Matria is needed?

[Kolsykol]

I mean no, but tbh it does probably make people judge you a bit negatively.
If you're just very casually playing I can understand not pentamelding, but just normal melding I don't really get because it's not even very expensive even if you play casually.
I don't see the point in not doing it.

[iVolke]

You missed the point again, possibly because you're so intent on being right that you want to make any statement to feel like you are...

When you're on a console, the mark currently is dead BEFORE you arrive. Doesn't matter if you're in a party, you won't have the mark load before dying, therefore no hitting it, meaning no materia (and I noticed you didn't even recognize that a good chunk of the continent can't even participate because of time zone issues)

Lol you're so full of it. Hunts not loading was an issue for PS3. They load just fine for PS4.

Why do ffxiv players always try to find some excuse to not do the bare minimum? This game has been shoving materia down our throats since Stormblood.

[Tint]

At the very least put grade 6 materia in your gear. No overmelds of course. Grade 6 has better stats than grade 7 materia (don't do that mistake and meld grade 7, it's just for overmelds) and you can remove the grade 6 with a 100% chance later from the gear and put the same materia in your new stuff when you upgrade your gear.

[AC9Breaker]

Materia is like a turning blinker on your car.

[wereotter]

What bigger goals man? Only thing gil comes useful for is setting Crafter up for next Raid Tier, food, pots, crafted gear, etc.

Incorrect.

There are far more expensive things that people can be saving up for. The biggest and most obvious of these would be that we've all but had Ishgard housing confirmed.

Your perspective is defined from a raider perspective, and that's fine. But it's also important to be aware that there are people in this game who have different end game goals from you. Yours is not the only correct point of view for how the game should be played, especially when we're talking about casual content.

[wereotter]

Lol you're so full of it. Hunts not loading was an issue for PS3. They load just fine for PS4.

Why do ffxiv players always try to find some excuse to not do the bare minimum? This game has been shoving materia down our throats since Stormblood.

Hunts on PS3 were not cross world. The congestion levels have gotten worse now that we have hunters from every data center converging into the zones. This is especially true now that new upgrade items have been added. I always participated before cross world, now it's barely even possible for me to do gathering in a zone while a hunt is going on, and I'm using the PS4 Pro even. Again... I'm not arguing against using materia, though. My point literally this entire time is that the boost is minimal, and using it is by no means mandatory for the level of content that the OP was stating they wanted to participate in.

If they have it, yes. Use it. But if they don't, they don't need to go out of their way to get it before participating in content.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Technically speaking, no you don't need it. However the game rains you with materias which basically saying: "Here's free upgrade for everybody!" so why not make a good use of it? It makes your lives and your group's lives easier in a long run. You don't even need to buy off from MBs because pretty sure you should have a plenty by now to attach. Except of course: overmelding, which is a moot at this point.

Why do ffxiv players always try to find some excuse to not do the bare minimum? This game has been shoving materia down our throats since Stormblood.

By the same logic, they don't even need the i510 gears too i495 is enough because that is the highest ilv requirement (Paradigm) for contents outside latest EX trial and higher end.

[Undeadfire]

There are far more expensive things that people can be saving up for. The biggest and most obvious of these would be that we've all but had Ishgard housing confirmed.

Still isn't coming for a long time and gil isn't hard to farm, this point is mute.

Your perspective is defined from a raider perspective, and that's fine. But it's also important to be aware that there are people in this game who have different end game goals from you. Yours is not the only correct point of view for how the game should be played, especially when we're talking about casual content.

Bro point is gil is very useless without the raiding support, there's no where else to use it for than make a bigger sum, or buy a house (Only 1 time). SE keeps making things easier to farm and players build communities offering such a wide range of accessibility, however nope got to make excuses not to do it. Materias are ultra ultra cheap during the dead patches, they only get expensive during a new Savage raid release. There's absolutely no way to dodge this outcome, it's lazy or do it.

[Kolsykol]

Incorrect.

There are far more expensive things that people can be saving up for. The biggest and most obvious of these would be that we've all but had Ishgard housing confirmed.

Your perspective is defined from a raider perspective, and that's fine. But it's also important to be aware that there are people in this game who have different end game goals from you. Yours is not the only correct point of view for how the game should be played, especially when we're talking about casual content.

If even just basic melds is too much then I'd imagine that housing would be way out of your league to begin with.
I mean even just by wearing gear and extracting materia eventually you'd end up with at least some melds, and you still get them from elsewhere too.

No one is even arguing that it's mandatory either.
It's moreso that some people seem to basically just insist on not doing things that are kinda expected and don't even require much effort.
I mean it's not '' mandatory '' to hit positionals either...

I wouldn't call the boost minimal either, way moreso if we include pentamelding.
In some scenarios it might even be necessary to reach certain sks points for your rotation.

I dunno if you're implying that casual content equates to no effort required or expected.
I think that most people expect other people to make an effort in a team game, so if you show up and you have no melds in at all then I think people are kinda justified to look at that negatively.
I am not saying you should be harassing people about it, but I think that people are correct to look at it with a critical eye even in casual content the same way that I think people are correct to do so if someone refuses to hit positionals because it's '' not necessary ''.

Basic melding is so simple and just straight up handed to you on a diamond-encrusted golden plate in the game that I think that framing this as if people have to '' go out of their way '' to do it is pushing it at least imo.
I think we're entering territories where people are just actively choosing not to do something because they cba just like not bothering with positionals.

[wereotter]

I dunno if you're implying that casual content equates to no effort required or expected.
I think that most people expect other people to make an effort in a team game, so if you show up and you have no melds in at all then I think people are kinda justified to look at that negatively.

My argument is and has been that the gear level itself and player skill far exceed the boost that materia will give you. Upgrading a piece of gear from 510 to 520 will boost your damage in 99% of cases more than adding materia to the 510 piece will. So if we're going to give people grief over not melding, where does this end? Do we give people a hard time for not already having a full set of the latest tomestone gear for the job they're playing? Because that's going to be a bigger loss to their damage than not being melded.

I've also said yes, use it. But, and I can't stress this enough, this poster was specifically talking about casual content. If you aren't melded, you can clear it just fine, so go ahead and keep playing even if you didn't have enough materia right then to fill every slot, and you shouldn't feel pressured to go buy more materia on the market board just to fill it in, do it as you're able.

So to that end, your other comment of "positionals aren't required" wouldn't be something I would support if I'm in the camp that player skill, and playing your job correctly is more important than the materia you melded in.