The following was copied and pasted from a FF XIV link I found talking about how gear works inside FF XIV.

Armory System:
The game system is named the "Armory System", it depends on character's equipment. To change play style, you need to change equipment: this modification is executed in real time.

For example, if you're invited to join a team of warriors to fight the enemies, you only need to wear the corresponding equipment to be ready. Once the party disbands, you only need to change equipment to come back as a crafter, fisherman, etc.

This freedom will make the solo play easier since a warrior who wants to be cured can change into a healer himself. Therefore the number of inventory slots is more important than in FFXI. The developers thought about an easier way to change equipment.

To become more powerful in each specification, it is advised to balance out the equipment parts between them. In FFXIV, the equipment's level is essential, even more than the character's level itself. The developers insisted once again on the huge freedom of this system where change can be made whenever. That's probably why the name of the jobs are more neutral than FFXI. The game's team has deliberately chosen to avoid the usual job class.

- you can change jobs and lifestyles freely
- by changing your weapon, you are essneitally changing jobs, and can do so anywhere
- so if you are invited to a PT and there are a lot of fighters, you can switch to a caster, then when your adventures are over, go fishing or synth some stuff
- weapons and def gear all have their own merit. if you want to hone a particular skill, you can coordinate your equipment in that direction
- rather than character levels and skills, the main thing is the skill of the item you are holding
- you can play on your own and switch between fighter and caster to heal yourself, so soloing is easy
- changing is as simple as changing your weapon, so there's no stress
- typical jobs of the FF series, e.g. warrior and black mage, are being avoided
- you can basically enjoy this world in any way you want.

Now, the rest is my personal thoughts.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this. It seems convenient, but does make soloing a whole lot more popular than before.

What are your thoughts?

Certainly will make XIV much more solo friendly then XI, big change, good thing? bad thing? it's not XI 2 for sure. Being able to bring along multiple "jobs" and the ability to change your party role on the fly sounds fantastic to me. It's like if you were able to bring all of your alts along on a raid, or so it would seem. Should make putting a viable party together much easier as well, but, if people can nuke down a mob in 2sec solo and then just switch to heal themselves... why party, and we all know that if there is a solo option, most people will take it... BUT I think there is still plenty of details to come out about the armory system and who knows how it will all work out in game.

What I really want to know is how they are fitting "jobs" into this system, would be another huge change if they just dropped all those old favs from FF past.

i think this sytem is really unique. i love the concept of not being tied down to a specific set of obligations. if anything this should encourage higher player activity.

- you can change jobs and lifestyles freely
I like this, and the fact they call this 'lifestyles'. You can really become your character, one who has a job and lifestyle that you enjoy most, which was a huge appeal that was only ever partially explored in most games, like Fable 2. It's a massive step forward for both Square-Enix and MMORPG's.

- by changing your weapon, you are essneitally changing jobs, and can do so anywhere
I'm wary of this. As long as you can't change mid-battle or otherwise to abuse this ability to use as an exploit, I'm good.

- so if you are invited to a PT and there are a lot of fighters, you can switch to a caster, then when your adventures are over, go fishing or synth some stuff
I posted some ways to prevent this from being exploited, but it generally sounds pretty good. Being more 'casual friendly' (and consequently more solo-friendly) I think all players will generally have more fun playing at their own pace more than anything.

- weapons and def gear all have their own merit. if you want to hone a particular skill, you can coordinate your equipment in that direction
I can't be 100% sure, but it sounds like this hits toward benefits for those who do coordinate toward particular skills rather than being all-round "red mages". I think trying to be a red mage may result in a very bad outcome in the long run of XIV.

- rather than character levels and skills, the main thing is the skill of the item you are holding
I really wish they would word themselves better sometimes. Maybe I'm being a grammar nazi, but the skill the player has with using the item he's hodling should be key. Items don't have skills, obviously, there are just higher quaility items than others. Items that require more skill to use effectively. I'm sure this is what they mean. I don't want my character being a staff. >.<

- you can play on your own and switch between fighter and caster to heal yourself, so soloing is easy
Only after battles, with other restrictions in place, while the bigger rewards go to parties... RIGHT?!

- changing is as simple as changing your weapon, so there's no stress
A good feature that will make both soloing and partying easier on the players.

- typical jobs of the FF series, e.g. warrior and black mage, are being avoided
A little disheartening, but bold. I'm interested to see where this leads. More customization...

- you can basically enjoy this world in any way you want.
Is this not what we've wanted all along from an MMORPG?! I've been waiting for something new to come along that I can truly get into. This has the potential to become the greatest one ever. We should all gather at the footsteps of Square-Enix HQ, cult-like, and bow our head in prayer with flames in hand. Either they answer our prayers, or we burn down their buidlng! =)

"... ninja jiraya..."

