An you know what? At 80, the game does everything to send you back to this dull gameplay, via CT roulette, MSQ roulette, Alexander roulette and bozja relics.
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Yep it's horrible and Square completely missed the problem with 2020 ARR. It was this and not the amount of quests you need to do.
Games like GW2 are instant fun combat even at level 1. Here some classes need to be at 60+ to get even to open up like the blm
Lower levels feel like more of an issue because of the skill trimming they have done due to adding new skills during expansions more often than simply having certain skills upgrade at higher levels. A majority of these skills trimmed off were low to mid level things they said were not really being used by players or were trimmed because SE wanted to change aspects of combat like when they took out protect and various physical DPS AoE abilities.
For some classes, SE took the trimming too far, even at level 80.
But, all in all, the game is inheriting issues from WoW's design, which also saw a severe drop in the quality of skill progression due to piling too many expansions one after the other. And the issue isn't as easy to solve as it has been for WoW, where the open questing made their recent leveling rework, well, work.
Wouldn't be surprised if they started giving away MSQ skips with next expansion, to lighten the huge stretch newcomers have to thread before ever getting to the last expansion. Though, if 5.3 final lines are something to go by, maybe they intend to make the next expansion the last. If that's true, kudos to them. It's not that I dislike FFXIV but, as expansions increase, there will appear more and more issues that will pile with each expansions that goes, until we get a shambling monster with little resemblance. Pulling the plug instead of beating it until it's dead would be a really brave move, which is something WoW should've done ages ago.
Character power progression is core to the game and a part of the game's main story. We start off as someone barely able to swing a weapon or cast a spell, then slowly develop into someone far more skilled and powerful.
Frontloading the majority of the job skills at low level would make higher levels pointless. It would also make low level story nonsense - why are we fighting such pitiful stuff when we've mastered so many skills?
WoW got boring fast when they stopped adding new skills at higher levels and all that was left was the occasional talent option every 10-15 levels that was usually more trait than addition to class skills.
For the most part, the rate we learn things is fine. There are a few things, mostly related to timing of getting AoE skills in a few jobs, that could use some improvement but overall the pace is good.
You don't have to be doing that content. You're welcome to stick to level 80 content instead so you always have use of your full toolkit. I know plenty of players who never touch a roulette.
So if you're out for a combat fix, play GW2. If you want a story fix, play FFXIV.
It's rather silly to expect any single game to be everything you want.
its incredibly disingenuous to act as if FFXIV id 100% story and 0% gameplay, to the point where you tell players to play othwr games because they want a better gameplay experience.
having more interesting kits when level synced does not harm anyone and in fsct would help with new player retention. having better synced kits also does not conflict with perceived character power progression.
having core kits at 50 would also help people have more time to master the core aspects of their job. a black mage that doed roulettes and spends most lf their time spamming fire 1 will have a harder time actually using the core fire 4 rotstion when they continue through the story