Besy way to be melded at 50

[EvianEverdeen]

I'm just wondering if this player's post still holds true and reliable currently in-game, as far as best way to meld your crafter gear with materia at 50 goes?

I kind of took a break from the game after 2.1. I've been back for quite some while, but now just began crafting again. I've had a 50 ALC, but now leveling GSM up to 50, currently just above 30. I want to make sure I have all my 50 crafter gear, melded the best way it can be. Also, is the 50 gear still the best way to go, there are new higher level crafting items I believe? Could you fill me in a little with what's new? Thanks!

[Ooshima]

It still holds true as you are still using the same AF/i55 gears as before. The max stats that can be melded doesn't change.

What has changed is that there is a new i70 head piece that is non meld-able which means if you are a new 50 there is no point to overmeld your head gear.

[EvianEverdeen]

It still holds true as you are still using the same AF/i55 gears as before. The max stats that can be melded doesn't change.

What has changed is that there is a new i70 head piece that is non meld-able which means if you are a new 50 there is no point to overmeld your head gear.

Is there also a new primary to pick up or something?

[AttacKat]

It still works, did all my crafting melds based on that post.

Re: head piece, he already noted it isn't necessary to meld it anymore, hence saving you gils.
Re: New primary is a must have to obtain the 391/374 stats for 3-star.

jc

[Waeksyn]

That guide is crap. There is no need to ever meld any Tier IV materia to meet the stats that you need. My DoH jobs are all 395 Craftsmanship, 384 Control and 348 CP without a single Tier IV materia. Those stats are more than sufficient for any 3-star recipe (all methods require use of CP food such as HQ Fish Soup or Bouillabaisse)

Here is the materia that I use (note I show which ones I've over melded in red but the meld order may be different now depending on current prices):

Body: Control III, Control II, Craftsmanship III, Craftsmanship III, Craftsmanship III
Hands: Control III, Control II, Craftsmanship II
Waist: Control III, CP III, Control II, Craftsmanship I
Legs: Control III, Control II, CP III, Craftsmanship I last one is only +1 Craftsmanship)
Feet: Control III, Control II, CP III, Craftsmanship I (last one is only +1 Craftsmanship)
Off Hand: Control III, Control III, Craftsmanship III, CP III
-- Common Pieces ---
Neck: Control III, CP III, CP II, Craftsmanship I
Earring: Control III, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship I
Wrist: Control III, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II
Ring (x2): Control III, CP III, Craftsmanship II

[LineageRazor]

That guide is crap. There is no need to ever meld any Tier IV materia to meet the stats that you need.

There's technically not a need to use T4 materia, true. Looking at those second and third Overmelds on your Body, though, makes me wonder whether you actually saved any money after burning through so many Craftsman III's. (Maybe you got lucky? Or maybe the cost of T4's is just that bloated on your server?)

Additionally, using T4's you could have much higher stats on your Off-hand than you do now. You can argue that you don't NEED so many stats on your off-hand - but that kind of reasoning is what got people in trouble when the new recipes were added. Folks under-melded their gear figuring that they only needed as many stats as was needed to consistently HQ double-star recipes with NQ ingreds. That was fine for a while, but those folks had to start from scratch once the new recipes were added and the gear they had wasn't up to snuff.

Safer in the long run not to cut corners, imo.

[Waeksyn]

You're right about doing your homework before making a meld plan for yourself. Check the prices and the % and do the math. That body plan worked well when I did my 8 DoHs quite some time ago. On my server, right now, TIV craftsmanship and control is about 12x the cost of a TIII and TII is about the same price as a TIII (this morning, the TIII craftsmanship is actually cheaper than the TII - usually, they are 2x the cost). When figuring things out, remember that higher tiers of materia have lower percent chance in an overmeld.

For example, the third overmeld has a chance of 11% with a TIII and 13% with a TII. Statistically, you need an average of ~8 tries to succeed on the TII and 9 to succeed on the TIII. Using a TIV in a primary slot could allow you to use a TII in the last meld (using a TIII would require a final TIII). Let's assume the TII price is 8K, TIII 16K and TIV is 192K. Using a TIV with final TII will cost on average 256K, using a TIII with a final TIII will cost 160K. I know which one I prefer. And, if you go for the min max (ie, trying for higher stats) the cost of course is higher.

Sadly, the RNG can always bite you in the ass. I've had to go 20 attempts to do a single 19% meld once. If you are equipping all 8 jobs as I did, though, you should get close to the average overall.

What I did was make a spreadsheet to play with options that gave me the total stats that I needed and then went with that plan. I think that's a much better strategy than blindly following a guide that seems to be just min-maxing the stats instead of trying to achieve a target that actually means something.

You're also right about the change in stats between updates. I needed to update all of my OH melds when they added 3-star. I just threw that in with the rest of the grind needed to open the master recipes and earn the new head piece and tools.

Remember, though, that for every piece whose meld plan may need to be changed, there could be other pieces (eg, head) where your min-max expense is now worthless because a new piece replaces it anyway.

PS, I didn't buy a single materia when doing that rework. I SB'ed the materia I needed and made a few mil selling those that I didn't (ie, all of the TIVs). The only materia I actually buy are TI/II for SB melds.