melding the offhand

[EvianEverdeen]

Following the above post, all you need is do the 3rd OH meld, or the 2nd control, to reach the 395/374/345, or you can meld ctrl IIs into your AF gears.

Militia Secondary Tool Control IV, Crafts IV, Control III
AF body Crafts IV, Control III, Crafts III, Crafts III, (Control II)
AF hands Control III, Crafts II, (Control II)
AF legs Control III, CP III, Control II
AF feet Control III, CP III, Control II

and as you can see, this is not even max melded gears, on my server ctrl II is just as expensive as ctrl III.

jc

I really have no idea what you are implying. What are you telling me to meld? My AF gear is max capped on stats, meaning if I meld anything else to any of my AF pieces, it will be a zero gain.

[NJA]

I could probably do more, but I have found that after max melding the gear I only need to do a Control IV materia in the offhand in order to HQ 3-Star items.

This is correct, I do the same.

[AttacKat]

I really have no idea what you are implying.

What I am saying is following the post you linked, you just need to do the melds on the AF gear and OH as I have listed, and you will obtain the 3-star meld requirement, and that max meld is not even necessary.

jc

[Nyalia]

So, some math. On my server costs are:

/--------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Command I.....5,000 | Competence I.....8,000 | Cunning I.......245 |
| Command II...30,000 | Competence II...18,000 | Cunning II....4,500 |
| Command III..33,000 | Competence III..20,000 | Cunning III..17,000 |
| Command IV..250,000 | Competence IV..180,000 | Cunning IV...25,000 |
\--------------------------------------------------------------------/

These meld stats are (to me) interesting to consider:

1. +3 CP (max), +11 Control (max), +6 Craftsmanship (very expensive, but the "best" stats available, in my opinion)
2. +3 CP (max), +10 Control, +6 Craftsmanship (much cheaper than #1 for -1 Control)
3. +11 Control (max), +6 Craftsmanship (maximum Control and cheaper than the above, but no CP)
4. +4 Control, +3 CP (max), +6 Craftsmanship (using 3 slots, this leaves room for improvement later, but melding high level materia with minimal success rates will be very expensive)
5. +3 Control, +3 CP (max), +3 Craftsmanship (bare minimum stats for most rotations I've seen)

To reach each optimally, the meld orders would be:

1. Command IV, Command IV, Competence IV, Command III, Cunning III (average cost: 2,779,926 - ouch)
2. Command IV, Competence IV, Command III, Command III, Cunning III (average cost: 1,587,231 - 60% of the "best" meld's cost, but with -1 Control)
3. Competence IV, Command III, Command III, Command III, Command II (average cost: 1,122,970 - 40% of the "best" meld's cost, but with -3 CP)
4. Command IV, Competence IV, Cunning III (average cost: 960,163 - cheaper with room for more)
5. Command III, Cunning III, Competence I (average cost: 114,905 - only 4% of the "best" meld's cost, but with -3 Craftsmanship and -8 Control)

I'm going with #5 on most of my classes, and then picking one or two that I like best and using #2 with them. Heck, 115k isn't very much gil, not when compared to 1.5m or 2.7m, so if I want to go with the "best" meld later, I won't be losing much money going for the cheap meld now.


EDIT: Actually, an even CHEAPER meld order for the #5 stats with my world's prices is:
5b. Command III, Competence I, Cunning II, Cunning I (average cost: 72,982, which is 2.6% of the "best" meld's cost)

If you want me to calculate any of these numbers for your world, let me know. I has a spreadsheet that is magic. :3