Melding items should increase their item level.

[meJojo]

I see people with fully melded i70 gear being turned down for simple fights such as Garuda Extreme, while their gear is MORE than sufficient enough for the fight.

Crafted gear is already frowned upon, it should be made more useful, implement a system that increases the average item level. I know a main stat is worth more than secondary stat, but a fully, overmelded piece of crafted gear is easily worth of being i80, if not higher.

I am, in my opinion, done gearing my Bard, yet he is stuck at an average item level of 83 because of the following items:

Gryphonskin Choker
9str, 9dex, 9acc, 8det, 8vit, 12crit, 12spd

Rose Gold Ear Screws
9str, 9dex, 12acc, 8det, 10vit, 12crit

Gryphonskin Wristbands
9str, 9dex, 12acc, 8det, 8vit, 12crit, 9spd

Gryphonskin Ring
9str, 9dex, 12acc, 9spd, 8vit, 12crit, 8det

All four, item level 70, the same as DARKLIGHT. I refuse to accept this.

SE, please implement a system that increases the item levels as they are melded. Thank you.

[Tiggy]

What would stop you from penta melting water resistance to raise the iLvl then? Poor system.

Quite honestly though, I don't think penta melded gear is very good at all compared to proper i90 gear.

[Umero]

What would stop you from penta melting water resistance to raise the iLvl then? Poor system.

Quite honestly though, I don't think penta melded gear is very good at all compared to proper i90 gear.

but definitely better than ilvl70 gear if melded properly.

[Tiggy]

but definitely better than ilvl70 gear if melded properly.

Well yeah. At base the HQ crafted stuff is the same iLvl. So naturally adding a few more slots with stats would make it better. I don't think anyone is arguing that they are worse than other iLvl 70 items. The question is how would you go about calculating the melded gear in such a way as to make it realistically fair to boost the iLvl further. If we do it purely on how many slots are filled we run into the issue of people filling slots with cheap crappy elemental materia. If we do it based on stats we run into the issue where they have to pick certain stats and give them stronger weighting than other stats. This could easily marginalize odd gear setups, but might be better in the long run. I'm not sure how you would go about doing what was requested without running into different problems later on.

[Tazo]

What would stop you from penta melting water resistance to raise the iLvl then? Poor system.

Quite honestly though, I don't think penta melded gear is very good at all compared to proper i90 gear.

I dunno...I have an HQ Gryph ring with Vit4, Aim4, Might4, and Battledance4
I find it rather hard to find a ring better than that for PLD/BRD/MNK/DRG

[ColeSlawter]

I agree with the OP and actually posted about this before, although it was right after housing prices came out so bad timing on my part.

What would stop you from penta melting water resistance to raise the iLvl then? Poor system.

Easy to deal with. Each materia is given an iLvl and adding materia to gear would increase that piece by the materia iLvl. DoH/DoL/Elemental materia would have an iLvl of 0 so adding it to gear would do nothing but waste a slot. Tier 1 would have an iLvl of .5 with each increasing tier increasing in iLvl by .5. 2 star gear penta melded with tier 4 materia would become iLvl 80 and be decent gear without becoming BiS. In addition to making crafted gear a little more valuable, 1 star gear would become more valuable as well for spiritbonding. This could actually help the economy.

[Mook_Mook]

what's too stop him from putting on tank jewelry that i90 to get into a party its all the same. you're punishing everyone for potienal abuse when its already easy to abuse the system

[IzumiRaito]

I will say it again. Gearscore should be calculated by a weighted sum of item stats, such as defence, magic defence, primary stat, vit, etc. NOT item ilvl.

[Tiggy]

I will say it again. Gearscore should be calculated by a weighted sum of item stats, such as defence, magic defence, primary stat, vit, etc. NOT item ilvl.

This is a far better suggestion. However, this would be weighted by the stats SE deems most important, and could still marginalize certain gear setups. Honestly it's a tough situation no matter how you do it.

[Allyrion]

I will say it again. Gearscore should be calculated by a weighted sum of item stats, such as defence, magic defence, primary stat, vit, etc. NOT item ilvl.

The item level of a gear determines its stat budget and is distributed according to the stat weights. All 90 gear has an equal budget, so it is essentially the same as the sum.

I agree with the OP though. Penta melded HQ crafted piece is around ilvl 80 and should be treated as such. It would help if the UI reflected as such.