Quote Originally Posted by Dzian View Post

If gear had a viable lifespan people would be more willing to invest in it.. or he'll even if the melds carried over augments..

Melded your 520 cryptbunkers. But then augment it to 530. Bye materia...

Melded your 510 crafted. Then augment it to 520 bye materia...

Makes melding a waste of time and money for many people.

Also if your remotely upto date on gear you already overpower theblatest content anyway.. whats the ireq for the newest alliance raid 495? When everyone is sporting 510-520 and already overpowering by 20-25 I levels even on day 1
1. You can very easily get materia via drops and stellaclusters, and even from wearing your gear for 5 seconds and letting it spiritbond.

2. You can extract the materia from your gear when you're ready to chunk and/or upgrade it. Yes there's the chance that it will break of course, I will not refute that, but the fact is you still have a decent chance of salvaging the materia and holding on to it.