Quote Originally Posted by Jinko View Post
I would have to agree, one slot type and one catalyst per tier for all materia would have been enough, its really over kill, hell they should have kept it as simple as slotting a materia into a item just like WoW does with gems.
its a simple balance thing, there has to be at least 3 types to represent the 3 types of gatherers, so they all have some unique item, they need multiple tiers so that people who have leveled gatherer high have some type of benefit to doing so.

All in all its pretty simple. Not as simple as direct slotting, but that wouldnt have worked within the jobs of the game.