Job-Specific (Artifact) Gear

[SniperRifle]

Another piece of my heart will die if they manage to screw up JSA gear.

[Brannigan]

If you want 50 gear, you have to level a craft to 50. Its long, drawn out and painfull to do so. Then to go on and get a 3 materia meld you have to try over and over and over, as well as invest the time and money into it.

Crafters are constantly treated as second class citizens.

Its not a matter of pure luck. There is the prerequisite of actually level a crafter to 50, you seem to convienently forget that.

I don't see you pushing for DoH to be capable of earning Mog/Ifrit gear with out DoW/M, you apear very against even a remote equality in the classes even though leveling a DoW/M is 10 times easier and faster then leveling a DoH.

If you want 50 gear you can go to the market wards and buy a full set for under 500k because even though leveling a craft to 50 is "long, drawn out and painfull" it actually isnt that bad and plenty of people have done it. Or you can go get it from leves. Or you can get it from stronghold coffers.

Forbidden materia is absolutely, positively, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT LUCK. There is no player skill involved in the acquisition of forbidden materia items. I don't see how you can even argue this. Are you pressing the button harder when you hit meld?

If Ifrit dropped crafter gear then it might be an issue that they need to play a battle class to get it. Except, oh, wait, that line of thinking completely ruined every story quest we currently have. Regardless, they don't drop crafter gear and probably won't for the foreseeable future so this is a non-issue.

As far as your comment on crafters being treated like second class citizens: For an EQ-like adventuring MMORPG, crafters in this game have been treated like kings. Until Darkhold almost every piece of gear in the game had to go through a crafter somehow. You talk about crafters not being able to get Ifrit gear without combat classes - how the hell are combat classes supposed to get anything done without crafted gear when nothing drops?

Why do you think the materia system was created in the first place? It was to keep crafters relevant as the game evolves. Unfortunately they screwed up by not allowing U/U gear to be meldable and once again placed way too much power into the hands of crafters. Players should rely on crafters for materia, but not for the gear that it goes into (past entry-level stuff)

[Griss]

Really hoping for some unique stats on the job armor that is just impossible to get else where for a while including materia.

[Jashynvald]

Really hoping for some unique stats on the job armor that is just impossible to get else where for a while including materia.

Indeed, that's where U/U gear should excel in. It should be able to do things with the slot you can't do through materia-melded white gear. Materia-melded gear in the 2-3+ range should have the torque of raw stat but usually only encourages a more balanced approach whereas substituting in U/U in specific slots should emphasis stat amalgamations that add up into something you can't get via just a full set of melded gear alone.

There is room enough for both in the game for U/U unmeldables and for generic meldable gear amongst various setups as long as drop gear deigned appropriately to encourage this.