Level 100 and Beyond

Imagining an ideal system past level 100 that would be a balance to a base system cap of level 100 by introducing a Master/Soul Crystal System.

1. Points can be gained through progression of Main Story Quest that can be used to buy skills with older animations dating as far back as FFXIV 1.0, as well as new skills to further enhance your base toolkit playstyle while still keeping to the job identity and lore. This will save a bit on budget because of the many unused animations gained over the years. To avoid it turning into a grind fest since only one job at a time has access to Main Story Quest progression, all jobs will each have points reflecting your current progression. For jobs below 100, they will not have access to the points until they reach 100, at which point they would have access to all the points for their job. Alternatively, Main Story Quests will increase the base cap of the Master/Soul Crystal System and you can grind out the points for each job.

2. Allows for a rework of a job without having to actually rework the job, unless the base job is fundamentally flawed. New skills can have revamped effect while keeping power balance in check. They can share the same recast of their specific counterparts in the base toolkit, to ensure that you can have the option to avoid hotbar clutter if you chose to with minimal detriments. (Ex. A dragoon jump would be an ogcd in the base kit, and the revamped skill would be a gcd with increased potency.) (Ex2. Rage of Halone can come back with the same effect as Royal Authority.) (Ex. Some skills with dots can have the revamp version as a single hit with a slightly lower combined potency.)

3. Grinding for power is avoided since job skills gained or bought past 100 are simply animation glam or a readjusted skill for varied playstyle and personal comfort. Power is gained through item level though, so the natural grind and progression is still there without excess.

4. The already built in Actions Compact View would make it easier to identify which skills would be their counterparts.

5. Eases stress on newer players by letting them know that level 100 base job is just as strong as those with Master/Soul Crystal levels.

6. Mob identification from 1-99 remains the same, but mobs at level 100 will now be written as 100 (ilvl ???). With item levels still increasing past level 100, new areas will still have a mob level of 100, but this will remove the confusion of how strong the mobs are in relation to your equipment.

7. Horizontal progression can now be achieved with the only limit of certain content being locked behind Main Story Quests. Materia will still progress higher to match newer item levels. Still thinking of how to handle the unused item level gear starting at level 100 and 10 years down the road, though much of the current gear is unused when breezing through Main Story Quests so that may not be much of an issue, since they would still be there for glam purposes or Main Story progression. New fights and zones could be naturally item level synced to avoid power creep when only accessing new areas for gear and returning to progress other content.

*This post may be continuously edited with ideas.

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Originally Posted by Kemeko

3. Grinding for power is avoided since job skills gained or bought past 100 are simply animation glam or a readjusted skill for varied playstyle and personal comfort.

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It sounds like you are trying to do a gimp version of FFXI's post level cap gameplay. A staple of MMOs is player progression and even FFXI had the merit point system which increased player power and now the master level system which does the same while maintaining a "Level cap" of 99 and allowing players to continue to grind to become stronger.

I don't think SE can do anything but level squish or just keep plowing ahead as the game isn't really designed for horizontal progression or a stalling of character growth. If there is no real player progression there is no gameplay reason to continue playing past the level cap.

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Originally Posted by Amenara

It sounds like you are trying to do a gimp version of FFXI's post level cap gameplay. A staple of MMOs is player progression and even FFXI had the merit point system which increased player power and now the master level system which does the same while maintaining a "Level cap" of 99 and allowing players to continue to grind to become stronger.

I don't think SE can do anything but level squish or just keep plowing ahead as the game isn't really designed for horizontal progression or a stalling of character growth. If there is no real player progression there is no gameplay reason to continue playing past the level cap.

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Also bear in mind that FFXI also had 1 thing available to players that FFXIV doesn't when it came to progression. FFXI had an abundance of horizontal progression options which allowed the game to stay at the same level cap for years while releasing new content and expansions. This also made things like Relic weapons more appealing to players as their long term goal because there wasn't a mindset of the weapon being obsolete when the next expansion launched. However the reason for FFXI's abundance of horizontal progression options stemmed from options found on the in game gear itself as jobs weren't pigeon holed gear wise into only having options for 1 stat + vit, gear could have skill bonuses, add skills, weapons could have added effects of their own, some even had impacts on the character's elemental affinities. FFXIV has steadily been losing the RPG aspect of it's MMORPG classification resulting in what some have called the MMO version of Mystic Quest. The game's story is good and it is entertaining enough to attract players. However the question arises of whether or not the game can really be considered a JRPG anymore.

