Quote Originally Posted by Ryel View Post
And this is an issue in itself, It shouldn't be the case that the gear with the highest stats / ilvl in the game comes from quite literally ONE location each patch cycle. I have already said earlier in this thread that we need a variety of content to offer up that sort of gear, not just one type of content at a time, whether it be multiple types of raids or even a raid that works in tandem with crafting, a system like this one would work quite well.

This isn't a solution that needs to be one or the other, there are tons of ways to make various methods of high level gear acquisition desirable without sticking the best of the bunch in one raid for 6 months and calling it at that.
First, I think several design decisions were made to get the game out the door as cheaply as possible. Implement simpler systems that are known to work, laying a stable foundation for adding complexity later on.

I tend to think using gear as an end is a crutch, so I love the idea of multiple sources of gear. Imagine a system where players can craft gear, farm it from dungeons, or gain it from treasure maps. I also love the idea of interesting customizations, like set bonuses, body armor providing primary stats and accessories providing secondary. It all sounds great!

Until you do it.

First, as has been mentioned, changing itemization is hard. +Crit and +Haste on rings is a good example. You someone have to normalize it so that a player with +10 Crit and a player with +10 haste can do roughly the same damage in a given period of time, the caveat being the +crit player does bigger hits, whereas the +haste player will do more hits. Why?

Because FFXIV is not a game, it's a graphical spreadsheet. The vast majority of players, from hardcore to casual, are achievers. There's a reason WoW got rid of the skill point system and simplified itemization. It's easier to balance, but the truth is the vast majority of players will simply wait until the numbers are run, the optimal setup is determined, and then just use that. WoW, being the 800 lb elephant, has a enchantments and gems, right? But look at J Random Warlock. He's probably destruction and gemmed/enchanted for haste. That's until he gets the gear for the haste breakpoint and then switches over to crit. It's not just the raiders, though, it's everyone. Spell crafting in DAoC was the ultimate form of "build your own gear" and yet, everyone just had the same setup. Even now, people are running a few templates.

Multiple sources of gear are great, but people are lazy and will just go for the easiest path to the highest ilvl. Why farm a random dungeon repeatedly if you can just buy the gear? Wasted content.

While FFXIV is probably the best story driven MMO currently, the focus is on achievers, because that's where you get the most subscriptions from.