Endgame gearing in FFXIV

[pinder2009]

Need more horizontal gearing options that are added at the same time. Trials should drop more than just weapons and those drops should be on par with tome gear with an upgrade item that can be bought with X number of tokens. A new dungeon difficulty could be added that drops gear on par with tome/savage. Alliance raids should copy the tome system as well, drop on par with tome gear + upgrade item. Just need more options everywhere.

[AlphaBetaEpsilon]

Talking about stats; I would like the Guild Wars 2 approach to substats because it is so fun, but that is too much for FF14 balance. Especially when damage difference can vary from up to 10x from people saying they are dps in GW2 vs about 2x in this game from skill ceiling to skill floor due to build diversity.
Adding more options for people will confuse them more.

Regardless, one example we could simulate is adding new stats and have these stats exclusively increase duration of DoT timers to gain more value in snapshooting buffs under the DoT. Similarly a new stat for increasing Buff timers. These 2 stats are called "Expertise" for increased DoT times and "Concentration" for increased buff duration in GW2, so in FF14 we could have the interaction of rDps jobs favoring "concentration" stats vs the other types like samurai/blm to focus on "Expertise" just enough to not throw their rotations off. Or the rDps might prefer to go for an "Expertise" build if it is 2 targets. The only way a samurai/blm would want these "concentration" stats could be to build more kenki gauge by increasing the amount by 1 on every gcd according to stat tiers; which in turn would make their rotations different from other samurais by having extra Shinten uses. Similarly a phys ranged like Bard with 2 Dots would find a balance between "expertise" and "concentration" though this all varies on fight phase durations. Then a phys ranged like dancer with no DoTs could benefit "expertise" from increasing the proc chance of fan dance 3; etc these are just examples.

I do not see the devs making the game more complex after seeing the job reworks, though they do listen to players eventually so who knows. I'm not sure if something like the example I mentioned would be fun, but it would make getting BiS a lot more vague to acquire while the math wizards do their part. I personally would think it would be fun, but that is just me.

Regarding gear, I would like the cap of 450 for the whole patch cycle to slowly increase over time every week. For example +50 tomes can be acquired the following weeks until we hit a 2k cap or 1500 cap. So by week 8 we could have an extra ~1,400 tomes to help gear a side job to help fill in other friend statics if for example they need a healer/tank. I would not have the best set of gear for BiS but that is about 1 chest and 1 pants worth of tomes by week 8-9.

[Wasselin]

FFXIV has a "you can play every job on one character" but does that mean you don't have a main job and that players should just easily be able to gear up every job to have available at all time for any situation? I see this would help prepare some players for ultimate so they could have the flexibility to clear the content with whatever job is best for the fight but I don't see how SE could achieve this without heavily impacting the gearing system for everyone else.

As for making substats more impactful, personally I find FFXIV's gearing system refreshing in that it is more straightforward. I may be wrong, but do we really want a situation where every piece of gear needs to be run through a simulator to see if it's actually an upgrade or not? Already most probably rely on BIS lists made by others to determine what gear to use and materia to put on. I'm not sure how many people really consider that fun.

Ultimately I don't really mind what they do with these systems as long as it doesn't start to impact normal players in a negative way, but I think the way the gear system is now is most likely carefully thought out by SE to create the right incentives so the content is enjoyable by the most players. When thinking about things like this it's important to consider the entire game and not just one specific pain point.

[AluBurstow]

Another gripe I have with gearing is the fact that the gears you obtained through savage and tome are "One of a kind". Why is there a need to restrict how many copies of that same items in your inventory, when it is already "Unique" and can only equip one of them at a time?! Just to help prevent accidently getting the same item twice?

By just lifting that one single thing off the item. It allows for quick swapping between different class in the same role without having to meld new materia every time, as long as you are willing to put in the time to obtain the item. It doesn't break the game or suddenly let you wear tome or raid ring at the same time. All it is a simple quality of life.

[Edgedy]

I feel that it's time to allow us to have a lockout based on role, not on character. Alternatively you could change it based on the monthly activity.

