(03-29-2015, 04:18 PM)Ckayah Polaali Wrote: It frankly doesn't bother me one whit. Not for historical reasons, nor for "It seems as if" reasons, but for game design reasons.This reasoning is specious at best.
Mages in MMOs are powerful. They have very strong ranged damage dealing (hello Black Mage!) or healing powers that allows them to play with devastating effect. Tanks, on the other hand, largely focus on being able to soak damage, and their use of heavy armor with it's powerful damage mitigation compliments this. For the same reason that White Mages have crap damage dealing abilities (to avoid the "I can do it all, hahahaha!" syndrome), mages in this game (and most MMOs) are limited in the armor they can use. High damage/heals at range? That's powerful. Counter it by making them fragile? That balances them against the other classes. If your Black Mage could wear Dragoon's armor and do Dragoon-levels of damage from anywhere on the map without worrying about positioning or being hit by the AOEs around a monster, why would anyone play a Dragoon? If a White Mage could clank around in Paladin's armor and simply keep aggro with their massive self-heal while letting the damage mitigation of the armor keep the incoming damage low enough to let them live, why would anyone play a Paladin or Warrior?
That's why RPGs and MMOs handwave odd restrictions like this. Not because they think that's the way it actually would be, but because they have to balance the game so that it's fun for everyone. The current setup, while not perfect, provides a solid mechanic that relies on well-balanced parties with well-balanced roles in order to succeed at the tougher content.
Two things to note:
1. Plate armor in this game does NOT have any caster-specific stats. If a BLM decided to wear a full set of plate armor they would be absolutely gimping their damage output in exchange for a very marginal increase in survivability
2. Cross-class skills in this game are extremely limited, and a BLM or WHM has no permanent method of damage mitigation. Note that a LOT of a tank's survivability comes from their high base VIT and their tanking stances with bonus HP+healing and damage reduction, in addition to secondary temporary buffs. Plate armor is only a small (very, very small) part of that. Just because a WHM could wear plate and hold aggro with Cure III doesn't mean they'd be good enough to tank in place of an actual tank.
TBH, I think the gear restrictions are an anachronism and completely unnecessary given how the game functions. Each job is hard-locked into their role; there is not nearly enough ability versatility via cross-classing to allow any job to step outside of their role. If things like Shield Oath and Defiance were cross-class-able, yes, this would be an issue, but since they are not, it is completely unnecessary to restrict gear choices for any reason outside of class visual differentiation (a reason that is quickly becoming entirely moot with the number of people wearing all-class glamours to battle), and maybe to get people to GRIND MOAR because they can't share gear between DRG/NIN/MNK/WAR/PLD. Obviously, I think both of these reasons are weaksauce and would much prefer to be able to glamour my gear to look however I want it to look, regardless of whether it suits the "flavor" of the class or not.
