I disagree with people who are against melding.

Sure, AF is easy to acquire.. through quests, and things that aren't RNG. But.. isn't that how most gear should be? And just because it's easy to acquire, and largely common, that isn't any excuse for it to be ****ty, especially with how unique and awesome most sets look.

As previously stated, AF is largely useless with so many different ways you can meld common gears these days. AF needs to be revised, or something has to happen to actually make most pieces viable. This could come in the form of either materia or gathering specific materials to upgrade each piece.

Just off the top of my head, here's an example: We have Gallant Coronet, Cuisses, Sollerets, Gauntlets, and Surcoat.
This gear is very basic and is enough for most amateur PLDs to get by, but what you need in order to progress is gear that is substantial. Bring in quests that not only add to the job questline, but also allow for ease-of-access when it comes to upgrades. Perhaps each quest is gathering certain materials to help increase the effectiveness of each piece, or killing a certain enemy to imbue that enemy's essence into the piece, thus making it stronger.

If they wanted to give people more customization, they could make it like augments from FFXI, but instead of it being random you can branch off to different choices of NMs or materials to give your gear different effects such as more HP+, enhancing certain abilities, adding accuracy, and the latter. To top it all off, make it dyeable or colorable to some degree, adding more to customization.

I'm a PLD, DRG, and WHM. I like the gear I worked for - why not allow me to work more for it to make it more on-par with things like Darklight or double/triple melds? It certainly doesn't have to be as effective, but give us SOMETHING to make the pieces stronger and more tolerable.

Off-topic: For anyone who doesn't know, Rina is your typical GameFAQs poster. Feel free to ignore anything she says, as it's usually not constructive at all.. and just plain irrelevant.