Quote Originally Posted by ispano View Post
Let me ask, is anyone who makes any sort of gear requirement, a gear fetishist? If so, RPGs may not be for you. RPGs are and have almost always been number games. Skill can only do so much. A skilled players is going to want to upgrade their gear anyways. Skill exploits potential, the better the gear, the better that potential is.
But the problem is that more than a few of the well geared players are boasting nothing more than carries and Fate levels. I've seen players with upgraded relics newb up a dungeon to the point where everyone else leaves the instance, more than happy to eat the lockout just to get away from them. And vice versa, AF+1 bedecked newbs so mad at the rest of the party for their own failures that THEY leave to go find a new group, likely forgetting about the lockout in the process. Gear=/=Skill. Never has, never will.