For those that want skill bonuses on gear: How would you do it?

I often see the idea that this game's gearing progression is rather flat and boring, and one suggestion that gets thrown around a lot is the idea of putting skill/ability/spell bonuses on your gear. Very few people elaborate on this idea, however.

So, as the thread title states, how would you do it?

Myself, I think it'd be best done through new 'Ability/Skill (or Spell) Materia', partly because the developers would not have to create dozens of versions of the same piece of gear just for different bonuses, and players would have to choose between getting the ability bonus and using a stat materia instead.

Ability Materia can only be slotted into necklaces and earrings, limit of one per.
Skill/Spell Materia can only be slotted into the two rings, limit of one per.

That would mean players can only choose between two of each, a total of four bonuses per class. Some abilities/skills may also have multiple materia bonuses, but there will be a limit of one bonus per skill (as specified in the item descriptions of those materia). If players choose to ignore that, the game will prioritize the materia slotted into the Necklace or Ring Slot 1.

As for the actual abilities themselves, I'd imagine the main obstacle would be designing abilities that would help introduce different playing styles for classes, but they shouldn't veer directly into quality of life territory (otherwise they might as well be built into the class itself in a class balancing update).

Here's some ideas I've had:

WHM:
(Ability) Oblivion Materia - If Asylum is cast while in Cleric Stance, the healing field is instead reversed into a damage over time field at 50 potency. (Cannot be used with Revelation Materia.)
(Ability) Revelation Materia - Asylum gains the ability to restore MP to all party members inside at 30 refresh potency per tick. (Cannot be used with Oblivion Materia.)

BRD:
(Ability) Wanderer's Focus Materia - While in Wanderer's Minuet, using Mage's Ballad or Army's Paeon will no longer incur a damage penalty. (Cannot be used with other 'Wanderer' materia.)
(Ability) Wanderer's Voice Materia - While in Wanderer's Minuet, MP drain from using songs is reduced by 25%. (Cannot be used with other 'Wanderer' materia.)
- Note: I had originally thought to have Wanderer's Voice allow songs to be used with no cast time, but eventually decided that was something that should be built into the class itself.
(Skill) Storm Volley Materia - When Quick Nock hits an enemy afflicted with Windbite, there is a 25% chance that the next Wide Volley will gain the ability to apply Windbite to all enemies that are hit. (Cannot be used with other 'Volley' materia.)
(Skill) Hail Volley Materia - Upon using Quick Nock, there is a 50% chance that the following Wide Volley's potency is increased from 110 to 170. (Cannot be used with other 'Volley' materia.)

As for how to obtain the materia? I'd imagine there would be three main ways:
- Hunts: Namely exchanging either 10 Unstained Mark Logs/5 Behemoth Horns/5 Odin Mantles for skills/abilities learned at Lv. 50 and below, and 10 Clan Mark Logs/5 Coeurlregina Horns/5 Proto Ultima Plating for skills/abilities learned at 52-60. Materia obtained in this fashion would be untradeable.
- Completion of Major Boss FATEs: Defined as the 30-minute FATEs. Each would award a new currency, one per completion at maximum contribution, that upon collecting 10 of can be exchanged for any materia. Materia obtained in this fashion would be untradeable.
- Crafting: Of course there'd be a crafting component. Each Materia would require 5 Battlecraft Demimateria I, 3 Battlecraft Demimateria II, and 1 Battlecraft Demimateria III, along with 1 tier IV materia of the class' main stat (for example, Mind Materia IV for CNJ/WHM materia). Materia obtained in this fashion would be tradeable.

While it would be rather easy to obtain the materials for the Crafting portion, different class materia would be locked behind different specialists, which would justify them being tradeable.

- Carpenter: ARC/BRD, CNJ/WHM
- Blacksmithing: MRD/WAR, LNC/DRG, MCH
- Armorer: GLA/PLD, DRK
- Goldsmithing: THM/BLM, AST
- Leatherworking: ROG/NIN
- Weaver: PUG/MNK
- Alchemist: ACN/SMN/SCH

(Leatherworking and Weaver only get one class each because they're already known for having the most specialist exclusive crafts in the form of glamour already. Blacksmithing gets three because they get pretty much nothing at all these days, because endgame craftable weapons have not been a thing for a very long time.)

Along with what you ask ;

I want :

- While in defiance, no damage penalty
- While in deliverance, permanent bloodbath.
- While holmgang, no damage taken for 6 seconds
- While bersek, no pacification.