I think buggering about with level squishes or new levelling systems once we reach Lv100 is a horrible idea that tries to solve a relatively simple problem with an obtuse solution. We have an established character progression path that flows relatively smoothly (if not a bit too quickly). 50 levels on the base game and then 10 levels per Expansion, and that works fine.

Other RPG's have level caps beyond 100 and its not without precedence in FF either. The only good argument for not going past 100 I've seen is that it could be daunting to newcomers to see that they have 110 or 150 levels ahead of them. But, by that point they'll have the base game and 6+ expansions to make their way through anyway which would be a far more daunting prospect than the levels.

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Originally Posted by Tiramu

I think buggering about with level squishes or new levelling systems once we reach Lv100 is a horrible idea that tries to solve a relatively simple problem with an obtuse solution. We have an established character progression path that flows relatively smoothly (if not a bit too quickly). 50 levels on the base game and then 10 levels per Expansion, and that works fine.

Other RPG's have level caps beyond 100 and its not without precedence in FF either. The only good argument for not going past 100 I've seen is that it could be daunting to newcomers to see that they have 110 or 150 levels ahead of them. But, by that point they'll have the base game and 6+ expansions to make their way through anyway which would be a far more daunting prospect than the levels.

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I think the FFXIV problem is that there is no job ability system outside of what you learn from leveling up, which means one of two things is going to happen with more and more levels being added: you are going to have ability bloat from adding new skills every expansion, or you are going to have more of the current problem where jobs get thinned out to prevent bloat which means your job won't feel complete until higher and higher levels which is a disincentive for new players as the gameplay gets more and more stale.

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Originally Posted by Amenara

I think the FFXIV problem is that there is no job ability system outside of what you learn from leveling up, which means one of two things is going to happen with more and more levels being added: you are going to have ability bloat from adding new skills every expansion, or you are going to have more of the current problem where jobs get thinned out to prevent bloat which means your job won't feel complete until higher and higher levels which is a disincentive for new players as the gameplay gets more and more stale.

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Sure, button bloat is a thing. But, making abilities scale intuitively (i.e. Cure > Cure 2), and consistently across jobs would help, and making future use of more upgrading abilities could help mitigate against bloat. Also cutting fluff.

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Originally Posted by Tiramu

Sure, button bloat is a thing. But, making abilities scale intuitively (i.e. Cure > Cure 2), and consistently across jobs would help, and making future use of more upgrading abilities could help mitigate against bloat. Also cutting fluff.

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I agree, I have been an advocate of redoing the level of skill acquisition for a while and I want SE to give all jobs the majority of their kit by level 50 and finish fleshing it out after that through a few new abilities and traits instead of having most jobs feel very incomplete till after level 60 or 70. It is already a problem with SE's design philosophy and without them changing that it will only feel worse as the level cap gets higher and higher.

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Originally Posted by Amenara

I agree, I have been an advocate of redoing the level of skill acquisition for a while and I want SE to give all jobs the majority of their kit by level 50 and finish fleshing it out after that through a few new abilities and traits instead of having most jobs feel very incomplete till after level 60 or 70. It is already a problem with SE's design philosophy and without them changing that it will only feel worse as the level cap gets higher and higher.

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I agree on this, I think we could clear a fair few buttons from jobs even without changing current skill acquisition, and clear quite a few through adjusting how skills are activated (i.e. more job gauge or job mechanics stuff). We have a tendency to throw more buttons at it through progression, often leaving obsolete buttons lying around or adding a button for something that could be an upgrade for something else, or a job a job gauge or mechanics buff.

For what its worth, here is what I'd do for a few jobs.


White Mage:
Cure direct upgrade into Cure 2
Medica direct upgrade into Medica 2
Cure 3 rename to Curaga
Swiftcast upgrade and merge with Thin Air turning the 2 buttons into 1 (they're typically used in combo anyway, and are so infrequently used that turning a 3 button combo into a 2 button combo isn't affecting job depth).
Remove Lucid Dreaming and turn it into a job gauge ability that requires activation
Could do the above with Presence of Mind too tbh.

So thats 5 or 6 buttons removed from WHM - a job that currently doesn't fill an entire 3 hotbar setup.

