Materia melds

[Thatz]

Hey there, Azure here!

So I’m starting to get my tank ready to help raid but i has a quick question about what melds to do? So I’m getting Anemos gear together so I can have the five slots for materia. I have two complete pieces with direct hit on them. A third piece that can have the materia melded but my question is, should I add some tenacity there or just make my whole left side direct hit? Also any suggestions for the right side? I was thinking STR but open to ideas. Thanks!! Oh and it’s for PLD

[Izsha]

You cant meld any str on the left side as gear has the max str allowed already. You can only put 1 str in the right side. Always look before you meld. The meld menu will show you how many stats the material will give and what the cap is for the gear. Red numbers mean you aren't getting the full amount. You can meld str on left side, but it will give you 0 and waste your slot and materia.

On pld, DH will be the biggest damage boost on both left and right sides. Tenacity is adds the least damage of all stats and only provides minimal defensive bonuses. Generally not considered worth the trade off.

You can just meld 1 Str VI on each accessory and direct hit in every other possible slot without any worries. Its pretty straightforward on Pld/Drk. War you would want to do Crit instead of DH these days.

[Thatz]

Yeah I think I got my left and right co fused lmao xD sonyeah DH on main gear and str on accessory. Then wherever else I can put a DH. Thanks a bunch!

[ValentineSnow]

Well it depends, do you want to meld the way the devs want you to? Or the way the players want you to?

In an ideal world where the developers showed a degree of competency, you'd want to meld tenacity, the tank exclusive stat that boosts both damage dealt and reduces damage taken.

For all intents and purposes direct hit isn't even meant to be a tank stat, the only reason it's not locked to dps the same way tenacity and piety are for tanks and healers is because it replaced accuracy which was a stat tanks had an abundance of on their pre-stormblood gear and the devs couldn't be bothered to go back to every old piece of gear and change it.

Sadly that is not the world we live in. We live in a world where the devs design the game one way and the players play it another. Tenacity doesn't increase damage dealt as much as any other offensive stat and the damage reduction is irrelevant because the game is designed so you can survive all content even if you don't use a single point of the stuff.

So, Strength is your best option for accs since nothing else can compare to a primary stat. While on main gear direct hit gives the biggest bang for your buck, crit is always a reliable option and even determination is helping you more than tenacity.

I personally go with crit cause I don't want to use direct hit mainly in case the devs decide to nerf it somehow in their constant battle with the players over which stats to use. But also, direct hit doesn't effect clemency while crit does, making it more effective towards pld's entire kit.

[Mithron]

Isn't skill speed the way to go for WAR and PLDs now or something? For WAR it makes sense because you don't need DH as much any more due to Inner Release change, but I think PLDs are also benefiting much more from not using DH now too or something.

[Chrono_Rising]

Isn't skill speed the way to go for WAR and PLDs now or something? For WAR it makes sense because you don't need DH as much any more due to Inner Release change, but I think PLDs are also benefiting much more from not using DH now too or something.

The short answer is that it depends on your stats. If your gear has approximately 1700 crit then Crit melds are the way to go, for paladin and dark knight they should still meld Direct Hit in the places crit is already maxed out. Below 1400 crit and it seems pretty clear to meld direct hit. In between those values its difficult to tell.

Warriors are melding skill speed not because it benefits their dps directly, but because it benefits their ability to hit 5 Fell Cleaves (or 5 GCDs depending on what you are doing) in one Inner release use and depends more on the users connection than in game formulas.

Dark Knight might see some actual benefit from skill speed melds because of blood weapon, but at the time of writing this is an open question.

[Mithron]

So if you can achieve 5 Fell Cleaves during Inner Release without melding any skill speed at all, you have no need to and should do crit instead?

[whiskeybravo]

So if you can achieve 5 Fell Cleaves during Inner Release without melding any skill speed at all, you have no need to and should do crit instead?

Basically it's only if you are using Diamond Weapon w/ Diamond Pants as neither piece has innate skill speed. With either 370 weapon or tome pants (one or the other) you should have enough skill speed on gear to easily achieve 5 FC IR. Beyond that it's more for "feel"