Quote Originally Posted by Dale View Post
Removing the gear swap system wouldn't make players just walk forward and say "I attack the monster". Gear swaps don't add any extra abilities or spells - except in maybe a few limited examples. They just allow players increase the effectiveness of the abilities and spells they already have. So the complexity of this game's combat system would still be in-tact.

What makes this game more strategic than other MMORPGs is the sheer amount of abilities, spells, and different ways to play each job. Gear-swaps can be used to supplement this. But it's not solely responsible for this game's excellent combat system. The versatility of how they designed their class system is.

But anyway - I don't really have a gripe with allowing players to collect gear and use it to enhance different effects. I actually like this in fact. My gripe is with how the current system functions - which is just an annoyance to me. Having to constantly change my clothes all the time after this spell or that ability is just irritating. Especially when it doesn't even work well and errors are always popping up - as this thread demonstrates.

I would prefer a passive tree or something with a list of abilities and spells we could link gear to increase their effect. That would be cool, and a much better system IMHO. Because when I'm fighting something I want to concentrate on what I'm doing and react to the battlefield as it occurs. Not worry about rather my equip macro kicked in and I'm wearing the right clothes before I cast something.
Exactly. Those are my thoughts as well. Collecting different sets of gear and utilizing them in certain situations is really cool actually; it's just how they are utilized that seems annoying. To be honest, it's one of the biggest deterrents I had about even starting back up in the game. With the equipment sets thing it doesn't seem like it would be as bad at least, but I'd still prefer something like what Dale suggested. Being able to just link gear to certain skills would give the same result without having to use the arduous swapping mechanic. It also wouldn't be subject to the same delays, so it would elimate that problem as well. (Keep in mind I still don't have any first hand experience with the gear swapping system, so these are all just observations I've gathered from my time on the forums and such.)