"Perks" would do soooo much for this game

[loreleidiangelo]

This game's itemization and skill customization are bland as fuck. Never really noticed until I started playing other games, but having done so recently during the pre-3.1 lull I'm now no longer certain I'll be able to come back. This game's glacial GCD coupled with cookie-cutter skill builds and boring gear optimization needs a facelift pretty badly, IMO.

I'm not quite sure that I agree with the OP, though. Nobody should HAVE to craft to get the best gear, nor PVP - they should have the OPTION to do so if that's what they prefer. This game sorely needs more "options", not more pigeonholes.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

In regards to the "having to equip said item to gain its perk" idea, I don't think they would be used all that often.

Unless the stats stack according to your level, the basic stats tied to the gear piece will be underwhelming compared to anything you equip otherwise. For example, if you're going into level 60 content and you have the choice between equipping your esoteric gear and the perk gear, chances are you will need the esoteric gear.
As the perk gear will never outclass the gear for that content anyways.

Or consider the Bismarck EX trial, where everyone is trying to squeeze out as much damage as possible on the Scale. There is really no perk that you could have that would be more beneficial than a gear piece that increases your damage, critical hit, etc. And if it was, players would almost make it mandatory to use in place of the damage gear (as some people already pointed out in the thread).

Though the perks might be useful for leveling up lower classes in dungeons or something, where the gap in stats is not as noticeable as higher level content.

That is why perks that greatly increase your damage, critical rating, critical chance are usually very bad. They are mandatory.

Here is an example of a trait that is designed, a niche but here is how a trait should work.

Paladin
Trait: Greater Flash
Flash now sends out chains and pulls all mobs towards you and range is increased by 50%.

Dark Knight
Trait: Siphoning Armor
Gain a small amount health and mana when hit.

Warrior
Trait: Overpowered
Decreases the TP cost of Overpower by 20% and increases range by 3.

Disciple of War
Trait: Fleet of Foot
Movement Speed is increased by 15.0%.

[odintius]

They way I can see it adding a short of perks is to add a system similar to to ffxi skill ups, but not exactly like ffxi were it required while in battles. Instead a point system where you level it up receive points, were you can select perks you achieved and limited to how many perks can be active at a time. Like cure for example at certain level when reached you have two options for perks heal potency inceased x amount or mp consumption decreased by x amount you can put a point in and freely change at anytime but only use one of these options, this is a over simplied concept more depth required of course.

[Critical-Limit]

I craft, have like 5 jobs geared as well as 2 gathering jobs. I keep materials on hand and glamour.

I haven't even come close to needing to get a new retainer. What the heck are you guys complaining about inventory space hoarding?

[SpookyGhost]

People would still figure out which is considered BiS, and pretty much everyone would only do the required things and ignore all other "branches".

I wish whatever idiot originally posted this idea that "it's just an illusion of choice!!!" thing... didn't.

This is a massive problem with itemization in XIV. The only reason this mindset exists is because every single boss can be beaten with exactly the same BiS set - if you have BiS for the last boss, you essentially have BiS for everything. Yes, there are slight drops in Accuracy you can make to slightly boost your damage, but that's literally it.

If gear, stats, etc. weren't so linear and cookie cutter, then having different gear for different bosses would actually be a thing. It's so stupid that all the gear you collect gets trashed completely as soon as you get the higher ilvl version, and then once you have the highest ilvl there's nowhere to go from there because that's it. You've now got the best gear for everything until the next patch, you have literally no reason to get any other gear at all.

But honestly whatever. It's never changing. They don't care about making this game fun, they just want to make it as simple as humanly possible so that people never need to think.

[Delily]

I wish whatever idiot originally posted this idea that "it's just an illusion of choice!!!" thing... didn't.

This is a massive problem with itemization in XIV. The only reason this mindset exists is because every single boss can be beaten with exactly the same BiS set - if you have BiS for the last boss, you essentially have BiS for everything. Yes, there are slight drops in Accuracy you can make to slightly boost your damage, but that's literally it.

If gear, stats, etc. weren't so linear and cookie cutter, then having different gear for different bosses would actually be a thing. It's so stupid that all the gear you collect gets trashed completely as soon as you get the higher ilvl version, and then once you have the highest ilvl there's nowhere to go from there because that's it. You've now got the best gear for everything until the next patch, you have literally no reason to get any other gear at all.

But honestly whatever. It's never changing. They don't care about making this game fun, they just want to make it as simple as humanly possible so that people never need to think

You don't want someone to point out the obvious fact that has been proven out in almost every game that has skills or gear choices? We're talking games like Diablo 2, World of Warcraft, and FFXI. Games with huge playerbases that, in theory, offered you numerous choices, and people eventually settled on a few builds? You may not like that, but it's the truth.

