Required Class/Rank failed - Can we have Optimal Rank and Favoured Class back?

[AamesxDavid]

Most (all?) gear does not favor a single class, and that is part of what makes the system so unclear. There are also plenty of pieces of gear like my example.

I'm quite aware of that. Just as I'm sure you're aware that not all required gear has only one required class. And I hope you don't take offense to this, because I mean none, but I read your post as "I don't like how the system works now, so it should be a completely different system."

I never said that there should be no change to the system, simply that the change shouldn't include a required class/level. I'm also not saying that I have all of the answers for how it would best work, just that I think it can, and I have a few ideas on what would make it work better.

Favored gear only benefits those who don't want to upgrade their gear regularly, and who want to look pretty. Sorry but those aren't good enough reasons to complicate a system that is self explanatory in every single other RPG.

Updating gear has nothing to do with it, as you can wear anything below your level with the required system, so that just strikes me as an ad hoc excuse to look down on people for not agreeing with you. And if aesthetics weren't important in the game, all gear would look the same, so I don't agree with your pompous dismissal of it. Having gear similar to my example of Belt 3 doesn't complicate anything, on either end. There are ways it could work without abandoning the system entirely.

Regardless of what you think about the confusion that "optimal gear" causes, the fact that it is easier to balance class locked gear has been stated by Yoshida. Get out of here with your claim that it's got "no upsides".

I guess I should have specified that it has no upsides for the player..?

Edit: I should also make note that class/level locked gear was voted for in the player poles at the beginning of the year, so we're obviously not the only ones that took issue with the "optimal class" gear.

Totally fair point, but I'd simply argue that it was more a matter of wanting a more easily-understandable system than a more restricted one, and-

And this was when we had a) more players, b) a smaller concentration of maxed out players, and c) no endgame.

Is the fact that there were more people who were less experienced with the game at the time supposed to be another point in its favour? Those people didn't understand the system, so they wanted to go to one they already understood - those were the options. How about a simplified optimal system? Or at least a more transparent one?

Again, a required system isn't horrible, just unnecessary, and unfortunate for those of us who enjoy the freedom an optimal system provides.