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

[Tsuga]

And I'm not saying this is game-breaking or anything like that, just that it's an unnecessary change that does have downsides. And, most importantly, no real upsides, because all of the concerns I've heard about the optimal system either aren't true, aren't legitimate, or can be taken care of without abandoning the whole system for a required one.

Which, as I've said before, isn't a reason for getting rid of the optimal system, but simply making it clearer.

And how would you propose they make it more clear? A tutorial, for picking gear? That should come as naturally as "I kill a monster, I get exp". It should not require a tutorial.

I'll see your heavily-biased examples and raise you a more balanced one:

Belt C: (Favors: Gladiator Suggested level: 30. Str + 5 Dex +3)

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.

Having restricted classes and levels prevents you from unknowingly gimping yourself. It also makes it easier for the dev team to balance how classes work in a party (it is a multiplayer game after all), materia, and how classes will progress. With tough content like Ifrit being implemented knowing what gear is good for you, and the devs being able to balance that gear are both essential.

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.

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".

Name an upside to "favored gear" aside from "I don't want to switch gear/buy new gear every 5 levels" and "I want to look purdy".

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