[dev1017] Materia crafting system & Materia: A Matter of Mystery (08/26/2011)

[Felis]

NM dropped gear is between 25 - 35.
From high level NM you only get mats, which the crafters can use to make your NM gear, or stones from the leve NMs, which you can give the NPC (and other mats) to make your NM gear with this. I think in both you can put materia (the gears are tradeable after all).

The story about dungeon gear:
+3 gear without materia > +0 dungeon gear
HQ gear with Materia (1 or 5) > NQ dungeon gear without materia
Time to get HQ gear < time to get dungeon gear (if you are in a good LS)

[Amsai]

Isn't this question akin to "which class will be the best one in the game?"

I mean go ahead and ask it, but you may not be satisfied with the answer they give.

I dont see it that way. I'd agree with you if I was asking what is the best gear for my PLD: minus % dmg or plus HP gear?
But I am not asking about a specific situation or gear tuned for certain things. Its more like I am asking if the max materia crafted gear fully invested in plus HPs would always be better than NM/Dungeon drops with plus HP stats (assuming for the same rank/level/class).

You might be right about me not liking the answer though, I wouldnt be suprised if I get a vague answer or a feel good "whatever is right for you" type of answer. But from the way its being laid out and from the statement they have made in the past, it looks like its all pointing towards max materia crafted gear being THE best.

For example: I could see AF armor coming out. Lets say that the new PLD AF armor (as a drop) has a combined +250 HPs (pulling numbers out of my ass). Now lets take a full set of crafted gear that already had the best HPs for PLD, and lets say we successfully graft on 5 tier 4 materia per gear piece with each materia giving +15 HPs. Well the combined HPs for the materia added +375 HPs and thats not including the HPs that were already on the armor pieces. Maybe it wouldnt be this overpowered, but they dont seem to be putting much of a limit to it.

As I said, there is a lack of clarification. I am not saying its good or bad per se. If SE has decided to go in the direction of making crafted gear the best gear, and it is iron clad. Then thats just the way it is, and I'll move along.

NM dropped gear is between 25 - 35.
From high level NM you only get Mats, which the crafters can use to make your NM gear, or stones from the leve NMs, which you can give the NPC (and other mats) to make your NM gear with this. I think in both you can put materia (the gears are tradeable after all).

Dungeon gear is another story, but now +3 gear is better than dungeon gear, too

Yea I know all that, but I was mostly refering to future dungeons and NMs. As in a ballance to the materia system. For instance: maxed materia crafted gear = Dungeon gear.

[Amineri]

You might be right about me not liking the answer though, I wouldnt be suprised if I get a vague answer or a feel good "whatever is right for you" type of answer. But from the way its being laid out and from the statement they have made in the past, it looks like its all pointing towards max materia crafted gear being THE best.

I think the issue here is assuming that all gear can be strictly ordered from "best" to "worst". There are other options.

For example, a particular piece of NM/Dungeon gear could have a unique ability that is not available as a materia or on crafted gear. Or perhaps a piece of NM/Dungeon gear could have the effects of two very rare materia. While technically possible to recreate such gear with materia, the chance of losing two materia would create a lot of value for the NM/Dungeon gear.

I think that the worst choice that the dev team could make would be to have future NM/Dungeon gear have the SAME stats/abilities as is available with crafted-gear/common-materia, since that would make it easy to compare which was "best".

[Amsai]

I think the issue here is assuming that all gear can be strictly ordered from "best" to "worst". There are other options.

For example, a particular piece of NM/Dungeon gear could have a unique ability that is not available as a materia or on crafted gear. Or perhaps a piece of NM/Dungeon gear could have the effects of two very rare materia. While technically possible to recreate such gear with materia, the chance of losing two materia would create a lot of value for the NM/Dungeon gear.

I think that the worst choice that the dev team could make would be to have future NM/Dungeon gear have the SAME stats/abilities as is available with crafted-gear/common-materia, since that would make it easy to compare which was "best".

I really hope that you're right. I could live with something like that. In the past, I myself have said that it would be nice if materia crafted gear could make the best CLASS gear and that NM/Dungeon dropped gear could be the best for Jobs. Some kind of trade off would be great. For all we know that is exactly what they have in mind, but again it gets down to a lack of clarification.

I don't pretend to speak for the community, but I just feel the way it is right now that a lot of people that like the typical endgame grind like myself would not be happy with crafted gear being the best gear. Me and about 15 of my RL friends will just straight up leave if that is the case. And just making all NM/Dungeon drops be rare mats would just be insult to injury. Its nothing personal, and if I liked crafting at all I might not mind it too much. It just does not seem natural to me for great gear to come from any other place aside from a treasure chest in a deep dark cave or being guarded by a dragon, etc etc. Too many D&D novels maybe? I dont know, but I do know what I like. And I cant see it being too popular with Raiders either.