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

[Leigaon]

Instead of the system being gear related why not make it class/job related? Im thinking about FFIXs system of gems and slotting different unique traits depending on the situation..

Someone made a post just like that with how gear could have certain traits, and then spiritbonded to be later unlocked so you can add them to other pieces of gear as you leveled up. So for example, at level at level 15, set of gear could have "Rampart: Parry +4", you spirit bond through that and it becomes unlockable. You can add it to some gear that gives you a slot. You could eventually make them so you're actually adjusting your abilities to whatever content you're using. Only thing I'd do is make some of the raiding armor have more unique things, as content grows old, some lesser skilled players can get it.

I'm not an end-game raider, but I do believe if you do things like Relic Grind or taking on the current hardest content, you should be rewarded with something extra. It wouldn't put you so far above the rest, but just enough to make you happy you did the content. It might even encourage others to start getting themselves to that level.

This might lead to something like "Players would neglect other players for not having certain boosts", this is happening now except with clears or having a certain iLV.

[Remus]

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

[KeluBehemoth]

I can sum up FFXIVs problems with itemization in two words... "Kraken Club".
Nobody. Absolutely Nobody in that game "NEEDED" it.

Yoshis response is absurd.

The differences in itemization in FFXI was so marginal that without the "Most amazing, over priced, rare gear available" you could still pull your weight. Having those things just made it a bit easier.

Which is basically I230 to casuals and I240 to raiders... except theres absolutely nothing special about the i240 except it has higher stats to pew pew harder.

I think what a lot of people want are just things that give a little edge and theres absolutely nothing wrong with everyone not having access to it.

I never owned a Kraken Club. I never even got the Rare/Ex or got to borrow one. But my class wasn't completely broken without it either.

It simply is the way video games are going now days. Dumbed down.

[KeluBehemoth]

Also as for the comment "Players may neglect certain players for not having certain boosts". Theres absolutely nothing wrong with that.

If you put in 2 hours a week and someone else puts in 20.

By all rights the other guy deserves far more to be doing what ever it is youre doing. The rules of the game shouldnt change to cater to people who shouldn't even be playing said game.

I dont know at what point gaming became "I cant beat it. I give up" when its supposed to be "I cant beat it. Read guide. Watch Video. Practice" I mean... its just stupid and actually defeats the purpose of calling it a "Game".

The rules of the game dont change because you dont put in the effort to learn the game. Its not a game any more after that point.

[Yukiko]

Somehow it feels like they design gear before content and then we have content where you need said gear...
There is no option to come back later better equipped because you are against a wall and cant get better gear without beating the content...
Waiting 6 months (maybe paying) to get said gear because new ilvl cap and "free" gear is not something that keeps players interested...

They need some sort of progress within the 6 months waiting and not just 6 month farming to get a weapon at end of the 6 months. /facepalm

Currently we only have vertical progress, while savage groups are waiting 3 Months, catch up content can be done, while catch up waits 3 months, savage content can be done...
If catch up content will be released at same time as savage content we have a little horizontal progress and players can choose how they will progress...
To solve the waiting problem, they need some small progress like upgrading armor with pieces bit by bit getting stronger each week... most MMOGs doing that with gems (lets call it materia)...

What currently went wrong is we will get 3 months of farming and at end a finished set of gear.
We should have at beginning a given Set of gear and within the 3 months we can power up said gear.
With the set of gear it should be possible to beat the content but for weaker players the option to power up.
The faster you can beat the content, the stronger your skills are... no walls and everyone can progress...
You can beat it the first day, why powering up? Because preparing for what will come next... or to have a challenge with lesser players!

[Talligan]

FFXI, it always seems to come back to that MMO, has a deeper, more meaningful, variety of items to use in unique and creative ways, which to me adds a certain level of customization which would be a BENEFIT to FFXIV.

Eh, I'd be cautious over that. Due to FFXI's itemization you had groups requiring leaping lizzie boots just for an xp party in Valkurm. All those 'interesting' and 'neat' gear pieces became required for even basic stuff and since it was made super rare, only the super rich or patient could get them, effectively locking most people out of content.

[KeluBehemoth]

Eh, I'd be cautious over that. Due to FFXI's itemization you had groups requiring leaping lizzie boots just for an xp party in Valkurm. All those 'interesting' and 'neat' gear pieces became required for even basic stuff and since it was made super rare, only the super rich or patient could get them, effectively locking most people out of content.

