An alternative to gear swaping

[Frein]

Don't let the Anti-gearswappers get to you. For the most part they will hate any alternative suggested that doesn't completely prevent everyone from swapping stats during battle. They don't need a reason.. haters gonna hate. Immersion? Blinking? Elitism?.. whatever..

If you think a modern MMO gamer new to FFXIV would swallow mid-combat gear swaps, you're utterly delusional. Not only does it have direct negative consequences to the game's presentation and offered gameplay experience, but as game design it is completely unintuitive. No new player who hasn't played FFXI is even going to entertain the thought of being able to change pants during combat because of how detached from their idea of "combat" it is. You don't change pants during combat. You're busy trying to not die! This same argument works just as well against just about any proposed substitute system whether it's visually pleasing or not. You're also too busy to change materia, jewelry, soul gems, shoelaces, moisturizer or whatever "less cumbersome" items you try to insert as a substitute. You don't swap anything that isn't specifically designed to be immediately available, like a weapon hanging from your belt, and even then you drop or toss away your previous weapon because there is no time to fumble around with it.

The only valid argument for allowing gear swaps is that it would increase the amount of valid sidegrade options, but sidegrades can, to a great extent, exist without it, too. One weapon has tank stats, one has DD stats, one is accurate and good against high evasion monsters, one deals elemental damage, etc. The possibilities for situational gear that is useful outside the context of a mid-battle gear swap are vast. Heck, even WoW had situational but highly useful (even necessary) sidegrades despite of a design philosophy that heavily emphasized gear tiering.