Gear level, the final nail in the games coffin.

[Sapphires]

I just got a tank with a level 36 weapon trolling my wanderers palace dungeon party.
They at least need a minimal gearcheck

[Evelus]

FFXI was my favorite MMORPG, and yes, I know this isn't XI, and everyone here hates XI, but I'd liked how in XI, in those end-game raids and the like, people didn't complain about your gear. They just had fun doign it, win or lose. I'd like to at least get XI's awesome community back.

Changes like this prevent a good community from forming.

People did complain about your gear if it wasn't that great. You just happened to play with people who didn't. The same thing exists in this game as well. Just find people who are looking for a similar experience and let the other ones go with people they want to. Simple, easy, and yes gear checks are somewhat important to prevent people who just AoE spammed fates ruin other peoples time. If you find that elitist then I guess it's elitist, but quoting that 11s community was great and people didn't care just meant you were playing with the casual set.

[Taban]

My AK run tonight....had a guy show up who didn't even have monk unlocked just pugilist. When he figured out we wouldn't carry him through he started training mobs on people trying to kill them, then just went afk but showed up every now and then to jump so he didn't go afk.

[Kiara]

For every person that makes this statement. There are 10 great players that clear content the aforementioned person has never seen with lesser gear and greater skill.

I would agree with that. I think there are valid points on both sides, and I've been in DF parties where someone showed up completely undergeared for Titan Hard (and cost us (they died quickly due to an undodgeable skill Titan uses)). I think one aspect of "Gear Score" that bugs me (I can't speak for everyone) is that:

* It tries to label you as a NUMBER. As if all that you are, and all your skill and intangibles are somehow magically boiled down to a mere NUMBER that tries to define you.

That is what bugs me and probably some of those opposing Gear Score. There's simply no way to label each person's Skill, Smarts, Intangibles, Personality, etc. into a Number.

But at the same time, Gear Score would prevent really disastrous, severely undergeared players from entering an Instance that just can't be beat without a minimum amount of Defense, HP, DPS, etc. It's Yoshi P's new world. I would be OK with a Gear Score system if:

1. It's Confidential (displayed only to you). The Duty Finder can still lock you out, but at least it's not some Numerical Label / Bragging / Ridicule Tool for others.

2. The Gear Score Minimum isn't demanding "Top 1% Gear Or Get Out!" limits. There should still be leeway where Skill would beat out Gear (after a certain minimum is met), and that it wasn't all about Gear.

3. It's only with Duty Finder Parties. So that you can bring in Fully Formed Local Parties (w/ Friends / LS / FC mates) that you might be helping out / training / helping them clear (even if they are slightly undergeared).

Thanks.

[rubina]

Where are all the under geared success stores with their runs against HM Titan? Where are their instructional strat Titan HM videos? For the life of me, all I ever see are HM Ifrit & HM Garuda runs that they were carried through but the campfire stories never seem to include HM Titan.

[ChickensEvil]

I find it hilarious that the vast majority of the people I see posting here to complain about this don't even have a level 50 class... unless the website has just failed to update your character since you hit level 17... I think you should wait to judge the content until you have actually RAN THE CONTENT FFS!

For those who are level 50 and have seen this I see two crowds forming. Those who are totally for this, and those who are for this, but with reservations. I would venture to guess that they are not going to REQUIRE an iLvl on content that drops the same level of gear, since it would then be impossible to run said content... ever. It will likely be one or two tiers lower than the content itself which is reasonable.

I think all anyone is complaining about is people going into these dungeons with level 20-40 gear on and expecting to be carried. There is ABSOLUTELY no reason not to have a full set of gear that is better than I think 42/43 and I would venture to guess that the only piece that is sitting at that level would be a ring. Why? Because they give you all this gear through quests. You don't have to pay for the gear, you don't have to endlessly grind content, go run the stupid quests. If you had actually just done all the quests from 45-50 you wouldn't even have this problem. Your weapon should either be a GC level 45 green or a quest level 49 white.

These are not *tough* requirements. This is not elitist. This is just us telling you to PLAY THE GAME. With that minimum requirement, you can clear AK, Ifrit and Garuda if you are skilled enough. I cannot speak for Titan since I haven't tried, but I also don't have 3k health yet, which is a little bit tougher since I am a mage. My lowest piece of gear is 45.

[Eshura]

I find it funny that people think this is an elitist thing.

It is considered an elitist thing because even if your stupid gear level is a few points off or something (like say, you're missing a belt or gloves) you're gonna be told you cant go because you're too under geared. And even with gear levels that's no guarantee that the player is at all competent. They could be playing a friends account, they could have been power-leveled by a friend, or even bought their character off Ebay or from a gil-seller. Gear levels are pointless and only serve as a point of discrimination.

I agree however that you should play the game if you have any intention of doing the raids or whatnot, but gear levels are totally necessary, you should be rated by your competence not the random numbers on your gear.

Also ChickensEvil: Just because someone isn't level 50 on here doesn't mean diddly, there are other mmos out there, and some of us are speaking from past experience with previous MMOs.

But again I say, I agree that players need to play the game and they will have sufficient protection, but just relegating us to a number and claiming that will indicate just how reliable and competent we are is like giving a drivers license to a 16 year old and expecting excellent driving because of their age.

[SolviteSekai]

Why cant people realize their obsessive idea about how FFXI was the perfect game is just nostalgia.

FFXI had elitists too. That's reality.

[Jynxii]

Post

The thing is, as mentioned above, you can't measure skill, and despite how much people want to kick and scream about gear score, or how skill trumps gear, there simply are gear checks within content that should be met, and some people either are unaware of them, or choose to ignore them. Yes, gear score and restrictions on the duty finder are necessary either so people are aware they do not meet the gear requirements, or to stop people from trying to sneak in and affect 7 other players.

What it will do is, when you try to use DF, if someone has the gear but lack skill, you will leave and queue back into players that have the gear, and hopefully have increased skill; You're gambling against one variable, not two. And I think someone already pointed this out, but just because some people claim you need full Darklight to do it, it doesn't necessarily mean you do, and I'm sure Squeenix know better than the 'elitist' player base.

Even with the gear checks, since 90% of content is DF'able, you won't have to deal with 'elitists' that want you to be geared to the teeth for the content, because so far the only content you can't DF is BCoB, and incidentally, you do need some pretty significant gear for that (on top of skill/coordination etc). 'Bad' players will get rooted out through natural selection on server-based content, and they'll either come complain about the game being too hard, or move onto the next game.

I've said it before, but I hope SE wait a couple of months before 'tuning' content so they can at least support the attitude of their paying customers, and not those that are going to stop at the end of the month.

[Mkilbride]

How did this get 40 pages? Tried to read the first couple, but to much repeating going on.