Proposed Crystal Tower Changes (+Dungeon)

[Kevee]

EQ had tons of gear and there weren't "must haves". This gear had effects on it as well. You also had choices of what slot you got effects and what effects you prioritized.

I was in a high end guild in EQ, and while there were minimums we had for fights (hps, mana pool size, etc)... it wasn't as boring and strict. There was huge variety within raiding tiers of gear to get.

EQ had tons of horizontal progression and not much vertical, that's why. You can't mix the 2 to the extent the poster above was stating.

You can't have must-have procs/augments because that diminishes vertical progression, and if you have too strong of a vertical progression then procs/augments mean nothing.

You have to pick one, and with the way FFXIV works it's better to be vertical. There's no gear-swapping, abilities are limited with jobs, and there's a finite amount of stats needed for every encounter. The rest is execution(which both FFXI and EQ lacked, which is also where a horizontal system works better).

Now, you CAN pair vertical and horizontal, but it needs to be at every tier. Not just specific, lower, ones. The augments would have to be balanced around all gear levels so that higher level gear is always stronger.
If that's the case..Why do it?

[ApolloGenX]

EQ had tons of horizontal progression and not much vertical, that's why. You can't mix the 2 to the extent the poster above was stating.

I agree, there was less vertical progression.. although it was certainly there and meaningful.

Not to mention character progression via AAs.

IMO this is a superior strategy since it decreases power creep and inflation. WoW has already had to squish stats - what? Twice? At least?