Yellow script augmentation an alternative to overmelding

[Caimie_Tsukino]

I kinda looked into this matter a little bit. What I found is:
(1) After pentamelding, an i320 has much better stats than the augmented i330. This includes better control, better craftsmanship and most importantly better CP. This came to me as a bit of a shock, since I was expecting the i330 to have at least 1 better stats (e.g. control) than the i320 despite having less CP and less of the 3rd stats.
(2) They did reduce the amount of yellow scrips required to get i300. But when you are upgrading it to i330, the amt of yellow scrip is still pretty substantial. (e.g. i300 tools used to cost 1300 yellow scrips. Now just 500-ish in patch 4.2. But still, need another 700-ish to upgrade to i330.)

So I agree with all of you (Elamys, Alien_Gamer, Faeon). I don't think it's worth the time to grind yellow scrips for i330 (especially because they're class-specific). If you already HAVE the yellow scrips to spare, and you don't have enough stats to craft your own i320, then sure, why not boost your stats a bit and grab a piece of i330. But still, it's just a stepping stone, so don't overdo it.

I admit that overmelding can be expensive, but since we now have the flexibility of removing materia. One can now meld whatever he/she can afford on Tier VI first, and then just cheaply overmeld some Tier 4 CP materia. Later, remove those CP materia at 100% rate, and re-meld again with Tier VI or Tier V.

[XenabelleS]

OK thanks.

I see what you all mean about the progression between script gear < crafted < augmented scrip < overmelded crafted.

The thing is as I am just reaching endgame now, I simply don't have a lot of gil. I am up around 3 million and that is the most I've ever had. When I read about the expected prices for either buying the 320 HQ gear or overmelding, I just can't imagine my 3 million getting me very far. I've only ever seen 1 of each of the DOH VI materia and that was from M'Naago's custom delivery rank ups which are done.

So it seems to me that crafting and overmelding the 320 would involve :

a) making the 290 HQ gear and hopefully being able to gather mats for the 320 gear or else needing to buy them (or buy the 320 gear if it is cheaper)
including grind yellow scripts to get the alchemics

b) overmelding the 320 gear itself would require:

- needing to spirit bond a ton of stuff to get more VIs or buy it
- grind red scrips to buy more Vs or IVs or buy them
- use however many materia it takes

I anticipate that this will be more than I can afford to do with 3 million gil and since I can't really make anything that will sell, I'd be needing to grind the living daylights out of DoL mats anyway to be able to afford any of this.

So I thought grinding scrip gear might be a viable alternative.

If you only had 3 million gil at the this point in the expansion and were just hitting 70, what would you do?

[Shadygrove]

....
If you only had 3 million gil at the this point in the expansion and were just hitting 70, what would you do?

To start, wonder what I had done wrong.

Buy the NQ set in Ala Mhigo, meld open slots with IVs, use a squadron spiritbonding manual, get my FC to use the SB buff, eat NQ warrior's stew from the vendor in Reunion, and rapid synth materials like twinthread and durium nuggets. I would grind red scrip for the books. (I always seem to hit 70s gathering before crafting so I pay nothing for the raw materials.)

Selling the materials will give you an income and you will be stockpiling materia.

[Liam_Harper]

The thing is as I am just reaching endgame now, I simply don't have a lot of gil. I am up around 3 million and that is the most I've ever had. When I read about the expected prices for either buying the 320 HQ gear or overmelding, I just can't imagine my 3 million getting me very far. I've only ever seen 1 of each of the DOH VI materia and that was from M'Naago's custom delivery rank ups which are done.

Just to note for anyone stingy like me short on gil, you don't need expensive overmelds to craft anything current

This was my initial set, which enabled me to Makers Mark craft Special 2 stars, such as Snail Oil and the 320 craft gear.
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/15ID1

My finished set is:
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/15IDE

As you can see, no V overmelds. No VI's at all. Even has very few III's to save on Ixali Oaknots. You can macro craft special-2 star, 3 star-35 and 70 Dura reliably with only a few HQ materials with those stats.

I, II and III materia can be obtained from Ixali dailies. IV's can be obtained from Squadron missions, Red Scrips and Ixal. V's are obtained from doing the lv70 class quest on all 8 crafters for a total of 32 Crafting V materia, more than enough. So you can basically do everything for free.

Hope that helps.
Scrip gear is overpriced tbh. The amount of scrips you'd need is worth a small fortune in Alchemics by itself for inferior gear.

[XenabelleS]

OK thank you all for the advice.

Finally hit all 70 last night and have crafted my zelkova right side HQ. Can finally start using custom deliveries for yellow scrips instead of levelling. The last post encourages me. My browser doesn't let me see the materia you used but I'll try again from home. It's nice to hear that there is a way to do it without VIs though.

Some of you asked about goals ... I think broadly I'd like to be able to make anything but I don't have much/any confidence about ever being able to make gil from crafting. I'm on a legacy server so don't believe there are any markets that aren't completely saturated by people with far deeper pockets than myself.

So my short term plan is to upgrade my DOL tools and gear to 290 HQ, finish crafting the left side 290 HQ and looking into yellow scrip tools with the goal of augmenting them. Then I'll look into what will be needed for the 320 left side set and see if I can gather/buy the mats to have an FC mate craft it.

[Shadygrove]

... I think broadly I'd like to be able to make anything but I don't have much/any confidence about ever being able to make gil from crafting. I'm on a legacy server so don't believe there are any markets that aren't completely saturated by people with far deeper pockets than myself....

I am on Sarganatas as well and probably have deeper pockets than you. But a lack of gil does not mean you cannot make bank synthing. ESPECIALLY if you gather.

I make most of my gil gathering but a LOT crafting. I like making armor, weapons, and jewelry. I tend to ignore potions and food although I make both for my FC's raiding team. The stuff I like to make is high profit and low sale rate. Potions and food are high sales rate, low profit.

Find things you can make from what you can gather, search for low competition if low turnover items, or if high turnover items stuff you can gather everything to make it. Time is the antidote against those with deep pockets.

Feel free to look me up on Sarganatas.

Edit: I hardly ever do housing items but there are many who make bank exclusively off them.