Quote Originally Posted by Kaurie View Post
For example, gear sub 50 had random stats, class to job systems were embraced etc.
Only the aetherial (pink) gear had randomly selected stats, and that gear kinda acted like crafted gear with possible melded stats already included (example: Aetherial Iron Gauntlets and Iron Gauntlets). The majority of the gear dropped in the 1-49 dungeons was still green quality, and had set stats. All the Grand Company gear was like this too, as well as the job gear.
Nearly every job overshadowed classes by the time you unlocked them, except maybe BRD, since they mostly got songs early on. I'm not sure how that was different. Cross-class abilities were as important back then, as they are now.

I'm not sure how that example hooked you, since it hasn't really changed much since then. Dungeons still drop green gear, crafted gear is still around (which allow you to add stats of your own choice to it, similar to aetherial gear), cross-class abilities are still there, jobs still overshadow classes (although I've heard some classes are useful when soloing PotD). The only difference being that there's no more aetherial gear, but that's alleviated by the fact that you can just meld crafted gear (which has become more accessible in the more recent patches).

Perhaps it is you who changed, instead of the game?