Gear: class and level restrictions

We were recently discussing class and level restrictions for gear in our LS. This was in part due to lack of low level gear being available for new players and the fact that a new player could in fact with help from guildies have very high level gear given to them from the get go. Yes tyhe new gear will break faster but at this stage of ffxiv who cares there are plenty of ppl who can repair it. So my question would be is SE planning on imposing class and level restrictions on gear like almost every other mmo has? Wouldn't such restrictions make for more available gear for all levels of play? Give people something to spend gil on(this would provide a gil sink which ffvix kinda lacks)? Add an element to game play to strive for as we level up so that we could have the next tier of gear to give a better sense of improving ones character? I'd like to have a serious discussion on this subject.

I love how the gear works in FFXIV. For example, why would my lvl 17 Gla not be physically able to use any sword in the game? Sure he can swing a lvl 27 sword, but my lvl 16 is more efficient, and like you said doesn't break as easily because he knows how to properly use it. And like you said, sure my LS guildies could give me some high level suff that I can store for later use, or I could just as easily buy it, as the higher level gear is actually cheaper than the lower level gear in most cases due to supply and demand. Why would you want it to change to a system that every run-of-the-mill mmo uses?

Also, its important to say that the opimal/favor system is an important part of Armory system. The primary use of this is to offer any player a minimum armor if he change classes. Why this? Because would be really stupid you have a system that allows you to change class everywhere but you being naked after class change becaus the current class cannot equip any of the armor you're carrying.

I still have hopes up that the dev team will double check the class restriction of NM armors and future armors (OK, restrictiong some artifact armor to its native class is fair enough...making certain pieces of armor that are exclusive of one class is fair enough...but if more than one class can use that armor, why not using the optimal/favor system that is already ingame?) so thay can see that class (and possible rank) restrictions are hurting the armory system and, if they continue this way soon enough the armory system will collapse...because when you're not able to carry a set of armor for a class you have you, obviously, woun't use it either, breaking the flexibility of the system.

And, at the other side, we have the casual and RP players that do enjoyed the armory system because they were able to dress the character the way they wanted. Is it stupid? Not really! If a player want to RP so let him RP. The optimal/favor system allows them to.

My hopes is that materia system also come to help the game this way, making the native effects of armors not as important as the materia effects, increasing the flexibility of armor choices even for those that seek optimizing their characters. Actually, they could just make rank/class restrictions materia "side-effects" instead of armors...certain materias that add a very specific effect also turning, as example, a certain armor GLA exclusive...or a high level materia adding rank restriction to the armor it was added. This would be a much better way of dealing with armory system than just tossing random class/rank restrictions.

I would just like it to be more apparent how much your higher level armor is restricted. Well, that and the armor to actually have a purpose.