A case of chronic gear imbalance

[MicahZerrshia]

If you are not tackling harder content there is no real reason to have gear for harder content outside glamour and because you simply want it for no other reason than to have it.

If you want it that bad you are going to work for it. And raiding is a different kind of grind in and of itself, just not one you can generally watch Netflix during as you can with lolexpert roulette. You need to give incentive to raid and since Alex is horrid when it comes to story, music or anything vaguely resembling something interesting, gear is all that's left.

If they offer the same level or kind of gear from doing laughably simple content for 15 minutes a day a few times a week endgame raiding would be dead on arrival.

[Cordie]

If you are not tackling harder content there is no real reason to have gear for harder content outside glamour and because you simply want it for no other reason than to have it..

Whereas there is substantial reason to have it for content that was cleared at i250 or less?

[Niwashi]

If you are not tackling harder content there is no real reason to have gear for harder content outside glamour and because you simply want it for no other reason than to have it.

Those are the only two reasons for anybody to want the top gear. Raiders obviously don't need it. If the hardest content provides a gear upgrade, then obviously anyone who gets it was already able to complete the hardest content without that upgrade. (In fact, the best raiders are often the ones asking for harder content. That would imply they'd be better off with weaker gear. It's the people who want to simplify the content and make it more accessible to everyone who need stronger gear, since that's the effect that stronger gear tends to have.)

[Griffey]

That's only true for the very top tier raiders. Yes they can clear the toughest raid with i250 crafted gear, which is moot considering you get the strongest gear as a reward for completing content you used weaker gear to complete, I agree. This would be remedied by adding a third harder difficulty that requires max ilevel gear and rewards you with other things, but that's a different discussion altogether.

For the rest of us mortals, we need to get the higher ilevel equipment to take on the higher tier raids.

I consider myself a casual raider. I raid 2 nights a week, and my group has got as far as a11s. We need to be able to improve our gear in order to increase our chances of beating the next fight; that's the system as intended. Raid progression for casual players. You clear a floor, get better gear, and then tackle the next fight. Also I still need to grind tomestones to buy the shire gear to upgrade in the first place, you can't rely on getting lucky drops from savage and that gear takes 4-8 weeks worth of tokens anyway to buy, which is both methods #1 and #2.

The reason why you have scrip caps and weekly Alex tokens is to make sure people don't gear up and clear the content too quickly. People who don't attempt creator savage don't need i270 gear as the current content (Sophia, expert roulette) doesn't require it for players to clear. Ater all, ffxiv is a product, and a business that relies on people coming back to play in order for it to make money.

Come 3.5 everyone will be able to upgrade their shire gear with hunts and the weekly drop from the next 24-man raid, and higher ilevel weapons presumably will be available from the next primal fight.

[Cordie]

People who don't attempt creator savage don't need i270 gear [...] Ater all, ffxiv is a product, and a business that relies on people coming back to play in order for it to make money.

3rd time I see the same mistake: Creator Savage does not need i270 gear either. Even among casual raiders all their clears were inevitably done with lesser gear.
Should it require, say, i260 (i.e. were it tuned to result in wipes with less dps/healing/vitality) that would be a valid case of keeping people coming back to p(l)ay, since everyone, including those top raiders would absolutely need to grind their upgrade to i260 for a couple of months.

Come 3.5 everyone will be able to upgrade their shire gear with hunts and the weekly drop from the next 24-man raid, and higher ilevel weapons presumably will be available from the next primal fight.

All of a sudden i270 will be required, I take it...

[Deathgiver]

That's only true for the very top tier raiders. Yes they can clear the toughest raid with i250 crafted gear, which is moot considering you get the strongest gear as a reward for completing content you used weaker gear to complete, I agree. This would be remedied by adding a third harder difficulty that requires max ilevel gear and rewards you with other things, but that's a different discussion altogether.

For the rest of us mortals, we need to get the higher ilevel equipment to take on the higher tier raids.

^ Truth! The highest non-savage raid content is Sophia at i235, if i260 isn't enough for you to clear you're probably too casual to be tackling that in the first place. 260 gear is overkill for everything else in the game atm, so the need for 270 to be available to people not tackling savage is questionable.