Quote Originally Posted by Eekiki View Post
The solution would be to have dungeon gear (i.e. rare/ex) have a materia slot. I couldn't tell you why SE didn't do that.
because then while materia is valuable, the crafted gear is not.

IMO the best solutions
less rare ex drops, and have craftable items drop from hard dungeons for the best gear
rare ex drops have a seperate upgrade path
rare ex can get materia, but 1 less maximum, and the first try is 50%

or have them be equal to a single materia gear in stats. a bit tricky though because materias have ranges, and the best IV materia is pretty rare.