Should Melee gear be ...homogonized?

[Morningstar1337]

(the following post shall assume that Limited Jobs don't exist)

Okay I think I mentioned before that I want new jobs to share gear with DRGs and NINs (though with the caveats that a new healer be released first and the glam plates are extended to account for at least the combat jobs), but I want to, in yet another fit of devil's advocacy. Ask if a proposal to make new gear under the Slaying label (as opposed to the Maiming/Striking labels) and lumping NIN gear into either that or Aiming would be more palatable.

The Slaying gear is the umbrella term for gear that covers all STR melee jobs but is only used for accessories. The idea is that all melee jobs would share gear with everyone else int heir category much like Healers, Ranged, Tanks and Casters do.

The pros of this change would be...

1. More clear cut role division. Going off the bonus lists and other factors there are 5 roles in the Game, but going off of armor categories, there are around 7 or 8 (Crafting/Gathering aside) With only one category for Melee (inc NIN) there would be a clear correlation between the role bonus and the gear as there would be 1 category for role instead of melee having three to itself.
2. Job quantity: with this several issues related to job quantity would be solved. As it currently is having an equal amount of jobs per role would be that some gear categories would have less jobs than others (currently Maiming and Scouting have 1 each and Striking has 2. Casting, Aiming and Healing have 3 each and Fending have 4) yet having there be an equal amount of jobs per gear category would lave melee outnumbering the other roles 3 to 1. Folding all the melee gear onto Slaying gear would solve this issue, as again 1 role, one gear category, and would also mean that we would only need one Phys Ranged, one Caster and Healer for an equal amount of jobs per role.
3. A double edge sword but the new Slaying gear would have a more diverse set of aesthetics as it would have to tailored to the aesthetics of Maiming (Knights), Scouting (Ninja, scouts,themes) and Striking (martial artists and samurai)
4. Less items in dungeons for glam hunting. Folding 3 gear categories into one means that the chest would have less armor, which means that there would be less gear in the way if you're hunting dungeon gear for glamour or if you're raiding

Of course there are also some drawbacks to it as well.

1. Homogenization of flavor and gameplay: There's a reason I put that word n the title. The melee jobs all have a distinct flavor that affects their gameplay. NIN uses knives and evolves from the Rogue class, so they scale of DET instead of STR and uses Aiming's aesthetics more ofthen than not. DRG likewise are knights, so their armor not only shared aesthetics with Fending, they also have higher than average defenses. Folding all the melee into one category of gear would be that they would have to average out 4 stats and the aesthetics would be inconsistent and they would have to alternate between the meele's differing aesthetics (but conversely it also means that NIN, MNK and SAM for example would have access to more knightly glamours, as previously mentioned). Point being that the Slaying gear would have to have STR, DET and high defensive stats (bar NIN being retooled to scale of STR or being folded into Aiming but that would mean that that gear set would have 2 more then Slaying and 1 more than everything else)
   • the alternative to averaging out these stats would be that that some stats would be weighted towards different jobs, which would create a disparity for BIS to a higher extent than other jobs.
2. Some mats might slightly lose value. For high end crafting gear, several ALC concoctions are used, with each of them being centered on a given stat. The melee gearsets thus have armor that favors the ones focused on STR and DET with 3 and 2 gearsets respectively per tier. Furthermore, less armor means less crafts for either ARM, WVR or LTW depending on the tier

With all that said I will now open the discussion. Do you think the melee gear categories of Scouting/Maiming/Striking should be consolidated into new Slaying gear or stay separate (likewise do you think Scouting be folded into Aiming gear)?

[Jirah]

I can’t name a single thing in FF14 where the “H word” would fix anything

[ItMe]

[*]A double edge sword but the new Slaying gear would have a more diverse set of aesthetics as it would have to tailored to the aesthetics of Maiming (Knights), Scouting (Ninja, scouts,themes) and Striking (martial artists and samurai)

[...]

With all that said I will now open the discussion. Do you think the melee gear categories of Scouting/Maiming/Striking should be consolidated into new Slaying gear or stay separate (likewise do you think Scouting be folded into Aiming gear)?

The aiming gear is a horrible pit of things that struggles, and often fails, to fit the aesthetics of more than one aiming job at once. It's really hard for me to make glams for BRD or MCH because of this.
Wanna make a new MCH glam? Have fun digging through Robin hood costumes and skimpy dancing outfits.
I would NOT like the same thing to plague the melee classes.

[ForteNightshade]

I can’t name a single thing in FF14 where the “H word” would fix anything

This is a case where it actually would. Melee are currently the only jobs where it takes longer to gear the entire role. With the exception of Black Mage (spellspeed and all), you can swap to any job within the same role and it be fully geared and ready to go outside your weapon. Except for Dragoon and Ninja. If you main either, you'll need an entirely separate left side; and in the case of Ninja, your right side will be for a completely different role. This used to be much worse before the coffer system change since you got get Maiming drops from Savage that were completely worthless if no one played Dragoon.

Before anyone argues aesthetic. Dragoon and Ninja frequently share aesthetic with tanks or range/monk. So it isn't like they have a unique look that often—which has been the excuse given when people have brought this up before. If the dev team were really set on keeping the divide, it'd make more sense to move Samurai over to Maiming and Ninja over to Slaying. At least then, you'd have two jobs in the melee role sharing an entire set of gear.

The aiming gear is a horrible pit of things that struggles, and often fails, to fit the aesthetics of more than one aiming job at once. It's really hard for me to make glams for BRD or MCH because of this.
Wanna make a new MCH glam? Have fun digging through Robin hood costumes and skimpy dancing outfits.
I would NOT like the same thing to plague the melee classes.

The glamour argue was always silly but it's laughable now given how Dancer doesn't fit into almost any of the tome, dungeon or savage gear they've been releasing.

[MirronTulaxia]

I mean, I think they should at least consolidate it into two (not like Scouting and Striking new that much difference) and then expand the other categories into having two each. Problem solved.

[ItMe]

The glamour argue was always silly but it's laughable now given how Dancer doesn't fit into almost any of the tome, dungeon or savage gear they've been releasing.

You might think it's a silly argument, but it's something that really bothers me.
And like you said, it shafts DNC extra hard because none of the gear pre-70 was made with Dancers aesthetic in mind.

[Risvertasashi]

It would be nice to unclutter the loot tables and increase the odds of getting a relevant drop.

[Driavna]

You don't need to remove gear or anything. We can keep what we have right now with a minor change:

- NIN can use aim gear and DNC/BRD/MCH can use scout gear too.

- DRG can use striking gear and SAM/MNK can use maiming gear. (Sure, physical defense must be standardized in this case but I consider that a very minor compromise).

It's not perfect but better than what we have now IMO.

[Morningstar1337]

You don't need to remove gear or anything. We can keep what we have right now with a minor change:

- NIN can use aim gear and DNC/BRD/MCH can use scout gear too.

- DRG can use striking gear and SAM/MNK can use maiming gear. (Sure, physical defense must be standardized in this case but I consider that a very minor compromise).

It's not perfect but better than what we have now IMO.

I feel like I should clarify s few things.

1. I'm not advocating removing existing gear, rather that future gear be designed to be used by all melee jobs
2. More to the point, NIN actually did share Striking gear when it debuted, but only up to a certain point.

[Driavna]

I feel like I should clarify s few things.

1. I'm not advocating removing existing gear, rather that future gear be designed to be used by all melee jobs
2. More to the point, NIN actually did share Striking gear when it debuted, but only up to a certain point.

I'm aware of both of your points. Just happens that one counter-argument, already used, is "less gear". Something like that is a nice compromise without changing much, at least IMO.