:D

Some of these would be overpowered I feel.

Really, I'd be fine with just little things like "Adlo potency up by 10". Anything for some variety.

Do it the way 1.0 did it.

Rip gae bolgs jump dmg increase, ill never forget you

i do like the materia idea a little bit but, i would prefer they have gear that has uses even after new gear is released, while this would most definantly require changing how the entire gear system works, i think it would be much more beneficial, and while there wil lalways be a specific "set" that is better than the rest, it still helps to have more options. would you want to take this weapon, which has 2 more attack power but no bonus? or would you prefer to keep your sword that reduces cooldowns time by 10%. or use this ottther weapon which gives you 5 more seconds added to specific cooldown skills? or gives you minor lifesteal, or some such as this, while this games meta would most definantly take the higherdps option, its just the principle of having options rather than not

I find find the idea of armor having any basic does more damage or costs less resource type of bonuses as boring as +2 str. I personally would rather have a system the makes the way you play fundamentally different and I would prefer it not to be tied to gear. And the benefits need to come with a cost.

choose this trait. Fire ball takes 20% longer to cast but does 30% more damage.
Or
choose this trait. Fire ball does 20% of its damage over time but can no longer deal critical damage.

my prefered way to unlock the traits would be feats of strengths and time. You gain x amount of points each day and x amount of points for completing a set a tasks. a mix of aoc and lotro AA.

In aoc you accumulated XP both for time passed and things killed and you could spend the points on changing the function of a particular skill. In lotro if you completed a task killing,exploring, using skills you could select a fixed amount of perks and skill changes to make your "build".

Or they could use the soul gem slot because it's basically a low end stat stick these days. Meh

something like TP regen +5% or something I could see, not so sure how much dev time it would take to make myriads of materias to alter abilities effects in different ways, not stomping the idea though i would love a dark arts reduction cost materia or darkside mp drain reduction or damage increase by several percentages, or something that alters foes requiem to deal physical vuln down or something

I'd love to see stuff similar to Diablo

(http://www.diablo3values.com/attributes)

I also like some of these, for example:
Cluster Arrow (Reduced Resource Cost)
Wall of Zombies (Reduced Cooldown Seconds)
Energy Twister (Increase Critical Hit Chance %)
Chance for Angelic Assistance
Gold Find
Movement Speed
Reduce Impairing Effects
Chance to summon a Demonic Slave
Chance to be shielded
Life per hit

Cooldown. Reduction.

Okay, let's assume for a second that we take your materia idea and twist it slightly. I propose a new slot on gear separate to materia. This would accept up to two types of rune (let's say red and blue for the sake of argument), which each have a different focus.

Red focuses on offensive or healing capabilities. For a white mage this could be enhance cure potency, for example. As a Dragoon, this could enhance their attacks.
Blue focuses on defensive or support capabilities. For a Scholar this could be enhanced damage reduction on Sacred Soil, as a Monk this could be a stronger evasion on Featherfoot.

The problem with using materia is that it's easily abused. With the ability to multi-meld gear, you run the risk of either making the materia too weak or the system too overpowered. If there is a fixed number that can be added to gear, and of a specific type, you avoid this issue entirely. They could even make the slots only available on the body piece, and make them considerable in strength.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MagiusNecros

Cooldown. Reduction.

---

The main thing that makes me go against the idea of suggesting cooldown reductions or resource cost reductions without an alternate materia effect to consider is that those go directly into the 'quality of life' category IMO, the kind of stuff that might as well be built into the class itself from the start. They're far more likely to be considered the sort of thing that would make raid groups go 'you must have X or else you can't join', which is something that would lead to what I'd call 'fake choices/variety'. Something that plagues many games.

The reason why the bard song suggestion would be an exception is that fundamentally, you'd be trading resource regeneration with no penalty for the ability to have 25% more uptime on Foe's instead.

Having 25% more uptime on Foe's is also a QoL change and could also give way to wanting Bard's over Machinist. When stuff is added it will be optimized and abused. You can't fight it either way you spin it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SaitoHikari

. They're far more likely to be considered the sort of thing that would make raid groups go 'you must have X or else you can't join', which is something that would lead to what I'd call 'fake choices/variety'. Something that plagues many games..

---

I am not entirely sure why requiring gear is a bad thing. We even have that in the game atm with a minimum ilvl option in PF.

