Quote Originally Posted by Reika View Post
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.
Where does it say that? ;o And I still think that dropped gear will need to be beefed up a little. Let's just take for example a pair of triple ATK gloves; since melding chance will increase, a pair of triple melds should be pretty common. And since different stats per tier are being taken out, we can assume that 3 tier IV's will amount to exactly 90 ATK gloves.

For dropped gear; if you're a DRG or WAR, the best choice would be DL Gauntlets, at +50 ATK. For MNK or BRD however, DL Bracers are the only choice, at +30. Of course, Bracers also have very nice ACC on them and the Gauntlets are pretty great for WAR with the VIT, but those are both stats that can be made up in other pieces.

This is just an example of course, but it shows just how big a difference there can be from a piece of fairly annoying to get dropped gear and a perfect triple meld in the same slot.

Of course, I think we both basically agree on the basics of dropped gear vs. crafted. And I'm not suggesting that all dropped gear be spectacular. One dungeon that's about the level of difficulty of say, AV, versus another that's as difficult as Rivenroad (Hard) will obviously have different tiers of gear drops, and that's a good thing. But, if they're going to make melding easier, which is perfectly fine as well, they probably should re-prioritize what sort of stats they have on the dropped gear (as you mentioned), and beef them up a bit to be equal to or greater than a triple meld of BiS crafted.