Itemization in FFXI in unexciting

[Duelle]

Take the poetics caster set for example, like 9 of 11 pieces have accuracy on them. Seems a bit excessive.

This is intentionally bad itemization to encourage people to trudge through content using poetics gear but ultimately aim for gear from final coil. It's more noticeable for some classes more than others, but it's there. If you notice the gear with "good" stats for the most part comes from final coil; as a tank I end up swimming in parry, for example.

I actually hated the gear-swapping aspect of that game. But what's worse, if you did it like you were supposed to, you never actually saw your character fighting. It'd always be invisible while the game loaded the new graphics.

That was more an oversight that the developers did nothing about. My dislike for swaps was known to those who played with me, and I can say it really soured my outlook on XI's combat design.

I have to admit, gear in FFXIV is far to vanilla for my tastes. Every single item you can 'upgrade' to is just the same as before with a recolor and a few extra levels added on. Even the original Guild Wars had more horizontal variety than this game does. The problem is the developers are too scared to add unique and interesting stats in the fear that one piece will be coveted above the others.

Truth be told this happens anyway, but people turn a blind eye to it for some reason.

Because the ends achieved through gear is to reach whatever stat cap or threshold that needs to be reached in order to progress. BiS as a concept is VERY different from things like the lv51 elemental staves. The former is part of progression, plays into your character growing more powerful and is tied with current content. The latter involves items overbudget for the level at which players can use them, and end up hurting future itemization or helping in power creep. Not to mention all those wasted database slots for items and the art assets involved.