More Horizontal Progression please

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Just to clarify, you're saying that under your concept of Horizontal Progression, every alternative is completely viable in all situations, but any particular item may have a slight advantage in certain situations. Is that correct?

Would you be able to quantify at what point that slight advantage becomes too much and now that piece of gear is necessary for that certain scenario? Is that a 1% advantage? 5%? 10%? Once an item goes beyond that margin, is it now vertical progression? And is it vertical progression just for that particular slot, and horizontal progression in other slots if they're still below that margin?

If the item improves your character by 10%, and one improves it by 11-13% in certain situations its still a 11-12% update to that encounter. The procs in EQ for example were very powerful but there was enough choice that one wasn't "too" powerful over another in the same situation, but they all gave your character a great deal of power. It was just choice.

Not the way I read it. You might want to double check before continuing your argument.

I see you ignored my question asking which game was this.

if the next fight inline requires the Ice piece, that's horizontal. vertical and horizontal is not directly related to homogenization. you're trying to conflate two different issues. having BiS for a single fight doesn't make something not horizontal.

Actually, that is vertical. Vertical means there is one best choice. Its a straight upgrade to a fight and an encounter. There is only one real choice if your fighting an ice creature you need ice armor. If your wearing fire armor you have no ice resist so you get melted. There is no other choice for you. That is bad. That is homogenizing and exactly what vertical progression does, there is no difference.

In a Horizontal System: There is no "Ice Resist" or "Fire Resist" or "Accuracy" or "Critical Mitigation".

Instead of Ice Resist there is "Magic Resistance.". Higher "Magic Resistance" helps against both things. However, one piece has a little more "Magic Resistance" then the other. The one that has less armor has more DPS. However, there are many variants. However, you can still do the boss in any piece of armor. That is play-style choice.

Instead of "Resists and such" there are procs and effects. Each effect is "good" however there is no best effect. You choose the effect based on your own playstyle.