Even your gear swapping is an example of that. People would determine that the first boss needs vit gear for a tank and that the second boss would need str gear. Players would then just carry the BiS for a specific set of fights. All you would accomplish with this is to make the inventory system even more cramped than before. The customization in FFXIV is not gear or skill based, it's job and role-based. We have 3 tanks, 3 healers, and 4 dmg classes. You can switch them at will.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

You don't want someone to point out the obvious fact that has been proven out in almost every game that has skills or gear choices? We're talking games like Diablo 2, World of Warcraft, and FFXI. Games with huge playerbases that, in theory, offered you numerous choices, and people eventually settled on a few builds? You may not like that, but it's the truth.

Even your gear swapping is an example of that. People would determine that the first boss needs vit gear for a tank and that the second boss would need str gear. Players would then just carry the BiS for a specific set of fights. All you would accomplish with this is to make the inventory system even more cramped than before. The customization in FFXIV is not gear or skill based, it's job and role-based. We have 3 tanks, 3 healers, and 4 dmg classes. You can switch them at will.

Except this game has very few jobs.

EQ2 has 6 types of tanks, 7 types of healers, 7 types of scouts, 7 types of mages.

Yes, it has been around for a long time, but when the game started it has had 24 "Jobs" for most of its life.

FFXIV's Jobs are not that much different either, unlike EQ2's which classes for a long time had their own pretty much unique flavor.

The Healers:

Warden/Furys are HOT based.
Templar/Inquisitor are Reaction Healing based.
Defiler/Mystic are Ward/Prevent Damage based.
Channaler: Shoot a BOW to heal all allies! You shoot them right in the face for healing and can run around freely.

So basicly, that is no excuse. The game needs a lot more jobs and jobs need to have more unique skills.

[AeraLure]

Basically this? Cos I'd love this.

The game definitely needs more complexity in stats as well as horizontal progression options. Something, because it's pretty dull in that department. The suggestion in that link is a good one. I'd rather enjoy something like that.

[Kurogaea]

..

You preach the truth dude. I mean imagine a game like Monster Hunter: You have all this cool Kirin armor which is mostly lightning absorbent, but then you meet a group you want to join to fight the next big monster called a Ratholos which is a fire based monster. Your other gear besides your Kirin set is weak so you stick with your awesomely acquired armor, but wait, your party members don't want you in their group because you aren't wearing the best gear to defend against fire attacks? Well bugger, guess I'll just have to "goes to single player mode and kills the Ratholos 10 times and obtains fire resistant armor" Welp all done, now to go online, oh hey its those players again. "Ooh nice fire resistant armor you have, want to fight the Ratholos with us?" they ask. "No thanks, I realized how much of a selfish, selective piece of Congalala turds you all are, so I'm just going to run it with another group. Bye A@&holes " Like seriously, BiS means nothing to those who just want to run content. For serious. -_-

[RiceisNice]

You preach the truth dude. I mean imagine a game like Monster Hunter: You have all this cool Kirin armor which is mostly lightning absorbent, but then you meet a group you want to join to fight the next big monster called a Ratholos which is a fire based monster. Your other gear besides your Kirin set is weak so you stick with your awesomely acquired armor, but wait, your party members don't want you in their group because you aren't wearing the best gear to defend against fire attacks? Well bugger, guess I'll just have to "goes to single player mode and kills the Ratholos 10 times and obtains fire resistant armor" Welp all done, now to go online, oh hey its those players again. "Ooh nice fire resistant armor you have, want to fight the Ratholos with us?" they ask. "No thanks, I realized how much of a selfish, selective piece of Congalala turds you all are, so I'm just going to run it with another group. Bye A@&holes " Like seriously, BiS means nothing to those who just want to run content. For serious. -_-

That's a bad example; a game like MH is more oriented around having specific skill boosts which...surprise, encouraged specific armor setups. I remember having to use a mix of ice agnatkor and some other large monster on my gunlancer because it offered the best offense-defensive approach with guard+2, guard boost, +bombardier and speed sharpening. Sure I could build toward evasion with barioth gear or something, but it's also missing abilties that would compliment other aspects of a gunlancer, like speed sharpening, and it definitely did not have the slots to allow for bombardier, and really it just couldn't compare to being able to block everything since you maintain your positioning and is generally less cumbersome. Having multiple sets just to build resistance means absolutely nothing when the best mitigation in that game is to not take damage at all, favoring guard and evasion sets along with boosts that matches your weapon (such as crit draw for great sword, or the aforementioned bombardier for gunlancer)

BUT, monster hunter also has the benefit of having a rather huge chest that you can store and save multiple gear sets. FFXIV does not have this luxury especially for a system that allows you to play 12 different combat classes, 8 crafting classes and 3 gathering classes and you only have 25 slots in each equipment slot to manage for them. Trying to make multiple gearsets in FFXIV is just asking for more inventory trouble than we already have.