The gearing\stat system is good, we need to stop asking to make it more complicated

[Renathras]

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Greetings, impersonator.

While I agree FFXIV's gear system has nice things about it, it's not at all perfect. It's pretty boring (which isn't terrible, but isn't great), the materia "crit meta" is awful and crowds out any actual choices like most speed builds, etc. Savage exclusive gear with no non-Savage equivalent is annoying. It's not at all fast, especially if you're trying to gear more than one role. For a casual player (aside: While we've had a detour here with the Hilde weapons, this isn't NORMALLY the case) does not have a way to get a high end weapon fast at all. It takes 7 weeks of running the latest normal 4th boss before you're even allowed to get it, or running Extremes, which are midcore or even (of late) hardcore content what with all the body checks, and they're lower ilevel anyway. Relic weapons are an option, but often don't start until an expansion is half-over, have an ilevel penalty vs tome/Savage weapons until the last patch of the expansion (when it effectively no longer matters to casual players who aren't using them for Ultimates), and aren't quick unless you nolife them (and I say this as someone who DOES nolife at least my first one of each expansion).

My rule is always options.

There should be a grindy option, there should be a difficult content option, and there should be a catch-all option for anyone else. Right now, we lack the latter, or its gated heavily behind tome limits. Savage is really the only somewhat reliable way to gear quickly at all, and the lockout process makes it very multi-Job/role unfriendly. That is, you'd be better having a separate character to run a different role because it wouldn't be limited by the lockouts. So it's not even great to Savage raiders even.

And the problem with the grindy options - love Eureka and Bozja gear - is that that gear, too, until they very last stage (maybe?) has an ilevel penalty as well. It's only "best" when specifically in those zones, when, imo, it should be comparable to raid gear. You're trading effort for time, so the end result should be similar.

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No, gearing in FFXIV is not the best thing right now, and it is not perfect, and it should be more complicated.

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EDIT:

Interesting.

Both my post and someone else's post asking someone to put on the record that they aren't me were deleted.

It's almost like someone able to delete posts wants people to think that someone else seemingly impersonating me is me and doesn't want people to see the posts where I've said it isn't. Every post I've said it isn't me, to date, has been deleted.

I have no idea who's deleting them, and I'm not naming any names in this post nor violating any forum rules. I'm just going on the record, so no one in the future can say I never did, that it isn't me, it's someone else.

[Shurrikhan]

There should be a grindy option, there should be a difficult content option, and there should be a catch-all option for anyone else. Right now, we lack the latter, or its gated heavily behind tome limits. Savage is really the only somewhat reliable way to gear quickly at all, and the lockout process makes it very multi-Job/role unfriendly. That is, you'd be better having a separate character to run a different role because it wouldn't be limited by the lockouts. So it's not even great to Savage raiders even.

And the problem with the grindy options - love Eureka and Bozja gear - is that that gear, too, until they very last stage (maybe?) has an ilevel penalty as well. It's only "best" when specifically in those zones, when, imo, it should be comparable to raid gear. You're trading effort for time, so the end result should be similar.

I think I agree with this on the whole.

On a related note, though, I'm also curious about your take on how you'd like these different content forms to interact.


First, a... tangential question, though:

At present, we're forced to progress the gear of only a single gear class (Fending, Healing, Maiming, Scouting, etc.) at a time to be fully competitive on the job(s) therein. If I want to main NIN and aim for its gear, for instance, rising ilvl expectations per week mean I get increasingly stuck on/with just NIN until I reach BiS or so outstrip the expectations of the parties I'm joining anyways.

Let us say for a moment we like the time it takes for an individual job to reach BiS, but don't really like that players are forced to focus on a single gear class regardless of how much time they have and would be willing to spend gearing other jobs.

In that case, we'd essentially need a way for content to have a repeatable/grindable aspect by which to duplicate gains to one's max-ilvl (at/per-week-since-tier-release) onto other jobs.

For instance, we might allow pieces for a given slot (chest, gloves, boots, etc.) that one has purchased with <Weekly-Capped Endgame Tomestones> to then be purchasable with <Uncapped Endgame Tomestones> thereafter, while Savage could drop items (apart/independent from the chest limit) that could be used to make any piece you desire for a slot you've already acquired a piece for from that Savage tier (akin, say, to Extreme Totems, with challenges awarding a bonus one, at maybe 8 for a chest/legs, 10 for a weapon, 4 for gloves/helm/boots, 2 for an accessory, etc.).

Would something like that goal and that approach seem reasonable to you?

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If so (or if something similar in goal or procedure would do)... a follow-up question:

Should Exploratory Missions (and/or some category into which EMs would fall among other content) be a third means (content "pillar") by which to increase one's maximum item level for a given week since each tier/"season" drops, such that even raiders would be expected to do it?

Or, should it only be a means of catching up? Of gearing alts after having already acquired max ilvl increases for a given main through Savage and Weekly Tomes?

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Or, heck, should every means of maximum-(per-week-into-the-season-)item-level increase compete, as to maximally "respect" players' time?

In that case... Raiders wouldn't have to farm tomes except to gear alts. Those who dislike raids wouldn't feel enticed to do them. Exploratory Mission grinders could just do their own thing entirely and still cross back over to raids and Criterion Dungeons, etc., as they like since they're gear would be equally rewarding... but without needing to do any of that other content for maximum advantage in their content of choice.

Would such be better for the game? For the average player's enjoyment of it? Neither?