Then, I'd like to see them adjust the DPS skills and give us a Healer/DPS swing job gauge where we can shift power into DPS or Healing abilities and activate buffs, a bit like BLM. So shifting to healer would improve healing potency at the expense of DPS and increase MP regen, and DPS mode improves damage output at the expense of healing potency and improve cast times. Lv90+ content could then see us get new tiers of spells that replace the ones we have and expand the job gauge more. I think WHM, the quintessential FF healer, should be a low skill floor, high ceiling type job a bit like BLM - easy to pick up and play but difficult to master and optimise.



Astrologian:
Benefic upgrade into Benefic 2.
Helios upgrade into Aspected Helios
Remove Undraw (Draw already redraws a card, maybe have a timeout on the drawn card)
Make Lucid Dreaming a passive job gauge ability, different mechanics to WHM but its barely needed and again, do your job gauge mechanics right and get your buffs

4 buttons removed, but they could also turn a few abilities into Job Gauge buffs, like having Aspected Helios upgrade into Celestial Opposition via job gauge buff.


Black Mage:
A little harder because its one of the tightest jobs in the game for ability usage. But there are opportunities for upgraded spells here, and lots of them.

Rename tier II spells to -aga
Have Blizzard I upgrade directly into Blizzard II since it's never used
Have Fire I upgrade directly into Fire II (have a Fire IV chain combo reset the timer, serving the same purpose as Fire I does now at higher levels)
Scathe upgrade into Despair
Remove Lucid Dreaming (serves no purpose at all)


Personally, I wouldn't mind most personal buffs that we keep on cooldown being whooped and moved over into the job gauge where we have to activate them through job mechanics.

We already have a "post level cap" system of progression, it's called ilevel.

The thing class/job levels are actually used for is story progression. That week you spend after an expansion drops, requires you to gain exp to progress through the story.
Other than that, it just serves as a gating system for playing new classes/jobs at endgame.

So I don't see why a 'master level' style system should be such a bad idea.

From a story progression perspective, it would be identical. Master level 10 would basically be the same as level 110, but you still only 'see' level 100 as the max level.
This Master level could be player specific rather than class/job specific. This way, you might need to reach level 110 to finish the story, but you only need to reach level 100 to play a second job at endgame.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

We already have a "post level cap" system of progression, it's called ilevel.

The thing class/job levels are actually used for is story progression. That week you spend after an expansion drops, requires you to gain exp to progress through the story.
Other than that, it just serves as a gating system for playing new classes/jobs at endgame.

So I don't see why a 'master level' style system should be such a bad idea.

From a story progression perspective, it would be identical. Master level 10 would basically be the same as level 110, but you still only 'see' level 100 as the max level.
This Master level could be player specific rather than class/job specific. This way, you might need to reach level 110 to finish the story, but you only need to reach level 100 to play a second job at endgame.

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Would master levels be tied to player power or would it just be arbitrary numbers that just change aesthetics like the OP suggested? I don't think MMOs work without a form of player progression, especially with the addition of a new expansion. FF11 is completely designed around horizontal progression, FF14 is completely designed around vertical progression. Unless everything about the game changes, I don't see shifting FF14 to horizontal progression working.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

We already have a "post level cap" system of progression, it's called ilevel.

The thing class/job levels are actually used for is story progression. That week you spend after an expansion drops, requires you to gain exp to progress through the story.
Other than that, it just serves as a gating system for playing new classes/jobs at endgame.

So I don't see why a 'master level' style system should be such a bad idea.

From a story progression perspective, it would be identical. Master level 10 would basically be the same as level 110, but you still only 'see' level 100 as the max level.
This Master level could be player specific rather than class/job specific. This way, you might need to reach level 110 to finish the story, but you only need to reach level 100 to play a second job at endgame.

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BIB 1: Its adding convolution for the sakes of convolution, and the levelling system isn't just for gating story content. It adds a sense of flow and progress marking as you progress through the MSQ, its used for expanding jobs at set points (new skills and abilities, job gauge expansions), power increments, and for gearing thresholds.


BIB 2:
Endgame is only endgame during the current expansion, when a new expansion releases we get a new endgame, the jobs have evolved, the mechanics have evolved and the endgame becomes more difficult. If reaching Lv100 gives you endgame access now and going forward, even if we are 4 expansions down the line, this starts to make little sense and just sounds like a way to avoid having to level jobs. Unless the endgame for new expansions will require master levels in which you've replaced an existing system for a new system that does exactly the same thing, ergo is pointless.

