How to make gear progression non-linear

[Volsung]

Yea what this person suggesting is not power creep.

Theyre suggesting horizontal progression, or side grades, that can make your more powerful
in one area, but not a specific straight damage(or main stat) increase. Horizontal progression
can be a wonderful thing when done correctly. If certain builds are not too favorable, it can add
reason for content. I do however think that we should keep slots on crafted gear. And make
some crafted gear more relevant. (they said new recipes are coming, we'll see)

err let me give an example.

lets say best body is i80 gear from a content.
second best is a crafted i70 at HQ.
slap on rare materia that maybe adds some nice trait (shield procs+%,
double attack+% etc) that has a chance to bring it to almost ilvl80
gears parsing value, and bam, alternative, that is not more powerful.

spend time doing the content one way for the drop, or spend time
doing a different content for a different build. either way you'll be putting
time and effort into getting one of those two items. It can be hard to
balance, but when done well, nothing wrong with some horizontal
progression.