Materia and Soulbinding

[Veelite]

can you only apply materia to your own gear or can crafters attach materia to gear for people if their gear is already soulbound?

[Skies]

can you only apply materia to your own gear or can crafters attach materia to gear for people if their gear is already soulbound?

There is a Request Meld feature. You need to actually go up to a crafter, click on him, select Request Meld. Then you put in the materials and the crafter's reward for his work and then he will meld for you. You can't just idle with a meld request flag up in hopes someone will come to you since forbidden melding has negative results (loss of materia) so you need to actively ask someone to meld for you

[Orophin]

One thing to keep in mind as well as a new player or a player that doesn't have maxed classes - you may want to hold onto your gear if you plan on leveling other classes that use the same stuff.

Example: You start as an Arcanist, that same gear can be carried over to both Conjurer and Thaumaturge.

Of course if you plan on crafting then you can go back and make the gear again later on as it's needed.