No materia slots in end-game gear..

[Welsper59]

Honestly, I think most people who want materia slots don't understand how expensive/consuming it will be to meld. I think most people think it's a matter of maybe a few losses. Try penta-melding a ring (one 100% slot). I can easily go through 30+ Tier III just trying to get the 4th overmeld. Heck, in many cases 30+ just getting a 3rd overmeld... 10-20+ for the 2nd. It'll be good for the sales, definitely, but supply is a HUGE problem at that point, meaning costs go up significantly. With the current system, materia supply would never be able to keep up with demand if instance/raid gear had materia slots.

This bothered me as well. Endgame gear should have some materia slots but no ability to overmeld. This would actually get people to buy more crafted gear and spirit bond it.

Not being able to overmeld would be interesting, but that does also mean you'd probably be getting the gear nerfed in some way. It might switch out the crit for det maybe, as a base stat, and you'll need to meld crit to it (but possibly at a smaller cap). The gear would likely follow similar rules to the crafted stuff that's why.