Anyway, the question shouldn't be how to change the levelling progression system at 100 but why change the system at all? Just keep the level cap increasing with each expansion, add new abilities and expand the job gauge as you go, basically as we do now. If we get button bloat, adjust the abilities in some fashion - something like I explained above.


Edit:
If your issue with increasing the level cap is that you don't want to level multiple jobs past 100 and just want to do future content on the job you've got. Then, for one, that wouldn't work anyway because the new endgame at each expansion needs to have a power increment, and for two just comes across as idle. FFXIV is one of the lowest effort games out there for levelling - its faster than many single player RPG's.

I don't like post-leveling systems much. It makes a game feel complicated when there is more than just level and gear.

I do agree with animation glamour. We don't need the base function to work differently but changing the animations could be a way to make eachother unique instead.

The problem with horizontal progression where your item level keeps increasing but your level doesn't, is that level acts as a way to dilute your stats so that it can grow all over again. Yes, that's right, leveling up makes you weaker. Any solution needs to find an alternative way to do that at the max level every 2 years.

see see them improving some of the Classes skills at lower level. Though it tends to be a few DPS atm, such as Monk Having its weaker skills in its new system.

I'll wait til we reach that point to give any opinion as we have no idea yet how they plan to run the next 10 years.<let alone what the Graphics Update EnTails..,

They can just, you know, go above 100. It's just a number, it literally doesn't matter.
The bigger issue with leveling is how terrible classes are at lower levels. I'd much rather they address that than pointlessly stress over "what to do after 100" when its simple, go to 110, 120, 130, 140, etc.

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Originally Posted by Aniya_Estlihn

They can just, you know, go above 100. It's just a number, it literally doesn't matter.

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It matters because when you research the game to see if you want to play it and you see "level 120" it can put you off. 120 implies it will take a lot of time. The story already has that effect, but a lot of people don't understand just how long the story actually is until they are a quarter of the way in and still nowhere near the end. If they see a number like that, they may not even try the story in the first place.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

It matters because when you research the game to see if you want to play it and you see "level 120" it can put you off. 120 implies it will take a lot of time. The story already has that effect, but a lot of people don't understand just how long the story actually is until they are a quarter of the way in and still nowhere near the end. If they see a number like that, they may not even try the story in the first place.

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I think this is exaggerated. Other RPG's have much higher level caps, some Tales of games go all the way to 200 and take a lot of grind to get there. I think if base game + 6 or 7 expansions wouldn't put someone off, then I don't think a Lv110 or 120 level cap would - irrespective of story that number of expansions implies that there is a lot of content to work through. I'd even go as far as to assume that most people who see a game that has 6 or 7 expansions to expect and understand why the level cap is high.

Also, for people who might only be interested in the endgame, they can always buy the skip.


ETA:
I'd also add that new players are often funnelled towards preferential servers. I'm on Raiden and the amount of sprouts who haven't even reached Heavensward but have Lv90 jobs is crazy. We have several in our FC. The EXP buff is so strong that if you're levelling one job, doing your job quests and consistently buggering about with a even a small amount of side content (like, your hunting log and random blue quests, maybe a few roulettes or something. Not some serious grind) then you'll ding 90 before you've seen Ishgard. The point I'm making here is that while new players can underestimate how story dense FFXIV is, the story is far denser than the levelling experience.

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Originally Posted by Aniya_Estlihn

They can just, you know, go above 100. It's just a number, it literally doesn't matter.
The bigger issue with leveling is how terrible classes are at lower levels. I'd much rather they address that than pointlessly stress over "what to do after 100" when its simple, go to 110, 120, 130, 140, etc.

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I absolutely agree that S.E. needs to address how class/job abilities are given as you progress.

For example, running low level content as a healer is a wretched experience. The tank is trying to pull wall to wall, because people have no patience, and you only have a couple spells to keep the party alive.

Worrying about what to do level 100 and beyond is a waste of energy and time.

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Originally Posted by Tiramu

The EXP buff is so strong that if you're levelling one job, doing your job quests and consistently buggering about with a even a small amount of side content (like, your hunting log and random blue quests, maybe a few roulettes or something. Not some serious grind) then you'll ding 90 before you've seen Ishgard.

