Make Crafting and Gathering Materia easier to access.

[Kaurhz]

Just because it used to be "way harder" doesn't mean it has to be hard/annoying now. It's such a non-argument to say "84 years ago it took even longer" because OP's point wasn't that it's never been harder, it's that they find it too tedious and expensive now.
As was suggested, something like adding newer materia to the Island Sanctuary purchase pool would already help a lot, just by adding an additional way to get the materia, rather than just spending days crafting the same collectable over and over, or hoping for some good luck from transmutations.

I don't mind the grind too much, but spending so much time on overmelding DoL and DoH multiple times per expansion does get extremely boring, so I'd appreciate some extra ways to get materia.

And my point is largely being that this is their idea of making things less annoying and difficult for you (by making materia obtainable with scrips). In addition to the fact that XII/XI materia is in no way shape or form a requirement to make anything in this game. If it is too difficult or too much then meld your standard slots with XII materia, overmeld the first slot with X grade and then meld your final slots with IX. The difference in efficiency will barely scrape 1 HQ material. Arguably you could still go completely with IX/X grade materia.

I still fail to see why one of the few or last remaining grinds at the end-game DoH/L should be stripped even further, just because you feel entitled to it, despite not really needing it in the first place. If it were a requirement, then I would be willing to concede even a margin, but I don't see it as a requirement, and I see it as a luxury, so I don't feel like it is something that should just simply be handed to you.

Even easier scrips? Do custom deliveries.

Edit: Besides, you can already get materia whilst gathering and crafting. Get yourself a Spiritbonding Potion, go whack some level 90/100 folklore nodes with the Potion active, and watch your gatherer materia fall from the sky. Repeat the process with crafting. Craft level-relevant recipes, like the Orange scrip items, and even quick synthesis for intermediates whilst using a Spiritbond potion and then watch the same process repeat, and if I am being honest, gatherers already have materia drop from the sky due to this. If you're focusing on swings over yield, then you'll cap your spiritbond generously within 20 minutes, assuming you're fully melded with 'dud' materia.

[AlaineIV]

Transmutation fixes that and to get loads of materia, join the hunt, so you can get bunches of materia that what you can have a chance to transmute into gatherer or crafter materia.

It is really easy, but it require an effort somewhat.

The problem with transumtation is that you are not guarenteed the materia you need/want. While, yes, it is there for us to do it's like opening a loot box and getting coal.

[AlaineIV]

And my point is largely being that this is their idea of making things less annoying and difficult for you (by making materia obtainable with scrips). In addition to the fact that XII/XI materia is in no way shape or form a requirement to make anything in this game. If it is too difficult or too much then meld your standard slots with XII materia, overmeld the first slot with X grade and then meld your final slots with IX. The difference in efficiency will barely scrape 1 HQ material. Arguably you could still go completely with IX/X grade materia.

I still fail to see why one of the few or last remaining grinds at the end-game DoH/L should be stripped even further, just because "You feel entitled to it", despite not really needing it in the first place. If it were a requirement, then I would be willing to concede even a margin, but I don't see it as a requirement, and I see it as a luxury, so I don't feel like it is something that should just simply be handed to you.

Even easier scrips? Do custom deliveries.

Edit: Besides, you can already get materia whilst gathering and crafting. Get yourself a Spiritbonding Potion, go whack some level 90/100 folklore nodes with the Potion active, and watch your gatherer materia fall from the sky. Repeat the process with crafting. Craft level-relevant recipes, like the Orange scrip items, and even quick synthesis for intermediates whilst using a Spiritbond potion and then watch the same process repeat, and if I am being honest, gatherers already have materia drop from the sky due to this. If you're focusing on swings over yield, then you'll cap your spiritbond generously within 20 minutes, assuming you're fully melded with 'dud' materia.

By this mentality, dungeons should stop dropping combat materia, and players should Extract materia from their combat gear, or only use the clusters they get from the roulettes, or transmute older materia.

[Kaurhz]

By this mentality, dungeons should stop dropping combat materia, and players should Extract materia from their combat gear, or only use the clusters they get from the roulettes, or transmute older materia.

I do also have my own issues with the exorbitant rates with which hunt trains give combat-based materia, so my stance isn't exclusive to crafters and gatherers. I think materia via dungeons is fine just simply due to the discrepancy in rates that you spiritbond combat materia over DoH/L. As for hunts, I think the exchange should be directly with Nuts exclusively and not with Novacrystals and Novaclusters, or at the very least the rates of these should be decreased.

The mentality of ceasing materia drops in dungeons would be closer to the equivalent of decreasing crafter and gatherer spiritbond rates, and/or removing those custom deliveries.

Again, I think it is mostly fine, I think more effort just needs to be put into making sure you're optimizing the rate at which you're getting materia, e.g., using a spiribond potion or using different crafts for your collectable farming.

[AlaineIV]

I do also have my own issues with the exorbitant rates with which hunt trains give combat-based materia, so my stance isn't exclusive to crafters and gatherers. I think materia via dungeons is fine just simply due to the discrepancy in rates that you spiritbond combat materia over DoH/L. As for hunts, I think the exchange should be directly with Nuts exclusively and not with Novacrystals and Novaclusters, or at the very least the rates of these should be decreased.

The mentality of ceasing materia drops in dungeons would be closer to the equivalent of decreasing crafter and gatherer spiritbond rates, and/or removing those custom deliveries.

