The current materia system needs to change

[Niqote]

If there is one thing I truly dislike about FFXIV, it is the materia system.

Firstly, inventory.
Many different types of materia are a waste of space and time. This is significantly influenced by trends such as the 'Gambler's crown boom', the 'Garuda BLM burn boom' and most recently the 'Relic boom'.

Many materia are ignored because it is far more effective to stack raw stats (STR,PIE etc) instead. Many other materia are ignored because they are simply useless at this time (Chocobo down, Trent Root etc)
All in all, the lack of necessity for most materia lead them to be nothing more then NPC fodder. They clog our inventories, retainers and the Market ward.

Equality
I main Whm, so my first relic would need mind IV materia, lucky me right? That's all fine and good but there is an obvious difference in how often a Savage Might IV materia comes along in comparison. This is terribly unfair to certain relic seekers then it is to others. Having a different rate of conversion probability for very important materia is a complete disaster. Why were the rates not adjusted? Why does two weapons require the same materia? Actually... why do we even NEED 2 x IV's?

Double, triple melding and beyond
Keeping on the topic of the relics mentioned just now; would it not have been wiser to assign a number to the relic meld? For example; requires at least 32 points of MIND.
This way the other materia in the category can be used to contribute towards the meld, allowing us combinations of Mind IV, III and II. We would have been able to use more of the materia we are spirit bonding.

The whole melding system is rather stressful. We are able to create equipment (with either enough luck OR a huge wallet) that outshines all other gear in the game. Tell me what is the point of going on adventures and hunting down excellent pieces of gear when you can stay in Ul'dah and triple meld STR to your gloves, which btw do not match any of your other gear. My that raptor skin looks fantastic with your hard won darklight body ... not!
Melding is pushing away so much wonderful looking gear (BRD and PUG...I am looking at you!) ... its a crying shame that we obtain AF, only to throw it into the amour because we have double meld pants that are better. Maybe it is the fault of the AF stats, maybe they will be up gradable... who knows, but it is another example of waste.

RNG
A hot topic for a while now and the source of frustration and stress for many players.
We all know supply and demand are user driven, but this is only to a point. As mentioned above the RNG for materia creation is unbalanced at best. Now I know there is a lot of 'In 2.0' for RNG fixes, but I have not seen mention of changes for materia in 2.0.

Final Fantasy
Not everyone will agree, but I would like to see the melding system changed. The system is far from being 'Final fantasy'. If we could implement a system that was more along the lines of FFVII or FFXI (Buy, find spells/materia and learn/equip them to pre determined slots) or FFIX (Equip a weapon until you 'learn' the ability from it) it would feel more like... home?

I mention the previous titles as examples because of the continuous comments that this game will be feeling progressively more 'Final fantasy'.

(tl;dr)
In closing, I personally feel that the current materia system is to our detriment. It is more time consuming then it needs to be, very unbalanced and for the most part; wasteful, stressful and over all no fun. There is no skill needed and it actually encourages people to be gil greedy and consider RMT.

We know that stats are being adjusted, and I really do hope that with this, comes a significant decrease in the demand for double, triple melded gear as their impact will be decreased. I hope this leads to people being able to wear III+IV melds, single melds, or dungeon gear and not have their DPS effected so radically.

It would be wonderful to see peoples views on the materia system as is... I will try to secure the second post, to quote good points and ideas from others.

[Niqote]

Reserved - to quote others on good points brought forward on topic.

I have a better idea for multiple meld imho.

ABOLISH the whole luck system.

And do something like: NQ item: 1 materia slot - Hq : 2-3 slot materia slot.. no more BOOM, no more gil buyer win.
This will give much more sense to HQ too..

It could work even on rare/ex item if they decide to meld them:
easy mode drop: 1 slot - normal: 2 slot - hard mode 3 slot.

Meritocracy, Yes please. Luck/money based iWin, NO THANKS!

I reluctantly thumbed this up with the caveat that crafters must be supported in the game. The materia system is the only reason many crafting classes can certainly make money right now.

