Dropped Items and Materia

[Chadwick]

Luck aside, why a player who likes a certain piece of gear, got that piece of gear stronger than primal gears by spends lots of gils & time, sounds not like an achievement from you?

I agree that it is an "achievement" in the same sense that crafting 3000 times is an achievement. It's a milestone of time and effort, but not of skill. I just feel that killing bosses is a better achievement and thus should be more rewarding than grinding out simple materia and mass producing items.

When did I say anything about battle?

I believe Brannigan's point is that while RNG is at play in both loot drops and melding, player skill is completely absent from the latter. They are both "slot machines", but materia is nothing but a slot machine, while a battle is so much more.