I think the RNG for materia melding is fine. Can get painful but then we're not talking about million dollar plus materials.
Socketable/Melding...pretty much all the same concept.

I think some balancing in the chances of success is needed though.

For now, melding a lower grade materia and then a higher grade materia gives a higher chance of success than doing the reverse. Since they give the same stats, I feel they should be the same chance.

Likewise, I feel that melding 2 x lower grade materias to give the same stats as a high grade materia should be close or at 100%. Right now, it appears that the highest possible chance is around 45%.
E.g. Max stat possible is +20. Anything above this value gets large penalty to success.


Hey, at least they tell you up front what your odds are!