Required rank on all gear

[DeadRiser]

The amount of misinformation in this thread is staggering. It's as if the majority of people are just spouting off ages old rumors as fact and haven't actually tested anything themselves. I have personally tested the effects of using gear under the recommended rank, and the notion that you are sub-par by doing so is unlikely at best, and flat out wrong in some cases. So here are some of the cold hard facts I've managed to collect on the matter:

FACT: Using a weapon with a much higher rank comes with the disadvantage of severely increased durability damage rates. However, both attack and accuracy are generally the same, or *better* than a rank appropriate weapon. So as long as you keep the weapon repaired, you aren't losing anything but the gil required for the frequent repairs. Shields count as armor, as far as durability damage rates are concerned.

FACT: Using armor with a much higher optimal rank offers the same or *better* defense and avoidance as rank appropriate gear. As far as I can tell, if there is a durability damage rate increase for armor, it is very, very small in comparison to the weapon, so small that I couldn't even notice a difference while actively looking for it. Small enough to level a job 1-30 without needing to repair even once.

What I haven't personally tested in-depth are stat bonuses such as STR or VIT while using gear with a higher optimal rank. It is clear that they do not give maximum bonuses until optimal rank has been met. However, they still scale downward in rank and award smaller bonuses, increasing slightly as you level up, just the same as all other gear in the game. Until the abolishment of physical levels and the re-balancing of stats, it's likely you wont notice any difference whatsoever on stats awarded from optimal gear compared to gear in which you do not meet the optimal rank.

TL;DR?

Anyone who says that using gear far above you in optimal rank hinders your performance is *wrong*. Period.

I wouldn't hold that thought too much longer. With the revamping of attributes.. I'm pretty positive it won't be efficient to equip something so high.

[Mushy]

I personally think they should keep it class/job specific. The UI should should show correct stats for using gear much higher thann your rank. Though I do think it should not degrade as fast as it does. Just level sync it and divide its additional stats from something they find relevant. (example: HP+26 => HP+12)

[Dread]

I wouldn't hold that thought too much longer. With the revamping of attributes.. I'm pretty positive it won't be efficient to equip something so high.

I just now logged in and tested with a Harrier's Jacket. At rank 30 PGL, it gave me a bonus of 4 DEX and 4 VIT. A lower rank armor, R35 Scouting Jacket, has a maximum bonus of 4 DEX 5 VIT. Chances are, if I equipped that, I'd still only get 4 DEX and 4 VIT until I leveled more.

So unless they completely redo the way gear scales, which I highly doubt since it works fine the way it is, then I am still 100% correct.

[Arcell]

I just now logged in and tested with a Harrier's Jacket. At rank 30 PGL, it gave me a bonus of 4 DEX and 4 VIT. A lower rank armor, R35 Scouting Jacket, has a maximum bonus of 4 DEX 5 VIT. Chances are, if I equipped that, I'd still only get 4 DEX and 4 VIT until I leveled more.

So unless they completely redo the way gear scales, which I highly doubt since it works fine the way it is, then I am still 100% correct.

And what of Defense, Magic Defense and Evasion? From the attribute sheet, not the gear menu.

[Dread]

And what of Defense, Magic Defense and Evasion? From the attribute sheet, not the gear menu.

Those are all equal or greater than, favoring the higher level gear as soon as you are 1 rank higher than the lower tier item. Pending both items are of the same type, of course, for example, you compare Bronze Sabatons and Iron Sabatons. If you try to compare say a Bronze Cuirass to a Vintage Haubergon, you are going to get skewed results because they are different types.

[DeadRiser]

I just now logged in and tested with a Harrier's Jacket. At rank 30 PGL, it gave me a bonus of 4 DEX and 4 VIT. A lower rank armor, R35 Scouting Jacket, has a maximum bonus of 4 DEX 5 VIT. Chances are, if I equipped that, I'd still only get 4 DEX and 4 VIT until I leveled more.

So unless they completely redo the way gear scales, which I highly doubt since it works fine the way it is, then I am still 100% correct.

I wasn't saying you are 100% wrong. I was talking about in the future when attributes actually work besides Mind and Vitality...

[Dread]

I wasn't saying you are 100% wrong. I was talking about in the future when attributes actually work besides Mind and Vitality...

Well, even if they change how stats themselves affect combat, that doesn't stop the fact that you are getting the same exact amount of stats from higher level armor as you are rank appropriate armor due to the way the game scales gear.

They would need to change the way gear scales for you to see any difference whatsoever.

[Archadius]

Yeah as long as you don't overkill it, you can wear stuff below optimal rank and it's actually pretty good. Just make sure that gear favours the class you're wearing it on.

[Radiator]

Many people play the game for many different reasons and it IS actually possible to satisfy them all by taking ideas from this thread (although there will always be the QQ). There simply needs to be different kinds of gear around:

-Rare/Ex from dungeon or NMs, hell even rare craft maybe
-Optimal gear with shown reduced stats, could be drops or crafted
-Job, Class or even Race specific gear

There doesn't have to be one right way..

[Val_Rhys]

While I agree a lot could be done to salvage the current system to make it better, more needs to change than simply making the stats visible when using gear below the optimal rank.

Dread has posted a few examples above. I posted this before but will reiterate: Dodore Doublet (r48) is better than Canvas Doublet (r26) at r30 on the favoured classes (didn't check the unfavoured). That is absurd and needs to be reduced. If they want to keep the optimal rank system, I think everyone should be able to agree that the rank in which the higher rank gear becomes better than the "appropriate" rank gear needs to be much higher. That is, the penalty for using gear higher than your rank needs to be much greater. There's virtually no purpose to a HUGE amount of gear currently ingame.