Quote Originally Posted by Hasrat View Post
Just thought I'd take a moment to point out that, while yes, the MSQ does reward some bits of gear, it fails to reward an entire set. For many pieces, the player would be required to slog through some side quests, hunt down a shop, or farm the previous dungeon. All of which sorta run counter to what the devs seem to want, which is the ability to rush the story without having to detour.

Personally, I'd suggest nixing all of the gear rewards scattered throughout quests, and simply reward gear coffers at specific intervals. Include all gear necessary to reach a specified ilvl. You'll lose some incentive to do side quests, without them rewarding additional gear, but you'll ensure players are adequately prepared. In fact, maybe you can retain the side quest incentives, by rewarding all HQ items through side quests (assuming there are enough to ensure complete sets... that would potentially require very many side quests) while the provided coffers only supply NQ.
But, the greater point is, in order to satisfy dev requirements of not slowing down story progression, while satisfying player demands for competent ilvl, I think the best solution is to guarantee a complete set of gear capable of meeting those requirements without being forced into optional content.
If that was the true reason they contradict that once you hit max level you have to get gear to progress story you can't enter the Burn with your 290 stuff the only lv 70 gear the game gives you (Which is technically side story content despite it being mandatory for full job abilities) you also need a high enough ilv for Ala Mhigo and Royal Menagerie so yes the devs are saying you need gear to finish baseline expansion story as well so why can't leveling dungeons have an ilv requirement too? these requirements do not need to be severe but some manner of poor gear restriction needs to come from SE until they do i blame them and the player for entering these dungeons really undergeared.

Now your idea has merit but there does need to be a reason to do side quests other than lore a small carrot like belts/accessories aren't bad rewards to give they are useful without being demanding, SB was better paced(Level wise) than HW but you still hit the occasional level block anyway side quests help or rerunning dungeons both reward exp and gear and with the ilv requirements that are appropriate to the dungeon eg by the 4th you want to start having people in that expansion's gear no new person should be getting gear blocked it should only be those leveling alt jobs who at that point should know the importance of gear