Legitimate reasons why many of you do NOT like Gear Swapping

[NoctisUmbra]

Being able to gear-swap is not about efficiency. You don't need to make it so your character is amazing at whatever it can have gear for at all times. Does this enhance your character's performance? Yes. Is it necessary? No.

Efficiency is about how effectively you perform your role within the rules and limitations of the game. Removing certain limitations does not increase your personal efficiency. It increases the things you have to do to be efficient. Sure, besides that fact that it sounds like a wet-dream for any elitist as it adds more to do to be considered good, it may sound engaging to hear that you have more to do to be effective... however that's also where the problem lies. In order to meet this new requirement of efficiency, you have to prepare multiple gear-sets for each job/class and write elaborate macros. I'm sorry, but when I think of efficient gameplay in endgame content, I don't think of spending my time making elaborate gear-swap macros after gathering pieces of gear that I carry around for only 1 WS/Spell.

Now all of that was the technical argument against gear-swapping. Then there's the obvious, simple notion that even in a Fantasy environment, repeatedly blinking/changing your shirt and pants during a heated engagement is just absolutely ludicrous.

[illriginalized]

Since the converstation has been going nowhere for oh 15 pages or so, I vote that this thread is now about pie!

Like this post if you want this thread to be about pie from this post forward!

Violation of forum rules. See your way out, don't come back.. or possibly face the consequences due to your level of maturity.

kthnxbye!

[Khazar]

i dont like gear swapping in combat is so fuking annoying. I know i would probably resign to use it if they make it the way to play it and it comes to be a must for party or content but i dont like it anything.

[Gidonoidon_Sur]

To me, blinking characters is a minor, meaningless issue. What is important is an endgame that offers a variety of choices and provides incentives (i.e., useful gear) for engaging in those choices. The current environment, like many other MMOs (e.g., WoW, SWTOR, FFXIV) provides one piece of god gear that everyone wants and no one else wants the other pieces (in that slot). So all that other content that was created over the past few years is useless. You are stuck doing the same primal battle (or whatever) a million times. How fun. I rather do 50 million of the same content so my character doesn't blink all the time.

I know you all love the FFXI comparisons, but people are still doing dynamis after yearrrrrrs (replace dynamis with many other events). Very few MMOs have people still engaged (happily) in years old content.

That is what this is about.

[Haibel]

I love chery pie. Cool drink of water such a sweet surprise
Taste so good make a grown man cry.....

[Leoheart]

Being able to gear-swap is not about efficiency. You don't need to make it so your character is amazing at whatever it can have gear for at all times. Does this enhance your character's performance? Yes. Is it necessary? No.

Efficiency is about how effectively you perform your role within the rules and limitations of the game. Removing certain limitations does not increase your personal efficiency. It increases the things you have to do to be efficient. Sure, besides that fact that it sounds like a wet-dream for any elitist as it adds more to do to be considered good, it may sound engaging to hear that you have more to do to be effective... however that's also where the problem lies. In order to meet this new requirement of efficiency, you have to prepare multiple gear-sets for each job/class and write elaborate macros. I'm sorry, but when I think of efficient gameplay in endgame content, I don't think of spending my time making elaborate gear-swap macros after gathering pieces of gear that I carry around for only 1 WS/Spell.

Now all of that was the technical argument against gear-swapping. Then there's the obvious, simple notion that even in a Fantasy environment, repeatedly blinking/changing your shirt and pants during a heated engagement is just absolutely ludicrous.

uhh... ok.

[Haibel]

cherry pie Put a smile on your face ten miles wide
Looks so good bring a tear to your eye
Sweet cherry pie.

[NoctisUmbra]

uhh... ok.

Hey, we should all be able to fly! It'll increase our movement efficiency so we can attack from more directions and such!

[Arcell]

People did just fine with 50 slots and with gear swapping in FFXI
.

@V
What strategy? You can beat everything naked!

That is an issue with how the damage calculations work in regard to defense actually. Strategy =/= gear. Strategy can be implemented even in the complete absence of gear. Combos, positioning, timing skills to avoid attacks or reduce damage, stunning/interrupting, knowing when to fight and when to back off, healing, enmity management, incapacitation, etc... are all things that require skill and are not directly related to having the proper gear. They are more effective with proper gear but proper gear does not make you a good player.

Live with the gear choice you make before a fight, make an informed decision about what gear that is, play well regardless of the gear.

[LytheJade]

Quite simply, I have found people who prefer to gear swap use it to exchange their ability to perform their class.

Really, other than the black mage staves in 11, gear swapping started in 11 with Beast Masters. The didn't have the best gear, and needed to switch to get a better charm success, then they had to switch back to gear that they could survive in.

Over time, it evolved, and began showing up in tanks, who would switch to emnity gear to enhance their provokes, or enhance their heals. But at the end of the day, it was always about players who couldn't properly play their class.

The Min/Maxers began adopting it, and then it became a smoke-screen. People thought that you had to gear swap to be good, when infact most people I have ever partied with (and this is my personal experience, I seriously doubt my sampling makes up a good collection of everyone in the game) who gear swapped were a player who was not actually good at their class. They played it off as being elite because they had gear X that they could use for situation X.

When at the end of the day, it a solid party, me, and most of the people I prefer to play with believed that proper balance, created a more smooth and even keeled fight. And while it did mean we didn't kill things the fastest, we had fewer deaths, more control, and everyone knew what everyone was doing.

Then there were the people who would setup and open a fight with setting up and performing a high damage Barrage, and hit the mob with every possible attack they could as fast as they could, switching gear to make sure that all attacks where at the top of the curve. Then these people would complain about how the tank wasn't holding hate.

Again, it's a question of skill. Anyone can punch buttons, not everyone seems to understand how balance works. Which is sad, War is now personifying the mentality being brought into 14. The idea is again to do the most damage you can the fastest you can to kill a mob as fast as you can.

And while I applaud you for hitting a mob for 5k damage, don't yell at me for not holding hate afterwards... Balance the hate, perform the spike when you can. Watch the mobs moves so that you know if you take hate, it will not one shot you and the rest of the party because you are going to steal hate.

Ok, I am done with my rant. And gear swapping itself is not an issue to me, it's the fact that it is almost always done to hide a lack of skill.