Quote Originally Posted by Tetsaru View Post
What I think needs to be done:

1 - Allow materia to be melded to Ifrit, stronghold, raid, etc. gear, so crafted gear doesn't become superior
No. No need for this. Simply need Blue W gear to have stats at or above the level of a high tier tripe meld.

2 - Allow rare materia of high tier and stats (possibly entirely new kinds?) to drop as well
Defeats the purpose of the materia system and it's intention. Materia is a result of spirit bonding with gear. Getting materia directly through content defeats this purpose. The latest response from the devs also said pretty much this.

3 - Remove Dark Matter and other crap "consolation prize" items from said areas, so players don't become discouraged from doing multiple runs
So what would you prefer be the consolation prize? ...or are you saying we should get a guaranteed drop?

4 - Allow said items to go to the player's loot list, NOT directly to their inventory, so it can be passed to LS/party members who need it most
This I can agree with to a certain extent. The duplicate drops going to waste is quite a strain on the patience of players, and is the only real issue with the current loot system for primals.

5 - Allow Ifrit to drop a horn item that crafters can use, possibly make different weapons, tools, or armor out of it other than the original weapons, so that crafters are still viable and can make something no one else can obtain, and/or possibly HQ it
No, no, no and another no. Leave crafters out of the equation for at least Blue W loot. Allowing for horn drops and HQ on such loot I completely disagree with. Again, crafters already make the best gear in the game. There needs to be some loot players can earn without relying on any crafts.
They already are implementing a better solution - adding a token drop alongside the possible weapon drops. This alone motivates repeated play since you can collect a certain amount of token to then trade in for the drop of your choice.

6 - Allow old, lower level U/U gear to be converted into materia so that it doesn't become useless later on
I wonder why they didn't allow us to convert W gear to begin with. I wouldn't expect better materia from it per say either, just to be able to convert them if we so chose.