Poll: Gear progression, horizontal or vertical?

[Synestra]

Could they introduce a new raid with more ilevel 130 gear and not lose player interest?

Ah the good old TBC era where you had 6 diffirent raids from day 1 not to mention that ilvl from bottom to top was only in 20-30 range, each upgrade was marginal at best but it was still a upgrade and it kept gear diffirences in check pretty well imo. This also kept old content alive as there was still BiS items in there for some classes even if you were already farming latest content thanks to extremely small ilvl diffirences.

[Stanelis]

I like horizontal progression.

Tbh I don't feel any motivation in farming gear in FFXIV as it will become obsolete a few month later.

[Aeyis]

This kind of play style customization would probably please a lot more people than horizontal gear progression since no one has to start grinding extra gear sets.

Extra gear sets has little to do with horizontal gear progression.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Let me explain to you how good Horizontal Progression Works.

Ok, So you have about 3 sets per class-type.

Tank-Tank
Vitality
Parry (5%)
Extra Armor (5%)
Effect: Raises threat, small chance to ward yourself when attacked.

Tank-DPS
Vitality
Strength
Determination
Effect: Small chance to Lifetap when you attack.

DPS-DPS
Strength
Determination
Critical
Effect: Lowers threat as a tank-raises damage

The Tank DPS/Tank-Tank set have the same resists, and the

Bla bla bla

The sets have the same resistance, overall armor, health (besides the super DPS stuff). So you go after what your playstyle is.

You don't need to "farm sets" you go after the set that fits your play-style.

[Synapse]

When they release equipment that "enhances Internal Release" people will use it for longer.

I hope for some Horizontal progression, This vertical progression is pretty dumb, its like a shiny new item every 3 months to keep the feeble minds craving in check.

[Reinha]

Extra gear sets has little to do with horizontal gear progression.

Horizontal = multiple different kinds of gear sets with the same stat budget are available to player. They all have to have a use in some situation, otherwise you are not "progressing" your character when you gain those pieces and it simply becomes vertical progression (where everyone gets the most powerful set). The post following yours has a good example for tank sets, but I disagree with the conclusion that farming wouldn't be necessary (for non-casuals). 1st set can withstand the most damage so it's BiS on a boss that hits hard and drains healers, and 3rd can do the most damage so it's BiS on dps check bosses. You can't say they are equal in value in all content, when (for tank perspective) there is
1) speed running farm content
2) content that you can solo tank
3) hard hitting bosses that push you and healers to your limit
4) difficult dps checks that require maximum output from everyone.

People doing serious content are going to be so skilled that main difference between a wipe and a kill is not how they push their buttons. It's what they are wearing and the RNG in player and boss abilities. They are going to have to wear the best possible gear for each fight because the fights will be tuned with different sets in mind. If they weren't tuned that way, they would be too easy for people bringing the correct sets for each fight. And if the fight was equally difficult with any gear, the whole "horizontal progression" would be an illusion.

Gear doesn't change the core of our rotation so the "play-style" argument kind of baffles me. If you are going to hang on to the same gear set for play-style purposes, that's not progression either. It's just specializing your character to do one thing and progressing vertically when expansions hit. That's what classes are for tbh. Paladin for super tankyness, warrior for tanking with some dps, dragoon for dps and some emergency tanking and monk/ninja for pure dps.

[SDaemon]

snip

How many times have you posted those images so far? I've already told you and explained that with what you are suggesting there will be players who will farm every piece of different gear pieces in order to swap them out based on encounters, because that is what will be encouraged.

Your idea that players can just choose gear which suits their play-style most and go with it is flawed. Players may certainly only choose to wear one set of gear, but they will be at a distinct disadvantage compared to those who use the system properly and swap their gear out.