Melding on tomestone / raid gear

[Colorful]

cause the guy with materia isn't as good at their job.
cause the guy with materia is really annoying and frustrates other people in the group.
cause there is no guy with materia that plays at that time.
cause you're actually playing with your friends and they don't care.

First let me state that I'm referring to playing with randoms, and not friends.

In an ideal world, yes this will be the case. It should depend on a player's individual skill whether or not you can get into a party, but as we've seen time and time again this is not the case. How many Ravana/Bismarck parties have you seen with ilvl190+ requires? Because I've seen plenty, we don't live in a perfect world where every player is assigned a magical rating that determines their skill, players select the player with the best gear and go in. Why? Because we have no individual accountability on underperforming players, we have no official way to assess how well a player is performing. You wouldn't believe the amount of times I've seen an entire party disband due to one or two underperforming players. I've seen time and time again the fault being directed at the "undergeared" players when they're doing very high DPS for their ilvl while the person being an ass is doing the lowest or closest to the lowest, one of the reasons I've started making my own parties so I can kick those types of people. I see this happening here with materia, but of course it all depends on how much effect they'll have on our gear.

snip

People have different opinions on things, who knew?

Unless 3.2 or beyond adds new types of materia, which is entirely possible. However seeing as we know nothing about this feature other than the fact that they're just adding materia slots to tome / raid gear it seems far too early for the all the negativity being thrown around towards a feature that could quite literally be a game changer on a fundamental level when it comes to gearing and itemization.

Whats to stop them from adding materia with unique stats or stat modifiers to compliment this system as someone else mentioned?

This could very well eventually lead to the return of job specific stats but it has to start somewhere for players to get used to it.

I don't think this is the best way to go about changing the game on a fundamental level, nor do I believe it will do such a thing. It will peak the interest of those who actually test all of these gear sets and surely bring them many hours of testing it all out and finding the right builds, but for everyone else? We'll go on Reddit and see the best option for whatever gear we have access to and copy that without a change. Your idea of new materia interested me, this is why could truly change the game fundamentally for a lot of us. Imagine if we had Job specific matera that tweaked the effect of certain abilities? For example, adding 10 seconds onto Huton, or shortening the cooldown for Duality. This sounds like a balancing nightmare, but it something I believe the game needs. Flat stat bonuses are boring, things that change how we play our classes aren't.

[FeliAiko]

SE have shown that they're not prepared to allow for situations that gives certain jobs a clear advantage over others, if they can avoid it. Therefore, while materia that gives job-specific bonuses/stats is a nice idea I can't see it being implemented (or at least, not to any great depth). Besides, it would make more sense for them to just design gear that comes with said bonus attributes, as that's easier to balance around.

As it stands I'm just expecting this feature to funnel down to the same race to maxing out one of CRIT/DET/ACC, but maybe SE will surprise me.

[Khalithar]

Flat stat bonuses are boring, things that change how we play our classes aren't.

And this is basically why I don't really have any interest in the materia as it is right now. Also, I truly believe that SE will not add any more new materia than what we have now. If they do add new materia, it will probably be on a vendor. Although that is a thought, if they are going to start adding materia on to raid gear, I hope that means we can start buying materia with tomestones. I'm still fine with crafters/gatherers being necessary to attach the materia though.

[FeliAiko]

A materia vendor of some kind would help as spiritbonding, while cheaper, is still RNG when it comes to conversion results.

[Colorful]

I hope that means we can start buying materia with tomestones. I'm still fine with crafters/gatherers being necessary to attach the materia though.

That would be great, I've been capped on Law for so long and won't be using my Esoterics from now on until I level more jobs which probably won't be until they uncap it.

[RussW]

There are a lot of good counterpoints and ideas in this thread. Its true we dont all have the same opinion which is why discussion forums exist. There is nothing wrong with getting feedback out there, early, with plenty of time for people to discuss ideas. Perhaps they released this info early so that we could do exactly this, who knows.

[Felis]

Please source this. I can't find it.

Primary stat materias (Str, Dex, Vit etc.) will be only meldable into free materia slots. A free materia slot have always 100% success rate.

If you think people are going to explore island with whites on to spiritbond you're nuts.

Pink ones also work for spiritbinding. And guess what type of gear you will get there ^^

[SendohJin]

we have no official way to assess how well a player is performing. You wouldn't believe the amount of times I've seen an entire party disband due to one or two underperforming players. I've seen time and time again the fault being directed at the "undergeared" players when they're doing very high DPS for their ilvl

i don't remember the last time i saw someone get kicked because of gear, underperforming is usually because of failing to handle mechanics.

while the person being an ass is doing the lowest or closest to the lowest, one of the reasons I've started making my own parties so I can kick those types of people.

any party run by someone like this will be doomed to fail anyway. i don't want the game designed around failure.

[Colorful]

i don't remember the last time i saw someone get kicked because of gear, underperforming is usually because of failing to handle mechanics.

We've had very different experience then, Bismarck EX is an incredibly easy fight mechanically and yet I've seen it wipe many times due to failure to meet a DPS check. As I've said, it's either someone ends up getting kicked, or the entire party disbands. Both of which aren't great experiences and you end up wasting your time regardless.

any party run by someone like this will be doomed to fail anyway. i don't want the game designed around failure.

Unfortunately it is, several pre-level trials and dungeons are getting nerfed along with the likely Vault and Aery. Bismarck EX and Ravana EX with an echo bonus for those who still can't clear it in i200 gear or whatever. But regardless, I don't think anyone can deny the absurd ilvl on a lot of party finders. It's a definite problem on Tonberry, why? Because players don't trust in the skill of others unless they have a clear, and think ilvl will make up for incompetency.

[Mature]

I hope airship exploration drops tons of materia IV AND V