I myself am a brand new player. Been playing Final Fantasy all of 3 weeks. The new changes have me so happy I could cry... and so mad that I curse.

The main point in this patch I am enjoying is how much smoother combat has become. Only doing leves one time was much easier, due to the combat being so much more fluid. UPGRADE!!!

But alas, I am already coming to my complaint. I do not have an extreme stockpile of gil. Like I said earlier, I have been playing for maybe 3 weeks, possibly less. Being used to the earlier system, I charged into my battle leves like I normally do. But I guess I should have read the patch notes. Unlike a couple days ago, all I lost for a death was a bit of time. Now that I died once, I lost all of the monetary gain I had received from all 6 leves I just finished.

The repair system and durability system as well as the reward system were right where it should have been a mere three days past. I would log on for a couple hours every few days and do my leves. About once to twice a week I would have to repair my sword, but hey, I had a spare. Every two or so log-ins, I could buy myself a new piece of gear from a player. Yay, upgrade! When I would repair my gear, I had plenty of money in my pocket to pay for the repair from a player. Just leave the cash in menders row. Unfortunately with this new patch, it looks like my entire stockpile of gil will be spent on repairs. My sword and shield would go down the fastest as I am the tank in the party. So I was accustomed to having to repair those two items on a regular bases (2-3 times a week.) However the rest of my gear would take between a week or two to get damaged enough for mending. My rings had never before had to be repaired, and I had them upon log-in thanks to a friend of mine.

Here was my experience with the new patch: I logged in, all of my gear was 80% or higher in durability. I completed several battle leves with a friend, commenting on the fact that I loved the new battle system, and also at how I was making half the money I used to make (Guess there goes making another set for a new profession. I am not making much at rank 30). By the end of the battle leves, just over an hour later, both my main sword and my secondary sword I keep on hand were under 20%. My shield was of course 0%. I wasn't bent out of shape at this point however. As I stated before, I was accustomed to having to repair those two items often. After we had finished our battle leves, my friend and I went our separate ways, and I was off to go mining for my two fieldcraft leves. Here was where the real trouble started. I found the first mine. Began to mine it, and by the end of the same mine, my jewelry had all gone from 50%+ to under 20%....... Off one mine?! Are you kidding me?! ::Sigh:: So upon inspecting myself I realized that I had lost over 10% durability in all my item slots... off one mine.

What ended up happening at this point is easy to guess. I ended up finishing my fieldcraft leves in my underwear. After finishing that and looking over all the equipment and finding most of it in the red, I logged, frustrated. The meager sum I gained during my time on-line was half the normal. And since my gear is high quality, I can't afford to buy dark matter rank5 X12 every day. That number increases if I go mining or do crafting. I also don't have high enough skill to repair these items myself. I am a new player, so I had grown accustomed to having some other player do it for me, giving them some of the gil I had received from leves, and taking the rest of the gil to buy better gear.

In summation, the new mending has only taken money from the players and transferred it to NPCs hands instead of other players. The rarity of this new Dark Matter will force players to buy from the NPCs. I can't afford that price every day. Once a week, perhaps, but not every day I log in. Kharaddonn's solutions to fix this problem are exactly right. At the current mending price and lack of funds being taken in by my character, I can't afford to play the game as it is. I will be watching to see if Square Enix fixes this particular problem with interest. When they do I shall return to the game. Until then, unfortunately, my character will collect dust.