So about maiming, striking and scouting.

[GrizzlyTank]

Any particular reason to why melee DPS gear is split over 3 different armor sets?

Ok so DRG got more armor and NIN use DEX, but that extra armor might as well have been a trait for DRG, while DEX and STR have no effect on one another.

It does give us 2 more glamour sets... If only they hadn't been locked to their respective jobs.

All in all, the way it's done just seem redundant, Tanks, Ranged, Caster and Healer shares set, so why can't melee?

[mosaicex]

Here's my take on it.

1.Support-oriented melee DPS : DRG, NIN
Both have their own set, maiming and scouting.
Both share accessories with other types of DPS (DRG shares STR acc with MNK/SAM, NIN shares DEX acc with BRD/MCH)
Both are support-oriented. DRG with piercing debuff, Litany, etc. NIN with slashing debuff, TA, hate management skill, etc.

2.Damage-oriented melee DPS : MNK, SAM
Both use Striking set
Both use STR accessories.
Both significantly do more damage than support melee counterparts.

Then there's also a matter of aesthetics

As for why they decided to split them like this, my guess would be gear progression/distribution during early savage prog.

[Sylve]

It lets the Devs tailor secondary stats (Crit etc) separately for the melee jobs, as well as keeping those jobs visually distinct for the most part. I know that MNK and SAM look the same, but they both look different to Dragoon etc.
Its not perfect, but it does indeed serve a purpose.

[CaptainLagbeard]

Secondary stats, that's probably the biggest reason they have different gear.

While Crit and Direct are good for every class, the need for either Determination or Speed depends on the class more...


But that could be done through other things like Materia...

[Seddrinth]

It's kind of nice to not have to roll against anyone else for gear though if you play nin or drg.

[Crushnight]

my take is 1st secondary stats 2nd potential o have future jobs added later without reworking too much but right now yes its silly we have 2 jobs with 'unique' sets tailored to them

[GrizzlyTank]

It lets the Devs tailor secondary stats (Crit etc) separately for the melee jobs, as well as keeping those jobs visually distinct for the most part. I know that MNK and SAM look the same, but they both look different to Dragoon etc.
Its not perfect, but it does indeed serve a purpose.

And secondary stats doesn't matter for Tanks, Ranged, Casters and Healer?

It's kind of nice to not have to roll against anyone else for gear though if you play nin or drg.

Which also increases the situations where no one in the party needs it.

[Seraphor]

And secondary stats doesn't matter for Tanks, Ranged, Casters and Healer?

Tanks and healers generally use all the same stats, so yeah.
Ranged can easily get away with sharing secindary stats.
SMN and RDM are fine sharing gear.
Its only really BLM that can be the odd one out with much higher propency for spellspeed, so this is the only odd one out really, even though it is possible to play BLM well without all spellspeed if you know the fight well.

As for no one in the party needing it, people tend to play more than one job.

[Sylve]

And secondary stats doesn't matter for Tanks, Ranged, Casters and Healer?

Ironically, no not really. The stats all work out the same effect for all 3. While yes, SCH does like crit a whole lot because of CritLo's, WHM gains as much of a benefit by letting Cure 2 crit as often as Adloq for essentially the same eHP (One restores, one prevents, end result = same healing applied). I don't do Savage Raiding, But its my understanding that if the Tank needed a Critlo to survive a Tank buster, something went wrong, lol.

But for a Monk and SAM who naturally get a lot of Skill Speed via their own buffs, So it doesn't need as strong a representation on their gear, while Dragoons who don't get a natural speed buff get more out of the skill speed that exists on their gear. Basically, Diminishing Returns if that makes sense.

Tanks and Casters both utilize all the substats found on their gear generally equally (Though i'd never put it past theorycrafters to determine that one substat is 1.2% more overall dps than another …)
Tanks especially, since their substats mainly give Damage Reductions or positively affect their own sustainability. Crit works for all 3, Clemency crits are great. Inner Beast/SP crits mean more HP, same with DRK and Souleater. Theres no real need to segment Tank gear and apply stats separately.
It all has near equal value and the jobs don't inherently do anything to devalue a substat the way MNK, NIN and SAM do with their Skill Speed buffs.

Materia as it currently stands on our gear is just a way to make very small gains on top of raw ilvl, since you can't stack Materia Melds if the stat you're trying to Meld in already exists to the capacity of that item. It allows for the min/max crowd to squeeze the most out of their gear.

[BillyKaplan]

It's kind of nice to not have to roll against anyone else for gear though if you play nin or drg.

Until you get the fabled 5-DRG raid party. I often saw NINs fight each other to the death while I, the single caster, got away with my loot comfortably. The only ones who are guaranteed no competition in most recent content are tanks, while healers are guaranteed competition in raid environments. Everyone else is up to luck.