Current State of Melee Gearing

[Ralstini]

Hey guys! Just wanted to gauge the community's opinion on the melee gearing issue. Since the release of this game, melee has had two separate gear sets (striking and maiming) and with the introduction of ninja, three separate gear sets. This makes utilizing one of the best features of this game (the ability to play multiple jobs) very difficult for melee players. Unlike Casters, Ranged dps, Tanks, or Healers, Melee players must purhcase 3 sets of left-side body pieces of armor, and two sets of right side accessories. In the past this made sense due to aesthetic reasons, for glamor, however with the introduction of glamor plates this no longer holds water. Any materia-related issue can be handled the same way as every other role handles it. So, personally, the biggest change I have always wanted to see was melee sharing gear and having the ability to atleast have the item level to play all jobs in your specific role in high end content to bring them in line with every other job in the game. Do you guys feel the same way? Is there any community support for this? Thank you for taking the time to read my novel!

[Garten]

100% agree. At least pre 50 It Is an armoury mess

[Kalaam]

Easy fix: add another job using ninja gear !

[ssunny2008]

If you wanna go for BiS gear, you need to purchase different gear on tanks / healer / range dps too.

Otherwise i personally think that gear shouldn´t share over jobs. It just takes out more "content" out of the game and we don´t have that much already.

[Kalaam]

By the way, this makes me think.
What is the main difference between those gears ? Aside from scouting giving Dex instead of Strength. Do they really emphasize different stats ?

[Marc-Vigar]

By the way, this makes me think.
What is the main difference between those gears ? Aside from scouting giving Dex instead of Strength. Do they really emphasize different stats ?

When it comes to different roles, yes (only tank gear gives tenacity, only healer gear gives piety, and DPS only gives crit/DH/det) but there's no difference between melee, ranged and magical DPS gear besides the main stat (Str/Dex/Int).

[Shurrikhan]

Easy fix: add another job using ninja gear !

Staff-wielder, such as an Adept, perhaps? Or maybe a Fencer/Duelist? Corsair?

Though, tbh, I thought Dancer was going to be a hybrid-range Scouting class before its release.

By the way, this makes me think.
What is the main difference between those gears ? Aside from scouting giving Dex instead of Strength. Do they really emphasize different stats?

Nope, not since 1.x, where all physical classes could use Dex, albeit to varying degrees (gave Accuracy, a varying amount of effective Attack Power, Dodge/Parry/Block chance, and... Crit chance, iirc).

The only gear differences are split by Role (Tank, DPS, Healer), not Armor Class (Scouting, Striking, Maiming, Aiming, Casting).

[Rayo]

Easy fix: add another job using ninja gear !

Staff-wielder, such as an Adept, perhaps? Or maybe a Fencer/Duelist? Corsair?

Though, tbh, I thought Dancer was going to be a hybrid-range Scouting class before its release.

If I'd have to choose a Scouting class, than I would have chosen the Garlean Gunblade (maybe the longer variant that Gaius uses since I think he's the only one that has a unique stance when wielding his) but it would be admittedly difficult to categorize from the Gunbreaker's Gunblade. Good alternatives could be a quarter staff wielder or even a whip user (with some whip sword variants).

[Vyrerus]

Staff-wielder, such as an Adept, perhaps? Or maybe a Fencer/Duelist? Corsair?

Though, tbh, I thought Dancer was going to be a hybrid-range Scouting class before its release.


Nope, not since 1.x, where all physical classes could use Dex, albeit to varying degrees (gave Accuracy, a varying amount of effective Attack Power, Dodge/Parry/Block chance, and... Crit chance, iirc).

The only gear differences are split by Role (Tank, DPS, Healer), not Armor Class (Scouting, Striking, Maiming, Aiming, Casting).

From 2.0 until whenever they changed it... either very late HW or Stormblood release, STR still affected Parry % mitigation and DEX affected Parry as a stat. Like every 9 DEX added 3 Parry or something weird like that. I remember on DRG being able to parry for -29% physical damage for a long time hehe. This affected every class, though the option to gear for it was only in accessories, and the returns were so poor that it got cut eventually like all other vestigial things.

[Shurrikhan]

From 2.0 until whenever they changed it... either very late HW or Stormblood release, STR still affected Parry % mitigation and DEX affected Parry as a stat. Like every 9 DEX added 3 Parry or something weird like that. I remember on DRG being able to parry for -29% physical damage for a long time hehe. This affected every class, though the option to gear for it was only in accessories, and the returns were so poor that it got cut eventually like all other vestigial things.

Sorry, you're correct; I misspoke. It was never worth enough to be worth taking DEX over Strength for any normally Strength-based class, but yes, they did have an effect, even if they didn't have any influence on gearing decisions outside of Piety on BLM.