"Perks" would do soooo much for this game

[Lemuria]

Also, I personally don't like the game forcing me into content I dislike.

This happens anyway with the current system. If you don't want to do savage raids, you'll never get upgraded Esoteric gear, or the raid equipment. So, if you want the 'best' gear, you'll be forced into content you don't like, or you'll have to go without.

Honestly, the arguments against having unique abilities have been milled into a fine powder now, and they're insubstantial. You only need to look at FFXI, which lasted 10+ years on this concept, and had a multitude of different and unique abilities which were good for different situations and attacks. There was no one-catch solution, because the gear was well designed. There were rare items which were coveted by the masses, which had significant benefits, and people worked damned hard to get them. That alone kept players coming back for more.

In this game, all gear is bland and boring. It doesn't matter if you run around in a burlap sack, as long as it's item level 200 and buffs your primary stats a little. In fact the ONLY pieces of equipment which are even slightly unique are the Hermes' Shoes which give you a sprint bonus in city states. Instead of people having any kind of a choice, we just go with whatever is the higher ilvl. It's about as railroaded as it gets, and kills any attempt at variety.

Complaining about people only choosing the 'best in slot' gear if we had all this variety, is just admitting that the system we have is already flawed. Right now, 'best in slot' is the only option we have available!

[Felis]

This happens anyway with the current system. If you don't want to do savage raids, you'll never get upgraded Esoteric gear, or the raid equipment. So, if you want the 'best' gear, you'll be forced into content you don't like, or you'll have to go without.

you don't need to do savage if you get the upgrade items also from Ark.