Alienation of Dedicated and Skilled players

[ToasterMan]

This is only a problem if there is one overall best set for all content (which there shouldn't be), and if other builds aren't viable in that content (IE, in simple terms, preferring more healing power at a certain point of the fight vs being able to increase Presence of Mind duration/reduce recast time/whatever). This is called "balance" which basically means that horizontal progression can be handled horribly in one game, and perfectly in another. Single player RPGs actually have tons of horizontal progression and various strategies on how to handle bosses.

Perfect balance can never be achieved, and do you really trust SE to balance these sets fairly after the disaster that was Wanderers Minute,Gauss Barrel, and 3.0 Enochian? (I'm sure there's much more) I sure don't. They have proven time and time again that they have difficulty balancing core jobs together. You expect them to be able to balance multiple sets for these different jobs together?

[SpookyGhost]

Perfect balance can never be achieved, and do you really trust SE to balance these sets fairly after the disaster that was Wanderers Minute,Gauss Barrel, and 3.0 Enochian? (I'm sure there's much more) I sure don't.

Doesn't need to be perfectly balanced.

Also patches exist if they mess something up, it's not like if they put something out there it has to be X way forever.

[ToasterMan]

Doesn't need to be perfectly balanced.

Well then like everyone has said, people are going to find the best set of gear and use it if it isn't balanced well enough.

Also patches exist if they mess something up, it's not like if they put something out there it has to be X way forever.

Yes 3-5 five months later. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's how long it took for WM and GB to finally get fixed, I think PLD is STILL getting passed over in raids, and of course a raid wouldn't THINK about going without a Scholar, leaving the other two healers to fight over the one spot.

[SpookyGhost]

Well then like everyone has said, people are going to find the best set of gear and use it if it isn't balanced well enough.

Balanced "well enough" and balanced "perfectly" are 2 different things. Also, what I mean is balanced in relation to eachother - IE played absolutely optimally, one set will outdo the other in some regard that makes it "better". However, you don't need to play absolutely optimally in any content in the entire game. A3S and A4S used to exist, but now they don't, and even those only required that precision in early progression. If you do, fantastic, you will do slightly more [whatever] than the person with the unoptimal build. Do you think XIV's community will not only expect players to use a certain build but also play absolutely perfectly to achieve slightly higher [whatever]? Because no, they won't, they'll take either as long as they're able to do their job well enough to beat the thing. BRD and MCH aren't perfectly balanced, yet many many teams have one or the other. Same with PLD/DRK.

Yes 3-5 five months later. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's how long it took for WM and GB to finally get fixed, I think PLD is STILL getting passed over in raids, and of course a raid wouldn't THINK about going without a Scholar, leaving the other two healers to fight over the one spot.

Balance patches can come in as little as a week or two. WM/GB was a minor overall issue, and the actual balance between MCH and BRD required massive changes to multiple different abilities. PLD is the same, and also had to adjust to the STR/VIT changes - it also is completely fine right now and anyone "passing over it" is deluded - Lucrezia has been gone for awhile now, friends, and you're never going to be in Elysium. Get the min/max mentality out of your skull. Needing a SCH and a WAR for raiding content is an on-going issue that hasn't been addressed, which is something I will gladly admit (as I think something needs to be done about it), but to say that "these massive overhauls weren't done in 2 weeks, so clearly balancing one Trait/Talent/Secondary/whatever will take 3 months as well". It's just not the same.