In Final Fantasy XIV, you’ll find a variety of small stones known as “materia” that can be used to increase specific attributes.
We cram them into our gear to get ready for a raid.
Any old material won’t work in your apparatus.
You can, but not if you care about quality outcomes.
You can stand out from the other players in the Roulettes of Eorzea if you improve your gear and, in turn, your damage and healing output.
Investing just five minutes in preparation can give you a 10 percent or more advantage over casual explorers.
This manual is meant to serve only as a basic introduction to the process of fusion.
If you’ve found this page because you want to know, “How do I meld materia in Final Fantasy XIV?”
If so, you may wish to read through our materials amalgamation tutorial.
We’ll explain the process of melding and Overmelding, which will allow you to incorporate the materia into your gear.
(How to gain access to those abilities for your character is also included.)
In this primer on materia, we’ll review the basics of melding, then discuss how to determine which types of materia to include in your equipment.
How to Use Materia in Final Fantasy XIV?
Materia Melding Review
You can meld materia to your gear in two different ways, as we discussed in our melding guide.
- Crafting-qualified characters. In your own case, too. Uses quests and has the ability to Overmeld.
- Non-Playable Characters who can Master and/or Meld Materia (Costs gil, no questing required, cannot Overmeld.)
- Choose a character, then either use the “Request Meld” function or use the crystal blue oval to find a Materia NPC (usually by a market board).
The “Remove” button is always available on each piece of equipment, allowing you to manually remove anything at any time.
The gap has been closed.
Now that we have that settled.
Selecting the Right Materia to Use (Combat)
When it comes to the best materia combination to use in battle, the various Disciplines of War and Magic jobs have vastly different requirements.
But there are some general guidelines that can be applied anywhere.
Use the best quality materials possible in your foundational melds (Rule 0). (The highest grade will change as the game grows, but this will always be true.)
Make sure the critical hit chance of a given piece is as high as possible before proceeding.
In the melding window, the maximum crit for the piece will be displayed.
If you go overboard with your material, the extra stats will be for naught.
You can put Savage Aim (Critical Hit) material in some weapons and not others.
When you’ve exhausted your critical chances, it’s time to learn about the BiS melds (best-in-slot) that will make you the most effective in your role.
Material usage in Final Fantasy XIV relies heavily on optimization.
Certain levels of proficiency or casting speed are often necessary for people to reach their full mathematical potential in their chosen fields.
If you want to stay abreast of the latest top BiS data, be sure to join The Balance’s discord server.
There are many top-tier players and analysts working here.
The BiS advice shifts several times a year, and never stays the same from one profession to the next.
Such task-specific handbooks require constant revision, which means your melds must evolve in tandem.
Keep reading if you are concerned with performing amazingly but not at the razor-thin min-max best level of effort.
Using Pretty-Much-Best-In-Slot Materia
If you follow the advice below, you can still be among the top 25% of endgame players even if you don’t play at the very highest level possible in your slot.
Critical Hit > Determination > Direct Hit > Tenacity is the typical order of importance for job-related statistics.
Mind the stat caps on your gear and meld to improve your attributes in descending order of importance.
According to their respective materia names, the order of importance is as follows: Savage Aim > Savage Might > Heaven’s Eye > Battle Dance.
Make sure you select the best possible quality for your foundational slots.
If you want to impress people with your first overmeld, you can use any kind of materia you like.
More overmelds will require one-step-down materia.
The best materia in the current Endwalker era of Final Fantasy XIV are grade X, while the rest are grade IX.
All you need is the current raid content up to the Savage difficulty level.
Most players will not benefit from using materia lower than level IX.
Some players will need lower grades in order to pursue Ultimate clears (the hardest difficulty, with varying level caps).
Healers have access to piety materia; take as much as makes you feel good.
Zero is the best-case scenario.
(It’s more problematic to run out of MP than to deal less damage. Use your religion if you need to.)
