Allowing Gear Change in Active Mode

[Isaaru]

that problems that it creates are manyfold:
1. inventory space issues
2. characters flashing
3. it becomes the norm and people who don't want to do it are "gimped"
4. it's a bad design choice, the reason it was in XI was because of poor stats on gear (a good design choice would be to force players to think about the best gear for their style of play PRIOR to starting battle.)
5. it slows down the pace of battle

1. Correct.
2. We do not know if there will be character flashing with the new engine.
3. This would only restrict you from playing with the "hardcore" players, which I'm sure you wouldn't be playing with anyways since you think character flashing is a major issue.
4. Or you can think of the optimal sets PRIOR to starting battle with more than 1 set of equipment.
5. It only slows the pace of battle with the current engine. With the new engine I highly doubt there will be such horrid lag when changing gear and it makes battle pace faster as a matter of fact due to optimizing your characters damage output.

So... the only problem is inventory space. Cool.

EDIT: Molly you in no way have to wait a full second between switching gear and using a weapon skill in FFXI. You were just doing macros the wrong way and that was you're own fault. Not the system's.