BINDING...

[Burrmanchu]

So I can never buy an item to test out and re-sell it if I don't like it? What a complete waste of money and time. I'm sure once everyone figures this out that hasn't already, nothing will sell very well except the same few "best in slot" things. You fail SE. I predict this causing many more problems in the economy than it "fixes". Everything you ever buy is immediately worthless the minute you put it on? You can't sell things as you upgrade?...

Wow.

Am I missing something?. . .

There is very little to no place in an item-trading game for account bound, CRAFTABLE items.

[Foullacy]

So I can never buy an item to test out and re-sell it if I don't like it? What a complete waste of money and time. I'm sure once everyone figures this out that hasn't already, nothing will sell very well except the same few "best in slot" things. You fail SE. I predict this causing many more problems in the economy than it "fixes". Everything you ever buy is immediately worthless the minute you put it on? You can't sell things as you upgrade?...

Wow.

Am I missing something?. . .

There is very little to no place in an item-trading game for account bound, CRAFTABLE items.

"You predict" lol, good thing you're clueless.

In an economy where items recycle, only super-rich have the best items (Diablo 2)

Also this game is a dungeon based game, you get most of your gear from dungeons, not the market place bro.

[Cuban]

This sucks from a crafters stand point. Especially when I make an item for a guildy or friend. Some higher tiers require the previous tier item in order to upgrade the weapon. Because of this issue, now I have to gather the lower level mats to make the base item and then get the mats to make the new weapon, and the item that your guildy or friend already has is pretty much crap cus npcs give nothing for items and materias at those level is worthless.

[blipples]

I absolutely agree with you. Binding is a seriously silly mechanic. I understand that they are trying to put an emphasis on materia, but not allowing the circulation of items is kind of odd. It works, but even if you do assimilate your used gear and turn it into materia, it scales according to level and low level materia isn't all that useful. Materia melding is a whole other demon though so I'll drop it.

I do feel it kind of hurts the community though. You can't even share hand me downs with friends which is an issue I've already ran into. I'd love to hear SE's input on this as well as others. What's the real point behind this whole binding business aside from materia?

[-Aleth-]

Perhaps they should make it so that once you have 100% soulbind you can either turn it into materia or un-bind it from your character for sale? You'd still have to repair it though...

I do think the binding and materia conversion is a clever item sink though. It means there will always be demand for lower level items. Perhaps this shouldn't be changed?

[Conzen]

First post here so take it easy on me. I've been very frustrated and looking for this answer for days and I think you guys just answered it. Am I right to say that once you've equipped a piece of armor or weapon, you have the choice to either soul bind it to 100% and turn it into materia, or essentially throw it away? I just want to make sure I'm clear on this before I start NPCing or discarding my gear. Thanks.

[Faixa_Azul]

Wow. People will find any little insignificant thing to complain about.

[-Aleth-]

If I read what another poster wrote correctly, I think you can turn in some of the pink/green dungeon gear for GC seals or something once they are 100% bound.

I still think binding --> materia life-cycle for items is a great way to maintain demand for lower level items. The issue with the low level materia lacking usefulness might need looking at though.

Perhaps a mechanic where combining 3 tier 1 materia yeilds a single tier 2 materia and so on. I think this would make all your 100% spiritbound items from levelling up to 50 suddenly have a use. By the time you hit 50 you would already have a few decent tier materia to meld to your gear and got to clear out your obsolete gear without it being a waste!

[Reika]

Don't worry, you can't bind Ilvl70 crafts so youre golden. Been using what ilvl70 gear I could make with what I had from 1.0, and it hasn't gotten a single % of spiritbond on it.

Probably still not worth going for the mats tho...

[Matrioshki]

Simple theory... If an item is consumable it increases demand, by immediately removing it from circulation once it's used.

SE built a system that would provide the buyer with some benefit via Materia creation vs. NPCing the item for 1gil. As a crafter we ALL deal in consumables now and that can only make it a healthier market for us. This leaves the markets to the crafters so I wont see YOU selling my HQ items for a fraction of their value on the market when you're done with them.

If you don't like the fact that you can't sell the gear I made for you... Make it yourself...