Item levels in Hevansward

[Alipoprocks]

It's that kind of feeling of having your efforts invalidated EVERY 5 - 6 MONTHS that is demoralizing for some.

It also has the effect of letting players gear for different scenarios / uses, OR even if they don't, their efforts weren't thrown away every few months.

50 likes from me for your post. Been complaining about the above since the first patch. I really want to love this game, but . . . .meh

[Barimu]

50 likes from me for your post. Been complaining about the above since the first patch. I really want to love this game, but . . . .meh

agreed, sick of content just being pushed out fast but then tried to be revived but relics etc

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Horizontal Progression worked really well in TSO. =O

Gear had similar stats but dropped different "abilities" on the gear.

[Daranion]

For the people asking for unique traits on gear make a short mockup list for things they'd like to see? I see the request thrown around a lot, but not having played FFXI I can't imagine what it is you're asking. Just some effects that you could slap on gear that you could illustrate what you're asking for. As it seems, it sounds like what is being asked is relatively pointless and just additional spice to glamor, but I'd just like to see from other players who'd played games where it was a thing.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

For the people asking for unique traits on gear make a short mockup list for things they'd like to see? I see the request thrown around a lot, but not having played FFXI I can't imagine what it is you're asking. Just some effects that you could slap on gear that you could illustrate what you're asking for. As it seems, it sounds like what is being asked is relatively pointless and just additional spice to glamor, but I'd just like to see from other players who'd played games where it was a thing.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-some-ideas%21

As you can see, nothing like "+20% Bonus Damage", which would be required for "all DPS".

Tremor Earrings of Slaying
All attacks deal 10 more potency in damage and have a small chance to deal 20 more potency, however reduces movement speed by 20% as well.

Might not be ideal for end game raiding because.. well.. your slower so you avoid AEs slower.

Some things that are powerful effects have draw backs associated with them.

[Kiara]

For the people asking for unique traits on gear make a short mockup list for things they'd like to see? I see the request thrown around a lot, but not having played FFXI I can't imagine what it is you're asking. Just some effects that you could slap on gear that you could illustrate what you're asking for. As it seems, it sounds like what is being asked is relatively pointless and just additional spice to glamor, but I'd just like to see from other players who'd played games where it was a thing.

Hi Daranion,

The first thing to make it a possibility would be Yoshi P and the Dev Team making various Secondary Stats more meaningful (matter more). In addition, opening up additional Secondary Stats (not too many, but even 1 - 3 more parameters would help).

From there you could have more strategic and interesting ways to decide between different sets. I like Nalien and Nek's ideas above. Some other examples:

(Note: Only IF various Stats were more meaningful in battle, and there were new Stats as well.)

Tank Sets (Same Item Level)

* VIT / HP Tank Set: This set yields the most amount of HP / VIT, basically like a "Blood Tank" in a way.

* Damage / STR Tank Set: This set focuses on more STR doing Damage. Some players might enjoy tanking with Less HP / VIT but at the cost of more Damage (we see some of this currently with HQ Crafted Jewelry swapped in).

* DEX / Block / Parry Rate Tank Set: This could focus on affecting Tank's Block Rate / Parry Rate (to more meaningful levels (and it would entail messing with Magic Damage being affected as well)).

Back in 1.0, when Block Rate / Block Strength on various Shields were a thing, there were interesting discussions amongst Paladins about the advantages / disadvantages to various Shields (some had Super High Block Rate, but Low Block Strength; others had Low Block Rate, but Super High Block Strength (so more damage was mitigated if it proc'd)).

* Tank Sets with Unique Stats: Maybe a new piece of Armor or a Set that adds in:

*** Enhances Rampart. Causes Rampart to be projected to all players within an AOE around the Tank.

*** Counterattack +X%. Every time incoming damage hits the Tank, they have X% Chance to proc a "Counterattack." (Final Fantasy VII had awesome Counterattack Materia. )

etc.

