Current problem with battle materia

[baklava151]

The reason it works so well for BLM but no other class is because BLM is the only class that has 100% of its damage on the GCD.
BLM doesn't have a single oGCD flat potency hit, all of its oGCDs are GCD enhancing like Ley Lines or Sharpcast.
But if a good chunk of your dps comes from oGCDs which are unaffected by SpS/SkS then it quickly loses value compared to crit, which aways affects both.

That's true but even then some jobs like SAM will still meld some SkS to a certain point depending on what they want, and even though the fastest tier is a slight damage loss it's still very viable. Not that I take SAM into high-difficulty content but I still like going fast as possible so it's nice when the option is there.

[jazzcatte]

Materia is useful for being able to customize your secondary stats, for example to get to a particular gcd tier or being able to choose between crit-heavy (and therefore variance-heavy) builds or more consistent builds.

It's small changes but it makes enough of a difference for high level play that I think it's worth keeping around.

If I was to make any change I would like to get rid of overmelds, or at least change them from a completely rng-system to something where maybe you have to spend more materia for the overmeld slot, but a consistent amount of materia per slot so people can plan better.

[Rilifane]

That's true but even then some jobs like SAM will still meld some SkS to a certain point depending on what they want, and even though the fastest tier is a slight damage loss it's still very viable. Not that I take SAM into high-difficulty content but I still like going fast as possible so it's nice when the option is there.

The difference is that for every other class it's just "SpS/ SkS to comfortable tier or for better alignment". There is some wiggle room but let's not pretend all classes have the same freedom as BLM there.
And the reason is simply being a good chunk of other classes' dps coming from oGCDs. Yes, there are some tier but if you take DRG for example, it's not "anywhere between this and this GCD works" - you have specific GCD tiers and you can pick one which suits you best. SAM has the most freedom of the melees which is why it's not a good example to bring.

I never said you cannot meld any SpS/ SkS EVER.
I just said that it quickly loses value over crit - and that is a simple fact and why we have this "crit > all" meta when it comes to melding, BLM being the exception.

[BluexBird]

The purple ones are important, since they affect cool downs. But the yellow ones... I mean, if you're needing Piety as a healer, maybe just get it from gear. I'm all for scrapping it entirely. My main issue is that lower tier materia are practically worthless outside of overmelds. At least give us the option to upgrade them to a higher tier. I wouldn't even mind if it was something stupid like a 10:1 ratio.

[Eraden]

The purple ones are important, since they affect cool downs. But the yellow ones... I mean, if you're needing Piety as a healer, maybe just get it from gear. I'm all for scrapping it entirely. My main issue is that lower tier materia are practically worthless outside of overmelds. At least give us the option to upgrade them to a higher tier. I wouldn't even mind if it was something stupid like a 10:1 ratio.

Even that would mean nothing to Mao. Mao has 2K Tier 9 clusters and over 2K Tier 10 clusters from doing hunts trains. Mao could tank the entire materia market if Mao wanted to convert and sells them all. Is frankly so much battle materia floatings around that gettings battle materia way easy. Mao would kill for ability to converts clusters to greens or blues. Thems bit harders to gets.

[baklava151]

The difference is that for every other class it's just "SpS/ SkS to comfortable tier or for better alignment". There is some wiggle room but let's not pretend all classes have the same freedom as BLM there.
And the reason is simply being a good chunk of other classes' dps coming from oGCDs. Yes, there are some tier but if you take DRG for example, it's not "anywhere between this and this GCD works" - you have specific GCD tiers and you can pick one which suits you best. SAM has the most freedom of the melees which is why it's not a good example to bring.

I never said you cannot meld any SpS/ SkS EVER.
I just said that it quickly loses value over crit - and that is a simple fact and why we have this "crit > all" meta when it comes to melding, BLM being the exception.

Well even if it just ends up being different tiers rather than full-on crit vs speed builds, I'd still love to see that option on more jobs. I don't know how it would look since that would depend on the job and would require some big changes but that would still be my pipe dream if they want to move away from crit being so dominant.*

*I think Yoshi said at some point he doesn't like how powerful crit is but I can't find where he said it, if anyone has it I'd greatly appreciate it

[VeyaAkemi]

At least give us the option to upgrade them to a higher tier.

That already sorta exists, but it is hardly reliable, you can give 5 Materia to Mutamix in Central Thanalan, and he will return a random Materia of same color of equal or higher tier if they are all the same color, or a random Gathering/Crafting Materia of same or higher tier if they are different colors, though hardly anyone would consider using this for upgrading Materia since the chance is fairly low, and instead use it to turn useless materia into Crafting/Gathering Materia that is actually decently valuable for how easy it is to get them.

There is even an achievement for getting a tier upgrade from Mutamix, and a special animation the first time it happens.

[Eraden]

Materia is useful for being able to customize your secondary stats, for example to get to a particular gcd tier or being able to choose between crit-heavy (and therefore variance-heavy) builds or more consistent builds.

It's small changes but it makes enough of a difference for high level play that I think it's worth keeping around.

If I was to make any change I would like to get rid of overmelds, or at least change them from a completely rng-system to something where maybe you have to spend more materia for the overmeld slot, but a consistent amount of materia per slot so people can plan better.

Mao likes jazzcatte suggestion. Mao once lost 80 Tier 9 materias to a single meld.

[BluexBird]

That already sorta exists, but it is hardly reliable, you can give 5 Materia to Mutamix in Central Thanalan, and he will return a random Materia of same color of equal or higher tier if they are all the same color, or a random Gathering/Crafting Materia of same or higher tier if they are different colors, though hardly anyone would consider using this for upgrading Materia since the chance is fairly low, and instead use it to turn useless materia into Crafting/Gathering Materia that is actually decently valuable for how easy it is to get them.

There is even an achievement for getting a tier upgrade from Mutamix, and a special animation the first time it happens.

That's just not good enough though. And it's cumbersome to go to Mutamix every single time you want to convert materia, just for a CHANCE of ending up with something higher.