The main reason gear swapping isn't allowed in Ballista, as ridiculous and easily fixable as it sounds, is because when you swap gear in the middle of a fight, your opponents lose target from you and it automatically fixes their target to themself, disabling them from using macros with <t> or anything else that involves directly attacking your target. It's inconvenient. To prevent people from exploiting this, they added a penalty to it. Besides, choosing a gear set to use specifically for it is a part of the challenge. It may not be something you would use full time, but that's what separates Ballista from the rest of the game. The mechanics are not the same, and as such it should not be treated the same.
FFXI's PvP is far better than any other MMO game I've played, and I'm not just saying that because I'm biased toward FFXI. I really did give other games a chance, and they just don't have the same pace, or require the same focus of mind. Most other games that people think are "made for PvP" are really just my equivalent to a BLU in PvP: Button mashing to try and kill faster doesn't make you good at it.


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