Game was to be grate but they killed it for me now it will be silent on chating and little grouping.     Solo killed FF14 online befor it even hit beta

At first I thought it sounded like FF2's system, which I liked.. Now, I don't really like it and will be passing on this game.

To me it seems this system can be described as" jack of all trades and potentially master of all as well", and I for one don't really care for that.

Still need more information on the specifics of the system and what type of restrictions will be in place i.e. can't change weapon mid-battle, buffs you casted go away when you change class (or something that makes it so you can't buff yourself with every spell available).

I'd also like to know about the different jobs themselves. I know they're not using traditional names but more than likely they'll be traditionally based. I'm sure we'll still have equivalents to whm, blm, war, pld, etc. Also, advanced jobs? Perhaps you will need to lvl a combo of two or more weapons/armor pieces to unlock them?? (just my theory but it seems quite plausible).

Originally posted by Emeraq

At first I thought it sounded like FF2's system, which I liked.. Now, I don't really like it and will be passing on this game.

To me it seems this system can be described as" jack of all trades and potentially master of all as well", and I for one don't really care for that.

I don't know why I'm responding to negative nancy here but here goes...

They haven't released any information that confirms the system being a "jack of all trades and potentially master of all as well". More then likely they'll have restrictions in place that limit you from using every job in a fight maxed out and being able to buff yourself with every spell in the game. If that's the case I'd be very surprised.

Have you guys played Free Realms yet?  All 3 of my kids play and when I read this on the FFIV site that is what hit me.

They have a very similar system. You want to be a cook, click you cook class, warrior, ninja...whatever...you can freely switch between classes at anytime pretty much.

Seriously, if you want to take a look at how this stuff might work out, take a look at FR. Remember SOE is a subsiturary of a Japanese company...Dev trends are trying to get as far away from the WoW model as they can get away with because the "clones" are getting their asses kicked.

The experience I have with a "skill based" system is from Morrowind and Oblivion, while it's not even clear yet what XIV will have exactly it does cause me to worry a bit. I think there is this dream of playing a game where you can do anything and everything and there are no restrictions and everything is wonderful, because I think players want to believe they can create a better class then devs or something. The problem is that with few restrictions everyone eventually becomes a tank/mage/healer all in one and essentially runs around in "god mode". That's not to say that SE will let everyone max out every skill/ability and be unstoppable, but how they implement the system will be extremely important and because it's not the "standard" it might be very tricky to pull of well.

The soloing option, while I think is a good thing, also needs to be balanced by greater rewards for grouping, or I fear it will be another soloer. I'm sure SE is aware of that, but it's another one of those tricky things that has to be just right to work.

I'd be sad to see the old jobs disappear completely... I'm half expecting that when we get more details about weapon progression the old familar job names will be involved somehow. I'm not sure how you would differentiate yourself from others if there are no job names at all, or will people just "LF generic healerish player"? Same is true for the no lvls concept, how will you put a group of simularly experienced people together and find mobs of the appropriate challenge? There will have to be some of the traditional seperations, maybe just with new names? IF there is some other way it can work I guess only SE knows.

I need to see more information and preferably a video to be able to judge the system.

What I hope is since the system will be like this the bag should be significally bigger or atleast equiped items don't take space in bag.

What a refreshing idea for gaming! I hope they can pull it off as its one of the features I'm truely looking forward to when I play the game

Interesting indeed....Although I would love for them to abandon the use of levels completely, this is a promising turn of events nevertheless. I always pinned SE of flipping the script on gamers and challenging them to master a new set of rules. Cheers and hoping that the path/armor system is all it's (seeming to) crack up to be.

Originally posted by Ramonski7

Interesting indeed....Although I would love for them to abandon the use of levels completely, this is a promising turn of events nevertheless. I always pinned SE of flipping the script on gamers and challenging them to master a new set of rules. Cheers and hoping that the path/armor system is all it's (seeming to) crack up to be.

If you look at the description of the Armory system on the offical site, it sounds like there is going to be some sort of progression system, I just don't think they are calling it "levels"

Quote
 

"Leeroy recently chose to begin the journey down the path of the gladiator, trying his hand at the age old art of swordplay for the first time. Even today, he woke at dawn to spend the daylight hours drilling relentlessly on the tiny wildlife just outside of town"

na.finalfantasyxiv.com/

If you continue to read it goes on to describe how he isn't "advanced" enough as a warrior to help a group so he switches to his mage class.

(also cryptically mentioning him giving up grinding on worms and rodents....I hope they aren't serious about that...)