Further, you can add a variety of choices, so that there is a choice. i.e.

Cooldown reduction vs enhanced ability vs enhanced crit chance.

For example on SCH:
Aetherflow cooldown reduced vs Succor potency increased vs Adlo crit chance increased
which do you choose? Aetherflow CD reduction could mean pumping out more e-drains for higher DPS, but a higher succor potency may allow for SCH to solo heal better and take a 5th DPS, but Adlo crits could mean being able to stay in Cleric Stance longer.

Maybe on a BRD it could be:
Raging Strikes cooldown reduced vs Foe Requium giving a 15% instead of 10% effect vs Straight Shots crit buff increased by X%.
Which do you choose? Raging Strikes would give you the most consistent DPS increase, but Foe Req increase may be the best for your Raid DPS (especially in larger teams, but maybe not 4-person encounters), but the straight shot buff could give you potentially much higher DPS with bloodletter procs.

Maybe on a PLD it could be:
Rampart cooldown reduced vs Enmity on savage blade increased vs Life per hit
Rampart cooldown reduced would allow for you to take much less damage, allowing healers to DPS more vs Enmity on savage blade increase allowing you to stay in Sword Oath more often vs Life Per Hit helps keep your self healing up and lets your healers DPS more

Personally, I don't think any of the above has a 'best' option. It all revolves around your team composition and your playstyle.

EDIT: To add to the above, even if there is a 'best' option, I feel the differences would be minimal enough that people wouldn't exclude you if you had one of the alternatives. Similar to how their are optimal pairings and compositions for content now, but people don't exclude based on that.

I think your idea of implementing this through Materia is a wonderful idea. We could, for fun, recolor speed Materia to yellow, and make these Materia the new purple, a reference to FFVII, where purple Materia was "independent" Materia, that usually increased the character's stats or offered unique passive abilities to the user or party.

Anyway, as to what I would like to see, I'll just do my main. Dark Knight is a Job that sits somewhat in the middle, and I feel like more incomparable would be a good thing (and not just for them). However, I think flat increases wouldn't be a good idea, just modifications. I'll just list off some ideas:

Dark Waltz Materia: Replaces the Dark Arts Effect of Dark Dance with "Increases parry rate by 20%."
Soul Devourer Materia: Souleater will always absorb 50% of damage dealt as HP. Grit effect is lost.
Rune Weapon Materia: Reduces the MP restored by Blood Weapon, reduces TP reduction to 5%, allows the use of Blood Weapon in Grit.
Mind Break Materia: Replaces the Combo Bonus of Delirium with "Increases the target's magic vulnerability by 20% for 30 seconds. The target is immune to Foe Requium and Mind Break for 180 seconds afterwards."

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MagiusNecros

Having 25% more uptime on Foe's is also a QoL change and could also give way to wanting Bard's over Machinist. When stuff is added it will be optimized and abused. You can't fight it either way you spin it.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kaurie

I am not entirely sure why requiring gear is a bad thing. We even have that in the game atm with a minimum ilvl option in PF.

---

Poor choice of wording on my part. What I really mean is that while there may be a 'best' option, the other options should still be good enough that they're actually useful in other situations. The other options shouldn't be anywhere near as bad as trying to stack Parry, for instance.

The only problem I'd see with putting unique, job-specific materia onto unique gear is........................ you can be any job in this game. What if you wanted to play both bard and machinist and the best gear available is multi-job like is it now? You can't just swap out gear since everything not crafted is basically unique, and some of these job-materia suggestions are seriously OP and too strong to go without.

We have perfectly good job-specific soulstones and weapons you can attach materia to - just put 3-4 type-specific sockets on those instead.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jeykama

The only problem I'd see with putting unique, job-specific materia onto unique gear is........................ you can be any job in this game. What if you wanted to play both bard and machinist and the best gear available is multi-job like is it now? You can't just swap out gear since everything not crafted is basically unique, and some of these job-materia suggestions are seriously OP and too strong to go without.

---

We already commit ourselves to one grade of gear every patch cycle. Specialization through materia sharpens that focus.

I don't see any problem with "of Xing" gear further enhancing a specific job as long as you can remove the bonus later. The opportunity cost would keep the market alive.

