Items in this game are kind of lack luster.

[blipples]

I'm seriously concerned about the state of items in this game. I'm afraid they are just going to continue to be stat sticks. I don't know about everyone else, but for me gear needs a bit more substance than just an additional piety or mind here or there. I honestly haven't seen an MMO in years that hasn't had some kind of special or unique effects on rare gear pieces. The AF gear in 1.0 had some, and I don't see why they would remove them for 2.0.

I know I've heard some people harp about balance or how it doesn't fit in the game, but I just don't see how that would be the case. I don't see how giving a tank a bit of "hate generated +x" or "+% chance to proc firestarter" on some high end gear would hurt anything. Finding gear like this is what gives people the drive to run dungeons over and over again for years. Personally I kind of find it hard to really want to grind for just an additional +2 piety on my WHM.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

[Tohf]

Because they don't want you to grind to upgrade that one piece, they want you to grind the whole set so it would be more like plus eighteen piety not two. And you can always get more longevity from crafted gear.

[Skies]

Simply put
Because if you put that sort of unique attribute on an item, that item won't be easily replaceable by another item unless it has a better version of the same ability, thus making the item harder to replace

[blipples]

Because they don't want you to grind to upgrade that one piece, they want you to grind the whole set so it would be more like plus eighteen piety not two. And you can always get more longevity from crafted gear.

I feel like you're missing the point. I don't mind grinding out a whole set of gear for the full upgrade, but I feel like a set bonus would be nice. There are literally no unique effects in this game, just small stat boosts. Especially with all the new ilvl60 gear getting released in 2.1. They need something to really stand out aside from just cosmetics to make people want to go grab them. I feel like it could really give the game more depth if certain sets were more suited for certain fights. That's just my two cents anyways.

Simply put
Because if you put that sort of unique attribute on an item, that item won't be easily replaceable by another item unless it has a better version of the same ability, thus making the item harder to replace

Hm, I can see that but I don't really see the issue with that. If there is a really unique or rare piece of gear that has special effects on it that might last you a while, what's the harm of using it for a while? For me it's gear like this that really gives me drive to delve into dungeons again and again.

[Skies]

Simple
If you get deeply attached to a really effective piece of gear, specially since it took you a lot of effort to acquire it, you won't want it replaced.

Then the devs become hostages of that piece, they can't replace it to risk rage of players (look at how XI's going on with the latest update), but if they don't replace it how are they going to introduce something better than it since gear progression is a thing here?

[Xystic]

Finding gear like this is what gives people the drive to run dungeons over and over again for years.

You don't want to add these sort of things because you can pretty much build, character build's around that one item. Turning it from an okay item to overpowered quickly. Stats are easy to balance while RNG and special effects aren't. So many "X" swings will generate "X" amount of damage/procs. That "X" damage can be enhanced by certain classes with "Y" skill/stats and can be further enhanced by certain classes with "Z" gear which means X can be increased by an overwhelming number that could be much greater than a +1/+2 of anything. It would create such an imbalance in gear and classes.

Some have argued you could make it a static RNG or static base damage when proc'd that can't be amplified. Logically, thats the same as having +1/+2 of anything which is already static.