Esoteric gear doesn't feel like AF2

[Bhuni]

They could of easily implemented a boat load of lore for these sets with gear descriptions along with the main/sub stats on a secondary page like in Dark Souls for example.
It seems like a massive wasted opportunity considering AF will probably be the only armour we'll ever get that's unique between each Job.

[Nalien]

Drop rate is the only thing from FFXI I don't want, given how quickly gear is replaced here anyway.

Tomestones I just find to be so boring though... I would much rather farm them for a pop item, for a trial somewhere on the scale of the Relic Reborn Chimera (but solo/light party balanced), which has a 100% drop rate. So rather than trading in 990 Esoterics for a weapon, you trade in 990 Esoterics for a Moon Orb which you take to wherever for a simple little trial to get your Esoterics weapon... Would be more interesting that way, and perhaps I'd feel like my subscription fee is paying for something, because right now I feel like I've paid for two years only to get the exact same grind that was present at 2.0s launch... BCNMs were fun and creative, I'd much rather grind tomestones and look forward to an interesting trial, than just be handed the gear outright... Honestly, if you're going to give me something pathetically low like a 450 cap per week, the least you can do is throw in some extra step to actually make it seem like this game has content...

This is what they're missing sadly. The game is still really great overall but I think they're missing little odds and ends (like small group trials, semi-elaborate relic armor quests etc.) that would push that fun to a new level.

I don't think they're missing them, they're just misusing them... Treasure Maps and Hunts could be great... Treasure Maps are just pushed off to the side and have nothing to do with progression though, and Hunts are... Well, crap...

Throw away that 18h limit on gathering Maps and slap them with an item required to turn in for tomestone gear like the old encrypted tomestones and we'd be getting somewhere. That would be far from perfect, but it would at least be something. Hunts... Turn them into ZNMs; Mark Bills to earn some Seals, buy pop items, work your way up the ranks of Hunt monsters. Keep Hunts as a means to earn the items to upgrade the item level on tomestone gear, just make them force popped. You'd have the current B/A/S Ranks (with B dropping accessory upgrade items, A armor, S weapon) for Law gear, a new set when Esoterics replace Law, and so on.

What would we have then? Cheap and readily available Maps, since there would be no arbitrary lockout on obtaining them. Farm those to get a special item corresponding to accessories/equipment/weapon. Farm tomestones (which you'd also get from Maps/Hunts) to exchange for tokens. Exchange both those for the gear. Then do Hunts in order to obtain the item used to upgrade the gear.

Instead all we have is farming tomestones. AF2 should have some special twist to it, but I'd have loved the heck out of the above for Law gear...

[Gooner_iBluAirJGR]

fun and creative...

This is what they're missing sadly. The game is still really great overall but I think they're missing little odds and ends (like small group trials, semi-elaborate relic armor quests etc.) that would push that fun to a new level.

[Walluh]

I don't really care how it's obtained, I just want some lore behind it. Really disappointed there isn't any.

No AF2 yet as far as I'm concerned.

[Laerune]

Yep, I think the Esoteric should have been less tomes related and more related via a series of quest. They could make it so the quest have a cooldown, you can only 1 armour piece via a quest a week.

[Asierid]

Yep, I think the Esoteric should have been less tomes related and more related via a series of quest. They could make it so the quest have a cooldown, you can only 1 armour piece via a quest a week.

Because that sounds "fun".

[Aralyne]

While I love the look of some of the AF2 gear, I'm what most would probably call an extremely casual player who dislikes grinding the same content to get tomes/items to get the individual parts of the gear. I would love it if they had added some lore behind the new AF2 gear and made it part of a personal quest line, like the original AF gear was.

[Kallera]

Assuming they didn't have the time for this and are "making new content", what existing content would you have prefered the esoterics be in? Give or take some tweaks in difficulty?

[TheUltimate3]

While it would have been awesome to actually quest for the AF gear, I was under the impression that the reason they are Eso gear was so that it would actually have relevance, for at least a little while.

Had they been quest items, giving how they did AF1, they would have largely been outclassed by a few pieces of level cap gear and perhaps they wanted use out of them besides vanity. (And I honestly have no idea how the gear matches with Savage, I'm assuming this line of thought was more directly to me and my dirty non-raiding ways.)

[Nalien]

While it would have been awesome to actually quest for the AF gear, I was under the impression that the reason they are Eso gear was so that it would actually have relevance, for at least a little while.

They could have solved that issue fairly easily, though;

Throw in a set of Lv60 Job quests, similar to the old "A Relic Reborn (<Job>)" quests we had.
Add "Rowena's Token (Esoterics)".
Make part of the Lv60 Job quests involve turning in "Rowena's Token (Esoterics)".

Done. Now we have some interesting quests for the AF2 which can still reward relevant gear because the quest requires Esoterics. They could even have improved the grind somewhat... I've gone weapon > body, and all these weeks with only two things (not even that yet...) to show for it? That's a bummer. With quests though? My Esoterics weapon could, instead of requiring three weeks, have started week one. Lets say in total it required 10 "Rowena's Token (Esoterics)", but that was spread out over the course of the quest. So initially I could start the quest, do the first four parts perhaps, and then hit a road block due to the Esoterics cap.

Honestly though, I don't care if AF2 is relevant or not. I want it for glamours more than anything, I'd much rather have just had a generic set of Ironworks gear (or I suppose Mythology gear...) for Esoterics with AF2 being weak gear that looks amazing... Making it relevant just means I can't make two Jobs look amazing; I'm stuck progressing one Job with Esoterics, meaning I can't also gear that awesome Summoner gear...