All relics, weapons, armor, accessories, etc. are bland.

[Iroukan]

In version 1.0, the AF that everyone get served on a silver plater on this version, were actually a little harder to get. The chest pieces needed a 8 mans group to do. Many of those pieces had very interesting effects, like the WHM pants (was it the pants? not sure) that were giving more potency to the Cure spell. It made it a little harder choosing between AF and DL ... but then again, DL was actualy rare back then.

[Xenobius]

The sad irony is, so many people were jumping up and down demanding token system... demanding the ability to get all the gear.

Token system is a good thing when done properly.
Under normal circumstances it serves to close the gaps in your equipment where drop RNG has been too bad for you.
The system alone =\= bland gear and zero interesting drops, since token gear was supposed to complement them, not replace completely.

[Altanas]

Maybe Blue, Pink gear and Green gear (crafted or dungeon drop) can be made to convert only into a new type of Ability or Trait materia rather than one of the current Stat materia's, and remove non-convertible status.

That would make the materia slightly rare, encourage players into all dungeons, give some crafters a benefit on the side, and for those who don't need philo tomes anymore a reason to continue farming that currency.

[Felis]

There's no sort of special abilities, effects, or interesting aspects about the gear in this game.

It's like STR+5, VIT+5, etc. one of the main statistics.

http://xivdb.com/?item/6138/Meteor-Survivor-Ring

Maybe Blue, Pink gear and Green gear (crafted or dungeon drop) can be made to convert only into a new type of Ability or Trait materia rather than one of the current Stat materia's, and remove non-convertible status.

Exactly the same what I think.
they did it already in 1.0 with the primal weapons (first only the Ifrit weapons, then also the Moogle weapons), where it was the only weapon/gear which can converted to the TP+ materia (with a chance).
I'm sure they do something like this in ARR again, where only weapon/gear from a specific content can be converted to a special materia.

[Ryans]

Like I said, I did. 3 years.

If you actually played for those 3 years, you'd know they had special stats like what you are asking for. The relics, AF and DL gear had things like "Enhanced Flare", "Enhanced Jump", Enmity+/-, Evasion+/- and Regen/Refresh. They simplified it for ARR launch so that people could get accustomed to the new changes without a convoluted stat system. Maybe they'll start putting them back in with updates or expansions.

Aside from that, please don't start talking like 1.0 is the same game as ARR. 50%+ the same content? F that. Ifrit and Garuda are the only instances that are the same as 1.0; then there is Titan. Darkhold and AV are very different now and aren't endgame. All the lvl 50 dungeons are new. Coil has 4 (5 but turn 3 doesn't count) boss fights so that is basically 4 instances. There are also 9 new and 1 remade dungeons before Darkhold and AV. That is just the obvious stuff.

[Tupsi]

You know in FFXI the game level cap was 50 at release just like it is here.

And it already had a fair bit of "special" gear and by time it hit 55+ it had even more "special" gear - Even FFXIV 1.x had special gear. XI utilize Item levels now and still retained "special stats" that pretty much makes the armor in this game look like SE got lazy. This is a new game, yes...but it's a relaunch, I mean just look at the relics and AF or even normal armor here:

http://ffxiv.mozk-tabetai.com/

Btw ^ Level 50 cap.

[Steeled]

In this thread, agreeing completely

[Lithera]

Actually there werent' many "special" stats on FFXI gear in the beginning. The NM system as everyone came to know it didn't really kick in until few updates in and again there was no AF gear yet. Go look at the earliest NM gear and all the crafted/bought gear up to level 50 from pre-Zilart. Some of the pieces didn't even have STAT upgrades! The generic gear just boosted your defense half the time with a spattering of main stat increases here and there. This game makes up for the current lack of "special" stats like direct +attack and evasion etc. by juicing up the stat bonuses on all the gear. Why put +attack when you can just put +25 STR instead of +10? FFXI's current gear is heading down this path with each ilevel having a flat increase in base stats and generic combat skill+ etc.

[Steeled]

Gotta love things like CHR on BLM gear, or enhances resist virus. So many "unique", utterly useless gear stats. I can bend a turd into a pretzel shape, but that doesn't mean it's not still just a turd.

Or you know, JA enhancing gear. No, I don't want gear swaps galore like XI had (can't gear swap at all), but the reason XI went to that is largely that while the ability enhancement was good, the gear was no longer full-time worthy.

DRG in XI has many gears that enhanced jump... monk had full chakra (second wind) sets, etc etc. I don't wanna go back to chakra sets but wearing armor for a valuable bonus is good.

I can think of another popular MMO that has tons of special effects on gear, and it's never kept around when the next tier of gear comes out.

Hmm. Do you mean WoW? If you mean WoW, I remember several 2 pc set bonuses surviving well into/through the next tier. I believe warrior (a shield tank) had a 2pc that increased their blocking by 10% (additive) when they used some ability, for 10 seconds. Warriors took the hp hit, from less ilvl STA (vit). Dps and healers did it frequently too.

[Svalitz]

I agree that the stats on Relic and Artifact are pretty lackluster...

Relic +1 should do more than glow and be higher stats...like give us a new ability with it or something at least ability enhancing...

Otherwise the problem I really have with artifact armor is how much of a throwaway it becomes and pretty much IMMEDIATELY. I know there are +1 to save up for, but that takes time. DL gear and coil gear automatically becoming the endgame gear just wastes the beautiful design of the artifact job gear...it's really disappointing.