It seems like it almost serves no purpose considering all the gear worth having doesn't posses any slots. Not to mention that hardly anything can even be converted either. Now that old darklight cowl and boots can just idle away in my inventory because they now serve no purpose beyond taking up a slot in my bag.

I thought the idea behind Materia was to give players room for diversity among their jobs. One White Mage prefers stacking Spell Speed for swift casting in messy boss encounters, while the other prefers high crit chances for tank healing.

Though with the same stats, everyone is just like their neighbor and it feels a tad bit stale. I mean, it's certainly not game breaking but I admit that I feel a bit let down by Materia's lack of importance here in ARR.