The idea above is that various sets have Advantages and Disadvantages to them. Some players feel more comfortable with More HP / VIT; they might not have as reliable Healers (or they PF / DF a lot), or just want that buffer room. Other players might prefer having much higher Block / Parry Rates (if it affected Magic Damage also).

Others might want to give up various pieces of the above sets just to have Counterattack + X% Bonus Enhancement. Or "Enhances Rampart" because of their situation, or they just like to be able to shield more players around them in various fights.

But no matter what, ALL of the sets above would be the same Item Level. It's new interesting ways to gear. And unlike what we have currently, it's NOT worthless just for "Glamour" when it's released. If you don't end up getting all of say, 1 set of Gear, the next Patch with one of those Alternate Sets of Gear would NOT invalidate your Set 1 Gear, since it'd be Same Item Level, just different types of stats.

Other types of enhancements and unique stats from older Final Fantasies included stuff like:

* Adds Regen Effect

* Enmity +X

* Steal +X (when Thieves could Steal items)

* Evasion +X (not just for Tanks, DPS or Healers might consider more Evasion pieces to help avoid various bad situations at a tradeoff for other pieces)

* Conserve MP

* Double Attack +X%

* Increased Magic Defense (obviously at the cost of something else).

* TP Recovery


I'm not saying all of these effects are viable or useful the way FF XIV is now, but it illustrates the potential for *far more interesting* ways of Gearing than the awful, boring Gear we have every single patch since 2.0 launched.

"Yes," it would take some rework. And I'm not expecting or asking for all or even most of previous Final Fantasy effects to be added, but even just a few more additions, would be interesting and make gearing more strategic, and slow down Gear / Stats Inflation dramatically.

And again, in a Hybrid approach, the Dev Team can still upgrade Item Levels every so often, but it just doesn't have to be every 5-6 months. There'd still be new gear at the *same pace* as before, but instead of going

i90 > i110 > i130

it would instead be:

i90 Set 1 & 2 > i90 Set 3 (Unique Stats) > i110 Set 1 & 2 > i110 Set 3 (Unique Stats) > etc.

Lastly, the player wouldn't need dramatically more Inventory space: Yoshi P is *already* giving us X# of Gear Sets every major patch. But instead of the 90% worthless (stats-wise) New Dungeon Gear (that's just for Glamour), players would be earning Alternate Gear Sets (and picking and choosing what pieces they like from each one). Same volume of output as before.

Thanks.

[Daranion]

That stuff you said

Hmm, I see. That does sound interesting, but I can't imagine it would go over too well with the people who enjoy the gains in power. So in your example, something like Final coil has just been released. IT has an ilvl of 110 just like SCOB. But it drops gear with effects like THIS TANKING BODY HAS 1% REGEN WHEN WORN WITH etc. Whereas back in SCOB, you had tanking gear that had like +10% Parry chance. So instead of gear getting stronger, you're just lotting for complete sets of sidegrades that have no real gamechanging effect other than not wanting gear to get stronger for the sake of getting stronger? Not entirely sure I'd be happy with that myself, unless I'm misunderstanding what's being asked for. Just seems like asking for glamor to be made more useful since additional effects don't matter. IS that what the core is? Make glamor useful?

[Kiara]

Hmm, I see. That does sound interesting, but I can't imagine it would go over too well with the people who enjoy the gains in power. So in your example, something like Final coil has just been released. IT has an ilvl of 110 just like SCOB. But it drops gear with effects like THIS TANKING BODY HAS 1% REGEN WHEN WORN WITH etc. Whereas back in SCOB, you had tanking gear that had like +10% Parry chance. So instead of gear getting stronger, you're just lotting for complete sets of sidegrades that have no real gamechanging effect other than not wanting gear to get stronger for the sake of getting stronger? Not entirely sure I'd be happy with that myself, unless I'm misunderstanding what's being asked for. Just seems like asking for glamor to be made more useful since additional effects don't matter. IS that what the core is? Make glamor useful?

