Colored gear with specific classes.

[Dreadnought]

Forget color coding; I simply wish SE would take a page from the modern MMO design handbook (something I don't advocate very often) and separate appearance from stats. LotRO (a free2play game, at that) does this better than any other MMORPG I've played. You have your gear, then you have several different appearance-only tabs that you can switch between at will.

i felt the Phantasy Star series did it even better.

in their games, your stats are based on a few actual devices that electronically induce those stats.
sort of like an invisible forcefield made up of specific defenses. anything you wear is just for looks.
it makes a little more sense than just magic imbued gear to me but oh well.