What's the point of materia?

[Sarnen508]

If players can't readily use it? I'm lvl 55 and because I have to level a crafter to max level (alongside my main job) just to jam a rock into a slot, I have never used materia. Most of the people I've talked to in game say the same thing. They just ignore it unless its a very high quality item and they have the gil to find someone with the actual skill needed to meld it.

Why bother with materia slots on low level items then? I mean I get that SE loves its asinine things but surely they don't have to put in a system that taunts the player with almost every piece of leveling gear? Just make materia viable for non max level crafters, or better yet, put stats on gear instead of materia slots so players don't feel like they're getting cheated with underpowered gear.

[NJA]

The stats on levelling gear are more than enough for the related content, so you do not need to add materia for stat boosts prior to end game. Adding materia will however increase the spirit binding rate significantly, which is the main reason people add materia to lower level gear.

[aerolol]

That, and also you can click someone and select "Request Meld" to have the person meld it for you.
So you don't need to level up crafter classes at all.

Also, it's very likely the new relic will require materia at some point, just like the 2.X relic required it during the Novus upgrade.

[FoxyAreku]

If you wanna be a good crafter you need all crafts to 50 anyway for the abilities, so it was never really an issue pre-HW to meld your own stuff out.

[Darkstride]

I think Materia is a wasted opportunity. They could have done something interesting with it, but instead it's just basic stat increases that are often capped on the stats you would want anyway. It doesn't give you much freedom to customize your gear. That, and once you hit the level cap your gear makes no use of materia whatsoever anyway. Yes, there are some crafted items that can be BiS (or close) if properly melded, but overall I think it feels like a false sense of depth.

[Kalien]

Dropped gear needs materia slots. Maybe make it so it can't be over melded.

I'd also like to see some more interesting materia added, but I feel like that's never going to happen.

[Mikedizzy]

I agree...Materia was not taken full advantage of in this game. The only thing it really is good for is High level crafters to hit max caps and for end game raider trying to do world first content and customizing their stats. Other than this they are just worth selling.
Materia melding gear that is below level 50 is a total waste of time unless you get the material for free because you go through the gear so fast doing dungeons that you will never have it long enough unless you don't play very much.
I hope that they make some improvement in the future but who knows. We will probably need it again for our next Relic Quest...I hope that by having our completed Zenith they will let us skip that phase for having it done.

[FoxyAreku]

Dropped gear needs materia slots. Maybe make it so it can't be over melded.

I'd also like to see some more interesting materia added, but I feel like that's never going to happen.

I'd be okay with materia as a way to customize stats on battle gear...even if it's just an 'illusion of choice' thing, I feel that's better than no choice at all.
But, people would complain that it's a gil sink.

[Mikedizzy]

They need to look at FFVII and do stuff like HP +%, MP+%, Speed+, or something like one per encounter you can do "something". just come up with something.

[Kalien]

I'd be okay with materia as a way to customize stats on battle gear...even if it's just an 'illusion of choice' thing, I feel that's better than no choice at all.
But, people would complain that it's a gil sink.

I don't understand why people are perfectly ok buying better stats with one type of imaginary currency (tombstones) but not with another (Gil). But yes, there would be whining.