On Artifact Armor.

[FrankReynolds]

Well, making AF viable again may actually make people who skipped it go back and check out the story / lore that goes with it, but I can't get behind this unless it somehow ends with a trial that uses both the relic and the AF piece to make one uber piece. Even if it's just combining the relevant stats. I have too much gear, and I like most of my AF right where it is right now....in storage and forgotten.

[Raksha]

I agree that they should probably work on new stuff instead of old stuff, but there is one aspect of upgrading AF1 that I like: For the most part AF1 is stuff we already have, and upgrading it would only make it better, therefore it wouldn't really require more inventory slots like it would if they added something new.

My inventory is strained already, so if they just buffed gear that I'm already carrying around, it'd be great.

[MakkotoParinne]

Yet with the ease of leveling these days, through antiquation you're basically advocating the abandonment of old content and lore (that not everyone may have experienced) solely because you don't want to step into an old area again and are talking like that is it how it has to be. Some of the AF quests are left open-ended or relatively unexplained, like what happened with Rainemard and the San d'Orian church for RDM.

In my opinion, I think it would be good to expand on this. Every job has one NPC in general that has something to do with their class quests. Black Mage has Shantotto, Monk has Oggbi, Dark Knight has Zeid. Perhaps there could be a quest/trial that gives you an armor set in their name, such as Erlene's Attire (Scholar), Laila's Attire (Dancer), or Zeid's Armor (Dark Knight); something handcrafted by the best/iconic member of that job class to bring your abilities that much higher, with a set bonus to match. Long shot? Hell yes.

Once you get past the concepts of abilities and the like, equipment like Artifacts and Relics is a subset of those themes in both function (ideally...) and aesthetics.
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I see people wanting things brought up to new standards, maybe even setting bars relative to independent gear options.

Look different, play well, have fun.^^

[MakkotoParinne]

Likewise, expanding on the lore doesn't necessarily equate to making the gear wtfbbqawesome or equivalent to AF3.

Just a thought, why does AF3 have to be the only set of best gear? I believe there should be more than one set of job-defining/visually notable gear that makes a job class truly shine. Artifact and Relic would do that nicely, without creating new gear people can't store.

[FrankReynolds]

I agree that they should probably work on new stuff instead of old stuff, but there is one aspect of upgrading AF1 that I like: For the most part AF1 is stuff we already have, and upgrading it would only make it better, therefore it wouldn't really require more inventory slots like it would if they added something new.

My inventory is strained already, so if they just buffed gear that I'm already carrying around, it'd be great.

I keep about 99% of it in storage, so just pulling it out to upgrade = inventory -1. And this is SE, so of course they won't make an NPC that can store the new upgraded gear until 1-2 years after you stop using it again.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

I keep about 99% of it in storage, so just pulling it out to upgrade = inventory -1. And this is SE, so of course they won't make an NPC that can store the new upgraded gear until 1-2 years after you stop using it again.

They already stated the moogle would be able to store it.

[Greatguardian]

Well, making AF viable again may actually make people who skipped it go back and check out the story / lore that goes with it, but I can't get behind this unless it somehow ends with a trial that uses both the relic and the AF piece to make one uber piece. Even if it's just combining the relevant stats. I have too much gear, and I like most of my AF right where it is right now....in storage and forgotten.

We both know people would just spam enter through the cutscenes if all they were after was the gear. If people care about story/lore, they do story/lore quests. If they don't, they don't. If they have to for nice gear, they spam enter.

Just a thought, why does AF3 have to be the only set of best gear? I believe there should be more than one set of job-defining/visually notable gear that makes a job class truly shine. Artifact and Relic would do that nicely, without creating new gear people can't store.

It doesn't. There is definitely gear being released that's better than AF3. But you know what doesn't need to be better than AF3? AF2. And AF1. You know, the AF with the lower numbers that we got years ago. AF3 shouldn't be any more of an end-all be-all at 99 than AF2 was at 75, or AF1 was at 60, but you know, that doesn't mean any of these sets should be the fulltime iconic job set. On top of that, why does flavor/lore/iconic gear have to trump other pieces in the same slot? Even most AF1, and a lot of AF2 still has macro use today, otherwise I'd never be messing around with Moogle Slips 4 and 6 all the time. It's not "Useless", just not fulltimed or TP'd in (... okay, Ninja TPs in AF1, what the hell).

Frankly, I'm not sure what you want. AF1 is about as useful as it should ever be, really. I hate the idea of people running around fulltiming JSE at 99 because it's best-in-slot. Everyone looks the same. Tantra this, Tantra that. Sure, high-end players will always end up looking somewhat similar due to the nature of gear in this game, but that doesn't mean making easily-obtainable grind gear the best for each job is even close to a good idea. At the same time, please don't even say you want it to be "Good but not the best". It already is. Every job I play uses at least 1 piece of AF1/AF1+1. All of them. Some jobs use 4 pieces of AF1/+1. I'd say that's useful enough.

[FrankReynolds]

We both know people would just spam enter through the cutscenes if all they were after was the gear. If people care about story/lore, they do story/lore quests. If they don't, they don't. If they have to for nice gear, they spam enter.

Your probably right, was just wishful thinking. To be honest, the last couple jobs I've leveled, I didn't even bother with AF, and I like the stories.

[MakkotoParinne]

On top of that, why does flavor/lore/iconic gear have to trump other pieces in the same slot?
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Frankly, I'm not sure what you want.

I suppose random armor found in the gut of some ugly monster makes more sense.

I already said multiple times what I want, more than one set of gear that has good stats/set bonus that is visually appealing and/or job-defining. We already have those in the form of Artifact and Relic Armor, without creating more random sets. On that note, it does follow the trend to have AF1 upgraded in the same manner as the rest of the old gear in this game.

The questline/lore is important. I think it makes more sense for ancient armor with backstory to be the "best gear" rather than a random item found in a treasure chest from the Walk of Echoes or something.

[Greatguardian]

1) I've addressed the trend. I dislike the trend. I don't think it should continue. Just because Homam is getting a facelift doesn't mean AF1 needs to. Neither should be getting facelifts to begin with.

2) We already have three sets of gear with good stats and a set bonus that is visually appealing and job-defining. I still use AF1 and AF2 as well as AF3 on all of my jobs, without needing to upgrade them. Do you just want to fulltime AF or something? Or do you want to crash the crafting and endgame markets completely by making AF the penultimate gear? Because those are still important parts of the game.

3) Define "Best". There will never be a single "Best piece of armor in the game for everything" in any slot, ever. What do you want? Best TP piece? Best WS piece? Best macro piece? Best skill piece? Best potency piece? Most AF1/AF2 is already the Best in slot for job-specific abilities because they have job-specific enhancements like Temple Cyclas/Melee Gloves' Chakra boost and Commodore Tricorne's Phantom Roll enhancement. A lot of AF is already the "Best" at something. Do you just want it to be the best at Everything? If so, that's impossible.