How Much Materia Is Needed To Meld FFXIV's Crested Gathering Gear In Patch 7.3

I finished crafting full sets of the Crested crafting and gathering gear Tuesday. If real life cooperates I should have all the secondary Gold's Thumb tools crafted tonight. I'm not crafting the primary tools as I intend to use the Cosmic tools from Cosmic Exploration. So tomorrow I begin the effort to overmeld my freshly made gathering gear.

Why do I want to overmeld my gear? First, since I intend on doing the rest of the Cosmic Exploration content overmelding will make doing the missions easier. But the traditional answer is to meet certain breakpoints while gathering in the world. According to Teamcraft, the current breakpoints for gathering in patch 7.3 are:

Legend

1. [100% Gather] (Gathering Rate)
2. [BY2/BH2] (Bountiful Yield/Harvest 2)
3. [+X Y Node Bonus] (Increased 'Y' As a Node Bonus)
4. [Required Perception] (Required Perception to actually gather the node at all based on gathering log)

Legendary Node Breakpoints for 7.3:

• [Required Perception] : 4960 Perception

Legendary Node Breakpoints for 7.2:

• [Required Perception] : 4740 Perception
• [+40% Boon bonus] : 5254 Perception
• [+2 BY2/BH2] : 4900 Gathering
• [+3 BY2/BH2] : 5989 Gathering
• [+1 Yield Node Bonus] : 5090 Gathering
• [+2 Yield Node Bonus] : 5319 Gathering(Hidden)
• [+3 Yield Node Bonus] : 5548 Gathering(Hidden)
• [+1 Attempts Node Bonus] : 930GP
• [+2 Attempts Node Bonus] : 960GP(Hidden)

Teamcraft usually comes up with three sets of gathering sets, with two based on crafted gear and a budget set based on orange scrips and crafted accessories. I usually look at the high tier gathering pentamelded set using mostly materia XI and XII and a mid-tier set using materia XII, X, and IX.

In patch 7.2 I actually used the mid-tier set and just added on materia IX and X to make doing the Cosmic Exploration missions easier. My final gathering stats without food was:

• Gathering:    5127
• Perception:   5095
• GP:                 933

While my current gear is very useful following the Teamcraft recommendations should make life much easier in both patches 7.3 & 7.4, if not into the next expansion. Here is my estimates of how much materia is needed to reach each.

7.3 High Tier Gathering | 5629/5532/987 (using Gold Thumb's tools)

To determine the amount of each materia I had to use the success rates for attaching each materia.

• Regular materia slot (items have either 1 or 2 slots except for Cosmic tools) - 100%
• First overmeld slot - 17%
• Second overmeld slot - 10%
• Third overmeld slot - 7%
• Fourth overmeld slot - 5%

The numbers below are the average if the random number generator performs as expected. Usually when I meld my gear I need to acquire a few morn.

• Gatherer's Guerdon Materia XII (+36 Gathering) - 64
• Gatherer's Guile Materia XII (+36 Perception) - 22
• Gatherer's Grasp Materia XII (+11 GP) - 7
  
  
• Gatherer's Guerdon Materia XI (+20 Perception) - 85
• Gatherer's Guile Materia XI (+20 Gathering) - 115
• Gatherer's Grasp Materia XI (+9 GP) - 170

• Gatherer's Guerdon Materia IX (+14 Gathering) - 10
• Gatherer's Grasp Materia II (+2 GP) - 15

The expected stats of the next level of the Cosmic tool is expected to be the same as the Gold Thumb's tools with extra gathering points. So my stats after completing the first planet of Cosmic Exploration should be 5497/5532/987. In order to achieve all breakpoints I'll need to eat food granting 51 additional gathering.

7.3 Mid Tier Gathering - 5403/5408/904

The Mid-Tier set really is cost effective. Because the set uses mostly materia IX and X the set is extremely affordable if one has maintained their island sanctuary. The cost of the materia I've listed below is:

• Orange Crafting Scrip - 8500
• Seafarer's Cowries - 188,250

Personally I had a little over 500,000 Seafarer's Cowries on Tuesday. Also, because the set only attached one Grasp Materia XII to the primary gathering tools, the stats should be the same after earning the next tier of Cosmic tools.

The Teamcraft team left the following description about the mid-tier set:

Considerations/Benefits:

• Cosmic tool can be used in the future without changing melds.
• Much cheaper than the Recommended set and less materia.
• Planned around minimum perception in patch 7.4 to ensure there will be no issues gathering at nodes.
• Also planned around breakpoints for patch 7.31/7.4
• Fishing rod can be melded with gathering to reach breakpoints for future big fish. Current big fish requires 4450 gathering to catch and mid tier melds reach 4437. So cheap food or an extra meld in the rod.

Downsides:

• Lower GP which can impact yield and change rotations.
• Unable to hit as many node bonuses in patch 7.4. Most namely the GP node bonus due to not having any GP melded.
• Needs gathering melds in the fishing rod for catching legendary fish.

Potential Adjustments:

• You can add GP to most pieces allowing you to do the 1000GP collectable rotation with Nasi Goreng. But of course, this makes the set more expensive.
• Additional Cheap Materia of any lower grade or type can be added to this set to allow you to spiritbond better.

I should add that no materia XII are used in overmelding, so the scrip cost is fixed. The only materia dependent on the random number generator are the materia IX and X.

Below are my estimates of how much materia is needed for the cheaper gathering set.

• Gatherer's Guerdon Materia XII (+36 Gathering) - 6
• Gatherer's Guile Materia XII (+36 Perception) - 11

• Gatherer's Guerdon Materia X (+25 Gathering) - 35
• Gatherer's Guile Materia X (+25 Perception) - 21
• Gatherer's Grasp Materia X (+10 GP) - 7

• Gatherer's Guerdon Materia IX (+14 Gathering) - 95
• Gatherer's Guile Materia IX (+14 Perception) - 30

• Gatherer's Guerdon Materia V (+10 Gathering) - 15

Honestly I do prefer having more gathering points, especially since I want to get the Barrell Tender mount that costs 100,000 orange scrips. But given my experience in patch 7.2 I think the necessary GP only requires overmelding the Gatherer's Grasp Materia IX. A lot of the materia would be required to be added but this might be the last time the island sanctuary will be an important source of gathering and crafting materia.