Which equipment to meld materia into?

[Zavius_Firerave]

I've been saving up materias from my low level gear but I realized that none of the highest level gear have any materia slot. What gear do people meld both their combat, crafting, and gathering materias into?

[HakuroDK]

It honestly depends on where you are in the game right now.

For combat, the best stuff to meld items into would be the Chysolite Jewelry, since that's very popular with tanks and healers who want to DPS (like in Alex Savage, where it's pretty much compulsory at one point or another).

For crafting, the i150 set is the most ideal, especially if you never plan on doing favors. If you do, I recommend getting the i170 jewelry and belt and meld those while keeping the i150 stuff so you can maintain a comparable level of skill across all crafters. I recommend a meld layout that maximizes CP, with Control as a secondary focus and keeping Craftsmanship up only high enough to meet the minimum prerequisites.

For gathering, similar to crafting. Meld the i150 stuff, get the i170 jewelry/belt, meld those. Focus on GP at least until you can hit 700 GP with food, then dump everything else into Perception as well as you can, leaving Gathering as a dump stat to keep just above the minimum Gathering skill needed to uncover Legendary nodes with a single strike.

However, with 3.2 revolutionizing how Materia is going to influence gear, you may want to save your materia for now and wait.

[BlazingFury]

What has been said about materia for 3.2? I havent heard about this yet.

[Zavius_Firerave]

The materia system is going to change? I haven't heard about this.

[Ashelia_Ferron]

The system itself is changing in that:
Raid gear AND tomestone gear will be meldable.
Primary stats will not be overmeldable

So now melding materia will be for more than just people who use crafted gear. If you want the best stats, you're gonna have to meld all your gear

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Gee, sounds like the Augmentation system put into place more than a decade ago in Everquest.

[HakuroDK]

Gee, sounds like the Augmentation system put into place more than a decade ago in Everquest.

It also sounds a lot like the Materia System put into place almost 20 years ago in Final Fantasy VII. =P

[Lujan]

Just to say I've tried this with 8 170 items now and not 1 V :'(

[Roth_Trailfinder]

It also sounds a lot like the Materia System put into place almost 20 years ago in Final Fantasy VII. =P

Not really. The FF7 system was for spells and modifications to those spells, as well as some commands. It was not for stats. That's why I made the comparison to EQ and not to FF7.

[Zavius_Firerave]

I believe the original materia system changed your stats as well.