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

[Enma]

MATERIA SYSTEM: I don't like it very much but now it's late to remove it. Actually is the only way to custom your player, the game lacks a good Merit System, and nothing as said about it for the future. As said in the OP some melded equips are too far better than dropped ones, so what it's neede is just BALANCE.

[darkstarpoet1]

MATERIA SYSTEM: I don't like it very much but now it's late to remove it. Actually is the only way to custom your player, the game lacks a good Merit System, and nothing as said about it for the future. As said in the OP some melded equips are too far better than dropped ones, so what it's neede is just BALANCE.

and some drop ones are much better than melded ones, and some af are better than melded pieces in that slot. i guess if you look at the overall best set and realize the best slot for each piece is not all of one type then the balance is pretty well already there.

whm best gear set:

melded wand, melded belt, melded shield = 3 crafted pieces with multi melds.
dungeon dropped pants, dungeon dropped gloves = 2 pieces of dropped gear
af body, af shoes, af head = 3 pieces of af gear

not sure exactly how much more they can balance it and keep every part of the game viable.

[Titans]

The materia system is ass. This isn't a case of the game being easy mode or not, it boils down to bad design.

Let's break it down. Currently, anyone can get materia if they are patient enough to bind something. All they require after this point is some luck in melding it 3x. (RNG again) What this does is make it one of the most important sources of income for crafters but in turn puts the player-base at the mercy of melded gear and thus the crafters. If you theoretically have a LS of friends that hates crafting you have no recourse but to submit to the crafters. High end dungeon gear should never be outshone by melded gear. Ever.

Materia is a cool concept but it should be done differently. Currently, it is all based on RNG and heavily favors crafters (I know because I constantly pump out double and triple cobalts and sell them for outrageous prices). What SE needs to do is allow each piece of gear obtained in ANY way to come equipped with a set number of slots.[B] High end gear from dungeons has more slots than other stuff. In addition unique materia should drop from high end dungeons as well that is rare/ex as well as mats to produced unique gear.

When a materia is obtained, people can then slot it into their weapon or armor without fear of breakage (take it to a NPC who does it for a fee, or flag it to be slotted by a crafter for a fee as well. This adds customization and with the diminishing returns of materia that has been confirmed for 2.0, offers a chance for people to experiment and customize things to their own liking.

This system is equitable for everybody. Crafter's are utilized to make high end gear using rare drops obtained in dungeons, people aren't at the mercy of over-inflated every-day items by crafters just because they have a meld or two, and dungeon gear is kept important due to customization instead of being one-upped by cobalt that takes 2 minutes to make with a few materia stuck on. In addition crafter's can still make regular items slotted with materia to sell as well which would be fine alternatives to those who cannot do the Crystal Tower or whatever end-game they throw at us at 2.0 launch. The difference being of course, that this regular gear won't outshine the high end stuff due to the slotting system.

It's hard to take your complaints serious no matter how long you make your post. Did you play the game at launch when there was nothing but leves to do. There were no materia nor AF to be had. The materia system isn't perfect but it's better then what we had at first, which was nothing. And to the OP. melded gear has been around longer than AF.

[darkstarpoet1]

It's hard to take your complaints serious no matter how long you make your post. Did you play the game at launch when there was nothing but leves to do. There were no materia nor AF to be had. The materia system isn't perfect but it's better then what we had at first, which was nothing. And to the OP. melded gear has been around longer than AF.

no, they just want that piece of af that took them 5 minutes to get to be the best gear in the game. they are also the same type of people that want to have the drop rates increased to 100% so they can complete a single run and get the full set of darklight for every class at once in a single drop.

[Jynx]

they are also the same type of people that want to have the drop rates increased to 100% so they can complete a single run and get the full set of darklight for every class at once in a single drop.

I have a feeling alot of the people that gripe about drop rates are used to playing MMOs where you have to play multiple characters to experience a different class, this game is iconic for being able to do next to everything on a single character hence making gear aquisition require a bit more time instead of high drop-rates for everything so you can spend time twinking out all 5 of your characters.

[Mijin]

I will probably get slaughtered for this but here we go...

I personally hate the materia system */gulp*

I also hate the Materia system to be honest. I don't like luck based systems, I would rather have a merit based system where everyone spends a set amount of time to collect points to obtain a reward. The way the current system exists, one player can break 15 4,000,000 gil materia double melds on a weapon for the relic quest, when some one else can get it on the first try. It doesn't balance out either, in lieu of being luck based the same person who blows up 15 weapons for relic can also blow up 500 other melds in a row for gear. That's how luck works, and gambling isn't fair.

[Antipika]

I have a feeling alot of the people that gripe about drop rates are used to playing MMOs where you have to play multiple characters to experience a different class, this game is iconic for being able to do next to everything on a single character hence making gear aquisition require a bit more time instead of high drop-rates for everything so you can spend time twinking out all 5 of your characters.

It's more like devs are slow and use low drop rate/poor RNG (materia) in order to virtually increase the lifetime of the content.

Also in other MMO drop rate may be "high", yet content is restricted, you cannot spam the same boss over and over like in XIV. Cooldowns are high, ranging from a day for low man content, to a week for a raid usually. So yeah when you can only kill [that boss] only once a week, drop rate must be 100%. (then the RNG is just "which drop will it be this week, Mage? Cleric? Warrior?" instead of "will something drop or will I get my 23rd dark matter of the evening?".)

Now regarding materia, I just find it retarded that so many melded items can be BiS for many classes/jobs.

Money should never be able to provide a player lot of BiS items (couple are fine, but that's it). BiS should be Ex and be located in their respective dungeon/bosses. I don't want to see a game where anyone buying gil or botting is able to get a fully PvE geared character. This was also completely stupid in XI, money could get players way too many powerful items. (K.club, Speed Belt, Novio, Gaiters, [HQ crafted items], etc. Luckily there were still Ex items that were important for gear swapping and located in all different type of contents.)

[Renen]

I like the look of most AF gear, and I think what the OP was saying is that he is sad that we have to look like hobos with all mismatched equipment, when we have such nice looking AF

[Antipika]

We just need a wardrobe system if that's his only issue. It exists elsewhere, and it should be possible to have that in ARR It's just a matter of prioritizing things for devs now I guess. Wardrobe/character look is probably not on the top of their list

[Renen]

We just need a wardrobe system if that's his only issue. It exists elsewhere, and it should be possible to have that in ARR It's just a matter of prioritizing things for devs now I guess. Wardrobe/character look is probably not on the top of their list

Its not on the list at all. They said they dont wanna do it. /cry