Future Endgame gear vs crafted gear with Materia.

[MariyaShidou]

The discussion is over when OP said triple meld isnt rare, let alone quad meld, those are prolly close to non existent.

Triple, quadruple, pentuple Grade I!

[Eliseus]

The discussion is over when OP said triple meld isnt rare, let alone quad meld, those are prolly close to non existent.

Triple meld..... isn't rare

[Yucie]

Triple meld..... isn't rare

I saw multiple players today, all with multiple triple and quad melds.

[Jynx]

And clearly triple to quad meld isn't THAT rare I see it very often.

I'd just like to point out something about all the "Tipple and Quad melds" that you have been spotting...did you happen to check the tiers of the materia?

It's pretty damn hard to find a tripple Tier IV meld let alone a quad.

[MariyaShidou]

I have only seen Triple G-IV a few times. Triple G-III, that's an entirely different story.

[Amsai]

Hello,

I'm not sure it is fair to say 'the vast majority' do not care about crafting. Per the player's poll:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...IX-(06-04-2012)

Only about 31% of players do not care about crafting. A sizable minority, but not a vast majority.

Sure for the people that still play. I'm pretty damn sure that number changes if you were to poll something like that to the general MMO community. Most people want Battle content to provide the best gear.
Although the majority of people may want battle related content, that is not to say that they do NOT want non-battle related content. It is reasonable for one to want both, and there to be enough interest in both. Again from the poll:

20.3% of people have a Level 40+ crafting job (therefore a keen interest in crafting)
20.8% of people have a Level 40+ gathering job (therefore a keen interest in gathering)

In fact, only 7.3% of people said they had no interest in gathering. Therefore one could say only 7.3% of people had an interest in battle-related-only content?

But, putting aside the possible mis-proportion of how many people want what, and dig into the premise of your argument:
Yes, people tend to do things only if there is a tangible reward.
Yes, people want more super douper better than tho gear.
Yes, I can see an argument where 'if crafting gear is always better than loot why go through dungeons'.

However, presently that is not the case:
Depending on your setup, sometimes looted gear is better than crafted. Sometimes crafted (3x meld, etc) is better than looted. Also there is a (in my opinion) valid argument: Do you want to pay 20M for gear, or go through the dungeon and get something of equivalent.

There is room for both Crafted and Looted gear (as well as Grand Company gear) as it is now up to you in how you want to get your rewards. Some prefer to do dungeons and get the nice items. Some prefer to do caravan runs and buy it in the store. Some have oodles of Gil (or time to farm) and wish to buy crafted items (or craft it themselves).

There is room for all approaches. There is also, of course, the opportunity to marry all the approaches. For example:
Craft: Souper Douper Blade Of Look At Me
Requires: Rare metal, dropped in dungeon
Requires: Rare metal, farmed from mines by a miner.
Requires: Rare potion, bought from Grand Company for seals.

Combine all three to get your item. Everyone is kept involved, and everything is kept relevant. We already see the hint of this when it comes to Relic Weapon:
Buy item from grand company for 25k seals.
Find rare items in dungeons.
Buy (or make) your own Class Specific double melded weapon.

And it seems to work (ignoring the details of how one has to repeat content to get the individual items, just focusing on the three approaches resulting in one item).

You are right, it can work. But to me it cheapens the experience. Why can Joe Blacksmith make Souper Douper Blade Of Look At Me? It just doesnt feel right, and its not just about who puts in the most effort (crafters/GC seals/drops). I just find it silly. Maybe its all all my years of SPRPGs and MMORPGs, but defeating the dragon and saving the princess always got you the best loot, not making it. Meh, whatever, I dont like it, but it is what it is. I can compromise with something like your idea to marry crafting/GC seals/drops. However, I wouldnt want it to be overly complicated system: make sure the drop/gather rates arent too bad, and dont make the seal item retardedly expensive, let crafters craft something thats in your inventory (ra/ex), and after that its up to the individual whether they want to risk anything more than a single meld.

[Chardrizard]

Triple meld..... isn't rare

Triple IVs. Nobody cares about triple IIIs or II II III

[Dawiichan]

With the current difficulty of the content, I'm fine with the way current gear works. However when the true "Hard Mode" that Yoshida said was going to be added in 2.0 arrives, I think that gear should surpass most of the craftable gear.

[indira]

SE cant make crafted gear suck or no one will level the crafts anymore. right now everything is almost the same dungeon vs crafted vs GC gear. as long as they keep that balance there will be no problems its will also give you more choices to what you can equip vs the heavy cookie cut games.

With the current difficulty of the content, I'm fine with the way current gear works. However when the true "Hard Mode" that Yoshida said was going to be added in 2.0 arrives, I think that gear should surpass most of the craftable gear.

dont mean it will be god like the normal mode might not give everything, then hardmode might give the other stuff.

[Eliseus]

Triple IVs. Nobody cares about triple IIIs or II II III

O really? Dang, I thought you meant triple 1's because that is what everyone uses end game.