Artifact/Epic items

[Ehayte]

If they want Relics and AF Chest armor to be the sparkly-endgame of all weapons (lore-wise, I don't care that Dual Hakken is better than Bravura, that's not the point I'm making) they should give the Relic weapons and AF armors special effects.

EX:

Sphairai : You can set this item to activate from a hot-bar.
Item Activation: Chakra Strike - Cast time 5 seconds. Grants a 30m effect on you that provides a 5% chance for a 5 potency non-elemental attack to strike your target every time you connect a physical attack. 30m CD

Sphairai Zenith: You can set this item to activate from a hot-bar.
Item Activation: Chakra Strike Zenith - Cast time 5 seconds. Grants a 30m effect on you that provides a 5% chance for a 5 potency non-elemental attack to strike your target every time you connect a physical attack
Zenith Trait: Also grants a 1% chance for you to directly channel your Chakra for 15s, adding the effect "Channel" which will cause each melee strike to produce a 5 potency non-elemental attack. 30m CD

Valor Chest: You can set this item to activate from a hot-bar.
Item Activation: Martyr's Oath - Cast time: instant. Grants a 30s effect on you that provides a 5% chance to heal you and your allies for 400 potency (PLD have weak MND stats, this would be something like 325-350hp) every time you are struck by an opponent. 20m CD

If that's too OP adjust the potencies or add a quest where you need to... I dunno complete each SM dungeon without anyone dying. I just feel like the end result of getting your iconic or legendary weapon or armor should be more than "Dis is gud weap" - it should be special, and it should keep the item relevant after its been replaced, as you could activate this stuff from inventory after you get your i120 weapon in 8 months.

[Tupsi]

They did have special attributes in 1.23 but Yoshi took em away stating ARR's battle system has no need for 'complex' stats.

[synaesthetic]

They did have special attributes in 1.23 but Yoshi took em away stating ARR's battle system has no need for 'complex' stats.

Which makes the endgame gearing metagame very boring. I hope they change their mind on this. "Higher numbers" is dull as watching paint dry.

I would rather pieces of gear have skill bonuses.

Take the Crimson Vest from LotA. It's a very nice piece, quite nicely itemized, but nobody's going to use it over Sorcerer's Coat. It's just clearly "worse," and that clearly-worseness means power creep can, well, creep in and start making things inflated and ugly.

I'd propose putting a skill bonus on various pieces of gear, specifically the LotA body pieces and the relic weapons--without adjusting any of their other attributes at all.

For example:

Crimson Vest
Intelligence +25
Vitality +25
Accuracy +21
Critical Hit Rate +30
Fire III/Fester: Increases damage by 7%.

Then you'd really have to consider, "wow, this might actually be better than Sorcerer's Coat!" And it might be, depending on playstyle. There'd be a lot of theorycrafting needed to figure out which one is better.

Or, for healers, you could have an alternate version of Royal Vest:

Royal Vest
Mind +25
Vitality +25
Piety +15
Spell Speed +30
Cure II/Adloquium: Decreases MP cost by 10%.

Things like this would make gearing much more interesting. Currently gearing is rather bland; it's basically a "higher numbers" game right now. All you have to do is get enough accuracy to not miss on Coil bosses, and then just stack your primary attribute. It's very dull.

[Magis]

They did have special attributes in 1.23 but Yoshi took em away stating ARR's battle system has no need for 'complex' stats.

Ugh =\ that sucks. Speaking of complex combat, I wish XIV had an elemental wheel. Did 1.0 have one too (I'd assume so)? It's always weird how you kill a fire elemental with Fire.

[synaesthetic]

Ugh =\ that sucks. Speaking of complex combat, I wish XIV had an elemental wheel. Did 1.0 have one too (I'd assume so)? It's always weird how you kill a fire elemental with Fire.

Yoshida did this for a reason and I support his reasoning. What elemental resistances/weaknesses mean is that certain jobs will get trivialized in certain encounters. Nobody would take a BLM to fight Ifrit because they'd be forced to spam Blizzard spells, doing drastically reduced damage. I went through that crap in vanilla WoW, where mages were required to specialize for Frost spells, greatly reducing their damage potential.

[Tupsi]

Yoshida did this for a reason and I support his reasoning. What elemental resistances/weaknesses mean is that certain jobs will get trivialized in certain encounters.

