Whats the point of AF and other drops if you can buy/craft better?

[Delsus]

It take effort and time to level up most crafts and time/money to get materials(catalyst) for the meld. On top of that, you need luck for double/ triple/ quadruple meld and so on... (vegas baby, VAGAS!)

Saying "I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!" without a valid argument don't defend your reason.

Welcome to Crafting Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, because everyone has to craft all the time to get uber melds, with a little gil farming and spiritbonding on the side. Get all these uber melds to make your farming and spiritbonding go by faster, then you can get onto the main feature of the game which is crafting. Screw the dungeons and primals there is no need for them.

Yeah no valid argument, people who want the best gear will go for melds, and perhaps darklight, the only other useful gear from dungeons is none meldable gear, accessories and jewelry, oh and the mage shield from CC. EVERYTHING else gets beaten by melded gear, therefore its melded gear or speed run dungeons, if you get a party that can't do speed runs you might as well spend the rest of the time crafting or spiritbonding.

In other words, doing one run with a party if it's obvious they will not get speed runs leave them, get crafting waiting for another shout is perfectly acceptable to you because the rewards you will get are not worth staying in the party for.

However if none speed runs gave useable rewards more people would want to do none speed runs.

[XavierBlade]

AF = Casual players gear.

[Cthulhu]

I hope the OP is satisfied with the answer to the question in her original post. AF isn't meant to be "endgame" gear, it's a set designed to be a starting point for 50. Also, some of the pieces are quite nice and you will be finding that you use them for a while.

Now to another complaint that has been brought up in this thread a lot "Crafted gear beats endgame gear". This is only true in 2-3 slots for most jobs. This is mainly because of how the base stats are so important to WS dmg in the current version (Which Yoshida as said is changing come 2.0 anyway). I main BRD so I'm going to use that as an example.

MH - Giantsgall Longbow (Obtained through skirmish not crafted, though it can be bought and melded)

Head - Gridanian Officer's Cap (Obtained through GC currency) Paragon's Crown another popular choice is an achievement reward.

Body - Raptorskin Harness x 2 Piety (Crafted)

Hands - Felt Bracers x 2 Dex (Crafted) Switching these out of +AP meld once I make them, also would be crafted.

Waist - Scarlet Sash (Obtained in Cutter's Cry)

Legs - Militia Subligar (Obtained in Battle for Golden Bazaar)

Feet - Choral Sandals (AF) Only real upgrade is Darklight.

So that's only 2/7 slots that are crafted gear. 1/7 is AF still (I keep 3 more AF pieces on me depending on the song I will be singing).

[Mamba]

I hope the OP is satisfied with the answer to the question in her original post. AF isn't meant to be "endgame" gear, it's a set designed to be a starting point for 50. Also, some of the pieces are quite nice and you will be finding that you use them for a while.

If my post was only about AF this would be fine... but obviously I was also talking about gears that come as a reward from hard fights etc. (I know farming and crafting is hard work but I play game for apocalyptic battles and so on :P)
I never thought AF was "end game" -.- sigh... I sometimes feel like hitting my head on the wall after being on these forums.
I like the idea of being able to "upgrade" af, because yessssssss I am actually talking about liking the looks of the sets... and hating the fact that I have to go back to some ugly gears just cos i can meld materia on them.

[Firon]

This is what so many people say, but you are looking at each piece, what you need to look at is sets darklight set gives xxx STR, y meld on these pieces can beat it. The only reason I have seen to get DD darklight over melds is Store TP on the darklight, and you would be nerfing other melds to get that, all other stats (correct me if I'm wrong) are easily meldable. I can sit on TP from recast times when ever I want on my DRG and MNK, so store TP doesn't seem much use to me.

How about attack power, Acc or getting 2 of your main stats in one piece or having 20 str 30 atk power with acc on it all of that does more than 40 str or w/e you want on gloves or body. Everything you are saying cause you don't fully understand the games stats system or just look at one stat on the armor. Like i had a friend saying just cause he got 5 enhancing magic on some felt pants for whm it was better, which it wasn't cause it didn't have extra 100 mp and other stats.

I would like you to give me an realistic example of some meld gear that would beat wars full DD DL set.

54 Str, 57 Vit, 105 atk power, crt atk power + 30, and lets say you have some demeld felt pants with 20 vit and 18 str. This set lets war tank and do full DD and makes it auto attacks hit even harder. The only way to beat this unless you have quad melds in hands and body, even witht hat your not even touching the atk power upgrade.

[Kiote]

I love how everyone in this thread is talking like getting Triple Melded +1 Gear is easy.. It's not. That's why it's better..

AF is not supposed to be the pinnacle of gear. It supposed to be Good Enough to use if you have to.


Materia is getting nerfed anyway.

[yoshikwalla]

Because everyone doesn't have to have the best. Because they're cool for collecting. Because everyone can look and dress differently, and as long as they're decent at endgame, it doesn't matter if they're using the ultimate gear or not. Because this isn't World of Warcraft where everyone runs around with the same armor.

Not only that, but materia lets you meld you gear to support your playstyle. Think you could use more damage? Put materia for that on. Don't like that you're so squishy? Put some defensive materia on. Need more of a manapool? Put materia on for it. The point of materia is to meld your gear around what you think will make you better at what you do.

[Kiote]

I like the idea of being able to "upgrade" af, because yessssssss I am actually talking about liking the looks of the sets..

There will be AF upgrades. It's inevitable. Gonna be a while though.

[Andrien]

AF gear might be upgradable, same goes for relic weapons.

[dragorian]

ok your af will allways be better than any crafted armor or drop it like our relic wepons they are upgradable and yosh said this