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This isn't necessarily known by people who haven't tried the game yet though, and perceptions of the game alone are enough to deter them from trying it. I've seen a lot of people who didn't try the game earlier because of one perception or another and breaking down false perceptions from every angle is what any company should want to do to grow their product/service. Some people may inquire as to the speed of getting to that level and not be deterred, but some people might be deterred by it, for example someone looking to get to the endgame quickly probably isn't going to be encouraged by such a high level cap.

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Originally Posted by Kacho_Nacho

For example, running low level content as a healer is a wretched experience. The tank is trying to pull wall to wall, because people have no patience, and you only have a couple spells to keep the party alive.

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Low level dungeons are one of the best healing experiences in the game for me because it makes me actually use my GCD heals and decide between DPS and healing in every moment. It's refreshing, because I almost never do that at higher levels, where I can DPS the entire time and never use the GCD for it.

I even felt that way as early as ARR, when I did my first dungeons as a conjurer to unlock paladin. The thrill of managing when to DPS and when to attack was part of the fun. I enjoy doing it so much that I kept doing it even after conjurer was level 15, but once I got to some higher level dungeons and discovered that at higher levels you can just apply a regen and attack, or use abilities, it just wasn't the same.

They can always pull a Eureka/Bozja and have the level "reset" without it being much of a reset at all. Just a new numbering scheme to reflect the new region we're in (I'd prefer if this was New World exclusive). It also allows them to adjust HP and everything only for those areas, without effecting anything prior to it because that new leveling and stat system is fully restricted to the new areas.

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Originally Posted by Tiramu

I think this is exaggerated. Other RPG's have much higher level caps, some Tales of games go all the way to 200 and take a lot of grind to get there. I think if base game + 6 or 7 expansions wouldn't put someone off, then I don't think a Lv110 or 120 level cap would - irrespective of story that number of expansions implies that there is a lot of content to work through. I'd even go as far as to assume that most people who see a game that has 6 or 7 expansions to expect and understand why the level cap is high.

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The easy example I would give to counter you is WoW. They went to 120 and said, this is daunting for new players and takes way too much time to go through to get to the content that matters in WoW at least. FFXIV already has a reputation for how much time is required to go through the game to get to max level and I think there is a breaking point that we are coming up to where it just becomes untenable and is going to require a level squish and or story squish.

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Originally Posted by Amenara

The easy example I would give to counter you is WoW. They went to 120 and said, this is daunting for new players and takes way too much time to go through to get to the content that matters in WoW at least.

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The BIB is the most important part of your post. FFXIV and WoW are completely different games with a difference focus. XIV is a story dense game, it's sold as such and what it's best known for. Unlike WoW, endgame raiding is just another thing you can do, and not *the* thing you do.

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FFXIV already has a reputation for how much time is required to go through the game to get to max level and I think there is a breaking point that we are coming up to where it just becomes untenable and is going to require a level squish and or story squish.

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As I pointed out in my edit, the time required to get to max level has little to do with levelling pace and everything to do with progressing through the story content. You can hit level cap before you've hit Heavensward on a preferential server without breaking a sweat and there is no way they're going to do a story squish. Maybe streamline stuff that's a bit bloaty but not a squish.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

This isn't necessarily known by people who haven't tried the game yet though, and perceptions of the game alone are enough to deter them from trying it. I've seen a lot of people who didn't try the game earlier because of one perception or another and breaking down false perceptions from every angle is what any company should want to do to grow their product/service. Some people may inquire as to the speed of getting to that level and not be deterred, but some people might be deterred by it, for example someone looking to get to the endgame quickly probably isn't going to be encouraged by such a high level cap.

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This is as much in response to Amenara as you. If a new player is going to be put off by the amount of content they need to progress through (whether thats to reach endgame or to finish the story) then its much more likely the 6+ expansions we'll have by the time we get to a post Lv100 cap than the level cap itself. If they do take a punt at the game, its the story and not the levelling that's going to have them either bailing out or buying a skip.

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Originally Posted by Tiramu

As I pointed out in my edit, the time required to get to max level has little to do with levelling pace and everything to do with progressing through the story content. You can hit level cap before you've hit Heavensward on a preferential server without breaking a sweat and there is no way they're going to do a story squish. Maybe streamline stuff that's a bit bloaty but not a squish.

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There won't be a story squish, but there might be a skip. 7.0 begins a brand new saga, so it's possible that new people will be able to jump in at that point, if they choose (for free).

