Quote Originally Posted by Fynlar View Post
It's not about whether you NEED the best stuff in the game to be able to do stuff; people still WANT to get stronger anyway and since at level 70 there's no way to build your experience level directly through combat any further, the emphasis then goes to equipment.

How many of you have gone out of your way to get the best equipment available in an offline RPG and make your party as strong as the limits of the game will allow, even though it was very often not needed to be able to beat the hardest challenges in the game? Willing to bet a whole bunch of you have. Same idea here.
You know, I actually do understand that - I even kinda share that sentiment. Everyone wants to get as strong as possible, no surprise here.
But I still believe that the argument "You dont need 370 gear" is legit in this context for a simple reason: The gear is, in theory, available to everyone. Raiding is (thank the twelve!) not like housing, so not a limited ressource. Everyone can get their loot out of Savage every week - if they manage to beat it, obviously.

If we stick with your analogy of a singleplayer RPG and gearing up our party there: How do you do that when it comes to the strongest gear?
I recall FFIV where I went through the Cave of Trials and the Lunar Subterrane multiple times (even with characters I didnt plan on using) to get all weapons. Both are endgame dungeons with endgame bosses at the end (and the requirement to potential use weak characters like a certain bard). It was a challenge, it required effort but in the end my whole party was fully geared.
Same with my experience of FFX - I honestly dont even want to know how many hours I spend on that stupid chocobo race! Or how long I made my brother do the dodge-the-lightning minigame. Or how many blitzball-matches I played... not even talking about fighting the Dark Yojinbo over and over again to get gear for everyone.
So yeah, I totally get that we all want the best gear even though we might not need it to beat the game.

But here is the thing: I also understand that getting the best gear comes at a price. And that price is a challenge. But its a challenge you can walk away from if you want - the rest of the game is still open to you. That is what I mean by "you dont need this gear". Not having it isnt blocking you from anything - if you want it though, you can get it. If you're only willing to put in the effort (or wait).

Back to singleplayer RPGs: OPs posts feels a bit like asking for the Ultimate Weapons for each character being sold by a vendor in the first city.