[ Dev's ] Gear Swaps Can I have It?

[Gidonoidon_Sur]

Must say, the evidence is starting to pile up that this might go the WoW-ish route, which to me is scary. Between the uncapped dungeons, teleporting magically anywhere at any rank for any reason, and to this; I am kind of worried. Not to mention there is 0 to work toward at this point minus say guildmarks and some faction gear (which is really an after thought, similar to merit points in FFXI). I think this game will be good, but it might be 2 years from now.

[Jynx]

Changing gear made XI's end game work.

Which is why even more important question is what their plans are for the gear progression. Situational upgrades won't work because, well, there are only a fraction of situations as opposed to XI

Funny...I full timed multiple gear sets on my thief all the time. I had several sets of gear for different situations and it didn't always call for mid-battle swaps.

I had...

Accuracy set - Moderatly hard monsters
Powering set - Weak monsters
Evasion set - Strong accurate monsters

While I did have sets I would "Swap" for minor things like Ranged accuracy and weaponskill sets I'm still averse to having that style of play again.

[Wynn]

Spoke with Battle Master Matsui to get the lowdown on the whole gear swapping question that's got you all buzzin'. In regards to swapping gear while in battle, since changing certain gear while in battle will change your class in FFXIV, we're not planning to make it possible to swap gear in battle. This direction will not change in the future.

We are focusing instead on making adjustments with the battle-related fixes to ensure that you can battle to your utmost ability without having to rely on changing gear multiple times mid-fight.

DoooOOOOooooM!!!

Did I do that right?

Seriously though, excellent news. The metagaming situation gear swapping created in XI was beyond ridiculous in my opinion. I'm glad that XIV was developed with it intentionally not present and that it will continue to be so.

[Frisque]

we're not planning to make it possible to swap gear in battle. This direction will not change in the future.

Hmmmmm. This is the first thing that came to mind.

[Arcell]

Spoke with Battle Master Matsui to get the lowdown on the whole gear swapping question that's got you all buzzin'. In regards to swapping gear while in battle, since changing certain gear while in battle will change your class in FFXIV, we're not planning to make it possible to swap gear in battle. This direction will not change in the future.

We are focusing instead on making adjustments with the battle-related fixes to ensure that you can battle to your utmost ability without having to rely on changing gear multiple times mid-fight.

Glad to hear it. Simply the concept of changing clothes mid-battle is pretty stupid IMO. I could understand making different sets of armor for different builds, specializations or roles within a job but not how it was (from my understanding) in XI.

From what I understand in XI there was gear optimized for just a specific action and you would use it for that and then switch over to something else. That I feel is pretty stupid. I can't cast Fire until I'm wearing my special pants, they make it burn harder. Imagine how cumbersome that would be in this game, especially with how the macro system for gear swapping currently does one item at a time in sequence. Even with auto-attack the battle system is much faster than that.

Again making different set for different builds, specializations or roles within a job would be fine. Like say having a build that is suited to Fire or Aero specifically for Black Mage, that would be fine as it would allow you to have very specific gear. This would make you feel and look unique from other Black Mages and it would offer you a degree of customization. However it would also eliminate the need to switch gear for every single action or spell.

I feel this would be a decent compromise. People get to search around for their optimal build gear without having just 1 set being the best for the job.

[Physic]

Changing gear made XI's end game work.

Which is why even more important question is what their plans are for the gear progression. Situational upgrades won't work because, well, there are only a fraction of situations as opposed to XI. And if there's no situational upgrades, they'll be forced to make equipment obsolete often. Otherwise we have no reason to go after the new equipment, if it doesn't benefit us.

Gear swaps are a brilliant concept and there's no good argument against it. The small flaws in XI's system are easily fixed.

If they don't do something revolutionary (which isn't Yoshida's style) they will need to choose one or the other. And at this point the community is pointing them towards WoW, as opposed to XI with clear improvements (that is ultimately a better system, when executed correctly. Which isn't hard.)

different stats on different gear for different situations, swap your gear outside of battle, choose your gear based on the event you are goin into and what role you are playing.

Just because you cant be everything at once doesnt mean there isnt useful different gears.
for example
pug weapons with piercing dmg, pug weapons with blunt.
pug weapons with a focus on ATT and crit rate for bigger damage
pug weapons with a focus on parry and ACC for tanking
Evasion earrings gear if you expect to tank low ACC mobs
Defensive gear if you expect to tank high ACC mobs
Haste and speed gear if you want to be able to apply buffs/debuffs and set up BRs all at the same time

The point of different gear in FFXI wasnt to be a god all the time, it was to pick the gear that appropriately fit your skills and role, and made you better at the style of play you chose. The fact that people could use it all basically ruined those strategic choices.

imagine 1 rdm chose to be a stamina type with really high mp regen
another rdm chose to be a melee type with melee gear aCC attack and use enspells
another rdm chose to be a light BLM with back up cures

one monk chose to be a tank, and thus was full of ACC and counter gear, HP boosting gear and haste
another was all spike damage and went ACC ATTACK and STR and VIT for WS with a theif sub used kick attacks and kick damage boots.

people just did it all in one fight, your supposed to choose before you go into battle.

It the equivalent of swapping skills in battle out of your bar right now during a fight, without even having to put away your weapon, its just a work around to cheat the system. Oh im sure its cool, and makes having situational abilities more usefull, but that because you are cheating the system whereby you were actually supposed to choose your gear and skills BEFORE you went into battle.

[Enthy]

Well, they better think up something as a long term reward for doing content X,Y,Z...

I predict people either skipping to the newest content or IF there is a requirement like content X must be done to do content Y, people will only do content X once and it will become a pain in the butt to find people willing to do it again.

[Molly_Millions]

Spoke with Battle Master Matsui to get the lowdown on the whole gear swapping question that's got you all buzzin'. In regards to swapping gear while in battle, since changing certain gear while in battle will change your class in FFXIV, we're not planning to make it possible to swap gear in battle. This direction will not change in the future.

We are focusing instead on making adjustments with the battle-related fixes to ensure that you can battle to your utmost ability without having to rely on changing gear multiple times mid-fight.

Booyakasha! Thanks for the confirmation, Bayohne.

IMO the mechanic was ridiculous to begin with in XI, I'd hate to see it make a comeback here. Changing gear between fights, sure, but in the middle? C'mon, that's just ridiculous.

[Kallera]

Well, they better think up something as a long term reward for doing content X,Y,Z...

I predict people either skipping to the newest content or IF there is a requirement like content X must be done to do content Y, people will only do content X once and it will become a pain in the butt to find people willing to do it again.

I remember running into this in FFXI, too. Not sure where the rose tinted glasses are being sold in this thread.

[Rentahamster]

The only active gear switching I want to see encouraged by this game is arrow switching.

(and even then, only if it adds something positive to the game)