Thread: 3.4 Melding

I recently finished updating my right side and now have the full IW set, but I don't really know where to go from here. I have a few melds to boost my stats for 3*, which I can make pretty comfortably, but I'm looking to move away from "casual crafter" and gear up for 4*, with something that will hopefully take me through up to Stormblood. I see a lot of sets and stats flying around (1000+, what) but can't seem to find any concrete advice. Is there an ideal meld I should go with?

Use Ariyala's site - it helps a lot. Of course, the game now displays the meld caps, so its not quite as useful as it was before, but it very much helps. Use it to plan your melds.

You want to accomplish the following with your melding : 430 CP, just enough Craftsmanship that you can meet 4 star requirements *without the Soul of the Crafter*, and as much Control as you can fit in your remaining materia slots.

That should get you enough Craft and Control that you only need look for CP food, rather than being gimped on CP due to having to find a good Craft or Control food.

The practical difference between 3 star and 4 star crafting is in the number of Maker's Mark steps you get. Other than that, you are looking at either essentially the same Rath's Rotation you use for 2 and 3 star stuff, or some Muscle Memory rotation. IIRC MuMe rotations require higher stats than MaMa, but they are much faster. I could be wrong on that though. The main reason for pointing out the difference in MaMa steps though, is in looking at how many you can afford to lose. As your stats get better, you can afford to have more FS fails, or more MaMa charges converted into Tricks, things like that. You will notice that with minimum Craftsmanship, you cannot afford to lose too many MaMa charges to Tricks or FS fails, compared to 3 star or 2 star crafting.