Bosses, Crafters, and Materia.

[Rentahamster]

Blue W gear should be very strong, and also thematic. With a purpose. They should be at the value of a comparable triple-melded gear stat-wise.

Well, if they're going to be that strong, then being meldable is a balance issue, yes.

However, the reason why I think that blue things should be meldable is that it allows for blue items to be destroyed. Thus, if someone blows up their blue item, they then have a reason to complete raid content again in order to reobtain that item. Thus, replayability is maintained.

The current hardcore players face the following situation - run ifrit over and over until the weapon they want drops (which may or may not take forever)

Once they get it, it's over. If a certain population of hardcore players insists on blowing up up their Ifrit weapons in order to put a materia in it, then they actually have a further goal, and a reason to run Ifrit even more than they do now.

However, in the name of balance, the first meld should be something low, but not discouragingly impossible. Perhaps 25% or so.