Some ideas to add variety and depth

[Alvarion]

Having gone over some ideas that I have had that could improve the gear variety and depth with some of my FC mates, I have come here to share and hopefully garner some attention and feedback. I am quite curious as to what some of you may think.

Firstly, gear sets. In 1.x, certain pieces (AF) had synergistic traits to the job they were related to. Though Yoshi had said they were taken out to simplify things, I think they should make a return. However, let's bring them back in the same way the GC gear implements them but instead of adding pure stats in the way those pieces do, have them boost certain abilities or traits. For example: Allagan and Mythology sets could have different types of bonuses allowing more reasons to mix and match the sets based not only on stats but the bonuses you would receive for equipping them.

We came to the realization that, though certain pieces may not be considered BiS, so long as you are hit capped, i90 is i90. There is no content I can't clear because I have 1 i90 item and not another. Point being, sub stats don't make a big enough impact to drastically negatively effect any of the content.

Example: How cool would it be if the 5 piece Valor set bonus gave 2 secs more to Hallowed Ground (doesn't have to be this but using it as an example). And say the 5 piece Allagan tank set reduced the CDs of Hallowed Ground/Holmgang by a certain amt of time or even something broader to encompass both jobs. There would also be 2 and 3 set piece bonuses as well.

Yes, it would take balancing but I think it would help breath a bit more life into the gear variety. All jobs would have set bonuses relative to their respective roles.

Secondly, a crystarium. This is what we called the system that could be put into place that utilizes your soul stone. It works very similarly to a glyph system or a rune system wherein you can place up to 5 runes/glyphs into your soul crystal that would boost certain traits or abilities or change how certain abilities could work. Adding more depth and variation to the already cookie cutter jobs we have.

Thirdly, more branching combos from abilities to increase the use of lesser used abilities. For example, much like how Warrior's Heavy Swing branches into two different combos, why can't other abilities from other jobs do the same? Why not have different status effects be granted based on which skill you use first?

Lastly, the materia system. Again, another way to expand the depth and variety currently in place. Along side the stat boosts that materia give, wouldn't it be nice to add more synergy to your build? I don't have any direct suggestions as to WHAT could be added in that respects but it would be nice to be able to move away from straight stat boosts in favor of adding a bit more flair to your character and build.

TL;DR
I guess the word of the day is synergy. Trying to make as much diversity and depth as possible while staying in the confines of what is already built and in front of us.

What do you all think? Anything else you can think of to expand the variety and depth?

[Erana]

About skills, what would I like to see is for Jobs to have their own seperate Skillset from their origin class.l. I feel like having the same skillsets as the base class with a few skills tacked on would make things a bit more complicated or less interesting when creating more Jobs for a specific class, especially when those Jobs have different Roles.