Alienation of Dedicated and Skilled players

[zosia]

What you're asking for is not a simple stat adjustment, but a whole new stat itself. Such entails redesigning the entire game'sstructure to accommodate for these changes. Old content needs to be rebalanced, new content has to add in this extra variable to "keep stats interesting" as you've so eloquently implied. A better example would them adding Rogue, which the devs have said became such an enormous drain on both their resources and the team itself, they will never do classes again outside of an expansion.

We already have gear effects on GC gear, the game structure does not need heavy modification to add interesting gear effects.

We already have game structures that allow the dev team to synch your gear, ignore certain stats, and ignore melds. All the old content simply needs the same switch applied to any new gear stats that might break any old content.

This drain on resources is not as huge of a problem as you make it out to be. It's also a terrible excuse to not change anything when the formula is getting stale and you only need to look to that strawpoll thread that the majority here on these forums want change. If the majority of the players want change, the minority, such as your self, need to suck it up and unserstand your unpopular opinion about the stale state of the game is just that, unpopular.

Furthermore, traits, buffs and etc have been mentioned throughout this thread. Those are not "very easy" implementations either. You're presuming they need change a few bits of code, some numbers and voila. Now if it code were ever so simple.

Just use the features from PvP and other synced dungeons to turn off gear bonuses, a tool already in-game, to avoid the 'complex' web of coding.

The irony here is astounding. Your entire post presumes to ignore people will not follow along with an established norm despite them doing precisely that even when provided with some degree of customization. We can choose our attributes-- both personal and in the latest Anima step. No one does. Instead, they ask "what stats should I allocate?" And are told which scales best. You cannot ignore this variable because it doesn't suit your argument.

Ofc people do that. But what if the relic had a proc effect? You know, some special effect that the zeta was supposed to have when we finished it? Man, every topic on these forums just reminds me of another thing the dev team back peddled on.

I do love how you completely gloss over the notion "casual" players may actually invest more time into this game than their "hardcore" counterparts, yet then presume they would have any interest in the system that ultimately serves little purpose to them. People who are not dedicated raiders will not care about stat allocation for the most part. They want actual new content like Deep Dungeon, The Aquapolis, an improved Diadem, more things to craft, and yes, glamour.

You are making brash assumptions that casual players don't care at all about optimization and gear effects. Based off of the poll thread in this forums, you're wrong so far. 75% of the votes so far want change. You are in the minority and your opinions don't matter anymore.

And even amongst the raid community itself, people do not unanimously agree horizontal progression is worthwhile. Most want the fights themselves to be more interesting.

See the strawpoll thread, The majority on these forums want change. You're the minority and your opinions are worth investing in on this topic.

I don't even know where to begin with this. You've... completely ignored any form of context. I explicitly said my intent was BiS once I reached 60 on MNK. And the only reason I haven't done so yet is because the gear I already have outpaces all of the content I am currently participating in. Upgrading now wouldn't benefit me. That is not a counter example, but a direct adherence to the norm. I have worked out what is "best" relevant to where I am in the story. Anything more is overkill, and a gil loss.

except most gear is free? How is that even a gil loss? Stop making excuses.

But the takeaway remains people chose the most optimal approach and expected that of others. That has remained the crux of my point. STR vs VIT is merely an example of it. At the end of the day once people discover the most efficent way to do something, most will.

That point does not mean we can't have set bonuses, more ring choices, a trinket slot, etc etc. There are so many improvements that could be implemented into the gear system and the only refute you can seem to come up with is "people won't want/like it!" Strawpoll says otherwise.