Do you shame people for their choice of materia melds?

[BLaCKnBLu3B3RRY]

I only look at gear - their melds don't matter because they add so little that any issues are going to be down to actual gameplay problems or garbage gear rather than what trash they have melded.



If, after melding any spd that you need to hit a breakpoint, a piece is capped on crit, you meld dhit. If it's capped on dhit, you meld crit. If you can get both capped then you meld for that, and if there's room left, you meld det. It really doesn't matter so long as you're maximising your melds if you're trying to be optimal (for what little it gets you).

true. that is pretty much what i was trying to get at. however, i would imagine the only gear you can actually max out both stats on is the pieces with 5slots. i would imagine, if you can't capitalize on both, you should just go for one or the other and try to capitalize on something else. i understand they have different proc rates, but crit also proc's at a lower rate than dhit and may not always be worth capitalizing on.

i stacked damn near close to BiS for on dhit on my RDM for every slot and capitalizing on that stat. damn near every spell casted on either RDM or BLM is a direct hit. trying to do this with crit didn't yield a crit nearly as often. the damage severity was higher, but i am a sucker consistency.

hell... it wasn't even but like 5~6 months before shadowbringers that i learned about the blue element gear that had 5 slots. i knew there was blue gear with slots, but... when seeing someone in a dungeon with it completely loaded with T6 Materia... LOL i shat a brick. that blew my mind. damn i missed out that. lmao.

[Riastrad]

I always just use Crit and Det. I am sure that is a bad thing on some classes, I have not had anyone complain to me directly about it though.

[TheForce]

No. Materia is just extra; the stats you gain from it aren't going too much of a difference . Trying to shame somebody for the Materia they choose to use is ridiculous; it goes against the whole point of materia: allowing players to slightly tailor their characters toward their own personal playstyles. It's all about choice and freedom.

For example:

You wanna be an offensive Tank with a character that has an emphasis on attack power? Meld Crit/Direct/etc.

You wanna be a defensive Tank with a character that is slightly more resilient and has better survivability? Meld Tenacity/Det.

As long as the materia that you meld is actually doing something (so, there's not a +0 on your meld), you're good as far as I'm concerned. If we all melded the exact same way, what would be the point of giving us so many materia to choose from?

[Bonbori]

What a lot of people overlook in regards to materia is that they're there to round out, balance out and maximise desired stats. And materia priorities tend to change based on gear that's available to you. Most of the time, having all crafted or all tomestone or all raid pieces is sub-optimal, but at the same time, those sets are designed to be all-around balanced so that someone who is wearing a matching set will never lack in any one area. Trouble starts when trying to put together a BiS setup, which might take weeks and occasionally result in gaps while one is working towards their next piece.
For example, Gunbreaker. Currently Gunbreaker has a love-hate relationship with Skill Speed (and from what I've heard so does Warrior, but I don't play it so I can't say for sure) where you need to have somewhere in the ballpark of 1300-1400 for your rotation to align correctly while still allowing for double-weaving during the No Mercy window. But you don't ever want to MELD skill speed, because your melds are reserved for Direct Hit (which doesn't come natively on any tank gear so melding is your only option). So... that puts GNB is this weird place where they have to cherry-pick gear so that their SKS stays in the sweet spot (while also minimising Tenacity in favour of Crit/Det). In my experience so far, it is not easy at this point in the expansion ._. In the event that someone has just upgraded their gear and lost their comfy GCD threshold, I think it might be acceptable to meld some SKS as a temporary bandaid until the balance is regained.

So not all off-meta melds are a sign of utter madness. The bigger picture always needs to be taken into consideration. What might seem like a strange spread of melds on someone's gear might actually have a lot of thought put into it.

However... most people probably don't deserve the benefit of doubt. Recently, a full-Tenacity melded tank in Innocence EX attacked one of my friends for melding DH instead of Tenacity... And of course got booed off the stage. There are people who just have no idea what they're doing with their melds and also some who have the wrong idea and are very committed to it.

But... here's the thing. Most of the time, it doesn't matter. Most content short of maybe Ultimate is clearable without absolute BiS setup. It of course helps, and in Savage I'd rather everyone was as optimal as possible, but as long as the boss dies before enrage, anything is better than nothing.

So unless someone has no materia at all, or something ridiculous like Perception to see mechanics better (inside joke >.<), it's not worth bringing it up. If the "Tenacity Master Race" tank is still doing their job correctly and putting out enough damage to meet DPS checks, good on them. I wouldn't want to run stuff with them regularly, but meeting them in PF wouldn't bother me.

