Most useless FFVII abilities

[Kraid]

Wait Red's Limit 4 is useless? Even though it's one of the earliest to obtain and can hit 9999 before any other character can? OK, time to list off what are the most useless abilities in the game.

Most of them infact. I can only find very few abilities even useful.

I'm going to list the materia that I basically use all the time because all others are pretty pointless OR are only ever needed for a couple of battles:

Elemental
Steal
Deathblow
Enemy Skill
Mime
Quadra Magic
All (But just for selling it because quite frankly All in battle is useless after you get White Wind)
W-Item
W-Magic
2x Cut
Long Range
Ultima
Restore
Poison
Counter Attack
Counter (When paired with Mime or Deathblow)

And that's about it. Hell most of the magic and summons are useless in FFVII as well. Why would I want to use any summon aside from the Bahamut summons, Hades and KoR when I have Enemy Skill with Beta and Aqualung which Beta can be gotten even before your first summon materia AND does more damage?

Yup, no W-Summon. I think it's useless. W-Magic + Quadra Magic + Ultima is going to be more useful than most other materia in the game. The only reason to ever get W-Summon is the same reason to get Underwater which many people are calling pointless: To beat the two Superbosses by mindlessly using Bahamut Zero and Knights of Round.

Hell even Final Attack + Phoenix is only useful for Emerald Weapon and even then only if you're using the KoR + HP Absorb + W-Summon strategy.

Infact even Neo Bahamut and Bahamut Zero are pretty pointless because Enemy Skill will beat them out and Bahamut Zero just takes FOREVER (And you don't even get a way of abusing Bahamut Zero like in FFIX.)

Now you may be wondering: Why have I listed Bio over most of the other Magic materia in the game aside from Restore and Ultima? Because it's very powerful early game and is only beaten out by Lightning Materia against Machines in short. All other elemental Materia is beaten out by Beta/Aqualung/Trine/Magic Breath.

[Neo Bahamut]

I find it interesting that you consider some things useful because they're effective early on, but discount others because they aren't useful after you obtain item x.

As for myself, I think it depends on when the ability is outclassed. I have a hard time considering Ultima useless, for example, because you don't get Pandora's Box until you're deep in the Crater, & you only get 1 shot at getting it.

[Kraid]

I find it interesting that you consider some things useful because they're effective early on, but discount others because they aren't useful after you obtain item x.

As for myself, I think it depends on when the ability is outclassed. I have a hard time considering Ultima useless, for example, because you don't get Pandora's Box until you're deep in the Crater, & you only get 1 shot at getting it.

I'll explain why:

Because honestly I can only find ONE example where once you get item X, suddenly something else becomes very useful. That isn't a Materia though or an 'ability' but rather an equipment set up that makes Tifa become obscene (Powersoul/Oversoul or Master Fist + Cursed Ring.) Even then, without the Cursed Ring you can just use Death Sentence but the Cursed Ring are just far far far FAR more useful.

Most of the 'combination' Materia aside from Elemental and Counter are REALLY only useful for the Super Bosses. The earlier you get said Materia, the more useful it is. I like to think about it in a way that could be 'more cost effective.'

Elemental is the best example for this: It's useful for gaining Beta early on as well as defending against certain attacks. It however can also allow me to hit with more damage than most magic materia ever will IF I want.

However the Materia combinations I've posted above are only ever useful in perhaps two/three/four battles. In most, if not all, of those battles those combinations are just Overkill and may never even apply (Like Phoenix + Final Attack.) The longer and earlier you have a materia, the more use it has.

I actually removed some materia and added some to my list while making it just now. I had Added Effect originally listed but then I remembered that I never really used Added Effect since Status effects never come into in random battles except in the Shinra Mansion with those damn Pumpkin/Shuttlecock enemies. (By the time you're fighitng Ruby Weapon and the Battle Arena, you've GOT Ribbons.)

Ultima I don't find useless at all. Pandora's Box is almost useless but then I realized it's quicker than Bahamut Zero in terms of animation and actually goes through Magic Resistance (Which Ultima DOES NOT. This can be tested by fighting Ruby Weapon.)

[Neo Bahamut]

I could swear I saw Ultima in the list...weird.

[red ice]

Throw/ Coin:
I rarely use. I just don't wanna throw any items and Gil. Hahahah!!

EDIT:
Can be of use if I had the luxury of Gil. (after I sell my very first Full grown ALL materia)

[Kraid]

I could swear I saw Ultima in the list...weird.

Ultima is on my list of 'Not Useless.' All I listed on the list are 'Not Useless'

Throw/Coin isn't entirely useless. Coin pierces through Defence if I recall correctly so that's an incredibly easy way of doing multiple damage to Ruby. (Throw/Coin is probably one of the best abilities in the game for Low Level games aside from the obvious Enemy Skill just to let you guys know.)

Throw isn't useless early either but I wouldn't use it.

[red ice]

I was confused of Kraid's list at first. I misread the first paragraph. But yeah I agree that most of those materia are very useful to me especially Enemy Skill. Big Guard!!

[Kraid]

The reason I listed like so is that I feel there are less 'Useful' than there are 'Useless' so to make it simpler, I listed and explained what was MORE useful. =P

[Neo Bahamut]

The problem that I have with using Coin at low levels is the fact that this tends to be when you earn less Gil & need to buy more crap.

I don't know how it works in VII, but in X, I think it's like 100 or 1000 Gil to do 1 damage. More than once, I've thrown everything I had at an enemy & it just called me a bitch & told me to make it sandwich.

[TWOxACROSS]

Gotta agree with Kraid about Summon Materia.

After I went back and did a play through all grow'd up, I had much better sense when it came to Materia distribution. When I first played when I was like...ten or eleven, I was just like "MATERIA FOR EVERYBODY!!!" But this last playthrough, I really paid attention to stats. Cloud was my all-rounder, Barret and Cid were my tanks. Red XIII ended up as my Black Mage, and then Aerith and Tifa were the White Mages. As a paid attention to what I was equipping, I realized that the Summons weren't really all that great to have on, considering how horribly they destroyed a character's physical stats >.<

Overall, my most recent playthrough was like a cake-walk compared to all the trouble I had my first run >.< I even got Aerith's Level 4 Limit, just to say I finally did