Why No Melds?

[Zumi]

It was a fairly hot topic recently that players do want to make there characters stronger. but Yoshi p responded and said he doesn't want that to happen. he wants players to focus on gear instead. the problem with this is that the gear is so short lived. Melding then doesn't make your character stronger at all. what it does is just make your gear stronger. that same piece of gear you will be throwing away in a couple of weeks because you've got some thing better. so there's no point in melding it.

it's kind of connected to why people don't raid because the rewards aren't worth it. the 240 midangear people got form clearing it was tossed for 250 crafted stuff soon as 3.4 hit. so seriously what value does gear hold? holds no value at all. and as a result it's not worth investing in. which is simply why people don't bother. glamour is a bigger motivator than strength.

would you invest in customising your car if you were gonna get a new one next month?

You can put in tier 4s for a few min of doing beastman dailies then you are set for a few months before you replace that piece of gear. Its not a big investment of time at all. I am not saying use all tier Vs but you can get tier 4s which are really easy to get and don't take much time at all.

[RukiaFae]

Can some explain why you "need" to meld the gear if you're not doing the latest raid or primal. Everything else is such a cake walk. Seriously the few extra points you get are not worth it. In the latest two dungeons you can easily run through them with old gear and burn down trash mobs. Alex normal is pretty easy even if you don't know the mechanics. If we needed to meld to help make runs easier people would. Like the other poster said the rewards of melding are not worth it. That's why less people are doing it just like raiding. You could give people materia just for logging in but if they don't see it as a necessity they won't use it. It's the same thing as food. Why don't people use food outside of raids or leveling?

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Snip.

How many times, especially in PUGs, have you wiped on a boss at 1%? 2%? 3? 10? That's why I meld my gear. I can't always rely on PUGs to be half competent, so I meld my gear because not only do I enjoy it, it also lessens how dependent on randoms I am.

Maybe you run the content way more or just have bad luck but does not happen that often in my experience

I do tend to run content alot, but I personally rarely see it happen, especially as a sword oath tank. The last time it happened was on A12N a week or so ago, and unsurprisingly I was the only one melded. Course, then the dps started whining about not clearing it, and I giggled. It is funny to see people fail and blame everyone else. Incidentally, 'Once' is already one time too many.

[Remus]

Hey man...them tier 4 materias are expensive

[Urthdigger]

Because we picked up the habit back in 2.0 when any materia worth using was like 300k at least. Yeah it's cheaper now, but old habits die hard, and we survived then and we'll survive now. Yeah it'll help boost kill speed by a little bit, but it's hard to suddenly tell people to start taking an expense they never needed to pay before just because it won't ruin them now.

A better question is why so many people don't use food. Far cheaper than materia's ever been, even the cheap stuff's a decent bonus, boosts vit that's likely already at the cap, and there's even incentive for folks to use it while leveling with the xp bonus.

[Vaer]

A better question is why so many people don't use food. Far cheaper than materia's ever been, even the cheap stuff's a decent bonus, boosts vit that's likely already at the cap, and there's even incentive for folks to use it while leveling with the xp bonus.

Same reason really, food can get expensive. I only really see it used in savage raids. Plus no one cares in pugs if you aren't using food since most likely no one else is either.

To get the exp bonus you can buy some grapes from a vendor for pennies.

Anyways, I try to keep my stuff melded because I would feel dirty if I was playing a job that had empty slots. Don't bother with jobs I don't play.

You can get Tier IV's really easily from beast tribes but some people find that a chore and you have to actually get them to max rank first. Even if they do them they might just turn around and sell it for gil since housing/glamours/bardings/useful crafted gear in this game costs a lot.

[SessionZero]

I don't raid, so I don't bother melding gear I'll be switching out in a few months anyway.

I had 12 Mhachi Matters saved up from VA runs that I never spent because materia is such a non-issue to me I literally did not know what the Mhachi matters were for. Lo and behold they give you grade V materia.

Now I have 12 grade V materia on the MB.

[aesteval]

For the most part, gear is upgraded every 6 months. 3.2 released a gear range of 220-240 which was the gear range until 3.4 came out 6 months later. Now the gear range is 250-270 until the expansion which we know won't be until Spring at the earliest.

Eeh, I don't know if I can agree with the 6 months thing. New tome gear is released every six months, but it's not like you get it and are done with it. You get it and 3 months later you upgrade it, which works the same as being an entirely new piece of gear. And then you have new raid gear roughly every 3 months as well (8p / 24p raids alternating.) Sure the current ilvl bracket lasts 6 months, but it's not like you get a full set of gear on day 1 and get 6 months of use out of it.

[Erudito]

Why do I not put any materia on my combat gear? Few reasons:

1) I sell materia for Gil. No matter what happens in the game, gil retains a good deal of its value. Goes hand in and with next point.

2) Gear is quickly replaced every 3 to 4 months. This also comes hand in hand with my next point.

3) You cannot remove materia from gear once placed. Again, also goes in hand with the next point.

4) The odds of having the melded gear fully spiritbonded by the time better gear is available is very low if you are a casual. So no new materia out of it. Just desynth and seal fodder. No thanks.

5) For someone who does not raid, the boost granted by materia is minuscule to say the least.

6) Over-melding is a nightmare. In order to get the most out of your gear and materia, you would need a truck load of grade 4 and/or grade 5 materia and that is a loss in gil, time and effort.

So yeah, those are the reasons I do no melding on my combat gear.

[MrPresident]

Also I am raiding.

So I'm not sure how your reply has any relevance to me then. You're raiding so every little stat boost matters. To non raiders it doesn't. I'm already blasting the enemies away in Xelphatol in outdated gear, so why on earth would I waste millions of gil melding my next set just to kill them ever so slightly quicker?