Quote Originally Posted by JTWrenn View Post
RNG is a staple in most games because it is a damn easy way to force replayability. Go through a dungeon have a chance to get an item, yadda yadda. Fine, not to huge, but....RNG on crafting to a point where you could fail 100 times is too much.

I am talking about pentamelding. It is a bit out of hand, and really feels punitive. I get that it is totally optional and all that but it feels tuned wrong.

I would suggest an opposite version of RNG for things like this. Have an RNG chance, that is quite low of getting it early, and then just tell us how many materia it takes to put it on there. So say first slot top tier materia, costs 15, but you have a 5% chance of getting it instantly with every attempt. Just something to make it not feel like a bottomless pit of screw you.
I agree with this, assuming I understand you. There are other RNG things in FFXIV that I think horribly waste players' time, like Bozja field notes. And it hurts because so many other things in FFXIV at least have "pity drops." Leveling dungeons will drop one piece of equipment for your job every run. Totem and tokens let you purchase gear that wasn't dropped from trials and raids.

I'll be honest: melding is a huge reason why I don't want to get into current tier raiding. It's unnecessarily slow and expensive enough as it is, and the RNG on top of that just sounds too frustrating to be worth it. Not to mention, conceptually the idea of "overmelding" is utter nonsense to me.