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

I finished crafting all of the secondary Gold's Thumb tools last night. I didn't craft the primary tools as I intend to use the Cosmic tools from Cosmic Exploration. So tonight I begin the effort to overmeld my freshly made crafting 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. Next, if Endwalker and Dawntrail are any guide, what I do now will carry me through to the end of the next expansion. But the traditional answer is: "To make all the things."

The question became, "How much materia do I need?" Overmelding, especially pentamelding, is pretty expensive. Teamcraft usually comes up with three crafting 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:

• Craftsmanship - 5409
• Control - 5098
• CP - 630

While my current gear is still 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 DoH High Tier 5811/5461/649

To review from yesterday's post, 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%

Because I am using the Cosmic crafting tools and they should have the same stats as the primary Gold's Thumb tool once the first planet is completed, the projected stats are 5709/5461/649 without food and medicine.

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 more. First, looking at the 10 piece Crested Crafting set, a good starting point is:

• Craftsman's Competence Materia XII - 29
• Craftsman's Command Materia XII - 42
• Craftsman's Cunning Materia XII - 14
  
  
• Craftsman's Competence Materia XI - 20
• Craftsman's Command Materia XI - 185
• Craftsman's Cunning Materia XI - 45
  
  
• Craftsman's Cunning Materia IX - 40
• Craftsman's Cunning Materia V - 60

A big factor in how much materia is required for the high tier set is overmelding the secondary tools. Each of the 8 tools will average the following amount of materia:

• Craftsman's Command Materia XII - 8
• Craftsman's Command Materia XI - 35
• Craftsman's Cunning Materia IX - 10

In scrips, the materia for the Crested set is approximately:

• Orange crafting scrips - 42,500
• Purple crafting scrips - 94,500

Now, add in the materia needed for the 8 secondary tools and the cost jumps to 74,500 orange crafting scripts and 180,500 purple crafting scrips. That's a lot of scrips. The only reason I can justify the spending is I won't need to update again for about a year.

7.3 DoH Mid Tier 5812/5083/649

Much more affordable is Teamcraft's mid-tier set. Teamcraft describes the set as:

• Designed as a cheaper set while still being fully viable for current and future content.
• Matches the CMS and CP values of the High-Tier set for rotational compatibility with High-Tier.
• Materia X are used on overmelds where possible to save using XII and the final overmeld is avoided.
• Will require more HQ materials for most endgame crafts, meaning slightly more time spent overall.

The mid-tier setup also leaves one overmelding slot open on the Crested gear and only melds one materia to the secondary tools to leave room to adjust if the recipes in patch 7.4 become stricter.

First, let's look at the materia required to meld the 10-piece Crested set.

• Craftsman's Competence Materia XII - 8
• Craftsman's Command Materia XII - 7
• Craftsman's Cunning Materia XII - 35
  
  
• Craftsman's Competence Materia X - 14
• Craftsman's Command Materia X - 21
  
  
• Craftsman's Competence Materia IX - 60
• Craftsman's Command Materia IX - 50
• Craftsman's Cunning Materia IX - 20
  
  
• Craftsman's Cunning Materia IV - 45

The cost of the materia in the list above is only:

• Orange crafting scrips - 25,000
• Purple crafting scrips - 35,650

If one has maintained their island sanctuary, all but 900 purple scrips can be replaced by 149,500 Seafarer's Cowries.

The biggest cost savings in the mid-tier set is the materia required for the secondary Gold's Thumb tool. All that is required is a Craftsman's Cunning Materia VI, which costs 25 purple scrips each. Add 200 purple scrips to the final cost.

Now, the mid-tier set requires the use of high quality materials and additional time to craft the same items as the high tier set. And the rest of the cosmic exploration content would go much smoother. But for those not really invested into crafting, the mid-tier set is probably the way to proceed.