Hi Daranion,

Sort of. There would still be changes in "power" (item Level increasing) since that's the nature of the beast these days (influenced from WOW). But essentially, yes, if there was 1 set of gear released 1 patch (let's just say i110), and the next major patch another Raid got released, it would also have i110 gear, but with a different focus (see my previous post with all sorts of Differing Stat Focus / Bonus Effects).

The point is even with 100% drop rates, people are still trying to clear various dungeons, or RNG hates them and they still don't have X, Y, or Z piece show up yet.

That 2nd Patch with a New Raid and New Gear (albeit same iLevel), would be another End Game Raid that provides OPTIONS.

This 2nd Patch doesn't have to invalidate all of the gear in the 1st Patch. So you can still feel like the i110 gear you got from Patch 1 is useful (it is, unlike a jump from say, 110 > 130), and in addition, you can start gearing up to your own playstyle.

Some players might enjoy being more Critical-based, or others might want that gear with Double Attack +X%, or for Tanks, a super high Block / Parry Rate set vs. All Damage (but sacrificing VIT / HP), etc.

Choices to be made, gearing is far more interesting and there's more strategizing.

More power to you if you simply enjoy EVERY SINGLE Gear Upgrade being "+ VIT, + [Main Stat]" every single time.

It's seriously awful and boring, just my opinion.

When you see new gear being unveiled, there's NO guess work: You KNOW every major patch you'll just get more VIT and more of your Main Stat.

And all your previous gear was invalidated.

It really gets old after a while.

[Nalien]

They could easily add horizontal progression if they sorted out the armory chest space, in fact they've already kind of have if you PvP (or if you did, when Morale was relevant).

Imagine space for gear and gear sets is not an issue, we could have;

• Gear for Primal fights, this gear has Elemental Resistance stats on it which becomes key to Primal fights, rewards end up similar to the Primal Focus quest but with a general Elemental Resistance stat rather than splitting it across six elements.
• Gear for dungeons, this gear has the Treasure Hunter stat on it, which increases your reward for running through dungeons. More loot, more Tomestones, etc. So you'd rather wear this stuff (and it could be stuff like the existing unique dungeon drops) for dungeons than anything else.
• Raid content would have the existing set up of gear, though you could give its own unique stat, I'm just too lazy to come up with one.
• Tomestone gear could be a mix of everything. The jack of all trades gear which you can use for everything, but you'll want to upgrade eventually if you're serious about repeating content.
• PvP, as I said, already has Morale.

There. Horizontal progression. You get your Tomestone gear, it's OK but you could go after upgrades for each individual event, eventually giving you a unique PvP set, Raid set, Dungeon set and Primal set. Bonus points if the Relic weapons then end up being the best of the best, jack of all trades like the Tomestone gear, but master of all of them as well. That would be very much worth getting. I suppose this is already somewhat the case, but it is a marginal bonus to cut out excess Accuracy for different events... Would be far more interesting if different gear sets could be mechanically tied to the event, though I'll admit I mostly just want Elemental Materia to actually have a bleedin' purpose outside mashing five together for a hopeful profit.

Or they could give us some not too overpowered unique stats on gear which do something, but by no means become requirements, and give us a way to permanently unlock them and set them, similar to the system in Final Fantasy IX. That would be a better reason for going about farming gear than to have Glamour options, at least. The main purpose of horizontal progression is to increase the amount of gear we farm, currently the only way the game does that is the (awfully designed) Glamour system. That's it. You don't farm PvP gear to use, you farm it to Glamour, same for 90% of the dungeon gear. They could either make that gear relevant to the events or they could give us some way to make that gear more relevant. I think I'd much prefer Morale if it was a Final Fantasy IX style AP stat, Morale I on the i55, Morale V on the i110 (or just Maneater from IX), with that providing a minor bonus in PvP rather than doing nothing (well i70 PvP Morale does something, but that's about it). Farm a full set from Crystal Tower? Have High Tide to offer a minor increase in the rate the LB meter fills.

[Amaranths]

AF2 160 > law 170 > Alex NM> Eso> Alex HM.

Not sure what the other ilvls will be tho