Quote Originally Posted by Zarzak View Post
It is a CHOICE if it is not REQUIRED. Leaping Lizard Boots were NEVER required to beat an event.
LL boots aren't exactly the best example, given that those, at least for a huge range of levels while leveling, are a case of BiS, the same that you'd see here with vertical gear. Likewise, we already have the option in this game to NOT use BiS... that much is also a choice to clear all forms of content (within reason of specific content)... like, you don't need A4S gear to beat A4S. That argument results in a standstill, meaning no significant reason to change anything. Horizontal gearing is only effective and worth development time when they do more than adjust our cookie cutter stats.

In a game like FFXI, gear swapping was imperative to be effective due to how different equips affected your go-to skills/spells. Like with a THF, it wasn't exclusively DEX that affected your weapon skills, as some skills had modifiers like CHR or STR. Gear swapping mid-fight was a necessity, as a result of things like that... along with rarer early gear (or more abundant gear in latter expansions) to help you do things like gain TP or recover HP/MP. It's seriously a much bigger undertaking than most folks think. Then again, that's typically the case for nearly everything. The general populous always believes it's a matter of simply saying something needs to be done and thinking that's all there is to it.