Proposal: Lower or Remove Mark Requirement for Gear

[Koltik]

Am I the only one who thinks the cost of R30/40 gear is too high? It is easier to get marks now, sure, but it still takes a ridiculous amount of PvP to gear up an alt class in the appropriate gear. We already got the grind out of the way with leveling to R40, so why make the grind even worse to gear up alt classes?

At a minimum I would love to see R30 gear prices dramatically reduced. If the same was done for R40 then that would be even better.

Am I alone in this?

[Zyphione]

You most likely are not alone but this is mostly just to keep people pvping if anything. When you brought up the grind part, I recalled how the system was when it only earned maybe 20 marks back then in wolves den which was supposedly made to keep people playing but people ended up quitting or not even trying instead. Though with FL being as popular as it's said to be, I'm unsure if the prices will really be dropped any time soon.

Maybe in future like it was with the R2x gear?

[Koltik]

You most likely are not alone but this is mostly just to keep people pvping if anything. When you brought up the grind part, I recalled how the system was when it only earned maybe 20 marks back then in wolves den which was supposedly made to keep people playing but people ended up quitting or not even trying instead. Though with FL being as popular as it's said to be, I'm unsure if the prices will really be dropped any time soon.

Maybe in future like it was with the R2x gear?

It used to be 30xp/60 marks iirc (unless you lost), but yes you are right. The grind used to be way worse.

[Dimitrii]

Funny thing is if you think its bad now in terms of how long it takes to get the ilvl100 gear it used to be much much worse pre 2.3 before all this increase in wolf marks came around. I think its fine the way it is atm but then again I'm not leveling and gearing alternate accounts (never did understand the point of that. Its not like this in FFXI and you can dual-box both accounts to be able to progress). In terms of alt classes I think its better this way as itll make you more likely to specialize a class in pvp thus making you more proficient in using said class and making you much more valuable to your team.

[Koltik]

Funny thing is if you think its bad now in terms of how long it takes to get the ilvl100 gear it used to be much much worse pre 2.3 before all this increase in wolf marks came around.

Trust me, I remember. I never bothered posting about it back then because it didn't seem realistic. At this point we are closer to being in a good place, but the prices are still too high.

If I have to wait in a long queue / am going to be matched based on my rank no matter which class I am on, then I should be able to have the gear to go with it.

[Gor]

I think its fine the way it is atm but then again I'm not leveling and gearing alternate accounts (never did understand the point of that.

For me its just an aethestics thing. Some players just like to level up different races for the animations or because they just love more than one race. I know that was the case for me when I leveled up a Lala and Miqote and grinded the SCH pvp sets for both. Sometimes I heal on my Lala and otheres on my Miqote.

[jlewiss]

i dont think it's the bad depending on you reason for gearing other classes. i managed to get a full left and right side for my main as well as the head and chest for war and the head for brd, working on the body now too. These are just for glamour purposes at this point but it still don't take that long to get the marks if you run a few hours every day.

[Wspaniale]

The prices currently are not that bad, you can get certain pieces extremely quickly compared to how it was before, not to mention with how you don't actually want to get your i70 and i90 pvp gear anymore you can just buy the i100 gear straight up.

Prior to 2.3, I only had one full i100 set + weapon for my MRD, and 3 pieces for my BLM, while post 2.3 I was able to buy the armor for every class bar SMN/SCH/DRG.

It's just a matter of putting the time in same as it was before. Except now it's just a shitload faster.

[Buff_Archer]

I already own several pieces of PVP gear I bought so I wouldn't cap out. Can't equip a single damn one of them till my PVP rank gets higher (26 now). If I didn't have to wait so damn long in queue between Frontline matches I could actually get a higher rank sooner. The hardest thing for to adjust to with this game was how logging on to play = waiting.

[Koltik]

Well maybe this well help show my concern.

A set of i70 gear costs 10k marks.

A set of i90 gear costs 61k marks.

A set of i100 gear costs 93k marks.

Going from R1-40 you will earn 170.5k marks. This is almost enough to buy 2 classes worth of i100 gear, but that is assuming you skip all i70 and i90 gear. While that is possible due to FL, it would restrict you from doing any WD until you could equip your R40 gear. Especially since the game matches you based on rank.

So, assuming you do everything as intended and buy I70, I90, and I100 gear, then you will have spent 164k marks to gear up 1 of your classes. Once you get 40 you can skip i70 and i90 to go straight to i100, but the amount of marks that takes is the equivalent of marks you earned going from R1 - R32. That is a lot of marks, and takes a ton of time.