SE enough of the treadmill, please make the game more interesting!

[LineageRazor]

Probably the largest contributor to Boring Gear Syndrome in this game is a huge mistake that was made here similar to a mistake made in Diablo III: Primary stat appears in every gear slot. One of the things that worked well in Diablo II and FFXI is that there were many gear slots where primary stat never or rarely appeared, or appeared in negligible quantities.

In FFXI, jewelry rarely had primary stats, and when they had them they were in comparitively small amounts. Playing Thief? You COULD take that neckpiece with three DEX - OR you could take the one with ten accuracy and evasion. In Diablo II, it was perfectly feasible to be wearing one of the early game Unique artifacts even well into late game.

In this game and in Diablo III (another game justly accused of having excruciatingly boring equipment) every piece of gear has primary stat on it, as well as a smattering of secondary stats. There's nothing to strive for except increasing primary stat, and POSSIBLY finding pieces that include your desired secondary stats without sacrificing too much primary stat (though the boosts provided by secondary stats are so meager that many don't even bother and just aim for whatever the current highest piece of gear is). There's not even the slightest bit of encouragement to consider retaining any lower-level items - because those lower level items have exactly the same stats as higher level items, except the stats aren't as high. In FFXI, items like Peacock Charm (level 33) and Swift Belt (level 50) stayed relevant until level 99 - and would have been even WITHOUT taking into consideration the ability to swap gear mid-battle!

SE needs to introduce equipment that includes enticements strong enough to make players consider continuing use, even after equipment evolves further in terms of raw stats. For example, a DRG helmet that halves the recast of Spineshatter Dive, or a PGL/MNK belt that enables the Silence effect of Arm of the Destroyer even when not in Opo-Opo form, or a CNJ/WHM earring that enhances the chance of Freecure proc from 15% to 25%. While some of these may only be situationally useful, they're gear you could put on before engaging in a fight that would give you an advantage that could well make up for the loss of stats.

This, I believe, would help to lift the gear-grind out of the primary stat ghetto it's stuck in, and give folks more of an incentive to try for a variety of different endgame activities.

[treuhavik]

Awesome Stuff

^ Needs more votes.

[Velhart]

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You really want to go to a system where lower level gear can potentially be better than higher level gear? Okay. SE would have to completely redo how stats in the game works and make secondary stats powerful enough that it competes with a main stat itself. FFXI's design of low level gear being relevant last I recall was not a praised feature. Was common complaint that new gear always felt irrelevant most of the time because gear like Haubergeon+1 was just better. It wasn't till end of ToAU/WoTG till we actually started seeing gear that could compare to it. Not to mention, it will inevitably become an unbalanced mess if low level gear had relevancy with high level gear. That means every time SE (who adds new gear roughly every 4 months) has to take into consideration of each piece of gear before it. FFXI updated it's gear about every year or so and didn't take into consideration of gear before it. I can give FFXI a pass because it was bound to PS2 limitations and cannot keep adding gear at the capacity they can with FFXIV now. You are creating a mess trying to do this, its not simple as you think it is. With the way it is set up now, it is much easier for SE to keep balance and don't have to take into consideration gear of the past.

Secondary stats do more than enough for people wanting to build a set to their liking. People do BiS if it is horizontal or vertical, but its there.

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I remember in WoW before they changed it to getting a set amount of valor during the week is you had to get on daily to do it. You could get valor in one dungeon run a day, and it would reset the next day, obligating you to be on every day if you were a dedicated player. Was changed to resetting every week and can get the amount you could in a week in a day if you wanted.

[Zarzak]

BLM's got buffed in response to how the class performed versus encounter design (because encounters with mobility elements were pimp-slapping BLMs). [/COLOR]

Mostly off topic but the funny thing is... They literally did nothing to help BLM mobility. They actually nerfed the one ability they could use while moving. Instead they came up with the brilliant idea to buff their stationary damage.

No, it is not "goes out of their way"
Because Yoshida announced this since beta.

No... What he announced was that lower end players would eventually see the content because they would gain more gear/levels thus making the content easier for them because their stats would exceed what the content was designed for.

So they would beat 1-5 because they now have ilvl 100 gear (weathered soldiery) which is 15-20 levels higher than what the content was designed for. And if that wasn't enough they would get ilvl 120 gear (unaugmented poetic) and be 25-30 levels higher than what the content was designed for.

[Ultimatecalibur]

<Gear concepts that actual have serious problems.>

I'm sorry, but what you are describing is just as problematic as the current situation. A low level piece that stays BiS through out most of the game means that said piece is far to good and therefore the gear in that slot is imbalanced. Once you have that piece you have no need to get any other piece in that slot unless a new piece that is Better becomes available.

What there needs to be more of is actively performed content where max ilevel gear is not necessarily BiS or near-BiS and itemization for BiS is not the same. For example, BiS and near-BiS in FCoB is not the same a BiS and near-BiS for i80 Frontlines. Many BiS and near-BiS pieces in i80 Frontlines are not i130, but all FCoB BiS and near-BiS pieces are i130. This creates a situation where a player active in both sets of content ends up with multiple gear sets containing mostly different pieces.