Currently we are looking at a full 8 month cycle.

Break it up into 2/4/6/8.

At the 8 week mark you can make it so that tome cap increases to 600. (.X5 patch)

At week 16 make it so that loot drops from savage add additional tokens. (Odd Patch, 24 man unlocks)

At week 24 make it so that overall tome prices are reduced to a 'next patch' cost. 345/510/280. (Odd .X5)

The goal of this is to make it so that you can gear 1 tank, 1 healer, 1 ranged physical, 1 melee dps, and 1 caster into an 8 month period. Currently it's around 2.5. (Based on 5,135 tomes/job) (14,400 total tomes over a 32 week period)

[Fendred]

Going in the direction of the PvP rewards system might be something they could think about. A PvE savage XP reward system instead of having to get specific chest drops. Or the chest drops are just extras on top of it.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Going in the direction of the PvP rewards system might be something they could think about. A PvE savage XP reward system instead of having to get specific chest drops. Or the chest drops are just extras on top of it.

That actually sounds fun

[Ransu]

Why cant we have a tome cap for role, I mean you cap it once (450) then you can spend, 450 on casters, healers, tanks and P ranged. Since they do not share gear anyway

Not a bad idea honestly.

Takes too long to gear a single job, the gear is boring and lacks gearset bonuses or unique effects. ilvl seems to be the only thing that matters longterm.

Game is pidgeonholing most jobs to stack crit and either DH or Det. Some cases spellspeed but that's rare. Jobs like SMN or RPR feel pain if their Mega Flare/Communio doesn't crit and then their next auto attack does.

Hitting for 25k-30k instead of anywhere between 40k-60k+ feels bad.

I think devs are gonna screw players and shove auto crit down everyone's throats.

So basically every class runs the same build and does the most DPS by following a rigid 2 minute burst. Leaves little room for optimization and improvement and no build variety.

Underwhelming IMO.

I agree with the OP's post. I think Sfia puts the thoughts of players at all skill levels in a cohesive way.

No thanks to gear set bonuses.

I do agree auto crit sucks and I don't want to see more of it.

[Huntrss]

I agree but Coming at this as a Casual the way things are is way to slow Gear wise I have 3 out of the 18/ 21 Jobs at 610 ilvl and I'm going it's Nice I have a Ninja at ilvl 610 but So much a waste when the other Melee Jobs are going their own way Monk/Samuri Dragon/Reaper Ninja? Oh right Ninja doesn't share with anyone maybe Dancer, Bard on Rings and stuff but that's if it's being nice enough too. That isn't helping on Gear wise at all. I heard that the Producer wanted us to Get all our Jobs top Gear and all I could think was yeah see you in 7.0 There is no way I will be able to gear up fast enough and Please don't ask me to check the Broker (Dancer weapon $200,000 Plat, Bard weapon $187,000) is there a bank in the Game that I can Rob. It's been that way or high since 6.2 Release since the Crafters have there Sights set on High end Raiders only and everyone else well Good luck. Believe it or not there was a few days where the Gear was below $100,000 Plat then it went right back up but at least by 6.3 it'll be cheaper when it's more easier to get and not needed while everyone else be gear up to 630 or 640 ilvl . Believe it or not I am Trying but why does it have to take 4 Month to get to where thing are easier to get. I can understand 2 Months but 4 Months?

[Lars_Borshka]

I'm not sure if this has been suggested before, but and idea that sprang to mind enough for me to come to the forums and actually make an account to spread is thus.

What if instead of receiving a piece of gear for a job when you purchase it with tomes / obtain it from books / drops, you instead received a character bound reward item that allowed you to purchase said slot of said gear for all jobs?
Say you roll and obtain a chest piece from savage, you then use the chest piece item and go to the vendor to claim a chest piece for all of the jobs.

I understand the issue then becomes people not wanting to do savage once they've obtained a full set of gear, but honestly if the game is supposed to support one player having every job, I don't see why this hasn't been the system we've been working with the whole time in the first place.