Idea: Merge PLD Sword and Shield into a Single Item

[Sjol]

Glamours aside, different sets of the same ilvl often have a different substat distribution. Now imagine that a player wants to mix and match the sword and shield of two sets to minmax. With the proposed change they wouldn't be able to do so.

In other words, in exchange for freeing some armoury slots that are barely used (and thus needing no freeing) and a tiny bit of convenience we would lose customization. I don't think that it's worth it.

You're correct in that you wouldn't be able to swap shields, but since you're usually looking for the the item that has the two stats you want and not the three you don't, the sword that has than would be matched to the shield that had them based on how SE applies attributes.

There could still be a situation where BiS has mixed sword and shield. I haven't seen it, but I can't rule it out.

And your comment about what you value is absolutely fair. You value that ability to customize over other factors. We value different things, which I think is okay

[Sjol]

The "tax" you're describing is completely player-invented for crafted item sales and does not exist for items where the game devs set the price. There is no "double the cost"; the same cost is split across the two. If anything, for glamour purposes later on, it's a discount if you only want one of the things and not both.

For examples at current endgame:
...snip accurate list of in-game examples...

I never meant to imply it wasn't player-made as SE clearly wants them to be the same price. With players, I do think it's a side effect of them being separate items that causes the player-made tax I was describing, but I also don't think it's the strongest argument for what I'm proposing which is why I left it out of my original post.

[Iscah]

I don't think Key items even need that much of space, given there's only so many quests you can take at some point. Even with non-quest key items, I don't think it's even possible to fill that much.

It's entirely possible to fill that much. Unlikely to happen unless you're actively trying to do so, but possible nonetheless.

Quests generally can have up to three unique key items each. 3 x 30 active quests permitted and you've already filled two-and-a-half of the three pages.

On top of that, there are a decent number of key items that aren't linked to active quests, like the Wondrous Tails book, old aether compass, assorted items for the older relic quests and the growing pile of hunt bills.

If you've got any space left, some gathering levequests generate two types of items that are stored in the key items pouch until you return to the levemete to hand them in.

Dungeons may also place items -- most likely literal keys -- into the key items. By the end of Haukke Manor you can be carrying the three unique progress keys and a fourth slot for any leftover small keys.

So, altogether I think with some deliberate scheming and the right assortment of sidequests you could easily hit at least 70+ key items (making the third page necessary) or even fill all three pages.

[AzhreiVahlok]

It's also a legacy of FFXIV's sordid roots - as ARR is made on the bones of version 1.0, it had to accomodate how 1.0 was designed - in this case, originally in 1.0 shield use was a seperate class called 'Sentinel' or 'SEN', which had to piggyback on another class - specifically GLA, but CNJ and THM could also equip it, this is incidentally also the reason why CNJ and THM have some low level shields to this day available. When classes were redesigned to allow Jobs to be added to them, SEN was scrapped as a class, it's abilities rolled into GLA and it's new PLD Job, and shield use just became a 'shield' that still went in the offhand slot, just like the secondary tools of Disciples of the Hand and Land.

Due to 1.0 players being able to import their 1.0 character data into ARR, classes had to therefore be compatiable with the old data in the new game, and thus shield use continues to be an optional piece of equipment for GLA/PLD (this is also why GLA/PLD does not start with a shield but just a sword). It's clear SE are not going to change this.

I suspect the original poster's idea actually comes from a misinformed belief that rolling shield use into sword would somehow then increase inventory space, but as others have pointed out, the offhand slot is it's own independent section in the Armoury Chest and it's removal wouldn't freeup space like removing Belts did.

I know this is old and i'm sorry but it's hard to not necro things when you want to reply to something specific lol.... If people don't want necros then lock posts after awhile like reddit (although that's annoying too, like here u find something years later and still want to respond). But why in the hell would any paladin think using a shield is optional? That's just dumb. You literally block some attacks with one.... idk if you block all or some of the damage i never paid that much attention, but i've seen my toon block... lol