Never once saw or heard of anything as absurd as this. Finding an EXP party was hard enough (waiting hours upon hours); people werent blocked out like that.

[Catwho]

It was more at the endgame level. You HAD to have a certain item to be accepted to the highest level HNMs, especially if you were on a common job that the group only needed one of.

Take THF. It wasn't that you needed leaping boots at level 75. They were obsolete by 72. No, if you wanted to join an HNM shell, you needed Treasure Hunter 4. You needed the relic gloves, the knife, the artifact boots, etc. A THF4 thief would get a guaranteed spot in the alliance, in order to tag the mob and then otherwise do hate control. (Sometimes they'd get rotated out after tagging the mob, depending on the DPS checks on the fight.) But the alliance ONLY needed one, and a TH3 thief was less desired.

With the healers it was less fussy, but if you had a RDM who had obtained the relic hat and Dalmatica vs a red mage who had not, and they were both applying for the HNM's open red mage slot, guess which one they'd pick?

[Ryel]

Eh, I'd be cautious over that. Due to FFXI's itemization you had groups requiring leaping lizzie boots just for an xp party in Valkurm. All those 'interesting' and 'neat' gear pieces became required for even basic stuff and since it was made super rare, only the super rich or patient could get them, effectively locking most people out of content.

This isn't even close to true.

[Nalien]

Eh, I'd be cautious over that. Due to FFXI's itemization you had groups requiring leaping lizzie boots just for an xp party in Valkurm. All those 'interesting' and 'neat' gear pieces became required for even basic stuff and since it was made super rare, only the super rich or patient could get them, effectively locking most people out of content.

Not once have I heard of anything remotely like this occurring... Quite the opposite, in fact, I remember getting to places like Crawlers Nest and people missing gear was "OK"... Plenty of times I saw people show up without various slots filled, and rather than "GTFO scrub", people just got on with grinding... Sometimes people would recommend filling those slots, heck some times people would quickly craft a piece for the player to equip... I'm not going to idolize XIs community further, it could be just as bad as XIVs, but I really cannot imagine something like that happening in XIV... The geared players would kick the newb, and the newb would throw a tantrum the moment advice is uttered...

The whole concept of "People will have to have X to do content!" is slightly flawed anyway... Perhaps for endgame raiding, but I doubt the Duty Finder will care... If you take such stats off gear in favour of a FFIX style system, it's not even something people can check particularly easily... It would be something for the hardcore raiders to care about, but they already "discriminate" based on gear and Jobs... The only change such a system would make is adding depth to content, suddenly you're not just doing dungeons for tomestones, you're after a piece of gear for a certain stat. Suddenly you perhaps have more reason to care about higher tier content, while one might not care about the item level boost from Alexander, they might care about a special stat from Alexander...

Depending how you balance it, it's ultimately no different than the current melding options we have... If we take IXs system and adapt it to XIV, then you have plenty of stats but are limited to picking a few... That would mean, setting stats from gear pretty much everyone gets anyway (like tomestone gear) could be inferior to setting stats from from raid gear, but... How is that any different than melding tIV over tV? tV melds are obviously better, but I've not seen a single person complain at people using tIV yet... There's also room for situational stats... IX had a lot of those, "Maneater" increased damage against humanoid enemies, for example... Could easily do the same thing here; Void Ark gear provides "Demon Killer" for increased damage against Voidsent enemies, Alexander could provide "Goblin Killer" and "Machina Killer". The reward for Alexander, then, wouldn't really benefit you for most for most of the game... There might be a Goblin themed dungeon later down the line, in which case such stats become more worthwhile, but again... Nobody knows what you set, and with enough options it's entirely possible that you could make up the difference with other stats...

With the healers it was less fussy, but if you had a RDM who had obtained the relic hat and Dalmatica vs a red mage who had not, and they were both applying for the HNM's open red mage slot, guess which one they'd pick?

This already happens here anyway... If two people apply to join my totally rad Alexander static, and one has i210 while the other has i230, guess which one I'm going to pick?

Treasure Hunter specifically was a really stupid stat in XI, no argument there... Thief was poorly handled for years... Generally though, gear was rare enough that people only really discriminated based on gear if the option of picking someone with better gear was there... If there wasn't? You'd make do with what you could get, perhaps even help gear up your new static member so they do have that gear...