Are melds and super gear really necessary?

[Xoo]

If you have a choice between:
Spend 10 hours farming up money to get a piece of equipment so you can do battle easier, OR, spend 10 hours practicing the battle. I would suggest spend 10 hours practicing the battle.

Well said.

[DuLune]

i love that "iffy"

[Chardrizard]

I myself believe it comes down to attitude instead of the usefulness of the gear, If a person are willing to spend a time gearing up his character to the most up-to-date gear, I'd believe if he is a good player to team up with because even if he is new to a particular instances/raids, he/she'd make effort as much as he'd make regearing him/herself.

If someone doesn't even put effort to gear himself up, then i'd second guess or have doubts if he'll make any efforts towards winning something. If you want people to respects you, starts by respecting yourself.

[Zumi]

Even getting 1 materia in every piece of gear is very hard with the current system. Sure its easy to buy materia and catalyst from the markets. But finding a level 50 crafters to put it in your gear is incredibly difficult.

I don't know anyone with level 50 crafts so pretty much have to go without it. I tried leveling armorer myself but only got to 25 before it just became so boring. I have yet to meet any one that could put materia in my gear. My friend told me it was a complicated process.

First you have to trade him dark matter seek repairs and have him repair your gear to 100%. Then you trade him the piece of gear, materia, catalyst. Have him put the materia in your gear. Have him trade you back the gear with materia and trade him how much ever he is charging. I don't know about you but this is just a really convoluted process for putting a shiny gem in a piece of gear. This isn't some ground braking new system tons of games used the same thing putting gems, stones, runes, tokens whatever you want to call it in gear to make it better, but I have never seen such a complex way of doing it.

They really need to do away with needing a craft to put a piece of materia in a gear or at very least have an npc that can do basic 1 slot matria for you since there is no chance to fail. I would love to have materia in my gear have enough gil to buy it all but don't know a crafter. And its not just 1 its 3 different crafts that are needed.

[Rau]

Do pick up groups even run in to this problem? Every pick up group I've been in has a couple who don't have the best of the best gear, and we do fine.


The only time you are required to have top-tier gear if you're in a linkshell that prefers you to be geared well.
So the only time you'd ever need good gear, is if you wanted to join a group like that.

[Eli_Jin]

I myself believe it comes down to attitude instead of the usefulness of the gear, If a person are willing to spend a time gearing up his character to the most up-to-date gear, I'd believe if he is a good player to team up with because even if he is new to a particular instances/raids, he/she'd make effort as much as he'd make regearing him/herself.

If someone doesn't even put effort to gear himself up, then i'd second guess or have doubts if he'll make any efforts towards winning something. If you want people to respects you, starts by respecting yourself.

^ This, this, and more this. ^

Note: The below is all assuming you are joining a random group where people don't know you as a player, different rules apply within a LS obviously. Also assuming post-server merge where we aren't bare-bones population where groups take anyone that is willing.

If you can't put forth the effort to intelligently pick gear, and spend a little bit of time scanning the wards for inexpensive (not the best stuff, but still useful for your class) materia and get it melded (one materia per gear so no risk), then that says something about you as a player and how much effort you are willing to put forth into the game (meaning not much), and very few people like to carry dead weight in their party if they have the choice.

I know there are rare exceptions to this, where someone is asked to play a class they don't usually play, or just hit 50, or whatever and just hasn't had the time to get anything melded before they are pulled into / find the opportunity to join a party, but this is rare enough that you're safer assuming someone with no materia isn't as involved in the game, and less likely to be a skilled player. (or you could ask them, but that tends to offend people apparently)

Of course someone with materia isn't necessarily skilled either, but if I had to randomly pick (meaning I don't know either player or how they play) I'd always go with the better geared person I guess is what I'm saying.

Now ifrit's bow is another story. The RNG gods may really hate you so we can't blame you there. I've seen people go 80+ kills with no weapon drop at all, so it happens (or doesn't happen I should say).

Even getting 1 materia in every piece of gear is very hard with the current system. Sure its easy to buy materia and catalyst from the markets. But finding a level 50 crafters to put it in your gear is incredibly difficult.

I don't know anyone with level 50 crafts so pretty much have to go without it. [...]

This I find hard to swallow. It may take a few days, but every time you're in the city have your gear/materia/catalyst ready to go and..

/shout LF abc crafter level de+ to meld gear, fgh gil tip, /tell please and thank you

Do that once or 5 times at least 1-2 minutes apart between shouts. Give people a chance to respond, and some people won't respond if you spam solely based on the fact that you're spamming.

The tip doesn't have to be large, whatever you can afford, but it lets the crafter know that you care about their time, which results in a better response rate.

Then if someone in your (potential) party asks if you have materia on your gear, you can say that you have it ready to be melded but haven't been able to find a crafter, which helps show that you are serious about being a good player and they may even be able to find a crafter for you if they know one.


my 2 cents anyway

[Penguin]

You definitely will not get Moogle's speedrun without Ifrit's bow however.

Not really true.

If everyone is doing similar dps the dps requirement to hit the 10 minute timer is just over 70 dps, its quite easily possible to hit 75+ maybe even 80+ with a crab bow and that is also with very little melds.

Basically knowing how to maximise damage without killing yourself > gear currently.

Edit: In terms of tanks and healers, gear definitely has a much bigger impact than it does for dps.

[Chardrizard]

Not really true.

If everyone is doing similar dps the dps requirement to hit the 10 minute timer is just over 70 dps, its quite easily possible to hit 75+ maybe even 80+ with a crab bow and that is also with very little melds.

Basically knowing how to maximise damage without killing yourself > gear currently.

Edit: in terms of tanks and healers gear definitely makes a much bigger impact than it does for dps.

Though what are the chances that the players doesn't have ifrit's bow if they can hit 70-80 dps at this point? I am sure people can pull it off, people with ifrit's bow but decided to go crab bow for proving sake.

But what are the chances for new players with little experience on the fight to pull it off without it?

[Alcide]

Honestly, Ifrit's Bow helps A LOT, but other than that most of the gear is plain useless.

I myself have only 1 materia on each slot, just the bare essential and most of the times I'm on top of the parser even with people with 2/3 materia in party. And I've also seen people doing more dps than me using darkhold's gear.
IMHO the only things that have a noticeable effect on the dps are the dmg stat of the weapon and the food, everything else just isn't worth the effort.

[Penguin]

Though what are the chances that the players doesn't have ifrit's bow if they can hit 70-80 dps at this point? I am sure people can pull it off, people with ifrit's bow but decided to go crab bow for proving sake.

But what are the chances for new players with little experience on the fight to pull it off without it?

The chance of a new player with very little experience with the fight pulling off the moogle speed kill in any gear is probably very unlikely, my point was the way your post came across made it sound like no matter how good you were or how experienced you were it would be impossible with anything other than an ifrit's bow.

Anyways point is yes the bow probably makes the most difference (not as much as most probably believe) but having a fast efficient rotation, being able to control aggro while maintaining high dps and not getting blown up is far more important than how many triple/quad melds you may have.