[Keddera_StormMoon]

I don't do savage, so I don't even bother looking at people's materia.

I'm usually just looking for glams or an explanation as to why a Tank seems squishy AF. (and if they are, I usually don't say anything unless it's REALLY bad. At which point, I will politely ask at the end of the run that they do something about it for the sake of the next healer's sanity)

[RareItems]

There was a a thread here a week ago about Tank DPS and Tank Mitigation, about Raiders shaming Casual Tanks who do not even participate on Endgame content for putting Tenacity on their tank gear. Yes, they shame you for having Tenacity Melds on your gear on an Expert Roullete. One even said "I have more respect if you did not have melds at all".

Tried explaining to them how Tenacity is a good stat for tanks for almost every situation except Current Endgame Raids with DPS checks, only got flamed some more xD.

So yes, ppl will flame you for what you meld on your gear. Especially if you get to party with a 3 man Premade Party who all have current raid gear, get ready to get flamed lol.

[TheForce]

There was a a thread here a week ago about Tank DPS and Tank Mitigation, about Raiders shaming Casual Tanks who do not even participate on Endgame content for putting Tenacity on their tank gear. Yes, they shame you for having Tenacity Melds on your gear on an Expert Roullete. One even said "I have more respect if you did not have melds at all".

Tried explaining to them how Tenacity is a good stat for tanks for almost every situation except Current Endgame Raids with DPS checks, only got flamed some more xD.

So yes, ppl will flame you for what you meld on your gear. Especially if you get to party with a 3 man Premade Party who all have current raid gear, get ready to get flamed lol.

Honestly...hearing this is just so hilarious to me personally because both I and one of my FC mates (one of the best Tanks I've ever seen, and I've been playing since beta) meld Tenacity and tank end-game content together flawlessly. We've even had many of our groupmates commend us on our performance...so hearing that people are trying to shame Tanks who meld Tenacity in particular is honestly embarrassing. Honestly, if the reason a group is failing DPS checks is due to Tanks not having the pitiful amount of extra Dmg melding crit/dh give, then there is a huge problem in that group that needs to be identified. Tanks shouldn't be relied upon to that extent to save DPS checks. The extra mitigation that Tenacity gives isn't mind-blowing, but it's so valuable imo because even if it's just by a fraction, it still helps Tanks in their primary role: protecting their group. And this will always come first to me.

These shamers pose as the Elite, but their blindness will ensure they stay mediocre.

[AlphaFox]

Shame? No. Advise, maybe. I really don't have room to judge as I just found out my BLM robe had skillspeed. Didn't realize I put the wrong one in till I got my Eden one.

[Xariann]

I don’t think I’ll ever forget the screenshot of the drg from arr who melded parry materia to his relic

I won’t shame people for melds or a lack thereof in level 80 dungeons, although filling your empty slots with some dps-related tier VII’s would be nice since they are pretty cheap and the game practically gives them away. Savage is another story though.

VIs have higher stats and can be removed without failing. VIIs are fillers for when you reach cap on a stat.

[Maarken]

I had a similar experience in Titania ex when I joined a pf group farm as a smn.
I had tried to meld a few days prior but noticed I only really had spell speed materia since I have all my casters maxed I could just play blm that usually benefit from it a little and I go by whatever the gear is missing that I have in that case the Ronkan set. So I melded only two pieces of gear since I didn't have any of the new 80 materia yet so I left the rest not melded for later and forgot about it.

I cleared Titania ex a bunch of times with that, without a problem but the one time I joined that particular pf, there was another blm already in group so I decided to go smn as not to have duplicates, a few secs of going in there while people are setting up groups, tethers etc, the blm starts going that my melds are wrong and smn doesn't benefit from spell speed (I know I could figure that out), that I should look at his gear and that he was BiS and that's how I needed to be melded and geared.

Pretty much made me think I shouldn't bother even melding my gear if it's not what others think is the way to go, I don't do any thing any savage or above content to really be perfectly geared out just EX fights really and those I feel I still pull my weight enough by knowing how to play as the class I'm in there and not dying at least, since that blm ended up dying about three times in the fight.

I do know he might had been trying to advice, but at the same time seeing as I had no other melds in other gear pieces but maybe two pieces of armor, I was not yet done with melding everything and of course bringing it up in the middle of the fight when now possibly everyone is going to look at what my melds are did felt a little like i was being shamed for it.