Quote Originally Posted by Mishakai View Post
Yeah, the break down of the groups is incorrect.

Group 1: You have a group who likes having defined gear for classes, with restrictions based on class or level. It makes sense to them and they have no problem purchasing or crafting the appropriate gear for the current level of whatever class they are playing.

Group 2: You have another group who wants to purchase one set of gear and use it for all of their classes ad-infinium, until they can replace it with r50 gear for the appropriate class. They seem ignorant to the fact that now, stats DO matter.

I'm all ears for arguments as to why we should cater the system to Group 2.
That or there are people in group 3, who want gear to be cross class/level so that they can look pretty - to which I say don't keep the convoluted favor system, just implement an aesthetics tab.

The bottom line is that stats DO matter now. Not wearing gear near your level nerfs your gear, just like you were nerfed when you weren't wearing favored gear. The problem is that with favored gear, sometimes you don't realize you're wearing the wrong gear (could be you just switched classes, and left something out of a macro, or you just can't tell that there is better gear out there for your rank because the favoring system is so unclear), or you go searching in the market, and it is not clear to you what is best for your rank/class, because there are five different things that are near your level that favor your class, but really only one is optimal (this happens mostly with DoH and DoL). There is also the fact that it is much easier for the devs to balance combat, and gear with the class and stat restrictions.

Which is easier to understand at a glance:

Belt A: (requires: gladiator level 30. Str +5 Dex +3)

Belt B: (Favors: Gladiator, Pugilist, Botonist, Weaver Suggested level: 30. Str +5 Magical Defense +3 Gathering +3)

Combine this with the fact that there are 3-4 other belts that suggest the same or a similar level, that also are recommended for your class, and 4 other seemingly random classes.

Picking gear should be as simple as "I'm level 30, I'm a gladiator, I want gear that's for a level 30 gladiator". There could be more options for people who are interested in stat crunching, which we have with Materia and the rare NM/chest drops.