Required rank on all gear

[Gennosuke]

Grind grind grind to level up and wear gear is not sophisticated/accomplished at all. Try Anarchy Online system, you can wear most equipment/use most nanos any time, provide you meet the requirement (and if you don't meet the requirement but somehow still got it on beforehand, it won't be unequipped). Lvl restricted vs AO system is like comparing WoW to EVE.

Hmm, so what are you proposing exactly? I'm not familiar with Anarchy online but even in your example of AO, you say you can wear most gear/equip provided you meet requirements. That is precisely what i am talking about, in FFXIV, there are no requirements for wearing gear (save the new stuff coming through). Level based requirement is a logical and common used approach. How exactly is it not accomplished when the primary general focus of the game is ranking up? Is it not accomplished when you have to rank up to earn an ability? how is this any different? Personally i can't think of many other ways to restrict gear besides level and job based requirements, what other requirements do you speak of?
Enlighten me otherwise