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Originally Posted by Deveryn

There won't be a story squish, but there might be a skip. 7.0 begins a brand new saga, so it's possible that new people will be able to jump in at that point, if they choose (for free).

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There are already skips, but yes they might have a free story skip to start the new saga. In that case those players will see that they can skip to the new expansion and start at Lv90 upfront.

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Originally Posted by Tiramu

The BIB is the most important part of your post. FFXIV and WoW are completely different games with a difference focus. XIV is a story dense game, it's sold as such and what it's best known for. Unlike WoW, endgame raiding is just another thing you can do, and not *the* thing you do.

As I pointed out in my edit, the time required to get to max level has little to do with levelling pace and everything to do with progressing through the story content. You can hit level cap before you've hit Heavensward on a preferential server without breaking a sweat and there is no way they're going to do a story squish. Maybe streamline stuff that's a bit bloaty but not a squish.

This is as much in response to Amenara as you. If a new player is going to be put off by the amount of content they need to progress through (whether thats to reach endgame or to finish the story) then its much more likely the 6+ expansions we'll have by the time we get to a post Lv100 cap than the level cap itself. If they do take a punt at the game, its the story and not the levelling that's going to have them either bailing out or buying a skip.

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To you, an experienced max level player adding 10 levels to your current level isn't a big deal, nor is doing another 30 hours of story to complete the expansion's x.0 MSQ. To someone from the outside looking in, they see 120 levels of content they have to get through to on top of the already daunting story and it is just bad optics to people who might want to try the game out for the first time. That is more or less the point I was trying to make with the WoW level comparison to the FFXIV level comparison. The idea behind the WoW squish is that it takes way too long for new players to get through the leveling process and needed to be cut down to make it less daunting. We are already headed down that path in FFXIV with the required MSQ taking hundreds of hours to complete.

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Originally Posted by Deveryn

There won't be a story squish, but there might be a skip. 7.0 begins a brand new saga, so it's possible that new people will be able to jump in at that point, if they choose (for free).

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That combined with a level squish at some point I think will be in the future.

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Originally Posted by Amenara

That combined with a level squish at some point I think will be in the future.

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I don't know about that. Yoshida's already said he'd like to see things stop at 100 and find a different way to handle progression. We already have alternate level systems in the game (Eureka / Bozja), so they could potentially expand on that. That's a good 3 years away though.

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Originally Posted by Deveryn

I don't know about that. Yoshida's already said he'd like to see things stop at 100 and find a different way to handle progression. We already have alternate level systems in the game (Eureka / Bozja), so they could potentially expand on that. That's a good 3 years away though.

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If we stopped at level 100 I wouldn't be opposed to them completely revamping the gearing/stat system and head down the path of job levels and master levels or something similar that FFXI has. The amount of work that would entail to change the entire structure of the game's progression would probably be insane but who knows. I just honestly don't see them doing it because of the workload involved and still needing players to have a feeling of progression on their characters.

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Originally Posted by Tiramu

There are already skips, but yes they might have a free story skip to start the new saga. In that case those players will see that they can skip to the new expansion and start at Lv90 upfront.

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I would be fine with them giving players that option.

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Originally Posted by Deveryn

I don't know about that. Yoshida's already said he'd like to see things stop at 100 and find a different way to handle progression. We already have alternate level systems in the game (Eureka / Bozja), so they could potentially expand on that. That's a good 3 years away though.

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He has? In the last live letter he said that the next expansion would have a Lv100 cap and they're reviewing all options with levels after that point. He hasn't said he wants to stop at 100.

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Originally Posted by Tiramu

He has? In the last live letter he said that the next expansion would have a Lv100 cap and they're reviewing all options with levels after that point. He hasn't said he wants to stop at 100.

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He made some commentary during the patch reading about going beyond level 100 and is concerned about simply going to 110 after that.

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Originally Posted by Amenara

To someone from the outside looking in, they see 120 levels of content they have to get through to on top of the already daunting story and it is just bad optics to people who might want to try the game out for the first time.

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The story is the [currently] 90 levels of content. You do not have to do a single other thing in-game to complete both. The amount of time to get from 1 to max-level may seem long, but ... You may not lose that 'sprout' icon until you're nearly done with the story. I believe it's currently something like 180 hours of gameplay to lose that icon. Five months at 10 hours a week of gameplay.

Time in game is, after all, the basis for nearly every MMORPG.