MATERIA for RARE/EX GEAR

[Murugan]

No, actually, it isn't...I see that I have to be EXTREMELY specific, since no one seems to have any imagination. When I said, constantly, I meant DDs in the ENTIRE pt will be doing SCs constantly....not just w/ themselves, "constantly." We all have keen flurry; we all build tp at considerably faster rates than in XI; and we all spam ws like a sam...it's retarded.

I could spam weapon skills as a Monk or a Warrior in XI not just as a Samurai. In FFXIV if you want to do the type of heavy damaging TP skills for chains like in XI you need to also use buffs, many of them cost 3k TP, and many also have timers. Abilities are getting redone before the combo system, and Keen Flurry may be one of them. However Keen Flurry is not something all classes have, it is something that people who have leveled Lancer have (Lancer being compared to Samurai as a combo based DD class).

Considering that it is really not that much more a spam fest than XI, especially when you consider how WS spam worked for a great deal of XI's past (multi hit weapon skills anyone?).

But hey if you want to chain unbuffed 500-1k TP skills with your buddies so you can complain about the spam you are creating go ahead, but I doubt it will compare to the damage of coordinating the factors that actually increase overall DPS currently (even if they keep everything the same, which they won't because they are making balance changes in 1.20).

Didn't Yoshida say in the interview that ultimately he wants to create a system in which you can pull of a spectacular combo among a group of players that is prohibitively difficult to accomplish and that was its limiting factor? Compared to the Dev teams' actual ideas your idea of simply slowing TP gain just masks the issue of "spam combat" by arbitrarily putting limiting players' options in combat; a slower spam but not any more involved.

[HoolieWho]

There is a hierarchy of Materia melded gear based essentially on how much gil you can expect to spend:

1. Tier III
2. Tier IV
3. Tier III + Tier III
4. Tier III + Tier IV
5. Tier IV + Tier IV
6. Etc...

There will also be a hierarchy of U/U gear, hopefully power matched with difficulty of attainment. Meaningful U/U gear should probably be Tier IV and better. How much better depends on the epicness of the source.

I don't think U/U gear should be meldable with materia. Leave the customization to the generic crafted gear. I would rather see the U/U gear designed powerwise to fit in the materia hierarchy without making it customizable. If an NM drop is considered too weak compared to materia gear, then that is a developer problem, but not one that should be fixed by adding materia to U/U drops.

[RedAffinity]

It's really simple:

1. Design Rare/EX armor with slightly higher base stats in comparison to general items within that category.
2. Allow materia to be attached to those Rare/EX armor

Rare/EX armor will remain superior to that of crafted armor, as it should be. Money shouldn't determine your strength in armor. Allowing players to pretty much buy crafted gear, and Materia, and pay someone to put it all together and run circles around the armor that's dropped from challenging endgame content does not make for fair play.

[Physic]

sorry but the idea that its easier to get, is disproven by actual gameplay, right now there are way more ifrits weapons than there are +3 3xmateria weapons. People talk about they have beat ifrit 100 times by now. how many people can afford to blow up 100 top tier items?

The sad fact is, materia is hard, getting drops from a dunegon is easy.


The other thing to realize is that not all rare ex gear is created equal, some is meant to be slightly better, some is meant to be super hax. Im guessing they based it on how hard they think it is to get.

[Khal_Drogo]

sorry but the idea that its easier to get, is disproven by actual gameplay, right now there are way more ifrits weapons than there are +3 3xmateria weapons. People talk about they have beat ifrit 100 times by now. how many people can afford to blow up 100 top tier items?

The sad fact is, materia is hard, getting drops from a dunegon is easy.


The other thing to realize is that not all rare ex gear is created equal, some is meant to be slightly better, some is meant to be super hax. Im guessing they based it on how hard they think it is to get.

The only thing that's sad, here, is the fact that ppl can find an RMT site, buy a high lvl character, buy max gil, and then buy items (hq gear, and high tier'd materia) to make gear in the game that completely dwarfs any of the current gear gained through "end-game content." And what's even sadder is that you're either too blind or too "stupid" to realize that this a significant problem.

