Crafter (and Gatherer) materia

[Kalinas]

I love the way that SE made the battle materia easier to obtain (adding tier 4 from beast tribes and even the tier 5 from running Void Ark), but it seems like crafters (and gatherers) have gotten the shaft when it comes to materia. The prices are pretty reasonable (15k-90k for a tier 4 on my server atm) for battle materia, especially since you can't use forbidden melds on most gear.

Thing is crafters are still stuck with trying to convert sb gear, pray to the RNG for a Mutamix conversion, buy it on the mb (60k-290k for a tier 4 depending on type and 3.8-7.5 mil for a tier 5 on my server), or if you are lucky enough to have an fc to send out airships to collect crafter materia. The kicker is you have to overmeld to be able to craft the highest tier gear (850 Craftsmanship and 820 Control!) and you can't even rely on the red scrip gear since it won't meet requirements on its own.

If you were to buy only the red scrip gear which is supposed to be for those more casually into crafting to avoid melding, then you would be at 811 Craftsmanship and 748 Control, 372 CP. This assumes no Crafter Soul (just add 20 to Craftsmanship and 20 Control, but still doesn't meet the minimum) and no food (even HQ Seafood Stew would only put you at 779 Control and 422 CP). Don't really want to get into the 180 basically being stepping stone gear down to the better 170 crafted versions...point of this was that melding for crafters (and gatherers to an extent) is unavoidable if you want to make nice things. :P

I would love for at least Ixali quests/oaknots (maybe Vanu and Vath too) to at least give out crafter/gatherer materia and have the option of Void Ark Mhachi Matter trade ins for crafter/gatherer materia too. Give us the option of a personal airship from Ishgard or a personal house to send out for Exploratory Voyages. Anything to bring the cost down.

[Melondra]

I agree the turn in for quality for scripts are set way to high. Only way to meet that goal is to over-meld gear sets wish cost tens of millions to do. The Leaves for disciple of the Hand is another disaster, in version 1.0 when you accepted a leave, the client gave you the materials needed to complete it, in this game it comes out of your own pocket. You are essentially paying gill for exp and that needs to be changed.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

The Ixali should be giving some means of obtaining crafting/gathering Materia. I'm not quite so sure about the Vath and the Vanu though.

Personal workshops for personal airships are long overdue, however.

[Tango185]

I agree that personal airships would be great. I don't know for sure what my FC is sending our multiple airships out for, but I know it isn't coming back with crafting materia. I would like to be able to obtain these with a personal airship as transmutation is a crap shoot, spiritbonding takes forever and I don't make nearly enough Gil to afford the Control +4 materia I really need.

[Mature]

Materia Control IV in Ultros is around 450k....

I don't understand why is SE holding material back for crafters? I got a couple of friends that wanna craft high level stuff but they can't cause they haven't got the money to buy materias at that price.

With A full red scrip gear what are the final stats? (Red scrip gear + red scrip accessories + red scrip HM and OH) anyone know the numbers?

[Tango185]

All i180 (red scrip) gear, no food, no FC actions, no soul stone...811 craft, 748 control, 372 cp

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/TB5R

[Mature]

Thank you Tango. Those numbers are an absolute disgrace for a full red scrip gear. How do they expect to let new crafters craft 3* star stuff?

The main issue are the red scrip accessories I think. Having only base CP. they should 're do the accessories having control and craftsmanship included. Might as well remove them cause tbh they have no use but a good way to waste red scrip.

[Nutz]

The main issue are the red scrip accessories I think. Having only base CP. they should 're do the accessories having control and craftsmanship included. Might as well remove them cause tbh they have no use but a good way to waste red scrip.

I may be wrong, but weren't the i180 accessories (crafting and gathering) added almost exclusively as a means of converting items to tier V materia? I thought that's why they added mostly useless high level items to gather and useless high level items to craft from said gathered items. I haven't actually done it myself, but that's what I thought was going on. The conversion rate is probably terrible though, of course.

I've not done crafting in HW yet (highest is like 53), just gathering. Confusingly SE has effectively made materia irrelevant for gatherers if you use red scrip items. The only advantage to be had is more GP, which would be nice every now and then, but not a big deal. Looks like they did the opposite with crafters though.

[Tango185]

They really have made i180 gear a stepping stone to the i170 meldable gear. It might be easier for some people to buy the i180 accessories until they or a friend can craft the i170 for them since they match, if not exceed, the base stats of the i170 (before melding). What really has to happen is for new crafters to gather the materials themselves for the i170 gear and find a friend to make the gear for them. This takes some work if money is an issue, though, because they'll have to level up miner and botanist to be able to get the favor materials that sell too high for most on the MB.

I honestly hate the way it's done at the moment but I'm trying to push through it. I'm hoping an upcoming patch will have better crafting gear that isn't locked behind a scrip wall or that doesn't require BiS crafting stats to make...but I'm not going to hold my breath because I'll die.

[Sollux]

I agree that Crafters typically get the short end of the stick when it comes to materia, and I would have LOVED a more stable way to get them other than SB.

If you were to buy only the red scrip gear which is supposed to be for those more casually into crafting to avoid melding, then you would be at 811 Craftsmanship and 748 Control, 372 CP. This assumes no Crafter Soul (just add 20 to Craftsmanship and 20 Control, but still doesn't meet the minimum) and no food (even HQ Seafood Stew would only put you at 779 Control and 422 CP). Don't really want to get into the 180 basically being stepping stone gear down to the better 170 crafted versions...point of this was that melding for crafters (and gatherers to an extent) is unavoidable if you want to make nice things. :P

Melding always has and always will be unavoidable if you want to be on the cutting edge of Crafting, and 3.0 has been no different. Since I see a lot of "You can't reach the minimum with i180" lately I quickly whipped together a build using all i180 gear including OH, HQ white accessories with minimum Tier IV overmelds (Only 5 total, 4 at 29% and 1 at 16%), and a HQ Seafood Stew that both reaches minimum stats for 3* and includes enough CP for Rath's rotation. I also included the Soul because AFAIK every 3* recipe is Specialist only anyways: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/TB9K

You really don't need anything past the minimum stats and the amount spent on overmelding this set is pennies compared to what it can cost to overmeld a single i170 pieces to cap.