Hmm i like this idea with materia doing things to change our skills but then theorycrafters will attack the system then it will turn into u must have X materia skill sloted to be valid to take into statics etc

This is why we dont have choice options in games because we single hand destroy the system and just pick the best and screw the rest which is upsetting

This is also the reason why talent trees are not in game, or skill paths, etc etc etc cause players will look online and copy for maximum effect which ruins the system that u must have XYZ to do a role

Double post on phone

I mean look at warcraft they ditch there talent tree then made a new talent tree.... Now they changed it again because they want every skill to be situational vs boss fights and still they have issues due to how players pick there skill lines

It a good idea on paper, but in theory players will pick the best skill/combination that effects there roles which is not easy to balance and a headache to make sure its a choice and not madatory to take X skill

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jeykama

The only problem I'd see with putting unique, job-specific materia onto unique gear is........................ you can be any job in this game. What if you wanted to play both bard and machinist and the best gear available is multi-job like is it now?

---

why use materia in the 1 place? , and not traits that u can change out of combat? .....

I like the materia idea, and I like it being tied to job soulstones. One, maybe two at most, per SS.

As a WAR, I'd like to see a bit more group utility.

Compound Fracture - All physical attacks dealt to a target afflicted by Fracture deal an additional 5 potency in damage.
Mob Mentality - Berserk no longer buffs the warrior's attack by 50%, but instead applies a buff to all party members in a radius of 10y that increases physical damage dealt and TP usage by 10% for 10s. 90s CD.
Hurricane - Storm's Eye can now be combo'd off of Storm's Path, with an increased potency of 40 for Storm's Eye. Using Storm's Eye in this manner does not generate Wrath or Abandon.
Crush and Cleave - Steel Cyclone applies a Disoriented debuff to targets, causing the next attack to miss. Decimate radius is increased by 25%. Using Decimate creates a secondary aftershock 1 second later that deals a 190 potency attack to all enemies in the radius, with each enemy initially afflicted by Decimate adding 10 potency to the aftershock.

I really just want to be yelled at for *not* using Fracture instead of for using it.

10 TP recovery with every hit

BLM
Ley Lines Materia 1 -> The lines follow you around this time
Ley Lines Materia 2 -> Other party members can stand in your lines and gain the buff too

WHM
Assize Materia -> Recover party HP & TP instead of Recover Hp & dealing damage
Fluid Aura Materia -> Fluid Aura upgraded to Water III

DRG
Wheeling Thrust Materia -> Recovers TP
Fang & Claw Materia -> Allows party to drain HP with attacks from the clawed mob

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Warlyx

why use materia in the 1 place? , and not traits that u can change out of combat? .....

---

The OP is talking about skill boni on gear, and traits aren't really gear, so...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Almalexia

We already commit ourselves to one grade of gear every patch cycle. Specialization through materia sharpens that focus.
I don't see any problem with "of Xing" gear further enhancing a specific job as long as you can remove the bonus later. The opportunity cost would keep the market alive.

---

Well, the thing is, you're running into the same problem as ACNs and their stat points. Most SCHs just put their points into INT because MND benefits them less than the INT would for SMN if they play both, but the fact is their SCH is gimped because of it "sharing" a class with SMN. Same with sharing gear - if you have one set of DEX jewelry, you're limited to only playing one out of BRD/MCH/NIN each major raid cycle or else you're playing really gimped. Materia isn't something you can swap out on the fly (yet) and we can't own multiple sets of unique jewelry to cater to different jobs, and raid cycles are long enough for players to gear up several jobs in the weekly token gear. So if I'd design a job-specific materia-based perk system I wouldn't be putting be putting it on any gear that's shared - which leaves weapon/soulstone.

Heck the soulstone would be a perfect candidate since we learn all our ancient job skills from them anyway - I think it's time to leave our mark on our soulstones, like MCH is doing.

Personally I would do it like WoW's glyph system but attached to each soulstone - a glyph "socket" that unlocks at various job levels (40/50/60 or something) that you can use a consumable reagent(alexandrite?) + crafted/whatever glyph materia to apply the bonus. Maybe get Mutamix to teach you how to do it but not needed to swap the glyph materia around. Sure there's the fallacy that everyone will use the max-dps build, but the possibility for increased job utility is very strong too - like say buffing cross-class Mantra to 20% on BRD/DRG while increasing its CD? A glyph reducing damage suffered by B4B? A glyph that changes Blank Shot's knockback into a generic interrupt? stuff like that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FoxyAreku

Some of these would be overpowered I feel.

Really, I'd be fine with just little things like "Adlo potency up by 10". Anything for some variety.

