Gear should grant passive abilities

[Altijacek]

I think that would provide some nice variety and make wearing full sets worthwhile.
For paladin, full allagan comes with SOS wall, which lasts 1 minute and negates 5% of damage when HP is below 20%.
For warrior, full allagan comes with life fabric, which grants a 1% chance an auto attack will return the damage dealt in HP.
For WhM, Sacred Light which has a 5% chance of cutting a CD in half.
Etc, any others agree?

[Altijacek]

And crafted gear/materia done correctly can create some effects rivaling that of allagan, making crafters a more important aspect of the economy and making the overall game somewhat more interesting it's great already, could be even more awesome!

[Tupsi]

Used to - people complained about it though because it forced them to think about the gear they use and think about what gear they truly need. It also created a rush for gear drops where people spent time farming the gear and never replacing it, compared to now where you replace pretty much everything until i70-i90 and even then you still do.

Relics for example granted passive abilities that enhanced certain job abilities, but Yoshi said this stresses players so he went with a simplified approach.

[Dark-Saviour]

Weapons should all have special abilities/skills and cease to follow the path of vertical progression, IMO.
Won't happen though. :-(

[Worm]

Weapons should all have special abilities/skills and cease to follow the path of vertical progression, IMO.
Won't happen though. :-(

It's really sad to hear the truth like this, but it's going to be awhile before games really get away from the tier system.

[Ricky]

Would be nice to see sets of gear or something along the lines of passive abilities, it's going to get old if we just keep seeing "of Fending" and "of Maiming" etc from here on out

[Edellis]

Anyone ever played Phantasy Star Online ep1&2?

Endgame gear was stronger than usual, but the strongest gears were usually the result not of the weapon's raw stats, but because of a special active feature you could use in combat. For enemy-related weapons, this would usually be some elemental-based attack or projectile. For the highest endgame weapons, it got pretty crazy.

The point was, for about most of the abilities, their superiority was situational, so in most cases, higher stats wouldn't cause you to abandon an older weapon. FFXIV works a bit differently, since you aren't allowed to swap weapons during combat, something PSO was designed for. I certainly think the same type of mechanic could be applied for weapons, though. Maybe a weapon skill button (similar to the limit break button) which does something specific if your weapon has a special ability.



Nothing game-breaking, just a nice, functional ability to keep equipment progression from being completely linear. The idea of specific weapons either enhancing abilities you already own, or providing you with completely new ones is something that really can never get old if implemented correctly.

[Dark-Saviour]

Anyone ever played Phantasy Star Online ep1&2?

That was precisely what I was alluding to. >_>

Once you got past a certain point pretty much any rare weapon was viable, as were a number of normal weapons. Each weapon felt distinct and worthwhile, so it fostered a desire to collect all of them and use whichever you enjoyed the best.
While games like WoW, FFXIV, etc. get hit with the label 'gear-treadmill', PSO was what I like to call a 'Gear Collectible Card Game'.

Having a set up that promotes getting X to get Y to get Z (which is all you really cared about) is dull... Having a setup that promotes getting and using the entire alphabet is much more fun.

[Edellis]

That was precisely what I was alluding to. >_>

While games like WoW, FFXIV, etc. get hit with the label 'gear-treadmill', PSO was what I like to call a 'Gear Collectible Card Game'.

Having a set up that promotes getting X to get Y to get Z (which is all you really cared about) is dull... Having a setup that promotes getting and using the entire alphabet is much more fun.

Absolutely agree. PSO is one of the first MMOs i'd ever played, and it has unfortunately stopped me from enjoying so many games because of how dynamic its gear system was

That would be along the lines of bringing interesting complexities to the game like player elemental damage and that's a no no. Don't want to be confusing the poor players little heads with things like basic depth.

Which is sad, because TBH so few games actually incorporate the sort of depth im talking about into their systems. I honestly can't think of a single one that does, including the sequels to PSO Ep1&2. I should mention, something like "+10 hidden dexterity", or "Randomly does 10 fire damage" is not the type of hidden abilities i'm talking about. Those essentially are no better than stat increases because they still only improve overall DPS, without much depth to them.

In regular MMOs, gear increase = DPS increase, while in PSO, gear increase = option increase. This is something that i've never seen another MMO do correctly, because their systems aren't pre-designed to incorporate the feature. You are the same character with a lv.9351 weapon as you are with a lv.1 weapon. You just do more damage.


So if FFXIV had abilities similar to PSO, i'd imagine it'd be something similar to equipping Additional job abilities on your character that just come from the weapon. Some help tons, some only help a little, but it's great to have direct control of them and use them when you want to.

[Taruranto]

Anyone ever played Phantasy Star Online ep1&2?

Or FFXI. Or heck, even 1.0. :P

Yeah, the gear selection in this game is so disappointing and boring.