Materia on all gear.. Why not?

[tachikoma]

Why can't we attach materia on all gear? Crafted gear will always be needed and provides a player with the ability to go for triple melding it is just unfeasable to work on anything over a double from an instanced raid perspective. Give me a reason to enjoy the darkhold / faction gear content. And make the current coffer sets all very viable as possible BiS.

Someone give me a reason why they don't just let you meld and materialize all gear?

ex: coffer drop from Boss "Sipahi Shirt": Dexterity +5 Evasion +15 Magic Evasion +15
vs. "Raptorskin Harness (Blue)": Dex : +6, Mnd : +5, Accuracy : +4
/w materia: Bloodflight Materia III + Manaflight Materia III => +16evasion/+16magic.evasion

This scenario has a 30%+ chance of successfull forbiden meld this is going to take you 1hour tops to go to the wards spend under 100k on total materials including the materia and in the end you have a FAR SUPERIOR BODY in every way with more stats and even more defense. This makes the Sipahi Shirt a totally useless item that requires a full party of skilled players a minimum of a few hours to farm 1 or 2 tops.

If you could add materia to the sipahi shirt this all the sudden makes all coffer drops relevant and sudenly players have a plethora of avenues to gear up and not simply craft + a few specific coffers + ifrit

[Jennestia]

Someone give me a reason why they don't just let you meld and materialize all gear?

I'll give you 3:

1. Materia system is new.
2. They're observing how people use the system in general.
3. Balance -- Adding it to even raid gear would be overpowering and pretty much kills the need for synthesis gear.

Those "plethora of avenues" are from crafted gear, which is always expanded and always adjusted in patches because there will always be more synthesis gear than raid gear in the end(which is absolutely fine.) Most MMOs just have a few sets of armor that you upgrade through various means and drop gear almost always become worthless compared to a fully upgraded x set.

Materia has only existed for 1 patch really, gotta give them time to get the system optimized.

[CrystalWeapon]

It would be nice if they did. They could balance it by making the 1st materia attachment on said gear act as if it were the 2nd. I.e. have coffer drops start with a 30% or so success rate on their 1st attachment. It's up to you if you want to take the risk, but if you do and succeed you could at least have something that would be on par with crafted gear.

[Antanias]

Why not all gear? Walking around in studded underwear would be really awkward :O

[Zantetsuken]

I'll give you 3:

1. Materia system is new.
2. They're observing how people use the system in general.
3. Balance -- Adding it to even raid gear would be overpowering and pretty much kills the need for synthesis gear.

Also:

The only way you could attach materia to untradeable gear is by doing it yourself. This would restrict materia equipped gear to those who have 1) the gear itself, 2) the approprate job high enough to use it, and 3) the appropriate crafting job high enough to meld it.

It locks out a decent portion of the population from owning a single piece of lvl ~50 gear, much less multiple pieces.

To add materia to undtradeble gear properly would require a whole new system by which a crafter could attach materia to gear that remains in another persons inventory. They may implement a system like this in the 2.0, but I don't think they are going to drop everything to do it now when Yoshi-P has clearly stated his intended design for the hierarchy of gear.

[Akuun]

3. Balance -- Adding it to even raid gear would be overpowering and pretty much kills the need for synthesis gear.

This is exactly why they should, right now there is really no reason for players to bother with coffer gear because it is so terrible compared to crafted items with 1 materia. If only crafted gear can be made into materia, then players will still by the crap that people craft.
Sorry, but I don't think crafting should dominate the game.

[Kiara]

Hi Tachi,

It's a good question.

There've been a lot of people discussing the pros and cons of being able to meld Materia on Raid / Dungeon Gear. I personally agree with you that they should allow it.

I can see the pros and cons, of how Crafters prefer to have their crafted armor be the only meldable pieces to allow crafting to be viable, vs. adventurers / DoW / DoM wanting Raid / Dungeon Gear to be worthwhile to go after.

I definitely agree that many Coffer Drops right now can be exceeded by a craftable armor version + single or double meld Materia (relatively easy). And of course Dzemael Darkhold's drops have been pretty much nullified after 1.19.

Thinking back on examples like Sky Drops in Final Fantasy XI (early days)... I remember generally that all the high level players I spoke with (crafters included) were fine with the gameplay involved in trying to get a Kirin's Osode, or Byakko's Haidate.

Or earning the Dryadic Abjuration: Legs to help complete your Shura Haidate pants.

I don't remember people (in the early days) hating these quests and End Game activities. I had a blast with Sky and things like that.

So do Crafters and Adventurers nowadays hate the stuff we had in Sky back then? Is it so bad? I'm puzzled.

[Akuun]

Also:

The only way you could attach materia to untradeable gear is by doing it yourself. This would restrict materia equipped gear to those who have 1) the gear itself, 2) the approprate job high enough to use it, and 3) the appropriate crafting job high enough to meld it.

It locks out a decent portion of the population from owning a single piece of lvl ~50 gear, much less multiple pieces.

To add materia to undtradeble gear would require a whole new system by which a crafter could attach materia to gear that remains in another persons inventory. They may implement a system like this in the 2.0, but I don't think they are going to drop everything to do it now when Yoshi-P has clearly stated his intended design for the hierarchy of gear.

Dying and materia should simply be an optional thing for any player to use to customize or improve his or her gear.

[Zantetsuken]

I want to remove crafting from the game

Fixed that for you.

Sorry, but crafting and gathering are going to remain as a vital part of this game - much more than in FFXI (even if scaled back from Tanaka's original plan)

I'd recommend you get used to the idea.

[Velhart]

It is both ways for me. I want raid gear the go to gear. I want crafted gear to ultimately be the best under harsh conditions, such as it is now.

The problem with current coffer gear is that most of it has stats that even one materia attachment can dominate. Make it like 3+ materia slots to make the crafted gear better. Make the crafters work hard for the better gear.

The main problem is lousy rare/ex. gear, that is all. Make the stats more worthwhile in rare/ex. gear, and balance will start kicking in. I will see how future rare/ex. gear holds up when more is released to properly criticize it.