do your daily expert, you'll always have an alex per day from that quest alone. At the moment, i'm sitting on 77 alex and 3 extra maps I don't know what to do with (maybe if DRK has a relic/zodiac...), so you won't be wanting for more alex. If you are, there are a multitude of ways to acquire more (allied seals, alex maps with soldiery, FATE farming with Nexus and up).

[Fenral]

Don't you still need to get all 75 infusions done first before you can go farm light? What happens to the alexandrite that is consumed in the process when you are just melding junk stats?

You can respec, and getting Alex is pretty easy these days. The first melds you do aren't the stats you're stuck with forever, so it's more efficient to meld three useful stats now than do three weeks of spiritbonding for a "perfect" Crit/Det build when you could be working on Nexus at the same time.