Materia Melding

These are my own personal findings regarding one aspect of crafting in FFXIV, Materia Melding. Last week, after hitting 20 Weaver, I hit a wall for the level 20 quest. NPC wanted me to attach materia (aka meld materia) to a piece of gear then turn it in. I didn't know how to go about doing this until this past weekend. In addition to requiring my craft class to be leveled up, it also required me to do some gathering too. This was the missing piece to my puzzle.


Do You Even Craft/Gather?

I've only played around with both for a little bit. I currently have 21 Weaver, 15 Armorer, and 16 Miner. I'm trying to take full advantage of the beta and trying as many different aspects of the game as possible. I am by no means an expert at anything, so don't be surprised if something I say is inaccurate.



Melding

 My own personal line of clothing. Vanh wear!

At level 15, you will start to see gear having slots for materia, and a craft level required to meld it. Melding is a crafting skill, and is the process of attaching materia to gear. It requires you to have the appropriate craft leveled and to have a catalyst for the process to work. To get past the level 20 quest for your crafting class, you will need the ability to meld.



Quest...for Glory?

To be able to attach materia, you will first need to be level 19 of a craft (except cook) to gain access to the quest. Visit npc F'hobhas at The Bonfire area, to the northeast of Black Brush in Central Thanalan to get the quest and talk to her again to complete it.

NPC and quest log will tell you that you will need a Catalyst for each meld

Materia Melding will be available in your Actions and Traits menu

Alternatively, it can be accessed while browsing your inventory or armory, as a subcommand

Catalyst. Not Just a Linkin Park Song

In order to meld, you will need to obtain a Catalyst. The Catalyst comes in the form of an item called Carbonized Matter, and like Dark Matter (used to repair gear), this item comes in various grades of quality, starting at grade 1. However, unlike Dark Matter, Carbonized Matter cannot be bought from an NPC.

So where do you get it? From gathering. So break out that pickaxe or hatchet and let's go gathering! Or you can find a friend that has gathering leveled to 16+. My personal experience is from mining, and Carbonized Matter is a level 20 gather. This means that it will not appear in your gather log, and gather locations will not be be available to you until you reach level 16 as a miner. At 16, your chances of success are low, but give it enough attempts and use your skills and you can mine yourself a decent amount of Carbonized Matter. You won't be needing a whole lot either. One chunk will allow you to meld one piece of materia.

Mining location in Middle La Noscea

Once you have the needed Catalyst, you are ready to begin melding! /joy

Interface
 
Every type of gear will have an associated crafting class, e.g. weaver for cloth armor, armorer for heavy armor, blacksmith or carpenter for weapons, etc. Switch to the appropriate crafting class for a particular gear to Materia Meld.

 This is what you see when you open Materia Meld. You will need some materia on hand to proceed

You will need to select the gear with available slots to begin with from the left hand column. Then you will need to select a materia you want to meld from the right hand column.

Confirmation screen that you want to meld. You will need a chunk of Carbonized Matter for each meld process

Yatta!

Materia - Y U No Give Stats?

Sometimes attaching materia will yield no gains, i.e. you attach materia that will provide no beneficial stats. I don't know the exact mechanics, but attaching materia to low level gear sometimes gives you +0 stats.

Trying to put a level 1 Strength materia (+1 STR) into a level 18 armor. It can be done, but notice the red and orange text telling me the +0 STR it will provide

I've already attached a STR materia that provides +0 str to a level 15 armor. Why does this armor even have slots if materia is useless in it?

I ended up melding a very basic level 1 STR materia to level 15 armor that ended up giving me +0 to STR. Apparently the armor was too low level to accommodate such a "high level" materia. I received similar warning messages when considering to add +1 Determination materia or +2 Skill Speed materia, all of which were level 1 materia.

WTF? So you're saying even though armor has slots for materia, said materia might not even do anything? Looks that way.



Can You Remove Materia?

Yes indeed! Maybe not personally, but there is an npc that can remove unwanted materia. You will need to travel to The Bonfire area, which is the same area as the Materia Meld quest giver in Central Thanalan. The process will end up destroying the materia being removed.

Mutamix Bubblypots will hook you up with removing materia

Final Thoughts

Currently, it is not worth spending time to attach materia to gear. I'm sure this will change by the time retail rolls around, but for now it is a big investment of time, for sub par results. Repairing and melding other player's gear does not seem to be implemented yet, as those options are grayed out when examining other players. I've had to level weaver and armorer to 15+ and mining to 15+ in order to be semi self-sufficient in materia melding. I say 'semi' because this will only allow me to meld gear that belong to weaver or armorer discipline. If I wanted to meld materia to say a piece of jewelry, I'd need to level up goldsmithing to 15+. Weapons? Blacksmithing to 15+ or Carpenter to 15+. You can't rely on someone else to meld for you, unless it is gear that has not been worn yet, and not bound to you.

Dungeon gear will provide better stats than slotted gear (even HQ ones), and don't quite have the prereqs that is needed to be able to meld. Since materia may not even provide any benefit, it becomes no contest in which items are superior. This is something SE will need to balance (or fix if it's a bug) before slotted gear becomes viable. Of course if you do not have access to dungeons or are unlucky with drops, materia melding may be for you. However, with the recently implemented Duty Finder, obtaining dungeon gear is just a matter of spamming the appropriate level dungeon.