More interesting loot please! Here are some ideas!

[KisaiTenshi]

This game is seriously lacking in fun effects on equipment. Yes please to the OP. Devs need to worry less about being so anal about balancing and worry more about having a fun game.

That's just the thing, this game is balanced, sometimes too balanced. They can't put anything really cool as a passive effect on dungeon drops otherwise as a previous poster said, the gear becomes mandatory. Then you see everyone wearing exactly the same thing.

I'd rather "anything cool" as a passive effect be something that can be melded to gear rather than change the nature of the dungeon drops. That's kinda how FF7 did it anyway. I'd kinda prefer that some of the "Materia provides a cool effect/rare skill" be something, not just stat buffs.

But that would again mess with the balance in a way where someone melds w-cast + ultima to one BiS gear and just wipes the floor in FCoB or something.

[Zaft]

Then you see everyone wearing exactly the same thing.

Are you implying that isn't the case right now? Every class has one set of BiS and everyone (who can obtain it) is wearing it. There is zero customization right now.

[kyuven]

Her point is moot anyway since FFXIV doesn't include in-battle gear swapping.

Not exactly. You may not be able to swap in combat, but if you have items with certain effects you will be expected to have these items for the specific situations, and have them equipped during those situations.
For example, the aforementioned proc'ing fire bracelet would be REQUIRED for dungeon runs where defensive stats are less important than DPS, meanwhile anything that futzes with defenses will be REQUIRED for the bosses.
And once again I must bring up the point that FFXI never really addressed with sincerity and that this game is, by the dev's own admission, suffering from: Item storage space.
Starting next expansion, there will be 23 classes in this game. There are currently 25 slots in the armoury. Having "more options" for gear sounds "great" on paper, but we simply do not have the space for all those gear sets. Even if SE does expand the inventory, we will NOT have the room for as many sets as adding "fun n crazy" items would require.
As mentioned in my EQ1 example, this created a LOT of problems.

Materia should be just stats, some crafted gear already has an advantage a bit.

However, there can be other ways to do it!

They can be items you equip on your character to give them unique procs and such.

This would be a more practical solution, so long as these items are balanced. Things like "Decreases MP consumption of Foe Requiem" or "Decrease recast time of Benediction" or "Increase Mana Regen of Shroud of the Saints by X%"
Stuff like that.

Are you implying that isn't the case right now? Every class has one set of BiS and everyone (who can obtain it) is wearing it. There is zero customization right now.

Not every class has a "fixed" BiS. There is some wiggle room to better fit personal playstyles, and the fact that there are plenty of options to attain those builds. It's not as robust as a lot of other games, but it doesn't NEED to be. This isn't Champions Online or Rift, after all. For some class certain stats just aren't worthwhile, rather than lacking options.

[StouterTaru]

Those sound like something that should be added as character traits, not as pieces for gear really.

I'm not saying they are bad ideas, however it just gives the developers a lot of work they need to do. When they could just add them on traits and not have to deal with it. The traits can be unlocked via achievements or quests.

The problem with traits like that is if they are class specific and not something everyone can use it becomes part of class balance as an issue. In which if you get a effect that is better then other classes people will complain about it, and its happened before.

However, when its on items everyone can use - its a fair playground. Nobody has a special item advantage over another.

I think classes themselves are way too similar and need more fun stuff to work with. Not exactly with gear though.

Even if they aren't job/class specific, one job/class will see a much greater boost than any other from any specialized boost that could be added, unless they are just novelty abilities. Your list is almost role exclusive, and with the way gear works they would either need a main attribute(s) or be an incredible boost to an ability, you even based them around the STR/VIT/DEX/INT/MND gear.

If SMN and BLM share the same boosts, it is very likely one will get much more use out of it than the other. Look at the 400 threads about spell speed on shared gear helping SMN in no way at all. If they aren't job targeted (even if equippable by all jobs) you will have jobs that complain about how other jobs get cool gear and all they get is useless junk.

[Zaft]

Not every class has a "fixed" BiS. There is some wiggle room to better fit personal playstyles, and the fact that there are plenty of options to attain those builds. It's not as robust as a lot of other games, but it doesn't NEED to be. This isn't Champions Online or Rift, after all. For some class certain stats just aren't worthwhile, rather than lacking options.

