Confused by live letter....

[Kajidourden]

Someone help me understand. In the latest letter from the developer live there is this quote.
"The economic balance of FFXIV: ARR is set up in such a way that players save up to fill the gap created by the item level cap, or perhaps craft equipment and meld it with materia to raise their item levels faster"

Is anyone else confused by this? Since when does adding materia to a piece of gear change its item level?

[Axlle10]

he is talking about the gear AND the materia to gear faster. its much simpler to buy gear now than to farm it yourself. so darklight is being phased out by some of the newer players in place of crafted gear. whereas older players already have most dl from farming it when crafting was overpriced. adding materia does nothing to change the ilvl, the bolded part should include "craft equipment and meld it with materia to raise their item levels faster" all as one statement not picked apart. crafted equipment is meant to be melded to be superior to darklight.

[Pinworms]

I think there is going to be new recipes to make gear equal to whatever t6-9 has by adding materia. Just my thoughts.

[waca]

I think there is going to be new recipes to make gear equal to whatever t6-9 has by adding materia. Just my thoughts.

Probably not. If you use current situation as reference, 2 stars crafting gears were never on par with the best gears iLvL90 T1-T5 gears or myth gears on first release, they have same iLvl with second best gear, namely the Darklights, but slightly better than DL after full meld.
I believe they'll still use the same idea.

[Empressia]

Probably not. If you use current situation as reference, 2 stars crafting gears were never on par with the best gears iLvL90 T1-T5 gears or myth gears on first release, they have same iLvl with second best gear, namely the Darklights, but slightly better than DL after full meld.
I believe they'll still use the same idea.

which means whatever craftable gears in 2.2 will most likely become i90 as a "filler" slot to t6-9 i100 or above? but then again its gonna be a joke since no coil lockout which means free 90 gear for everyone?

[waca]

since no coil lockout which means free 90 gear for everyone?

What does "no coil lockout" mean anyway? Devs never specifically explain that in detail. Since the Live session, I'd heard several versions of it, some said
1 loot from T1-T5 per week (similar to current CT);
1 loot from each turn per week;
unlimited loot drops with limited attempts;
unlimited loot drops with unlimited attempts;
So i won't jump to that assumption before everything is clear. Let's wait and see.

but then again its gonna be a joke

Please remind me reasons ilvl 70 accessories are still selling despite there are free ilvl80/90 accessories from Ultima HM and Primal Extreme.

If you do watch last Live session, devs did point out the purpose of crafting gear is for fast ilvl/basic stats upgrade (read: you don't have to run the same dungeon 10 times gambling the gear you need will drop / to reach certain stats goal). They are never meant to be BiS gear. Working as intended.

[cloverkitty]

I think there is going to be new recipes to make gear equal to whatever t6-9 has by adding materia. Just my thoughts.

RMT Limitation will insure this is not going to be the case, when the ILvL goes up to 100, then crafted gear will go to 80 to fill in the new adventurers needs to reach the higher ILvL gear, the same as crafted ILvL 70 is today.
It was clearly stated that crafted gear will never come close to gear dropped in end game dungeons in order to "Stamp Out RMT"

[Penguinmayhem]

Implying that we can fill the item gaps with crafted gear is hilarious to me because of just how utterly useless the materia system is at the moment, and how completely neglected crafted gear is after about level 45.

Please, someone explain to me how exactly I'm supposed to make a cobalt cuirass better by melding a load of elemental materia to it that don't do anything? Or maybe Mind IV? I suppose I could use all these gathering materia I've got lying around...

[MithrasInvictus]

Implying that we can fill the item gaps with crafted gear is hilarious to me because of just how utterly useless the materia system is at the moment, and how completely neglected crafted gear is after about level 45.

Please, someone explain to me how exactly I'm supposed to make a cobalt cuirass better by melding a load of elemental materia to it that don't do anything? Or maybe Mind IV? I suppose I could use all these gathering materia I've got lying around...

Why the heck would you meld elemental materia onto a piece of tanking armour?! You would put DET and CRIT onto a Cobalt Cuirass if you wanted to buff it... It will take accuracy as well, but you should be more than capable of hitting monsters regularly without a big accuracy buff in any scenario that will see you alive in ilvl49 gear.

[Mysteltain]

Why the heck would you meld elemental materia onto a piece of tanking armour?! You would put DET and CRIT onto a Cobalt Cuirass if you wanted to buff it... It will take accuracy as well, but you should be more than capable of hitting monsters regularly without a big accuracy buff in any scenario that will see you alive in ilvl49 gear.

Uh, not sure if you're aware, but they were joking.