Again, I think it is mostly fine, I think more effort just needs to be put into making sure you're optimizing the rate at which you're getting materia, e.g., using a spiribond potion or using different crafts for your collectable farming.

I can see that, but I've done this on multiple characters.. All I'm wanting is making it more accessible. Right now the difference in cost of combat materia to crafting/gathering materia is 50,000 gil to 100,000 gil. At least on my home server. Adding them to island store or adding a chance to find them in gathering nodes. Doesn't have to be every gathering node, but Ephemeral or Folklore nodes. It would be the equivalent to getting combat materia in a dungeon or doing hunts.

[Nezerius]

I don't mind how to get the Crafting and Gathering Materia as it is, but 500 for 1 XII materia and i think 300 250 purple for XI's is a bit over the top on the price. Meanwhile Combat Materia drops like candy compared to the other side. Just make it easier to gain access to the Crafting and Gathering Materia's. I.E add them ot the island store, have a chance to get them while gathering, etc.

Right now the cost of Materia is painful.

You say this like it's some kind of massive amount of Scrips. Meanwhile, a single lvl 99 collectable will already get you 198 purple scrips, while a single lvl 100 collectable will give you 144 orange scrips. Not to mention a nice chunk of easy scrips from the 12 weekly custom deliveries.

You also don't need all that many XII materia, since those only work for the 100% slots and the first overmeld. Oh, and you're not even gonna need gear that's fully pentamelded with XII/XI materia for either the upcoming combat set, or 7.1's crafting/gathering set.

Combat materia dropping like candy is an issue on its own, and shouldn't be compared with.

I can see that, but I've done this on multiple characters.. All I'm wanting is making it more accessible. Right now the difference in cost of combat materia to crafting/gathering materia is 50,000 gil to 100,000 gil. At least on my home server. Adding them to island store or adding a chance to find them in gathering nodes. Doesn't have to be every gathering node, but Ephemeral or Folklore nodes. It would be the equivalent to getting combat materia in a dungeon or doing hunts.

Be aware that we're about 2.5 weeks into a new expansion. Prices are obviously going to be higher. Especially with the demand being high, due the crafters preparing for the new crafted combat sets that'll be released alongside the savage release patch (7.05).

Crafting has never been as accessible as it is currently, especially since you don't need the crazy pentamelded XII/XI stats.

[Kaurhz]

I can see that, but I've done this on multiple characters.. All I'm wanting is making it more accessible. Right now the difference in cost of combat materia to crafting/gathering materia is 50,000 gil to 100,000 gil. At least on my home server. Adding them to island store or adding a chance to find them in gathering nodes. Doesn't have to be every gathering node, but Ephemeral or Folklore nodes. It would be the equivalent to getting combat materia in a dungeon or doing hunts.

See that's your mistake, why are you doing this on multiple characters so early? For specialist? Half of the recipes for specialist won't even require you to fill a quality bar. I personally have 3 characters that I meld because why not + 1 friend, and my logic with all subsequent characters is that they will not need the best materia, even my main doesn't. What you do is your prerogative, really. But what is needed and what is luxury are different. When luxury is concerned it shouldn't be that easy. Simply budget melding will do. My problem here is it comes across as a change to acommodate people using multiple characters in a game that already has one of the best single-character support systems in play.

What I am trying to get at is that if you spiritbond your gatherers and completely meld them with dud cheap 150g materia then go whack some legendary nodes, focus on swings over yield, and then you will peak a full set Spiritbond with XI/XII across the course of 20 minutes. For a full set this narrows down to to around. That's 12 XI/XII materia per 20 minutes.

What collectables are you running if I may ask?

The problem with adding them to the Island store is that people have already spent an entire expansion prepping their currency. I have a friend sat on, what? 2mln currency for this. That's a ludicrous amount of materia.

[Eyrilona]

There is also another consideration: Outside the tools which are of course job unique, there is only one pentameld capable BiS gear set shared between all crafting jobs. The combat jobs have a Casting set, a Healing set, an Aiming set, a Maiming set, a Fending set, a Striking set, and a Scouting set. Since combat materia are needed for seven times more sets than crafter materia, it is not necessarily unbalanced in the greater scheme of supply and demand for them to be easier to acquire?

[hydralus]

Also they might add it to the island sanctuary in a few patches, but by then the price will drop so much it won't matter.

Also a real easy solution would be to not level several alts so you don't need multiple sets worth of BiS gear.

[Jojoya]

I don't mind how to get the Crafting and Gathering Materia as it is, but 500 for 1 XII materia and i think 300 purple for XI's is a bit over the top on the price. Meanwhile Combat Materia drops like candy compared to the other side. Just make it easier to gain access to the Crafting and Gathering Materia's. I.E add them ot the island store, have a chance to get them while gathering, etc.

Right now the cost of Materia is painful.

It is easy to access. It's called crafting and gathering items that are appropriate for your level then extracting the materia once spiritbond is complete.

To speed up spiritbonding make certain you have materia melded into every possible slot on your gear. It doesn't have to be a specific grade of materia. Use whatever is cheapest on your local marketboard even if it's Quickarm III. Use a spiritbond potion or squadron manual to speed it up even more.

It would be nice to add them to the island so we have a reason to keep up on that.

IX and X are selling very nicely on the MB right now. I listed my leftovers once I completed pentamelding my gathering set.