Variance in player skill is hurting FFXIV's itemization design.

[Cakekizyy]

They really need to improve gear. Right now its just get as much crit as possible and making sure have enough accuracy... so exciting...

Stats aren't supposed to be exciting.

[CuteWhisper]

I just want gear set bonuses, even if we keep the boring stats =;[

This is something I would like to have, gear bonuses.

[Lemuria]

Stats aren't supposed to be exciting.

Says who? Oh right, FFXIV devs. There's literally no reason they couldn't be, but they chose to make it that way because... well, to be honest, their reasons are meaningless.

"Yoshi: there were specific items that had that boost or an added ability, we would want a situation where that item needs to be hard to obtain by farming or making the drop rate extremely low and that’s not really productive either."
Says who?! The drop rate could be whatever they want it to be but they're admitting they'd CHOOSE to make it a low drop rate and claim that would be unproductive. If all gear had its own unique stats for the job it was designed for, this argument would be invalidated.

"Yoshi: In this game we have people of all skill levels. Different players have the freedom to choose which content they want to play and so the development team wants to make it so that no matter how each player plays the game, they can still end up at the same strength and be on an equal playing field. That’s what we keep in mind when deciding the strength of an item."
There you have it. No one is allowed to be weak, no one is allowed to play their own way, and everyone has to play the same game in the same way as everyone else. That is literally the saddest part about this. They're basing all of their design decisions on the lowest common denominator which has robbed the game of its personality. There's little sense of adventure outside of the MSQ, and combat is boring. Yes, boring.

When they announced ARR, one of the lessons they supposedly learned was "Always aim to amaze". Well, after 8 major updates with essentially the same content they're not amazing me right now. Here, I'll predict the next one for you: Esoteric tomes removed, Lore replaces Esoteric, new tome introduced. Two new dungeons and a raid. See? I've predicted the last FOUR of them in similar ways! This ideology is short-sighted at best, and downright dangerous at worst and is turning FFXIV into an underwhelming experience.

Something needs to change drastically.

[Zojha]

[...]and combat is boring. Yes, boring.

I...personally don't find it boring. I find stats boring. They're background noise I completely forget about once I close the tab and I couldn't name a single one without looking them up. And not just in this game, in any game.

Moreover...

There you have it. No one is allowed to be weak, no one is allowed to play their own way, and everyone has to play the same game in the same way as everyone else.

This isn't entirely true. Ditch your soul crystal right now and come back saying you're not allowed to be weak or play your own way. It's just not optimal. But that's the point, is it not? To allow for vastly suboptimal decisions and build traps?

[Yukiko]

The silent always leave first!

[Adventica6]

I don't know, getting a few more int or a few more crit on my items every, single, patch, is pretty exciting design, don't you think?

[Nalien]

I...personally don't find it boring. I find stats boring. They're background noise I completely forget about once I close the tab and I couldn't name a single one without looking them up. And not just in this game, in any game.

Well, to each their own, but I find the option of different builds, even if it's ultimately just an illusion of choice, to be far more interesting and has me far more engaged with a game... At this point, I simply don't care about gear in this game, as a result I'm losing interest in most of the content; Why would I bother with Nidhogg (EX) when the gear is so painfully uninteresting? The story and various other pieces of content keep me interested, but gone are the days when a patches "main attraction" was something I got excited about...

The main argument I've seen leveled against such an addition has usually been that people will "discriminate" against players based on such a change... Really makes me wonder if I'm playing the same game as some people... The only place that is remotely applicable IMO is for the raid community, who pretty much already act this way with regards to gear and consumables... I really don't think the rest of the game cares, the Duty Finder has not breed an elitist community, it's breed one that is seemingly OK with people using a Lv50 relic in Lv60 content, one that's OK with Food and Potions being completely unused, and one that doesn't bat a eyelid if you use Parry IV over Det V melds... Christ, try purposely doing a bad rotation some time, unless you're a tank or healer (in which case you can easily get away not pushing DPS when it is entirely possible to) it's entirely possible nobody will care... I really can't see interesting stats changing a damn thing in that regard, meanwhile it would add a lot more value to the game for me... I'd be more interested in dungeons and their gear with a specific stat dangled in front of me... I wouldn't be rolling my eyes at the Palace of the Dead weapon being a reward if it had some special effect I could hold onto... So long as they don't make them essential, there is no issue... It would actually be less problematic that our current form of "customization", cross-class skills like Provoke and Invigorate are far more problematic IMO...

No, the only real downside and solid justification against such stats is that implementing them properly is hard and balancing takes effort... Not the greatest attitude to take IMO... I'd find a system like IXs abilities to be very grind heavy, which SE should like, right? That means I'm playing their game more and am more invested with it as a result... Plenty probably hate the idea of grind heavy content though, but so what? Don't grind then... Just use the stats on the gear you have and don't care about the system the same way most people in Duty Finder don't care about consumables or optimal melds... That's the solution for people who don't like such a concept, the solution for me not liking the current state of itemization? To play something different... To me, it seems like doing something holds less risks than doing nothing... We didn't seem to lose players when they gave us more melding options, unless they really mess up I don't see why we would with more itemization options... People who want that depth would finally have it, people who don't can just ignore it...

[l---------------l]

Customization.... The big evil antagonist of FF's clone wars x'3

[Zojha]

So long as they don't make them essential, there is no issue...

And what would be the course of making it non-essential? Making it largely inconsequential. If meaningless customization of stats is what you want, by all means be my guest. But the moment it provides substantial advantages, it becomes mandatory, just like cross class skills and content ends up being developed with it in mind, which in turn prevents people from "just ignoring" it. Why did tank swaps become a thing? Because provoke is an option. And after they made the first one, they have to give it to every future tank as well for compatibility. The exact same thing would happen with any other ability or gimmick you create via itemization or customization.

That said, if you are fine with this itemization/customization to remain below the relevancy threshold, I certainly won't object. But I do feel it would not, in fact, satisfy you or anyone else longing for it.

[zosia]

I know Yoshida tries his best, but it's very difficult for me to hold my tongue when I see dribble such as that response.

His fear of character potential is ridiculous! Afraid raiders can do their expert 3 minuets faster because their weapons can proc? There is nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, in this game where you need gear. Even end of the tier BiS builds from gordias were invalidated by crafted eikon gear.

This dev team has absolutely no clue about reward schedules, making effort invested feel worth while, and longevity of rewards.

I am going to start calling this my 3 month game. Stay unsubbed until the last patch of the expansion, sub for 3 months, clear all the easy and nerfed content, unsub until next end of expansion patch.