So what you're saying is, no one prefers one class/class form (i.e melee/ranged) over another in ARR...? Because what he stated was basically trying to prevent something that would happen no matter what.

(Protip: It still happened.)

[MACEenyo]

Yoshida did this for a reason and I support his reasoning. What elemental resistances/weaknesses mean is that certain jobs will get trivialized in certain encounters. Nobody would take a BLM to fight Ifrit because they'd be forced to spam Blizzard spells, doing drastically reduced damage. I went through that crap in vanilla WoW, where mages were required to specialize for Frost spells, greatly reducing their damage potential.

Or he could just make Blizzard strength comparable to Fire. The design of the BLM class is horrible.

[Magis]

Yoshida did this for a reason and I support his reasoning. What elemental resistances/weaknesses mean is that certain jobs will get trivialized in certain encounters. Nobody would take a BLM to fight Ifrit because they'd be forced to spam Blizzard spells, doing drastically reduced damage. I went through that crap in vanilla WoW, where mages were required to specialize for Frost spells, greatly reducing their damage potential.

I understand, it seems more to be a problem with the combat system in general. And of course throwing an elemental wheel in would cripple the game at this point. If classes had access to more elemental spells/abilities, it would help avoid the issue. It would also open to more interesting mechanics like mobs that take more magical/physical damage, element damage, etc.

Also in Vanilla WoW the reason I recall ice was required was because fire generated more heat (heh pun) than ice, and burned more mana, not due to any elemental damage. Did WoW even have any? I only recall Chromaggus having one as a boss mechanic (alternating weaknesses).

Or he could just make Blizzard strength comparable to Fire. The design of the BLM class is horrible.

Agreed, it's just Fire, Blizzard, and a Thunder once in a while (with varying tiers) =\. Not really what one has in mind with the classic FF BLM.

[synaesthetic]

Or he could just make Blizzard strength comparable to Fire. The design of the BLM class is horrible.

You're joking, right? BLM is one of the most well-designed jobs in the game. It doesn't rely entirely upon a single skill (Invigorate) to keep it from running out of resources in long fights like MNK, DRG and BRD do. BLM has a perfect set-up with the "burn phase" with Astral Fire and the "recovery phase" with Umbral Ice. If only the rest of the jobs in the game had the same very active method of resource regeneration. Tanks are even more screwed, left just waiting for TP to regenerate. That's not fun; that's boring and uninvolved and frustrating.

[Shurrikhan]

Ugh =\ that sucks. Speaking of complex combat, I wish XIV had an elemental wheel. Did 1.0 have one too (I'd assume so)? It's always weird how you kill a fire elemental with Fire.

A mild one, at least. I don't remember how large the variance was for each element as a spellcaster, but it was often huge for my Monk (which used to use en-[element] modifiers in Fists of [x]). Sometimes my defensive buff would cause me to hit harder than the primary damage buff (Earth over Fire), though gnats [lightning element] are the only example I can think of at the moment for that. Conjurer was an elementalist with the full elemental wheel and Thaumaturge was a spiritualist with Bio, Banish, Dia, Scourge, etc.

To be honest I kind of like that each is actually utility though, especially since it's currently limited to halves, each within a single caster class. I'd rather have slows/binds, DoTs, and direct damage than one third of my spells usable for the same effect but each only on certain enemies. That's not to say that one can't have both the wheel and variant uses/utility, but it can't be done in the simplicity that Yoshi seems to prefer.

Also, even if you're 'spicing' up different abilities through different item bonuses, the objective will remain the same as long as the basic purpose of any raid does: kill the enemy more quickly. Situation-specific dps maximization, survival maximization, total/crucial healing maximization. The less dully that attaches itself to gearing choices (the more fights and bonuses ideal for them vary), the more total sets you'll need to maximize your potential in each fight.

[A rework of materia could prevent that, by going more in the direction of talents with some XP-like stat (materia points or w/e) allotted into varying abilities through choices opened by armor you have spiritbonded, but even that would likely lead only to niching in due time and less understanding of your teammates' abilities, diminishing coordination.]

Tldr; there's always another way to have more 'fun' at your disposal without locking yourself into particular pieces of gear or specialization niches. Just have more tools than you can simultaneously use, some of which are ideal only situationally, and therefore do not create incredibly long and roundabout rotations among the elite (unless the entire party knows how to fit those tools in perfectly).