melding lore gear

[Maero]

The difference between IV and V does not make up for how much it costs or having to run Diadem, lol
I have just been melding IV to my Midan and lore gear because i wanted those extra stats right away

[Noxifer]

That's more like getting rid and not remove.

Late response, but...
Most systems that allow you to remove 'socketed' items (gems, runes.... materia ;p ) have two options: One is that you destroy the socketed items but keep the gear. The other is that you destroy the gear but keep the socketed items. Which would you prefer in this case? ^^;

That's a bit better, even so, rank 3 will take me something like 33 days to get

Yeah, that first rank takes ages, since you can only use 3 of your daily allowances. But once you get past that, it goes a bit quicker, since you can do all six of the quests with one tribe.

[Melch]

They should allow us to remove materias from gears.

This a thousand, no, a million times.

[Cherie]

I'm not sure why anyone is all surprised or concerned about this already... Maybe I'm just missing something here but... Not many people are actually getting gobtwines out of midian savage yet? Correct me if I'm wrong but... it's not even dozens of groups yet right? maybe not even ten?

It's not much of a surprise that the materia would be lost. When you exchange in a item for a upgraded one, does it keep the glamours you placed on the old item? Nopes... And yes materia is expensive business. It always has been. Anyone pointing out that materia is expensive business probably hasn't crushed 60+ materia trying to penta-meld something.. :P Try doing overmelding near a busy marketboard. You'll suddenly get so much love.... /comfort for days... Everyone can feel those tears with all the materia break messages flooding the area....lol

[Noxifer]

You'll suddenly get so much love.... /comfort for days... Everyone can feel those tears with all the materia break messages flooding the area....lol

I tend to bring out my magic broom minion xD to sweep away all those dangerously sharp materia shards littering the ground. Can't have someone step on them (hey! maybe that's why we always keep our sandals on, even when barefoot?), can we?

[Esper]

Kind of silly they bothered putting materia melds on the normal gear instead of just the upgraded. Likely many will not meld them even for the extra boost until upgraded. Hope this is better thought through next time.

[Cherie]

Kind of silly they bothered putting materia melds on the normal gear instead of just the upgraded. Likely many will not meld them even for the extra boost until upgraded. Hope this is better thought through next time.

Not all materia is expensive though... Rank III materia are rarely over 3k or so. Though, I have to admit, having those in your battle armor is kind of like your friend coming over and catching you eating some of the breakfast cereal that comes in a bag. Those of us that have ever been poor and have eaten fruit circles, frosted corn chips or lucky shamrocks understand....

[RyuSaarva]

Kind of silly they bothered putting materia melds on the normal gear instead of just the upgraded. Likely many will not meld them even for the extra boost until upgraded. Hope this is better thought through next time.

well, those people won't be part of any raiding teams.

[Felis]

This a thousand, no, a million times.

Speak with Mutamix in Central Thanalan.

[Sicno]

I think they made the changes to gear and created other sources for materia besides spiritbonding to incentivate its use and avoid a common problem in games with socketed gear and materias/gems/etc. where players just hoard them and reserve them for "that fabled gear of destiny", but they never actually use them because even when they get good enough gear they expect an even better item in the horizon.

One way to avoid that is with means to remove the materias while keeping them, another way is to make materias a lot more accessible so that you can just use them as you see fit. That's the approach SE took, there are more ways to get materias now. You can do Diadem, you can do beast tribe quests, VA awards a weekly grade V and they may add more ways to get materia in the future. So even if gear is volatile by the time you replace a piece you may have enough materia to meld the new one. Most of the player base is not gonna replace their lore body piece tomorrow nor next week. They may not get Midas gear from savage at all and the next time they get new gear may be when 3.3 launches. So don't think it's the end of the world because "OMG I'M GONNA LOSE 2 GRADE IVs!"