Firstly I would like to apologize for sitting another topic about u/u gear on the front page of the General Discussion Forum. I understand Firon's thread about making it useful is still going strong, but I don't believe my topic fits in his thread. Apologies also as it is quite long, but I tried to make it well presented and well thought out to get a point across. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this.

[The Problem]
Firstly we know U/U gear isn't all that special Stat wise, but it is usually quite special to see people wearing it (when the content initially comes out)

The untradeability of it is needed, it is to show you that beat that dungeon with your team, to show that you bested the demons that lurked within. Making it tradeable would ruin that. I believe this is something that affects Sentinel Gear, I dont know the person wearing that Cuirass is hardcore or rich.

So what can you do, as a battle class that farms a dungeon with a great piece of U/U gear that you want melding?

You have to level a crafter specific to that gear, on your own.

And therein, I believe, lies the problem. It is ridiculous to expect a player to level a craft from 1-50 (have to match gear level to meld) to do a few piece of gear (unless its Blacksmith then its only 1 piece of gear) and Yoshi-P and the dev team must be well aware of this. It is unbelievably exclusive and has been stated that they are aware different players have different activities they enjoy, and crafting is certainly not for everyone.

[The Solution]

So the fix? A Materia Meld Request Menu.

You choose a single piece of Materia, a single piece of equipment, your catalyst- and you name your reward, or make it a fixed reward like the recent gear repair feature.

The % chance can be show to you in the menu as it does not change from player to player, give it a warning "gear may be lost" etc and the job is done.

The Result / Conclusion

Double+ Melded U/U gear instantly becomes the most RIDICULOUS gear in the game. Because if you blow up that Sipahi Turban, that Alpine War Jacket, or god forbid, That Moogle Sword.... You gotta farm another one*.

Old content will be in constant demand again! people will be wanting to get this U/U gear over and over at the chance of a double meld, something that can set them apart! All of your content can become validated by this alone!

And people who don't have time to farm the special U/U gear for the double melds aren't totally rubbished by the people who do, the extra stats you get are small, but the difference is noticeable in looks. When you see a player with a double meld Sipahi Turban. You know what he's been through to get that! even if its only a little better than a Rainmakers with the same materia, it shows what he is as player. It gives people something more to strive for!

*Side note : This ability to explode Primal weapons would also justify an increase to the terribly low Charm/Totem rate


And there you have it. My person Ideology as to why we are in the situation we are in, because features we need (and we really do need this either way) are not currently implemented or even not currently implementable(2.0) and the Benefit that it can provide to the community on a whole.

tl:dr materia request menu fixes all my broken dream blablabla