---

If its OP then balance the game aroound the OPness. The game needs to be spiced up a bit, and skill customization could be the way to do it.

Set bonuses for gear is a time honored way to do gear buffs in MMO. Otherwise, I am all for materia providing buffs to abilities. We get our horizontal choices, S-E maintains their precious vertical climb.

Unfortunately I think it's too late for fun variety options like these. This game has been designed in a "this piece is better than this piece" way for so long now, I just see variety and options leading to more complaints than good.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrPresident

Unfortunately I think it's too late for fun variety options like these. This game has been designed in a "this piece is better than this piece" way for so long now, I just see variety and options leading to more complaints than good.

---

Yet we just got a patch where we could customize our gear in a significant way with materia. Baby steps.

Prepare for a long post.

1. Give materia one (or more) elemental affinities. Ice/Fire/Water/etc.
2. Make it possible to add -and- remove materia, at the respective cost of carbonizing matter and elemental crystals (of their subsequently respective elements); this gives new demand to crafters, gatherers and makes materia less transient.
3. Replace all current materia effects with novel ones like "adds X% elemental damage to weapon", "lowers MP cost of spells by X%", "increases critical hit rate by X%", "adds XX% chance to blind enemy on hit", "increases movement speed by X%", "Regenerate X amount of TP upon critical hit". Things of this nature.
4. Distribute this materia. Directly via vendors for Gil; exchangable for company hunt/seals, wolf marks, or even MGP in the gold saucer; rare drops from enemies; discovered while gathering or desynthesis; dropped from instances/bosses, and major sidequests.
5. Arrange this distribution such that more powerful materia come from more difficult or esoteric exploits, and are not sellable on the market. eg. You might buy a "Scorching I materia" that adds 2% fire damage to your weapon direct from a vendor, but Ifrit EX might drop a "Scorching IV" that adds 10%. More powerful materia might have negative effects you need to weigh against the bonuses, like "reduces HP by X% | increases MP by X%". Hell, there could even be a class of legendary materia dropped which are powerful enough to be capped at 1-per-character or even per-server.

6. The idea is to then add class-specific modifiers to gear (eg. a pair of Dragoon boots that give you "Increases Jump damage" or Paladin gauntlets with "Adds X amount of unaspected potency to Flash"), while granting more generic statistical boosts like the aforementioned via materia.

The end result of these changes is there's a lot of freedom in how you gear up, with emergent complexity spawning from the relative simplicity of materia and how they synergise with gear effects. And despite all this complexity it'd all be relatively easy to balance from a design standpoint since Square Enix would be working around a consistent limitation, in the form of materia slots.

we will have 10 new lvls (i hope) in the new expansion , lets put a new trait system instead of 5 new skills on a bloated rotations that will provide just another CD or another skill that i use once every blue moon ....let ppl do job missions to "learn" this new traits , this job missions can ask u to jump 50 times (annoying but at least...is better than 50 dungeons)...

we need a way to customize our characters? yeah , but GEAR or Materia isnt the solution im afraid , because what happens when u change your boots with +jump dmg? u need to farm again the materia? or buy again? and again again for the whole expansion ?

SE doesnt want player to wear 1 item forever , nor want ppl to farm 1 specific item until it drops (outside glamours but thats "optional" , same goes for mounts , minions, cards...)

look at the PVP skill system , u can use points to "customize" pvp skills...

I would prefer that the bonuses be on gear to reduce the grindy nature of the gear treadmill that we're all running on. To me, I would prefer a large assortment of bonuses, but specifically a bias toward QoL bonuses that don't actually make you do more DPS if you're perfectly optimized already. For example, bonuses that extend the duration of buffs that you could keep up anyway (greased lightning, enochian, etc.), buffs that remove restrictions (ley lines follows you/ you can use anyone's ley lines/ anyone can use yours, add an additional workable position to MNK abilities -- side+ front instead of just side) and of course, just buffs in general (increase proc rates on various skills, increase potency on various skills, remove/ reduce cooldowns and costs).

I would also really like to see some creative thinking, though balance can get weird if you get too imaginative. There are also general (not skill specific) enhancements that would be great to see. Increased TP/HP/MP regen (and GP if we're going outside of combat), double/ triple attack, counter attack, an actual evasion stat perhaps, something along the lines of XI's conserve MP (randomly reduced cost of spells), TP/MP cost reducers (combined with TP regen could push skillspeed builds in longer battles), TP/MP cost increased (combined with additional attack power), increased movement speed, increased range, various absorb effects (though probably best reserved for DRK), etc.

