Gear Swaps: Could they help FFXIV?

[Mychael]

I think XIV would benefit from allowing us to swap gear mid-battle, or at least between fights. Its not a panacea for a game, but I think it could help several of the game's major issues, even if it would make some unhappy. The system we have now, wherein the community finds a definitive best-in-slot, is bad for the longevity and economy of the game.

Pros:

• Content does not "replace" existing content, but complements it.

  XIV has shifted toward frequent new content over aggregate old content, but that doesn't fit the game. SE's greatest hits weren't the largest sandboxes or unending slews of missions, but the best stories, graphics, and challenges. Constantly outdoing past dungeons means that two sequential mediocre dungeons are better than one incredible one (which would take longer to develop for half the use). However, SE does focus on quality (fortunately) which makes new content too slow for this sequential model.
  
  If more than one piece could be used, we could lose the newest dungeon/best piece correlation. Rather than a couple max-ilvl dungeons that contain best-for-now pieces, gear available now could be useful indefinitely, meaning that players would continue running it.

• Crafted gear can be relevant, too!

  It's awkward to have a best-in-slot piece available on the market board; it means a person can do no content and have the very best. Having several macro-able pieces means that crafted gear can be relevant without circumventing content entirely.

• More content for hardcore players...

  For obsessive/elitist players, having 4 gear sets for each job would keep them busy 4x as long.

• ...but not at the expense of casual players.

  Since gear swapping would only provide a situational advantage, there would be no disadvantage to only having one of the best pieces. Casual players, by definition, would not be compelled to seek out that piece for 1 more VIT for a certain situation.
  
  Also, extremely difficult content could be introduced which would only provide "situational" gear; since almost-equal gear could come from easier content, the casual players would not feel terribly disadvantaged and would have a long-term goal.

Cons:

• Larger timesinks aren't always best.

  The advantage to this method is that we can aim for 3-4 "eras" of content instead of only the newest. But for a new player trying to catch up, having a page-long list of goals can be daunting.

• Stats are too clear-cut.

  As it is now, we have clear-cut stats for each job. Not really a con, but macro pieces would have to rely on other mechanics (i.e. Cure Cast Time Down or Defense Up+Gravity) to be useful interchangeably.

[TrystWildkey]

NO.

I hate gear swapping. It sounds great in theory, but it's just another way for the player base to gate other players out of content.

"Oh, wait, you mean you don't have x gearset for y thing?" Kick
"What gear are you wearing? Ugh, noob, don't you even know what gearset you should have for this, LOL" Kick

No, thank you for trying to come up with an idea, but no, just no.

[Truefaith87]

Long story short: nope. Granted i was SAM and RDM in 11 during 75 days, so i can understand your love for gearset outlook.. but what it helped, it also broke. Created people who only care about your gear, not your skill. Curse of the evolving age of an MMO is more people will feel they are "entitled" if it happened. Missing 1 piece of gear in a complete set for BiS? KICKED. Missing 2 accuracy in your trash dps set and miss once accidently because you swapped on a boss? KICKED. Not able to clear content to get said armor to swap into? KICKED. The problems just mount up too quickly here.

[KiriA500]

[Espon]

Just wait a sec Titan while I strip naked and put on a completely different outfit!! Okay now you can start stomping!

[Vilzen]

I like not needing 14 of my 15 macro lines be for gear swapping. So no thanks. Seriously does anyone remember needing 1 macro to gear swap and another to swap more gear and use your skill? THEN needing 2 more macros to get back in tp gear!

[Errors]

No thank you.

[ZephyrFox]

I respect your opinions and applaud the well though out suggestion, however I must respectfully say: NO.

It was a horrible system that felt less like an intended feature and more like a glitch the developers never fixed. On a personal note I didn't feel it added anything to my job that skill or a well thought out rotation couldn't.

[Antanias]

We were already told that gear swapping would never happen in this game, and I support that statement 900%.

[Kelg]

No thanks, gear swapping was a nightmare in ffxi... I had like 20 different sets for my blue mage... ;-;