I think you're doing a disservice by pointing out specific instances of the past (and particular
raiding zones, for that matter, which is completely absurd) when there was no choice to justify the specific
design to provide no choice in the future. But since you asked, Ummei already presented a case where there
was a choice. There are many more examples (and you will notice that there are less as time went on, as I said - TSS and TBS are not what I think of when I speak of the past):
* Burning Affliction - until BA VI, BA was always available on multiple pieces of gear. In fact, BA provides a nice case study of how the number of options you have decreases the higher you go. BA I-IV have half a dozen or more non-aug, "real" item choices. BA V has less. BA VI even less. BA VII doesn't exist on any dropped item.
* Magic focus:
http://lucy.allakhazam.com/itemswitheffect.html?id=3524
* Disease focus:
http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?i ... ource=Live
* Beneficial Extension:
http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?i ... ource=Live
* Poison focus:
http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?i ... ource=Live
* DoT Extension:
http://lucy.allakhazam.com/itemswitheffect.html?id=3843
* Detrimental Conservation:
http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?i ... ource=Live
The list goes on and on, and I'm just pulling the first things that I find (by no means are those particular foci the most commonly available). I'm sorry, but I'm not wearing rose-tinted classes. Rather, I think your particular experience has encouraged you to wear dirt-colored ones. Yes, there has always been a "best set" of gear, but let's be honest -
the vast, vast majority of EQ never attains anything close to the best set. You make do with what you can get, and plan your upgrade path according to realistic options. Within the space of "realistic" sets, then, there have been
multiple sets that maximized your foci coverage and which provided you with
options as to what to pursue based both on your own circumstances and your own preferences (ie if you don't care to get disease focus on your wrist, then you have one less constraint that you could then use to get something else; that
something else does not exist in SoF). And yes, that does include the mini-game of how to upgrade such that you have maximum focus coverage for as long as possible, though removing that particular aspect of the game is not, by any means, the
real problem with SoF's itemization standardization.
The only possible counter-argument I can see you making is that many of those foci that I listed had multiple items only
across different expansions. That's a fair point, but might I remind you that SoE's plan is to have
all future foci go on the same slots, which means that even in the future we cannot expect the same sort of variety or versatility that was offered in the past. Instead, we are pigeon holed into getting linear upgrades
in perpetuity. Everyone will have the same set, all the time, every time.
It's worse than WoW, where at least you had the option of picking and choosing pieces out of different sets (and across PvP / PvE) to maximize benefits (not to mention, WoW can justify its sets on the basis of providing unique graphics for each and special "set bonuses"; what's EQ's excuse?) There, you at least had to have some notion of what the stats meant and what each attribute offered. In EQ, on the other hand, the game that's supposed to be "deeper," all you need to know about an item is whether it is 1) the same slot as the item you want to upgrade and 2) whether it's got higher hps. You can then be confident that you're optimal
because there is not going to be another choice.
Surely you cannot be defending this. This is ridiculous. Yes, I understand the frustration of having to juggle foci across expansions when they're on different slots. But this is not the solution. It is a free pass for the devs, who, to be fair, were never very good at itemizing variety in a non-irritating way. And this just takes away any incentive they might've had to improve.
Seriously. Do you really think they'll be incentivized to provide options after SoF? I have no problem with a little consistency in where focus is distributed every expansion -
so long as there are alternatives. But there won't be alternatives, because SoF has proved that SoE's idea of standardization is to
do the minimum. You have one slot (and for any particular tier, one item) for each focus. This is absurd, and anyone who defends it can only be doing so on the basis of it being better than a clustercrew that combines lack of choice
and focus juggling. Yeah, it's better,
when compared to the worst you can ever do in itemization.
Have our expectations for EQ become that low? It's like they're not even trying anymore. How hard can it possibly be to create a couple hundred more items for the sake of variety? You say that EQ has always been this way, but I sincerely disagree. You cannot look at the sort of items they're coming out with in SoF - like the effect-less primaries and randomized mods on every item - and tell me that it's as good or better than things were in Old EQ, Kunark, Velious, Luclin, PoP, or practically anything before TSS. I'm sorry, but regardless of how you feel about old EQ expansions not having enough items or not covering all the focus or whatever, they were
infinitely more creative than this pile of crap that SoE calls SoF itemization.
I don't know about you, but I'm not going to support design by algorithm. I'm not satisfied with the minimum, and as much as I might praise SoF for other decisions, this is one aspect of the expansion where it frustrates me to no ends that EQ is currently headed by one of the worst itemization teams in the history of the game.