There's a lot that they could do, especially since right now they're pretty much doing nothing.

I'm not sure whether having them as materia would be the way to go.
Otherwise you just choose the highest ilvl or the highest stat weight item and just remeld the materia.

It should be in built into the gear itself. But as you said, don't have a dozen of the same item with different effects. Simply just have 1 special effect on each gear per tier. This way devs don't have to spend ages inventing new
stuff and each new effect is considered 'new'.
E.g. relic weap has bonus, raid weap will not. raid ring has bonus, token ring will not. token belt has bonus, raid belt will not etc.
Not all pieces of gear need them. Limiting them to the above (or any other 4 pieces is fine)

Bonuses can be whatever, but the idea is that in certain turns, the token ring for example will be better than the raid ring for some classes and so on.
This encourages swapping of gear sets between different content.

I think by adding the Merit Point system from FFXI would be the best way to do it each class has its own, I think in ffxi it was every 10k exp you got 1 point but in ffxiv it would be maybe every 100k exp for a point that way we have lots of customization for our jobs. so once you hit the level cap you start earning merit points every 100k exp could put points into VIT SRT. able to add things like stun DoT's Paralyze Slow etc to skills or less CD more dmg to some skills make some traits better. BLM could some one for like Ice Potency and fire to make fire and ice spells do more dmg. its endless

I think materia is the way to go. Have them drop from bosses and low level/story roulette when there's a new player involved, new battle content, etc. Though I'd really like them to just go nuts with gear/effects, they won't. I do think they might consider effects that deal with something that isn't a job's primary role. For example: tank effects that buff their support or mobility, healer buffs to toughness and maybe utility, and stuff like that - especially if you have to give up multiple materia slots to get good effects. Just some thoughts off the top of my head would be stuff like increased movement speed during fight or flight, longer duration for cross-classed mantra, longer duration on storm's path, parries "activate" reprisal for longer, shroud of saints increases defense, or whatever.

The game just needs something to make gear interesting at all. Materia was a step in the right direction, but I still feel pretty much nothing when I get a new item. I'm almost done with gear for this patch (if my group ever kills brute justice) and I don't care at all.

The "Materia melded into gear" way sounds best but dependant on "what" materia is used. Slight trait buffs is okay, full ability changes arn't but would be okay if they were only allowed to be melded to the soulstone (3 max if lv60 maybe) u could even use both types & call them "Skill" & "Trait" materia just make it so u need something special for the "Trait" ones as a Soulstone is diff then gear. It would at lest add a twist to what u'd meld into the new system they added for tome/raid gear provided they keep this system for future tome/raid gear (by new I mean they added materia slots & no over-melding on them)

They could even troll us a bit by adding a "Materia Recovery" system where the gear is destroyed to recover the materia on it (great if u melded raid gear with "trait or skill" materia but would suck for tome gear cause of the upgrade system it always has)

We had special effects and skill bonuses on gear in 1.0.
We have it in XI as well.

But the thing is, neither of those are as linear as XIV is now. To properly do this, you'd want to get rid of the vertical climb, and instead offer challenges that give people marginally different stats, rather than marginally higher stats. At the end of the day, there's always going to be a BiS so even with a drastic change to gear progression, not much will change.
Personally, I'm all for this. But I could imagine many not wanting it.

It never occurred to me in my response, but, I think that the idea of placing these materia on our soul crystals would be probably the best way to implement such customization. Having a full assured five slots of materia on each soul crystal that we could meld onto them would be amazing for customization. You keep the market for these materia healthy by regularly introducing new changes to abilities and having the materia do what all materia does when removed, be destroyed along with all of the other materia in the item.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Canadane

We had special effects and skill bonuses on gear in 1.0.
We have it in XI as well.

But the thing is, neither of those are as linear as XIV is now. To properly do this, you'd want to get rid of the vertical climb, and instead offer challenges that give people marginally different stats, rather than marginally higher stats. At the end of the day, there's always going to be a BiS so even with a drastic change to gear progression, not much will change.
Personally, I'm all for this. But I could imagine many not wanting it.

---

If the effects are on materias then there is not really a problem with the vertical gear climb. You can just transfer the effect to your new gear with farming the materia again.
It will be only a problem if the effect is fixed on the gear itself.