Unique Attributes on Equipment - Will We See Them Again?

So, back in 1.23, we had some pretty nifty stuff. Like, Bravura doubled the duration of Vengeance, Gallant Gauntlets enhanced the potency of Holy Succor, etc. etc.

All of that is gone in ARR currently. I'd like to see it come back, so that gear selection doesn't simply just boil down to a raw numbers game. FFXI had all kinds of situational gear that was awesome, however that game also used gear-swapping in battle and I sincerely doubt many people (there are a few crazies out there) want to see that particular mechanic return. Instead, how about making the bonuses powerful enough to warrant using a specific item that might have lower stats than comparative gear full time? Another great option would be set bonuses for our new upcoming AF sets, but I'll get to that in a bit.


So, as an example, let's say DRG gets a new pair of i90 boots (just using current caps for the sake of argument) with similar stats to the current i90 stuff, as well as an i95 one that has more STR VIT etc. However, on these boots is an annotation reading "Enhances Jump Effects" Now suddenly every time you use Jump, Spineshatter Dive or Dragonfire Dive it's an automatic critical hit. Elusive Jump grants temporary invincibility (something it should do anyways but for the sake of argument I'm putting it here).

While it's not a straight up overall performance increase like the other pair, having a guaranteed critical hit with each jump skill can potentially game-changing. Another item could be "Enhances Fire-starter" for BLM raising the chance of proc to 60% or more etc. etc.


The other thing I'd like to see as I said before is set bonuses, particularly for our Job-specific AF sets; A powerful bonus only granted when wearing all 5 pieces (and possibly above the 10% dmg threshold. Definitely can't be broken anyway.)

For Paladin, it could be a passive -10~15% damage taken, or a critical hit chance (not rate, straight up % chance increase) for Bard. This is the kind of variety that is sorely lacking in endgame equipment and I get that we don't have it right away given the game hasn't been out long, but it needs to happen at some point.

It also doesn't have to be restricted to armor. It'd be nice to have added effects on weapons again, like how Ifrit weapons used to deal additional fire damage.

Yes this is something I've wanted to see for a long time again, will it happen probably not.
Especially if different sets had certain enhances it would give everyone their own play style even though some would argue one "enhancement" would be BIS over another. Still it was on of my favorite things having RDM af+1 hat in FFXI

Hell yeah! This is definitely something I wanted to bring up as well. The gear is seriously lacking the bonus attributes or even procs would be nice, like for dps - an example could be a weapon with bonus proc that would have 10% chance to hit three additional enemies near your target. All of this allows for more BiS gear selections instead of everyone going for cookie cutter builds. Not just armor, they should add them to accessories as well.

Also please... please make those elemental resistances matter. Those stats are there for nothing! Adding resistance stats to gear and making it actually matter in raids would allow for even more gear selections. So far only HM Primals have them and they don't even mean anything. Seems like the devs planned something, but just left it unfinished.

We wont be getting unique stats like Enhances Ballads because it results in something like Bards AF body being superior to everything else because of the enhancement alone.

Not that they couldn't work around that.

Definitely agree. Gear is very boring as it is right now.

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Originally Posted by Sotek

We wont be getting unique stats like Enhances Ballads because it results in something like Bards AF body being superior to everything else because of the enhancement alone.
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If they add unique stats it doesn't have to be limited to AF armor.

Example:
Bard Myth Chest: Enhances Song effectiveness by 10%
Allagan Chest of Aiming: Reduces MP cost of songs by 15%

Bard Myth Pants: Damage reduction while singing reduced to 10%
Allagan Pants of Aiming: Enhances foes requiem "reduces physical resistance by 5%"

Problem solved. Each piece has an interesting bonus with pros and cons.

Sadly, thatd kill vertical progression, SE can't have that. Same reason stuff that are sets don't have set bonuses (other than GC)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sotek

We wont be getting unique stats like Enhances Ballads because it results in something like Bards AF body being superior to everything else because of the enhancement alone.

Not that they couldn't work around that.

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Well, you and I both know it wouldn't be limited to just AF and what's wrong with something being 'superior'? Was never a problem in MMOs for many years lol, hell I don't think anyone complained about AF or Relics enhancing traits/abilities aside the bard one being a song duration increase rather than potency increase.

Just look at FFXI, they could do it numerous ways than just having it set to only AF pieces - Regular armor pieces enhances stuff and ironically enough, would actually make crafting useful (!).

Let's not forget that there's already currently armor in game that's "superior" to others, known as 'Best in Slot.'

SE also has materia to work with. They can do so much more with it than how it currently functions.

This game was designed to be easy for stupid people to play, if you added stuff like that on gear it would be too hard for them.