I don't know why some people are alluding to being able to have max skills and abilities all at once...

I thought the information released so far has made it quite clear that you can only hold one set of skills at a time.

I guess the real question is going to be, "When and how often will you be able to change gear (thus change abilities)?". I would almost guarantee that there is no way they will allow you to change gear while you are in the middle of battle.

I think the closest thing to an "exploit" we will see is after a battle, everyone busts out their staffs (with their cure ability) and heals themselves. But all that really does is just eliminate some down time. Also, if it costs you magic points/mana/etc, it may not be a good idea for everyone to cure themselves after battle because they may have more downtime waiting for their mana to come back.

The whole point of this system is really so that if my primary "job" is a "tank" (or tanking skills) but I'm working on building up my "healer" (or healing skills), and a group needs a healer, I am able to switch from my tank to healer and join the group without traveling to a city to change jobs. Then when that party disbands, and another party needs a tank, I can become a tank in that party. I am extremely confident Square is not going to have a system where I can Nuke, Tank and Heal my whole party all in one battle.

I think the game is going to be great!

Originally posted by KupoKupopo

I don't know why some people are alluding to being able to have max skills and abilities all at once...

I thought the information released so far has made it quite clear that you can only hold one set of skills at a time.

I guess the real question is going to be, "When and how often will you be able to change gear (thus change abilities)?". I would almost guarantee that there is no way they will allow you to change gear while you are in the middle of battle.

I think the closest thing to an "exploit" we will see is after a battle, everyone busts out their staffs (with their cure ability) and heals themselves. But all that really does is just eliminate some down time. Also, if it costs you magic points/mana/etc, it may not be a good idea for everyone to cure themselves after battle because they may have more downtime waiting for their mana to come back.

The whole point of this system is really so that if my primary "job" is a "tank" (or tanking skills) but I'm working on building up my "healer" (or healing skills), and a group needs a healer, I am able to switch from my tank to healer and join the group without traveling to a city to change jobs. Then when that party disbands, and another party needs a tank, I can become a tank in that party. I am extremely confident Square is not going to have a system where I can Nuke, Tank and Heal my whole party all in one battle.

I think the game is going to be great!

Well this is exactly the point that SE is meaning by the Armoury system and this should work perfectly. I must say i realy LOVE the idea of been able to play/try every class with one charakter. I just hate it if i need to go throu all the quests from the beginning over and over again just to try different classes. It gets realy repetative after quite some time (1 year - 5 dif charakters - same quests with small differences). With this kind of gameplay you can realy immerse into your charakter role and you'll be able to enjoy the new expansions and new story lines without the need to lvl all your alts throu the same expansion. You can concentrate more on the storyline and enjoy the quests as they ment to.

I have played FFXI and it was to hard core for me, i realy didn't had that much time to play. The game concept of FFXVI should be enugh for everyone to play as long as he/she can and still be able to enjoy every aspect of the game.

I'm looking forward to it. I am kind of hoping that you can eventually in time have one character able to do it all. This all depends on how they impliment it of course. I am a wierd kind of gamer. I love my solo time but verry much enjoy grouping. I have the time and generally do play a "hardcore's" hours but would concider myself a casual in that I take my time, sometimes just sitting and chatting with friends for a couple hrs while maybe killing a total of 10 mobs. Personally I would love to see a system where you can level say 3 "jobs" (counting crafting/fishing/cooking as a job) at a normal pace but each job after that suffers some kind of penalty making it harder and take longer to advance. Maybe even up to a point where it takes 5-10 times longer to fully advance the last job you decide to work on. Only time will tell though :)

I can't help but wonder if you switch weapons or what you craft, do you lose what you've already learned from your previous weapon or craft?

I think changing styles (really classes) is fine, but ought to be done in town at a trainer.  It will be too jarring to watch someone change from a kindly old wizard to a warrior type every other fight in a dungeon.

I am excited. I think this may also alleviate the age old problem of filling a party but not having a tank around. Or a healer. Get a party full of 6 people(using the FFXI standard) but not one was invited as tank or healer but then you ask if anyone has weapons maxed in those areas, and boom sure, someone does, so he decides to change right there into what the party needs. No more waiting around.

I just hope the guild leaves system isn't anything like SWG mission terminals. That would be utterly boring if it were.

Originally posted by pencilrick

I think changing styles (really classes) is fine, but ought to be done in town at a trainer.  It will be too jarring to watch someone change from a kindly old wizard to a warrior type every other fight in a dungeon.

how is it more logic to be able to morph from "kindly old" to "warrior type" by talking to some person than by switching gear?

Only time will tell hope I will be in the beta to see how is the new system :P