Future of Buccaneer/Templar/Harlequin Pieces

I can see two opposing economic forces on these items.

Things that will cause the prices to drop:

Introduction of dungeon gear like the claret breeches, alpine jacket, solid scale mail and others are better in their current state than the bucc/harly/temp items. As more people make their way through the darkhold, they will put up their old items on MW and thus supply will rise and price will dip.

As evidence I've already seen bucc shirt prices on Karnak go from 12-15, to 9-10 million a piece.

Also while regional leves are not as effective as before, they are also no longer failed. More players are choosing to succeed, and/or use these for gathering faction, so with an increase amount of faction credits, more faction gear will drop.

Forces that will cause prices to stay stable or increase:

Another viewpoint on the leve changes is less people are doing leves now, and therefore the supply of these items will stay low.

If SE releases any unique materia that will only apply to faction gear, or if this stuff is upgradable, the value will once again go up. Member of my shell and myself have noticed that on the templar gear specifically it looks to have a dull or worn appearance leading to the belief that they will be upgradable in the future.

Conclusion and Suggestion

Faction gear, no matter how you look at it is very very tough to come by in this game for those who don't have the funds to purchase it. You need 600 faction credits to get an initial crack at the NM fight, and 400 faction credits for every fight afterwards, so it's not something you can spam until you get the drop. And the drops are not even guaranteed.

So with all that said, I would really like to see these pieces remain relevant in the game, and for future releases. Please make them either upgradable or buffable via the materia system.

These sets are fasinating and well done. If it is true what they say about a 6 month timeframe to create new gear, it would be a shame to let go to waste 18 months of work, letting because irrevelant.

That's what happens when new content comes out. There will be better gear to replace old gear, old gear prices will go down. Same thing will happen once level cap is raised and now theres level 60 gear to replace the level 50 gear. Especially since once you're level 60, level 50 content you can blow through and gather the materials all day long while barely breaking a sweat.

The price is gonna go through the roof because everyone is rushing back to the game now that we have auto attack and a 2 boss dungeon. It only took 10 months!

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Originally Posted by TonyMontana

The price is gonna go through the roof because everyone is rushing back to the game now that we have auto attack and a 2 boss dungeon. It only took 10 months!

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I have noticed that I had a few HQ tools and random things sitting in my bazaars that have all of a sudden sold. But I realize that in games like this, as level caps increase, old things get outdated. And that is perfectly okay, but I still hold the feeling that this gear set seems really special, and SE should not let it get outdated.

I think they should tweak the prerequisites and drop rates instead. And make the gear in-between the darkhold drops and the GC rewards, strength-wise.

I think they should definitely be kept relevant considering the price and difficulty in obtaining the items, though I also think that their potency should remain slightly behind the strength of current content items. (at least for now)

It's really OK, because everything now and in the future seems to be going the 'Required rank' route. So just because they make an uber piece of gear for r60, it will require R60 to wear it, meaning people will still have to have that older gear to level up with.

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Originally Posted by Reika

It's really OK, because everything now and in the future seems to be going the 'Required rank' route.

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I hope not. This game definitely needs some general all-around gear still.

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Originally Posted by Reika

It's really OK, because everything now and in the future seems to be going the 'Required rank' route. So just because they make an uber piece of gear for r60, it will require R60 to wear it, meaning people will still have to have that older gear to level up with.

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10 levels can go by very fast. I'm just thinking the time invested alone for a new gear set from the developement team side. The gear is very very cool, small tweaks to the visual and perhaps some upgradable stats on them and all of a sudden you have a rejuninated gear set with a fracion of the investment cost of SE resources.

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Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah

I hope not. This game definitely needs some general all-around gear still.

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People have expressed their desire for rank and class required gear tho. Thats why all the dungeon and companies gear is required class and rank themselves.

That gear has always been weird, anyway. The Templar Haubergeon, for example, is just flat out worse than Vintage Haubergeon. Vintage goes for like 500k while Templar goes for millions? What? None of the pieces have ever been worth the price (especially with how little effect the 'extra' stats have, if any).

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Originally Posted by Brannigan

That gear has always been weird, anyway. The Templar Haubergeon, for example, is just flat out worse than Vintage Haubergeon. Vintage goes for like 500k while Templar goes for millions? What? None of the pieces have ever been worth the price (especially with how little effect the 'extra' stats have, if any).

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you are right. the reward to effort ratio has always been off on this gear. There is an alternate for each of the pieces that is either not much different or better especially if you have an HQ. I would like to see them actually make the EFFORT = The Reward. That would mean either a) keep the gear the way it is and make the drop rate better, or B) actually make the gear upgradable and something the players will want to really work for.

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Originally Posted by Reika

People have expressed their desire for rank and class required gear tho. Thats why all the dungeon and companies gear is required class and rank themselves.

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Yes, which is why it's important to have both around.

I am hoping maby these gear you will be able to equip more materia onto them or something.

So while the base is crap. put 2-3 material on them... might not be so bad.



Even if they do not do that, SE needs to keep as much gear relevant as long as possible... negating content is not a good idea when the game lacks content to begin with. Worthless gear = Negated content... so they could take it out and no one would care... I see that as a problem.

The negated content will always be a major issue with the way SE is currently handling things... hopefully the next dungeon does not completely outclass darkholds gear or at that time the game will effectively have 1 dungeon worth of content... the new one. SE needs to do something to make people want to Factions... added content (since no one atm will do them at all since the gear is 100% useless), which will make everyone want to do leves... keeps old content alive.

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Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah

Yes, which is why it's important to have both around.

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I'm hoping they keep the gear that's been here since release will stay "all-around" but future equipment IMO should be required rank. I like to rank up to be able to equip some epic gear...

They should keep introducing new gear, and not try too hard to keep old gear relevant. After all, MMOs are built on a sense of progression, and one of FFXI's big problems was that the top tier armor was still top tier 6 years later, which completely wrecked any sense of gear progression. Their solution was to make the gear obscenely time consuming to obtain, which is not a good one in my opinion since it requires obsessive playing to the point where the game feels more like work than fun, and that's never a good thing.

That said, until they raise the level cap, the gear likely won't be truly irrelevant. However, instead of doing what they did in ff11 and making the same gear upgradable so even now you see people in really old gear, they should make the gear less time consuming to get and allow it to pass on when the time's come for an upgrade. It helps keep the game fresh.

with materia craft it's all going to change how we think these type of gears :) (I hope...)

specific game changing anima could be things like: double attack, haste, MP reduction buffs, spell time reduction buffs, movement speed. etc.