Does "vertical progression" means that all my gear will soon become obsolete?

[Quantic Dream]

I am not complaining at all, since the game is great fun regardless.  The issue is that the only MMO I played before this was FFXI, which for most of its lifetime had horizontal progression.  I completely understand how vertical progression works, but I am a bit confused on a few issues.

Is there a chance that things like Relics and EX Primals weapons will be scaled with the new ilvls to come, or is the whole point to just obsolete those?  Or what about Myth gear?  Will there be a way to turn that cool gear into ilvl 100 or 110 or whatever through some quests or collecting new tomestones?

I know no one can predict the future here, but I figured that someone with the knowledge and experience of previous vertical progression MMOs (like WoW) can perhaps make an educated guess. How do these things usually work?

If for nothing else, some Myth, Relics and EX Weapon designs are pretty cool, and it would be a shame to see them completely useless in a year. 

[The Stig]

Yes. All work you do now is for vanity in a future patch/expansion/level cap increase (At least it's there, WoW took ages for it to come; but FFXIV copies a lot of modern ideas rtc etc etc)

Scaling (upgrade) might be possible (depending on how the base bitches about the relic weapons (ala FFXI); some might still have it in their mind that relic = top)

For example I would like to see them use base AF again (which FFXI reintroduced into the system not long ago), they get replaced so quick it's not even funny, and they look cool in their own right, wasted design really besides for promotional purposes.

In a way, who knows, it's the same company afterall with a suspiciously similar track record/knowledge on MMOs, but it's not too farfetched to maybe see them incorporate similar ideas from their old game into new.

[OWS_Tonx]

iirc, Mytho wasn't actually labeled as the artifact as there were a couple models floating around. As far as upgrading relics and the armor, it could be possible they implement some new quest. For weapon it may be somethin like the quest is now where we needed to find a suitable host, only our current weapon is the new host. Idk how they would spin Zenith'd ones into it, perhaps they HAVE to be Zenith? Armor may be the same thing, you need the myth piece for them to sort of add onto to make it a new artifact. I'm curious how that would play out.

[Quantic Dream]

Thanks for the response guys. Can someone explain the vanity system to me a bit better. Is it kind of like an achievement or trophy is on PSN and LIVE? A way to let the rest of the world know that you did something?

[Yukari]

Thanks for the response guys. Can someone explain the vanity system to me a bit better. Is it kind of like an achievement or trophy is on PSN and LIVE? A way to let the rest of the world know that you did something?

Vanity is the new system that they're adding where you can wear gear just for looks but have your normal gear stats as well. Specifics aren't known yet though, so we don't know how exactly it'll be implemented.

[Jaybar]

Weapons will not scale up because the methods of obtaining them would not. They will not become useless, they will become vanity.

[Quantic Dream]

I see. Thanks all. Vanity system sounds cool.

[miokomioko]

Weapons will not scale up because the methods of obtaining them would not. They will not become useless, they will become vanity.

I don't think weapons will ever have a vanity slot. I don't expect to ever be hitting i95 damage while looking like I'm holding a stack of folding Nerf boomerangs.

[Seravi Edalborez]

Would be a shame if weapons didn't have a vanity slot, because there's quite a few (Stone Vigil, crafted i70) that look pretty damn good.

[Ksandra]

I don't think weapons will ever have a vanity slot. I don't expect to ever be hitting i95 damage while looking like I'm holding a stack of folding Nerf boomerangs.

I know SE referred to CT for vanity, but I am like 85% sure they mentioned the mog weapons, too.

I will shit a kitten if I can't vanity my kupos.

[miokomioko]

I was actually hanging on to all my Stone Vigil weapons because they looked rad... and finally made the decision, last night, to offload any and all items lower than i60 unless they were unique gear sets (foestriker's/battlemage/cavalry/infantry/acolyte's) and got rid of cool shit like the beetle staff, dragon spear, etc.

I kinda' assumed these models would ultimately get recycled because they looked neat and had some animation to them, currently completely wasted on a couple levels of FATE-grinding.

[Kirbyprime]

It better include weapons. What's the point of farming Odin set if you can't use everything including the sword.

[layoneil]

isn't the entire point of the Lightning Event rewards for vanity? would be nuts if you can't use any of those weapons for vanity.

[miokomioko]

What's the point of farming Odin set

It's not like old vanity items (aka: all event/holiday bullshit) had no purpose before the vanity system was announced.

The "point" of all that tripe until now was always for in-town, screenshot, role-playing, or AFK crap. Now we just get to look ridiculous (or in some cases, slightly better) while fighting something meaningful. Whoopty doo.

[Ksandra]

It's not like old vanity items (aka: all event/holiday bullshit) had no purpose before the vanity system was announced.

The "point" of all that tripe until now was always for in-town, screenshot, role-playing, or AFK crap. Now we just get to look ridiculous (or in some cases, slightly better) while fighting something meaningful. Whoopty doo.

I am not sure that is a good defense to say they won't allow weapons in vanity.

There really is no reason to allow armor and not weapons.

[lilbubbles]

Would be a shame if weapons didn't have a vanity slot, because there's quite a few (Stone Vigil, crafted i70) that look pretty damn good.

When I was leveling bard I really loved the level 24 owl bow, it really hurt when i had to leave that behind.

[miokomioko]

I am not sure that is a good defense to say they won't allow weapons in vanity.

There really is no reason to allow armor and not weapons.

Oh, I'm not arguing against allowing it. I'm just saying that stupid Lv.1 holiday/event/FATE items weren't retroactively pointless in a pre-vanity-system world just because a vanity system was later announced.

I am just mostly uncertain that they'll allow graphically swapping weapons when they finally implement it. If they do, I'm getting myself some fuckin' Jamadhars.

Slightly on-topic is yeah, ilvl of equipment almost entirely dictates its utility because of how the stat algorithms are set up and the fact that nothing has unique stats outside of irrelevant elemental resistances. Because nothing affects specific abilities like XI's equipment and gear swapping is out, everything falls into the vanity void once you upgrade by 5+ ilvls.

[Lokus]

I honestly don't see the big difference between upgrading gear and outright replacing it. You're basically doing the same thing with either path. The upgrading route just has the extra step of getting a base item to work with. End of the day, you're still hunting for better gear.

[Tokitoki]

The upgrading route just has the extra step of getting a base item to work with. End of the day, you're still hunting for better gear.

I guess the point is to reuse the equipment that you have already worked hard for or has an aesthetic/story value to it. This would most readily apply to things like Relic/AF where the item is tied to the lore of your job.

[dejet]

That's just it. We have really not worked all that hard for anything.

All our gear myth, relics even ex weps take a few hours tops to get(excluding lock out) nothing in this game feels like I'd have been cheated out of work.

Hell my melded gear is more of an accomplishment then anything else.