Poll: Gear progression, horizontal or vertical?

[Magis]

Horizontal. Then gear actually means something and can expand in more interesting ways than just "oh look my ilvl is 32113, that's 10 points more than my last item!".

[Craiger]

I would like there to be more options for gear to choose from... And that the stats would be more interesting.

That being said, full on horizontal progression have some big problems too...

If it's truly horizontal, people would ultimately start to question: "What's the point of this? I don't get anything out of this".... It's one thing having lots of different options for you to get, but having the same level of gear throughout the game, would kill it in the long run IMO.

How would endgame raids work?(honest question) If everyone is wearing the same level of gear, then what happens to the raids when they come out in a patch? Is it going to be too easy for hardcore players, too hard for normal players, or would they have echo in much earlier and in more increments? Right now, hardcore players beat it with mostly gear from previous patch, and maybe with crafted gear if available... Then more and more groups are able to beat it as they gear up with gear from the "easier" turns and from Tomestones. Could work with echo, but god that sounds sad...

Horizontal sounds kinda good on paper, but trust me, it would make FFXIV history...

EDIT: Also, one thing I don't understand with horizontal progression... How would they even keep making new and interesting gear that people would even want? Maybe I'm missing something, but if everything have the same level, and only different stats and whatnot, why would you even want to change your gear once you get a combination that is better than everything else? And trust me, there would be gear like that.

[Lyndis]

I would prefer a horizontal gear development.

There's no use arguing whether it exists or not because game developers acknowledge that it does. Other games do it and it's definitely possible.

I just hate doing the same grind every two months just for a slightly bigger number. I'd much rather have multiple types of content being released every two months with different gear that suits them. Then have your best in slot gear but have them take mastering all forms of content and a time consuming path to get to similar to the relic quests.

[Meier]

Horizontal/hybrid

[Iromi]

Horizontal/hybrid as well. ^^

[Renik]

snip

Yet you played for 7 years (i did for 8-9 stopped after abyssea), i guess it wasn't that bad, oh and i had a DPS nin in my low man limbus group, she was not that well geared, but very skilled, and a 60-70 yo whm, she was slow and had hard times paying attention to everything, but was good following strategies . The horizontal progression is the only that makes skill be meaningful, with vertical it's all about bigger numbers.

Just so you know, you'll be discriminated if you group up with very elitist players, but in this game only a small % of people cares about coil, and even less gets to complete it, elitist are a few here, they are just loud.

[Joshy]

Horizontal all the way.

[Sylve]

Guild Wars 2 has the 'horizontal' system you want.
Ascended is the best. Period. Not even an expansion will bring anything that's better than Ascended.
Berserkers Ascended is the only good Ascended, or any gear, period though. Because Maths.

Sure, i could build my Ranger as a Power/DoT damage/Toughness setup and clear content with my friends with it.
If i want to do a Fractal with people i DONT know, not a chance. Berserker + Greatsword or GTFO.

Why is that? Because the maths says the damage done by Berserker sets blows every other combo out of the water.
More DPS is all anyone cares about. Bigger numbers = better numbers =faster runs = more loot.

I'm not against the diagonal progression some have mentioned, technically we have it already. Dungeon sets have different stat combos than Tower/Tome sets and Coil sets.
All we need now is some form of drop that we can use to boost the Dungeon ilvl to match the current tier, Much like we do with Carbontwines and Carboncoats. Then we'd have some real diversity in stats, a choice or a sacrifice.
Same DPS, Different delivery.
Let players make the choice if they want a Skill/Spell Speed+Crit build, or a DET focused build.
Hell, add in stats that affect TP Regen speeds, MP regen ticks or stats that are purely proc based. For example, a stat that gave a small percentage to MultiHit with a skill or Auto Attack.

But don't take away the ilvl gains per patch. We *need* new things to strive for and improve ourselves with.
Do you really think people would do Savage Alexander if the ilvl for the drops was the same as Story Mode?
Savage Coil is barely cleared, not because players cant but because the gear is/was the same and people didn't want to do harder content without the reward of higher tiers of gear.
I don't understand why people feel like their time is wasted by new tiers of gear.
The old gear served its purpose and is now vanity. There's a new set to try and get, which will eventually become vanity.

Those of us who farmed full sets of i90 Artifact gear don't have to deal with the RNG of getting the Antique Tokens.
Because we farmed Darklight when it was top tier, we don't have to deal with the RNG to pick up the set for vanity now, as newer players would need to.
And so forth.

[Kiara1]

I think it would be better with horizontal gear. Cause right now everyone just gets the highest tomestone gear or coil gear and thats it. Theres no point in stats at all in this game. And tbh theres no point in gearing up either because the gear you got a month a go is trash when new gear comes anyway.
I think the gear treadmill is getting boring and I wonder how long it takes until majority of the playerbase feels the same way.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

GW2 has no "Horizontal System" Berserker gear is the best gear due to the kind of content it is. Horizontal System doesn't work without roles. So - no, its not a game we want.

Horizontal System shouldn't be balanced, it should be around the kind of playstyle you want. However this is a PvE game - Does Bahamut suddenly go on the forums and care about who has a bigger advantage in stats or crunched a bit better? Lol.

Anyways.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-some-ideas%21

This is a perfect example of fun Horizontal Progression gear.