What is a 'bad player'?

[Betelgeuzah]

I don't know? Means I can play from 1-50 and do NM runs naked if I want? Means that if the entire community really caught on that there would be no economy? What adjective were you thinking of and why?

If you are skilled, yes. Gear shouldn't be a hindrance.

That's not a reason to stop striving to be better. You could defeat any encounter in XI half-naked with enough skill, good gear simply wasn't a necessity. That didn't stop people from trying to achieve better results. In that game improvements weren't so obvious at all, usually one upgrade could be seen in parsers at best. But it was still an upgrade which gave it value in itself. This game is the same way. Plus the fact is that someone who is skilled but naked will still lose to someone who is skilled and has gear to boost his stats.

In a nutshell, just because upgrades aren't 'needed' won't stop the community from aiming towards them. I think this is a fantastic thing. Skill>gear isn't a negative. Good gear is a supplement, not a necessity. Just because you can't eyeball a single upgrade's difference doesn't make it worthless or broken.

[Xoo]

If you are skilled, yes. Gear shouldn't be a hindrance.

That's not a reason to stop striving to be better. You could defeat any encounter in XI half-naked with enough skill, good gear simply wasn't a necessity. That didn't stop people from trying to achieve better results. In that game improvements weren't so obvious at all, usually one upgrade could be seen in parsers at best. But it was still an upgrade which gave it value in itself. This game is the same way. Plus the fact is that someone who is skilled but naked will still lose to someone who is skilled and has gear to boost his stats.

In a nutshell, just because upgrades aren't 'needed' won't stop the community from aiming towards them. I think this is a fantastic thing. Skill>gear isn't a negative. Good gear is a supplement, not a necessity. Just because you can't eyeball a single upgrade's difference doesn't make it worthless or broken.

Wrong. In FFXI I distinctly remember if your gear wasn't up to par, your accuracy and magic accuracy would without a doubt reflect it. I don't know if you play XIV or not, but accuracy is so good that there is almost no need to supplement it at all. It's the same with all the stats. They need to matter more than what they currently do.

[Betelgeuzah]

Wrong. In FFXI I distinctly remember if your gear wasn't up to par, your accuracy and magic accuracy would without a doubt reflect it. I don't know if you play XIV or not, but accuracy is so good that there is almost no need to supplement it at all. It's the same with all the stats. They need to matter more than what they currently do.

Acc stat could have more utility although I'd rather remove the stat altogether than leave it to random chance that I will miss a lot without heavy investment. Missing sucks.

Either way acc wasn't a dealbreaker if you had, once again, enough skill. And a Bard.

I agree with you.

But at what point do your investments start to become trivial?

I remember when Armada Haubergeons cursed part -1 sold for what, 50mil? NQ was like 2 mils.

What you got out of it was something like +1 str, acc, dex, att. And e-peen +2000. i can honestly say that people craved to get their hands on that thing (although most knew they had no chance to get one).

[RemVye]

If you are skilled, yes. Gear shouldn't be a hindrance.

That's not a reason to stop striving to be better. You could defeat any encounter in XI half-naked with enough skill, good gear simply wasn't a necessity. That didn't stop people from trying to achieve better results. In that game improvements weren't so obvious at all, usually one upgrade could be seen in parsers at best. But it was still an upgrade which gave it value in itself. This game is the same way. Plus the fact is that someone who is skilled but naked will still lose to someone who is skilled and has gear to boost his stats.

In a nutshell, just because upgrades aren't needed won't stop the community from aiming towards them. I think this is a fantastic thing. Skill>gear isn't a negative.

I agree with you.

But at what point do your investments start to become trivial?

Should I spend 1.5 million on a +42~ Crit attack materia.. or go with a +30 for 150K?

Maybe one day SE will put in 'DPS dummies' like WoW has... that's one idea from WoW I would appreciate in FFXIV.