One of the most appealing aspects of the MMO experience is the ability to compare yourself to fellow players, and see how well you measure up. And if the only, "reliable," way to measure up is to be "rich," then this game isn't going to last very long. No one wants to feel like the only way to truly "get ahead" in a game is done by, endlessly, farming, crafting, and grinding...They want to see their hard work (skills and lvls gained through extensive grinding/raiding/etc.) rewarded with something that makes them stand out from the rest -gear gained by unimaginably difficult means (something more challenging and immersive than a timed run through a tunnel...).

The fact that we see far more Ifrit weapons out there than we do x3 materia gear is not the real issue. The real issue that we should be complaining about is how "easy" the Ifrit and Raid gear is to get. Because of the design of this battle system, virtually, every fight is a never-ending competition of spam:

Can the tank spam enough hate moves to counteract the hate gained by the cure spam of the mages and by the tp spam of the DDs?

Can the mages spam enough cures to counteract the dmg taken by the DDs and tank?

Can the DDs spam enough tp moves to kill the monsters fast enough to counteract the mp loss from the mages having to spam cures?

That's all this game is....SPAM <.<

[Volsung]

I'd be ok if they allowed RA/EX gear to be slotted with one materia. ATM single materia gear is better than everything I got from Batraal xD

[Dreadnought]

i absolutely agree with this.

i feel U/U gear should be much stronger than average gear.
however i feel average gear should be able to compete with U/U gear using materia and that U/U gear should also use materia to stay relevant but perhaps with a lower success rate as regular gear.

[Alise]

So far, how many raid/NM gear have you ever seen people have? And so far, how many item that has 3x IV materia in it you ever seen people have? Know which is harder to get yet?

Craft gear with 3x or more materia should be the strongest now, consider it is crazy hard to make, a crafter in my server spent 10 mil+ to craft without bot for 6-7 hours a day for one whole week and he could only success one with IV + IV + IV. During the same amount of time, My Ifrit PT already got everybody 3-4 piece of gears already lol. and lol further, I think the Ifrit weapon still little better than his 3x materia crafted gear. (Axe comparison)

In MMO, the harder stuff to obtain should be the stronger, otherwise who would do it? How many crafters out there currently still care to try for making materia weapon anymore when most people can easily get Ifrit for FREE?

[Khal_Drogo]

So far, how many raid/NM gear have you ever seen people have? And so far, how many item that has 3x IV materia in it you ever seen people have? Know which is harder to get yet?

Craft gear with 3x or more materia should be the strongest now, consider it is crazy hard to make, a crafter in my server spent 10 mil+ to craft without bot for 6-7 hours a day for one whole week and he could only success one with IV + IV + IV. During the same amount of time, My Ifrit PT already got everybody 3-4 piece of gears already lol. and lol further, I think the Ifrit weapon still little better than his 3x materia crafted gear. (Axe comparison)

In MMO, the harder stuff to obtain should be the stronger, otherwise who would do it? How many crafters out there currently still care to try for making materia weapon anymore when most people can easily get Ifrit for FREE?

You're battling the wrong "enemy." Instead of insisting that materia'd gear be the better gear b/c it's harder to obtain, you should be insisting that SE make the U/U gear harder to obtain. Who in the hell would want to play an MMORPG where gameplay is centered aroung GIL-making and CRAFTING. It renders all the DoW and DoM classes useless...The whole point of FF games is to become stronger, to beat harder bosses, to gain the best equipment in the game -all this is so you can enjoy gameplay w/o any hindrances from being "too weak." **THIS** materia system completely undermines gameplay for ALL DoW and DoM classes. It's the stupidest idea they've pumped out since Yoshi took over, and I hope he realizes it before this game suffers more losses that it can't afford to take.

[Cale_Imrik]

There is a pretty big difference between hard to get, and time consuming. Skill and effort vs blind luck. I can see it now, SE's new trailer for FFXIV 2.0 has no battles, no story teases, no group play whatsoever..Just hundreds of people sitting around Ul'dah breaking materia/gear after materia/gear..then it zooms in on one lucky character who melds successfully and becomes the strongest player on the server.

As for Materia for Rare/Ex gear, give bosses a small chance of dropping special Rare/Ex Catalysts that have 100% success rates and can be used on both rare/ex gear and normal.