Quote Originally Posted by TheFatHousecat View Post
With this change I hope that raid gear's stat values are increased (actually, unless a cap of about 3 melds per piece is enforced, raid gear is going to need a pretty huge upgrade). In this way, you can put in effort and time and clear very difficult instances and be rewarded justly. But, if you don't have the time/skill or are simply uninterested in raiding, you can still have decent gear.
I think that is how melded gear should have been viewed and used as in the first place, not better replacements for work-required dungeon or instance obtained gear that cant be melded on to.

They wont need to increase the stats on most or any dropped gear tho, as materia will have their effects reduced on the player in ARR. Some dropped gear does need its stats altered or increased tho, as many of them are quite stupidly set up, and with some of the base stats that effect classes changing in ARR, they will need to be changed somewhat or they might not end up fitting the classes they are currently meant to be equipped to.