Please remove iLevel

[Caraway]

They're probably going to do it in a similar style to other MMOs where the top-end blue/purple gear from the previous level cap will be comparable to the green gears you'll get by the next level cap, or something like that. Whatever the case its likely your best gear right now will be at best mid-tier when they raise the level cap.

Personally I wouldn't be too concerned with that though, the level cap's probably not going to rise until an expansion which probably won't be for another 9+ months, at least.

I can't help but be concerned; I really love digging into this sort of thing. And while we do have various coloured gear, it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of consistency with it regarding to how much more or less powerful it is compared to each other. I'd personally love to see the game's design documents.

So you don't want there to be multiple sets of gear like that guy was saying.....and yet you want gear to do different things so you still have to lug around a lot of different sets/weps? Ya no, you want Guild Wars go play GW, do not drag that into this. Making any gear situational where everything has the same stats but may or may not be better in certain situations requires everyone to lug everything around just to get the best increase for each fight.

Like it or not mmos have evolved past that, people like seeing an actual increase over their current gear when switching to something else. You say you do not see an increase in getting gear over what you have but I can guarantee you if you actually worked on it at all you'd see that increase. I guess however it's too hard to see it though when you already skipped over most of the content you'd need said gear for by being carried towards the biggest increase you can get(relic, because yes your gear/single max lvl says a lot on that).

My primary issue with the current itemization scheme is that, ultimately, it's kind of boring. Your next weapon will have more or less the same stats but just slightly more of them. There isn't any real choice as to what you're using, it's either definitively better or definitively not.

Now that said, this is really just "the beginning" of the game so maybe as Crystal Tower expansions and Coil expansions come out we'll start to see a more broad selection of gear.

Primarily, what I like to see from gear selection is gear that can adjust the way you play your game, letting your tailor your character a little different from the other one standing over there.

And what happens when you have multiple classes at max lvl? Now you need multiple sets for each class, again very few players like that when having a choice on how to gear. Having varying stats on gear takes some thought and theorycrafting on which is actually better. Having multiple sets that are entirely situational makes you go "I want this and this and this for each slot, I may not entirely know which is better in each situation but wtf the text says they do this and this in these situations", and that's when you find out after collecting all those different sets "hey this isn't a noticeable difference at all and there's really only a single set that is better than all the rest in every situation".

That's how Guild Wars does it and it's terrible design. They have 15 or so different stat combination on gear that gives you the impression that each is for various situations, until every single dps figured out "hey berserker gear is the only really good stat combination because I like to do higher numbers even though I may die fast aslong as I can kill the thing faster". There is no choice in gear, any solo or small group content in that game pigeonholds you into a single stat combination if you want to be successful, anything other than that and you are gimping your group and yourself.

Just because a theorycrafter says "This is optimal" doesn't mean everything else isn't good though and should be ignored. For example, when I played GW2 my partner played a Necromancer with a heavier leaning towards healing and it ended up working out spectacularly. She didn't hit as hard as other necros could but she made it a heck of a lot easier for everyone on the team to stay alive. And she didn't use Berserker gear to do it.

It isn't "the impression" of choice, there is choice and if you know how to work with it can use it to play your character differently from the 12390857346 other players while still being effective.

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

And this! This is the kind of stuff I personally love. I love gear that tweaks your skills, moves you in a slightly different path, or heck gives you entirely new abilities!

I'm honestly not one for mid-battle gear swaps (excepting weapons) because it doesn't make sense to me to pull off your plate chest piece and then pop another one on mid-battle without any negative impact on you.

But I am one for tangible choice. I like gear to augment how I play and make my character play differently than another character of the same class.

MMORPGs are supposed to be about making your character yours. At least they used to be.