Why is materia on my gear not working?

[Kalamari]

Had a crafter attach some Strength III materia to my high quality Imperial Operative Wristlets and Choker, both ilevel 55. The melding was a success in both cases, yet the tooltip under the melded Strength Materia III shows a red "Strength +0" on both items.

Why is the materia not working? For comparison I have a Savage Aim III (crit) materia on my ilevel 49 high quality Rubellite Earrings and it's working fine, but why not the strength ones?

[ARTZY]

The item was maxed on strength before you melded the materia

[Kalamari]

The item was maxed on strength before you melded the materia

What does "maxed on strength" mean? Sorry I'm a total materia noob. : /

[Asiaine]

All equipment have a 'limit' to how high any stat can go. This is different for each equipment, and can not be exceeded through any (known?) means.

If you are already at the max stat level, and try to add materia that would exceed the level, it will succeed but give no benefit. You should see this warning before you do the meld (as you are given an opportunity to see the end result before melding).

[Kalamari]

All equipment have a 'limit' to how high any stat can go. This is different for each equipment, and can not be exceeded through any (known?) means.

If you are already at the max stat level, and try to add materia that would exceed the level, it will succeed but give no benefit. You should see this warning before you do the meld (as you are given an opportunity to see the end result before melding).

Ok, thank you very much for the clarification. What a strange restriction..

[Urthdigger]

I imagine the restriction is in place so that, rather than just stacking all you can of a single stat to rather insane levels (Modus operandi of players back in 1.0 and in FFXI), you're instead encourage to spread your stats around.