Gear level, the final nail in the games coffin.

[Unaki]

Wait, what? You level sync, but your armor still applies.. least last time I checked. Works the same as fates doesn't it?

Its a FLOOR, not a CEILING.

[Xaphire]

Um what? There is no Darklight weapon. The only "weapons" that drop in Palace are the blunted weapons and pieces to make the weapons required for A Relic Reborn. And those weapons are really damned expensive to get crafted or buy depending on the class.

Okay guy. Because the last boss of Wanderer's Palace doesn't drop Darklight weapons. I wonder why I had this: http://xivdb.com/?item/6274/Darklight-Composite-Bow until I got my Ifrit (and then Garuda's) bow.

They're ilevel 55, same as the GC weapons.

[Furio]

Excuse me OP, but could you explain why it's wrong for someone to only accept players with equal equipment and experience?

If I would make a group, I would most definitely scrutinize every individual's gear to see if they were up to the task. I've never minded carrying friends through content but I've always refused to do so with pick-up groups.

You define these players as "elitists" while you think you're entitled to a spot in their group. I hate to break it to you, but you're not. It's not your right nor their duty to bring you along.

Also, what kind of FFXI did you play... That's where real elitism was at in my experience.

[Neri]

I wish I could just grind dungeon for gear though. I am having terrible luck lately for some reason. 10 run in Totorak and not even 1 piece of tank equipment drop T-T. The rest of the items, I just pass them for the members.

So right now, I just trying on my own to create HQ armor/weapon/accessory pieces to wear instead. Don't know how it is compared to the equipments drop from dungeon though.

[Panthan]

Srsly, I don't get this 'elitist' thing. There shouldn't even be an issue: you ought to be clearing the content and gearing up before you go on to harder stuff. Are people this impatient?

I mean, the terrible drops at Ifrit are enough to get anyone upset (I'm at win 67 with no cudgel for my BLM still), but cmon guys.

And that is precisely what Im saying, it isnt an issue. Im not the one who is complaining about this, Im all for it.
If anything, gearscore is just another scapegoat, people do NOT need gearscore to reject people based on gear at all. Thats the bitter truth of the matter that the people who ARE complaining about it chose to ignore.

[Suellen]

The problem with gearscore in other games is that it cause those who fall behind to get stuck behind. When the community at large has a gearscore X because the average player has been at max level for many moons, they will view X as the standard. So when a person comes in with a score of X-1 people will be like what the heck why are you so low!! Well they are low because they haven't run as many dungeons as the community at large (because they got the game only recently or they can only play once a week as examples).

Now you might say well that's the point they should run the lower tier dungeons. But they can't because the community at large has that low level dungeon on farm. They want an "on farm" run so they want people at their gear score or the gear score of X. So even though the dungeon is the appropriate dungeon for someone at X-1 they won't get any groups for it because everyone wants farm status members at X.

You might get lucky and join a guild but more than likely guilds won't be that helpful cause they are either guilds that have that lower level dungeon on farm (or just simply done with it) and don't want to bother running it enough to get a new fledgling member the gear they need to get to X. Or they are a guild that never really cared about that stuff being more casual and thus don't really run level 50 dungeons anyways.

So you end up with a divided community those that keep up with the Joneses and those that are screwed all to hell and eventually quit because no one is willing to give them a chance.

I'm not saying this will be the case in this game but the track record for games with gearscore so far is bad. It usually turns the community to mud as it doesn't promote the healthy inclusion of new members that come into the game later.

[Vydos]

I belong to the group that supports the iLVL gear check. And I don’t understand why people are making such a huge fuss about it.

The thing is…We don’t know which instances/battles will receive this.

All of the storyline dungeons can easily be cleared with non-optimal gear. So I’m sure that S-E will make the requirement really low or simply won’t put any. I’ve seen people post things about the final storyline instances and other ones. Having one person complain that someone was running it in their AF gear.

Really, you just need to play the instances to understand what the requirement most likely are. (not 100% accurate at all but this is an impression I’m getting)

Storyline level 50 instances: AF gear
Wanderer’s palace: AF gear and appropriate accessories (ilvl +48)
Amdapor keep: AF gear, ilvl +50 weapon and appropriate accessories (ilvl +48)
Ifrit(hard): AF gear, ilvl +50 weapon and appropriate accessories (ilvl +48)
Garuda(hard): Need a few pieces of dark light at least, or a good amount of the lvl 60 gear
Titan(hard): Even more dark light gear

Binding coil of bahamut: ??? (probably full darklight at least or a mix of darklight with a few af+1 armors)

I should note however. That it is possible to win some of these instances with crappy gear. But this is because it’s being compensated by other party members having very good gear. Which leads to being “carried” through the instance.

Most of the time I see the DPS classes and sometimes healers who will wear crappy equipment. Thinking that they just need to deal damage and they’re sure to win everything. As long as the tank does it job properly and everyone keeps being healed up by the healer. Which often leads to subpar DPS classes in amdapor keep not being able to kill the gnats or the demon wall quickly enough. Same thing then happens with Garuda(hard).

[Sove92]

Issue here is that level 70 gear (Darklight) doesn't really take skill to obtain, it's nothing but a ridiculous grindfest for tomes. The patience required is way beyond the limits of more casual players. I'm casual, but I don't suck either.

[Mordavius]

While I don't care for the epeen centric players that gear score breeds, I understand why it is needed for tiered high end content. Just because you have a high score doesn't mean you are a master at your class, it just means you have a higher chance of being par for the course. The game can't judge if you can carry your weight in an instance. It can judge if your gear is suitable though. That's the true use of gearscore. You need to understand if you want to see endgame, you must prepare for it by getting all your items up to snuff. That isn't being an elitist, it's called strategy. Later on this will be even more apparent in end game. I can be uber ninja on the keyboard, but if my gear is way below what is truly needed to clear the raid, yeah all I am doing is hurting the group.

[MakotoNano]

"oh hey look I unlocked HM Garuda and HM titan... I should totally DF farm them for my relic. Level 50 gear? nah don't worry I did Sunken temple at 34 a bunch, I'm good for gear!"

I'm sorry but if you call Gear level elitism because people want a tank who won't die in one hit to Titan HM, then you can invite them from your server. But if I'm going to use DF, I want people who are actually geared enough to do the place they intend too.

I'm sorry you feel the need to be carried by other players, but if we farmed the gear to do it. So can you. Its not the end of the world. Its a grief prevention system. "hmm do I take the 15 min ban from DF, or wipe for 70mins because our Paladin tank has 4k hp for HM titan...."