Make relics have the same iLVL as the Raid weapons and released at the same time

[HyoMinPark]

And more damage is more damage. I never said that people who don't know their rotation can deal high dps with better gear, what I wanted to point out is that when you care about people with low dps, why only care about their rotation and not their gear? Both will increase their dps.

If a BLM in full i400 gear only does an ice mage rotation or something even worse than that, it doesn’t matter what their gear is. A BLM in i380 gear doing a proper rotation will do more damage—and not just a couple hundred... they will do a couple thousand more—which will make them more valuable to a party despite their lesser gear. Because the party isn’t having to carry them and work harder to make up the difference in damage.

Same for tanks and healers—who cares if one tank is BiS if they can’t maintain aggro or rotate their cooldowns? Why take them over a tank in lesser gear who does rotate cooldowns and properly manage aggro? Who cares if the healer is in BiS but they can’t keep the party alive? Why take them over a healer in crafted gear that can both outheal and outDPS the other healer?


Better gear will only make a difference if you have a good, solid rotation. You can only make the most out of your new, better gear if you understand the basics of your job. As I said, you need a good foundation before you start building a house on it. A house without a good foundation will be shaky at best, and fall more often than not.

You look at both factors; you don’t just ignore one for the other, and that goes both ways—high gear/low damage and low gear/high damage. You look at all of the factors, and I never said that you didn’t or shouldn’t. You don’t just ignore low damage because “they have high item level gear”, just like you don’t ignore another player with high damage because “they are in the crafted stuff”. First thing I look at when I see a player doing low damage is what their gear is. And I usually see them in current gear; sometimes even better gear than myself. Yet, my numbers are higher. Further analysis usually shows errors in their rotation, or a lack of active time in battle (not necessarily deaths, but things like waiting several seconds between GCDs to use skills, so that their CPM is lower and they aren’t keeping their GCD rolling while on a boss).

My all-time favorite instance of showing that better gear doesn’t matter if you don’t know the basics was during a Shinryu Ex farm group. A MCH in i330/i340 gear was berating a MNK in the i320 crafted for being the reason that we were seeing second Aerial Blast (lol) because he was in “crap gear”. Yet, the MCH was being outDPS’d by both tanks with zero deaths and the MNK was top DPS. So, who was the real problem there? Certainly not the MNK in i320.

I mean: You apparently don't need a proper rotaion to clear the content, so why care about improving?

That doesn’t make it okay to force other players to carry you. And just because the content doesn’t require even 50% doesn’t mean that you should play at 25%. Because the people that play at 25% may eventually wander into content where you do need more than even 50%. And they are still play at 25%. And they think that’s still okay when it really isn’t, and then get angry at people for removing them from the party (there was a thread someone made here about being “wrongfully kicked” from a V2S group for low damage where they did less than the tank in the party).

This is also the exact mindset that a lot of people that want carries have. And it’s a poor mindset to have; so hopefully they don’t have a problem when people see they clearly don’t care about being a burden to their group and remove them to find someone who will have a bit of respect for their teammates.

[Tint]

This is also the exact mindset that a lot of people that want carries have. And it’s a poor mindset to have; so hopefully they don’t have a problem when people see they clearly don’t care about being a burden to their group and remove them to find someone who will have a bit of respect for their teammates.

Yeah, and I wanted to point out that "you don't need the best gear to clear the content" is the same mindset as "you don't need a proper rotation to clear the content."

Shouldn't we try to improve both? Rotation AND gear?

[HyoMinPark]

Yeah, and I wanted to point out that "you don't need the best gear to clear the content" is the same mindset as "you don't need a proper rotation to clear the content."

Shouldn't we try to improve both? Rotation AND gear?

You’ve obviously misinterpreted my statement discussing necessity.

Saying something isn’t necessary is not saying that you cannot desire it, and that you cannot desire improvement. But people act as if it is absolutely necessary to have the best gear ever in their Expert Roulettes, and that they are entitled to have it, when it is simply overkill for the content. That is an objective statement, and, quite frankly, a fact.

And it’s not like I don’t have an issue with gear being irrelevant in all but 1% of activities. I’d rather content be scaled to where I don’t make it roll in gear from previous patches or tiers—but then, suddenly, everything is “too hard”. I’d rather the minimum item level for the current dungeons be ~i370 and them hit hard enough to where they don’t roll over in i360. Make the gear relevant; because right now it is irrelevant. I did both Expert dungeons and the entirety of Alphascape normal mode in i360 gear. I didn’t even have i380 crafted gear. And they rolled over. That shouldn’t be okay. My i380 gear shouldn’t be unnecessary for the content, but it is. Which is what I was saying—not that you should be okay with being below average.


I believe there is also a difference between “you don’t need i400 for this fight; you can clear it easily in i380” and “you don’t need to perform a basic rotation in this content; others can easily carry you through it with you only spamming one ability”. One is clearly a far bigger detriment than the other, and it’s not the gear; so I don’t find them to be equal statements.