Quote Originally Posted by Thunda_Cat_SMASH View Post
Because if you don't need different gear sets, why even bother with making it horizontal progression? Horizontal progression implies that you'll need to change up your character on a per fight basis, whether it's by gear, talent trees, loadouts, what have you. The only game I've found that managed to do it well is Monster Hunter, and even then it's possible to brute force your way with a single gear set. Mostly.
It doesn't imply that to me. It just implies that there are multiple sets of gear all within the same basic power level. This gear is catered to differing playstyles.

While not the best example, one can look at Guild Wars 2. Here there are sets for survival, others for burst damage, others for damage over time, others for support etc. etc. You can also mix and match for balance (i.e. damage + survival, or go full damage for that glass cannon feel). It doesn't mean that I need to swap gear as I do things, it just means I can gear to my playstyle.

When I think of Horizontal progression in FFXIV, I mostly want more ways to obtain gear at the same ilvl. There is basically only 1 (or 2) gearsets per ilvl and you have no choice on secondary stats. I'd prefer a system like WoW's where you can get gear in basically any content and the secondary stats are randomized, so you can continue to progress with minor upgrades to your secondary stats (i.e. trade off -60 det for +60 crit).

I like a system that is both vertical and horizontal. This game is very much only vertical, and Guild Wars 2 went too much in the way of horizontal.

Finally, when I think of horizontal progression, I do not think about having extra fire damage which does more vs ice enemies and I do not think about changing gear while IN combat.