Quote Originally Posted by Jeeqbit View Post
The amount of time it takes to gear has not changed, because the range of gear choices has not changed. We have had these types of gear since ARR:
  • DRG (and now RPR)
  • MNK (and now SAM)
  • NIN (and soon our pirate job)
  • BRD (and now MCH and DNC)
  • BLM, SMN (and now RDM, BLU and another caster soon)
  • PLD, WAR (and now DRK and GNB)
  • WHM, SCH (and now AST and SGE)
With the exception of their weapons and the rare cases where the BiS for two jobs that use the same type of gear is different, but in most cases whatever has crit, DH and det is going to work for them all.

So, it is fair to say that gearing alt jobs should be faster, but the argument of there being 21 jobs compared to the 10 in ARR doesn't really add to the point beside the weapons, and they could solve the weapons issue another way (such as making relic weapons actually BiS throughout the expansion).
Hmm... did we actually get scouting back in ARR and not in HW since NIN wasn't in game until fairly near the end of the ARR cycle? I know they at least initially just added Dex to MNK's striking gear and let NIN use it.