What's the point of materia?

[Dererk]

It be nice if we could use it to enhance blue gear that will make it useful. To raise stats to a certen extent.

[Ksenia]

My 'ideal materia' system?
Remember the class quests that had you meld materia to certain weapons, turn them in for other weapons?

More of those that are then converted, once spirit bonded to specials enhancements.
So a White Mage for example could need to turn in a level 53 HQ cane with 2 Wisdom III melded to it. The white mage gets a 'Holy Cane' that is, when 100% spirit bonded, converted to a Holy Materia that adds damage to Holy when slotted. Materia would need its own inventory and each class could switch it out to slots available. Combinations of actions Materia could even unlock additional actions. Whm has all heal enhanced materia, a new AoE heal comes up that draws no Aggro, a Phoenix Down like ability. Loads of possibility, all classes. (including crafting)

The current Materia becomes a means to an end.

[ImDingDing]

They used to be more useful before the expansion:
Half lv30,40 BiS pvp gears are melding gears (no one play them now)
Relic quests need materias
At the beginning of 2.0 we started with crappy gears and materias were helpful while lving DoH/L
Helpful on speedup materias SB when tier IV were super expensive
Helping on end game raid progress (2star, 3star, 4star, new 2star)

[MiniPrinny]

Materia is yet another system that is showing it's lack of polish and age in Heavensward. While the system was a nice hold over in A Realm Reborn, it doesn't match where the game is headed nor where it was towards the end of A Realm Reborn. Materia as it stands, is functionally useless except for crafters and gatherers who use it increase melding rates and their own stats. To be completely straightforward, I think the problem with Materia is three-fold. As some have said already, the effects they provide are boring or pointless (elemental resistance, I'm looking at you). The difficulty of obtaining Materia doesn't match the reward, grinding for 20-30 minutes to get a few pieces of random Materia that may or may not be useful (not to mention of the right Grade) isn't fun, nor is it satisfying. Lastly, Overmelding as a concept just sucks.

Overmelding is probably the biggest problem since it is highly random and extremely punishing, I would be happy to see Overmelding only doable on lower level equipment (as in, lv1-49 and lv50-59 equipment), and have any equipment of Uncommon (Green) or higher rarity come with Materia slots that can be slotted with Materia to add in some customization to gear. And the Materia we have should be changed, where are the fun effects like say "Lifestealing +#%" or even stats like "Critical Hit Damage +#%?" Even crafters and gatherers could benefit from Materia being changed to a more dynamic system, with effects like "Gathering Fortune +#%" or "Base Quality +#." Really, they just need to accept that the system is broken and needs to be remade.

[Sibyll]

It'd be nice if % spirit bind raised overmeld success rate by the same percentage. For example, an overmeld slot that has a 35% chance of meld success would have a 100% meld success when the gear reached 65% Spirit Bind.

That way the concept of pentamelding IVs/Vs in overmeld slots wouldn't seem that impractical from a cost stand point, you could just meld the piece later rather than immediately.

[Gooner_iBluAirJGR]

*snip*

Don't worry—I've sent your resume and cover letter directly to Yoshi P. I'm gona call him on the phone too.
#YoshiPlease

[Giantbane]

Remember how the relic quest had scrolls where you could configure the stats of the relic weapon with materia? Would be nice if crafters could create scrolls (or similar) to rewrite the stats on raid/tome gear.

[Jethero]

Although FFXI doesn't have a materia system, their horizontal gear progression would be an excellent case to rework XIV's system around. Ksenia and Miniprinny have the right ideas, and Sibyll's thoughts to over-melding would be extremely welcome.

Granted systems like those that are being suggested will take a lot of work to create, but such powers of customisation can change how BiS works, making it feasible for older gear to have a place in our armoury (other than piling on the MB or being vendored).

Hell, in XI there exists gear for Lv10s that are SO good in their utility that Lv99s probably still use them. If we can customise our gear with such usefulness from materia, they can probably last longer than a few major patch cycles.

[maelor]

I agree wholeheartedly with pretty much this whole thread, and it kinda ties into my thread about crafting battle gear. Plain and simple this is the problem we see SE, materia takes a lot of time and/or money and/or work to get/make, but once you use it you move on to a better piece and you lose it. Then there's the fact that most if not all of the gear we actually need or care about doesn't use materia. I really really want materia, and gear crafting in general to have more of a real use in the game and not just be something that we can do but is not needed or even helpful really.