Endgame gearing in FFXIV

[Shurrikhan]

This over focus on balance is why gear is stale. If all you care about is balance then there will always be just one BiS gearset and no build variety. So uh have fun with that.

It doesn't even come down to balance, though. Tier sets just reduce choice. Want G instead of C? Well, too bad, because you need A, B, C, and D all together or you miss out on the hefty bonus worth more than a tier's upgrade value.

And for what? If it's supposed to be a gameplay shake-up thematic to the tier, why should that be limited just to Savage drops? And if it's not, why was that power increases and subsequent shifts in job kit profile, which were meant to improve the kit, not just given through the kit directly?

Most often, asking for tier sets is like asking to get less just so that you can feel an extra step in progress to buy it back.

Borrowed powers aren't necessarily bad, but pigeonholing them awkwardly to a given acquisition path will almost certainly be.

Practically the only way tier sets end up fitting and deserved is if you want to time-gate Savage completion further by giving its gear rewards additional value specific to later floor's encounters and making those later floor's that much more difficult in balance. (But note: that bonus is essentially horizontal progression, with other means being available of getting most of those pieces general/vertical value.)