RNG isn't really a "fair" system to use and I'd much rather it be a more fair system of upgrading. There are tons of ways to make it a time sink outside of random chance.

Materia plays major part in driving the current economy.
Gears keep being destroyed for melding and bought for spiritbond purposes every single day, raw mats are bought everyday to create this gears. It helps more than anything for like literally every single discipline, very effective, and prove to not be slowing down.

[Rau]

Pretty much all good points, and I agree. Too tired to voice a response, but this stuck out to me.

lding is pushing away so much wonderful looking gear (BRD and PUG...I am looking at you!) ... its a crying shame that we obtain AF, only to throw it into the amour because we have double meld pants that are better. Maybe it is the fault of the AF stats, maybe they will be up gradable... who knows, but it is another example of waste.

Vanity gear. Do it SE.

[Punainen]

I agree. I'm a cautious type, so I never want to risk my gear for a highly unlikely doublemeld (Seriously, even double is nearly impossible, who will EVER get to five??). Maybe if the chances were just a little better. I failed even the doublemeld a shocking amount of times just melding crap materia in pursuit of my crown.

[tymora]

I like this one.

Keeping on the topic of the relics mentioned just now; would it not have been wiser to assign a number to the relic meld? For example; requires at least 32 points of MIND.
This way the other materia in the category can be used to contribute towards the meld, allowing us combinations of Mind IV, III and II. We would have been able to use more of the materia we are spirit bonding.

But not this.

The system is far from being 'Final fantasy'.

RNG has been part and parcel of FF as far as I can remember, in one form or another.
1/256 spawn/drop rates, 1/256 chance of getting Shadow's last dream in FF6...etc It's nothing new. Just because it's called Materia doesn't mean it has to be the same as previous titles.
FF14 is a MMO and not a single player game. "Learning abilities" may sound cool, but people will be done in days after a patch, leading to a very short-lived system.

[Chardrizard]

As much as you hate it, materia plays major part in driving the current economy.

Gears keep being destroyed for melding and bought for spiritbond purposes every single day, raw mats are bought everyday to create this gears. It helps more than anything for like literally every single discipline, very effective, and prove to not be slowing down.

Abolishing it will only cause more damage than helping it.

[AmyNeudaiz]

The main complain and the biggest problem IMO is the fact that there is a percentage of people who "luck out" and do something first try while others are stuck failing 10, 20, 30 or more times on something that's a 1/5 chance. RNG isn't really a "fair" system to use and I'd much rather it be a more fair system of upgrading. There are tons of ways to make it a time sync outside of random chance.

And because I know someone will say it, no I am not suggesting EZmode double/triple/ect melds.

[Cynthis]

All in all, the lack of necessity for most materia lead them to be nothing more then NPC fodder. They clog our inventories, retainers and the Market ward.

First of all, this can't both be true, you can't both sell the materia to NPC and have them clog up your inventory. That's a minor point though. While there are serious flaws with the system and I agree with most of what you point out, it is imperative for me that there is some way to make top of the line gear and to be able to customize it. I HATE dungeon grinding with the RNG drops there and that means that without something like a materia system that is after all quite easy to "grind", I would never get decent gear.

My vote is to improve it, not abolish it because it has flaws.

[Madrox]

I think it shouldn't be based off of luck.
Make the materia more rare, set slots to meld in, and reusable. That will give the possibility of very rare materia for people to work for similar to relics. It could work and allow further customisability.

[AmyNeudaiz]

First of all, this can't both be true, you can't both sell the materia to NPC and have them clog up your inventory. That's a minor point though. While there are serious flaws with the system and I agree with most of what you point out, it is imperative for me that there is some way to make top of the line gear and to be able to customize it. I HATE dungeon grinding with the RNG drops there and that means that without something like a materia system that is after all quite easy to "grind", I would never get decent gear.

My vote is to improve it, not abolish it because it has flaws.

Actually, I'm guessing that's not exactly what Niqote is saying. Calling it "NPC fodder" is more a term for its usefulness (or rather a lack of).

But I do agree it does need to be fixed, not killed.