Please remove iLevel

[Alhanelem]

It's nothing but a feature that railroads itemization into a very dull linear path, and breeds a very gear elitist community as a result. It's sad when people are looked at as nothing more than a number next to their gear

Horizontal progression is a far more interesting design style

no, "horizontal" progression sucks because you're expceted to have like 100 pieces of gear to play one job/class. This leads to inventory nightmare and needing complicated macros to change gear all the time. This coupled with the fact that gear swapping isn't allowed in combat.

What is really needed is more special stats / extra effects on gear to create more options within the same ilvl range. You don't need to "remove" ilvl to have options, and removing it won't change that some gear is better than others and the elitists will always demand the mathematical best regardless.

[KisaiTenshi]

Let me make a comparison to a game where all the gear has the same stats and requires modification (eg materia, +1,+2, etc) to become more powerful. In this game everyone wears whatever they like or feels the coolest.

However because upgrading something that only provides 2 points of defense into something that provides 20, requires the equivilent of "spiritbond" 7 times, and each enchant risks destroying the item completely, you only end up with a 1% chance of ever having a fully upgraded, enchanted item, and even then...

The game soaks you for repair costs which also have a chance for complete destruction. The game stops being fun when an item you just spent a month taking care of is destroyed by the 99% success rate repair option falling into the 1% fail.

So no, I don't like other games upgrading/repair systems. FFXIV's doesn't waste your time if you don't want to. But the cost to this is everyone at endgame winds up with exactly the same gear and thus looking almost exactly the same except for their face.

[Warlyx]

what we need is more pieces with Enhanced : X skill , that what makes items worth it, gaining 2 stats here 3 there and 1 over there is meh....

why relics+1 dont enhance 1 of the JOB skills?

enhance Flare: flare now make your next spell 100% crit....

Enhance : River of blood , 50% chance of letting Bard cast misery end w/o health restriction

enhance Cure : chance on heal to proc a instant cast stoneskin

[MilkyJoe]

what we need is more pieces with Enhanced : X skill , that what makes items worth it, gaining 2 stats here 3 there and 1 over there is meh....

why relics+1 dont enhance 1 of the JOB skills?

enhance Flare: flare now make your next spell 100% crit....

Enhance : River of blood , 50% chance of letting Bard cast misery end w/o health restriction

enhance Cure : chance on heal to proc a instant cast stoneskin

^^ This

The ilvl gear system in this game right now is very boring and SE needs to address it.

[Mythrella]

what we need is more pieces with Enhanced : X skill , that what makes items worth it, gaining 2 stats here 3 there and 1 over there is meh....

why relics+1 dont enhance 1 of the JOB skills?

enhance Flare: flare now make your next spell 100% crit....

Enhance : River of blood , 50% chance of letting Bard cast misery end w/o health restriction

enhance Cure : chance on heal to proc a instant cast stoneskin

I love these kinds of things too. Weapons should often have a fun proc, especially relics. The few set bonuses in game now are boring, such as the GC sets where you get +10 spell speed for example.

I don't want horizontal progression like some are asking for, because that's just boring and god help me if I spend years in AK for example, farming different pieces due to needing different sets.

People are blaming WoW for vertical progression, when it already existed. Also, even WoW had fun gear set bonuses, and weapon/trinket/etc procs that make things more interesting. The highest ilevel in WoW was normally your best in slot, but there were always exceptions ♥

[Rumpelstiltzkin]

I think the best way to do it by far is a mix of vertical and horizontal.

[Norb]

I think the best way to do it by far is a mix of vertical and horizontal.

Giggity giggity goo!

[Felis]

I think the best way to do it by far is a mix of vertical and horizontal.

this
We need more diagonal gear.

Like 5 different body for mage class with the same ilevel. The first 3 stats would be the same for every gear, but gear 1 would give you more heal power, gear 2 more crit rate, gear 3 more dot damage, gear 4 reduce the enmity of your skills and gear 5 would make your stone skin a bit stronger.
The next ilevel the same, but with more stat points.

In short, SE should do it that with every ilevel the player can choose between a handfull gear and not just only 1 single gear each ilevel.

[Shiyo]

I personally don't care if gear is horizontal or vertical, I just want CHOICES to be made when gearing up. When 99% of the way I gear involves "This is higher ilvl than this, so I will equip it" with little to no choices, thinking, theorycrafting, or number crunching I find it incredibly boring to gear up a character Add into that the fact there's no vanity slots, and most gear looks god-awful, plus the fact I'm FORCED to wear gear that makes me look like a clown means the entire process of gearing is no fun all around.

I don't get to think about what gear I want, it's laid out in front of me with easy "ilvl" system to follow, I don't get to look awesome or look what I want to look like, or look different from anyone else in the game, no vanity system and the best gear for every class makes me look like clone #25050.


Something absolutely needs to be done about gearing, everything else in this game is fantastic and probably the best of any tab-target MMO on the market at the moment, but the gearing as a whole is severely lacking in choices, looks, and fun.

[Lilysparkle]

Interesting thread. I guess I am fine with ilvl - I don't really know if it's the "perfect" solution. However, it really does make me sad that ppl get to 50 and have their lovingly designed artifact armor eventually replaced so fast with darklight stuff or vanya robes. All of a sudden, you have all these unique looks blending into just a few looks - as everyone is running around in those darklight robes, etc. It's a blessing that the vanya robes can at least be dyed.. Just feels weird that everyone eventually starts looking the same. It feels very .. linear and unexciting or something. Sorry.