| Gear as a whole (including master spell books) seems as big as a deal as WoW, it's just that there are caps. ie, 520 in any stat is as good as you'll get, and 6000 or so mitigation will cap you on any mob you'll be killing until the next level cap increase. Of course, then there's debuffs so... really depends on the mob.
I think the main thing that makes gear weak is the fact that upgrading your spells is so goddamn huge, for any class. A 20% better weapon will only up your DPS by a pinprick, wheras in WoW or EQ1 you and everyone running damagemeters will certainly notice. And there sure as shit is no equivalent to adding a point of damage on your mainhand like the EQ1 rogue. But hey, spells are gear too, you just can't show them off as easily, and we're gonig to be capped at 70 for a long, long time. |