Live Letter Comment on Crafting/Melding

[Lemuria]

It will not be possible to use advanced materia melding for primary stats on equipment created by crafters. We will be making adjustments in the future so that advanced materia melding can be used to enhance sub-stats.

But... why? Is it a crime to add vitality onto rings, or other 1-slot items? I mean, primary stat materia is pretty worthless as it is, since it can't be used on anything that already has that stat, but now they want to make it even MORE useless? I despair.

From Patch 3.2, crafted equipment will become more powerful that what it has been up until now.Furthermore, accessories will be implemented at the same time as the high-tier equipment that can be created by crafters. Additionally, materia slots will be added to raid equipment and the equipment that can be purchased with the various tomestones, so you’ll be able to add materia to boost the sub-stats that you prefer.

All good changes here, no complaints.

Many of those attempting instanced raids in the early stages tend to use advanced materia melding on accessories, which lead to tanks being required to meld STR or VIT. Due to this there were times where the melded accessories were better than the accessories which dropped from clearing the instance. In order to resolve this issue, in Patch 3.2 we will be making adjustments that will change the damage calculations of tanks into a more appropriate state.

Well.. that explains why they want to nerf accessory melds. Not sure if I should be happy that they're looking at changing the damage calculations, or terrified at the prospect of losing out on vital stats.

I can't help but be cautious about new changes, since Heavensward has left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to crafters. The entire scrip system should be thrown in the garbage, as far as I'm concerned and, with that in mind, I'm going to be wary until I see these changes for myself. There's a lot of hoops for SE to jump through before they'll earn my trust as far as crafting goes.

[Joronas]

I still find it interesting that, when faced with the view that their "best" gear -- raid drops, esoterics -- has bad stat allocations .... SE chooses to reduce the ability to do customized stat allocations via melding.

[Dante_V]

They are just going to crush crafted accesory marked for crafters with this. Crafted gear is essentially useless outside of glamour at this point besides accessories. With out the ability to customize vit/Str accessories with main stats beyond the single meld you will see huge drops in those markets.

On top of this you will also see tanks with even less hp now as their alternatives for vit/Str combinations dwindle out side of just mixing matching dungeon drops... None of which are crafted.