Not really. Some slightly differ from fight to fight (for example, I wouldn't wear all STR jewelry as a WAR to T13 like I do T10-12), but there are specific, BiS sets that obtain the highest numbers.

You can choose to wear something else, but your performance will not be as high as the person who wears his BiS. Personal playstyle has nothing to do with BiS and min/maxing.

[kyuven]

Personal playstyle has nothing to do with BiS and min/maxing.

Depends. There are enough situational differences and arguing as to what IS BIS for different jobs that there IS some flexibility. For example, the debate about how much skill speed is enough, and the BLM debate over crit and det.
Everyone has something they're comfortable or not comfortable with.

[Zaft]

Depends. There are enough situational differences and arguing as to what IS BIS for different jobs that there IS some flexibility. For example, the debate about how much skill speed is enough, and the BLM debate over crit and det.
Everyone has something they're comfortable or not comfortable with.

Again, you can be more comfortable with one than the other, but one is going to give you higher throughput than the other. It may differ based on the fight, but one WILL be superior to the other, and that's not something that can be changed unless stats/skills are changed. For example, let's pretend that, for fight X, set #1 gives 500 DPS and set #2 gives 520 DPS. Set #2 is clearly better. You might prefer set #1 because you're more comfortable with that stat allocation, but you are not maximizing your potential.

It's similar to Fire and Arcane Mages right now on WoW. As you can see below, both Fire and Arcane are very good choices, and are only a few percent apart. However, in a Patchwerk style boss fight, it is clear that Arcane is the superior choice. There's no debate, it's just math.

[randysquirrel]

Using BLM as an example, as that is what I main...
I WOULDN'T want the effects to be a permanent passive boost (eg increased DEF 5%) as I think this is the sort of gear that people might insist you have or kick you (if that ever became an issue).
I WOULDN'T want it to be something like an increase to my proc chance (+1% chance of thunder proccing thundercloud, so 6% in total) - am I going to notice a increase in procs I receive? probably not. When I do get a proc, do I know if it's because of this new funky gear or not? No.
I WOULD want it to be a chance of something proccing (I think by only being a chance it's not game-breaking enough that anyone could insist you have that gear), something that I don't currently have, so when it does happen I know "ah thank you special loot, you did this ". Which is why I suggested flare proc, or maybe convert CD reset, +20% SS for 20 secs

[StouterTaru]

Again, you can be more comfortable with one than the other, but one is going to give you higher throughput than the other. It may differ based on the fight, but one WILL be superior to the other, and that's not something that can be changed unless stats/skills are changed. For example, let's pretend that, for fight X, set #1 gives 500 DPS and set #2 gives 520 DPS. Set #2 is clearly better. You might prefer set #1 because you're more comfortable with that stat allocation, but you are not maximizing your potential.

That's because of the current stats, BiS for damage comes down to highest ilvl, cap accuracy, get crit/det as secondaries.

A boost to crit damage and a different piece with TP cost reduction could make viable crit hit heavy builds and skill speed heavy builds.

[Nadrojj]

Just want to add my 2 cents to this. I'd just like to see some rare/unique gear. In ffxi you didn't need to have leaping boots, but if you really wanted a stat boost for your jobs at an early level you could camp leaping lizzy. The stat boost wasn't earth shattering but in my opinion it did help. I just wish there were better alternatives, rare items that we could go after instead of just, crafted/dungeon drop item. In 1.0 we had rare spawn monsters who dropped rare items. They were marginally better than what was available at your current level.No one ever said to me I won't party with your bard because you don't have an owl's bow. This dropped from jackanapes, a rare nm that spawned every five minutes. It took me like 25 kills before I got the drop with a buddy of mine. Did I need it? Nope. Was it rare and some other people might not have it and did I think that was kind of cool? Yup. I wish that 14 would add some things like this to keep those of us who like hunting down rare gear busy. I loved hunting lesser nm's in 11 and showing up to a party and having someone say, whoa, what's a mist silk cape? Where'd you get it? Oh it drops from a NM named spiny spipi! I loved hunting nm's it's something I sorely miss in 14.

Sorry a bit of a ramble, below are the stats of leaping boots compared to what was offered at that level range.

Leaping boots - dropped from a notorious monster leaping lizzy
Level 7 - Def 3 - Dex 3 - Agi 3

Leather Highboots
level 7 - Def 2