Beyond Level 100

I think it has been obvious since Dawntrail that something new must be done instead of raising the level cap. Job rotations have become bloated as is, and there's not much room to insert much new.
That being said, level 100 is a great stopping place for max level, but what should the next form of progression beyond levelling be?

Level to 110 and fix the bloat. We don't need another type of leveling system because whatever the alternative will be it will feel the exact same as "level 10 more levels."

We don't need another levelling system, we need current levelling system to be fixed and onboarding for new players to become easier

So long as the button bloat doesn't become worse, I don't actually care what happens, I'd be plenty satisfied with no leveling at all, just iLvl increases.

Probably going to end up with a level squish. Any new system would just feel like "level 110 but with fancier words" where starting back over at level 1 on a new track is meaningless when you still had to reach level 100 to get there and the game still treats you as level 110 for gearing and content access.

Lv100 is fine. It's just numbers with no meaning anyway. If you wanted to, you could just tie ability acquisition to MSQ and it would line up the same way.

The whole thing needs to be redone, squished, something. The issue isn't that we're getting more things, the issue is that the rest of the game below Lv100 feels worse, and worse, and worse every time you have to sync.

I think I a lot of jobs could use more unique actions and have actions that are alternate versions of eachother combined like they did with shoha and shoha2

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Reginald_Cain

I think I a lot of jobs could use more unique actions and have actions that are alternate versions of eachother combined like they did with shoha and shoha2

---

Having two Shohas was the worst thing for hotbar space, they should have combined them mid-EW instead of waiting for DT for that change. Heavily agree with your idea.

ilvl increase is all we need.

We don't need L110.

Spend more time fixing the existing jobs and less time forcing 10 more levels.

They should use the merit point system of FF11 to give players merit points after LVL100 instead of experience points. You can then use merit points to "hone" your skills, for example raising potency of a dps skill, or range of a healing aoe etc. This way, it would create many ways to play your job, for example, if you want to play solo more as a healer, you could put merit points into your dps skills. Meanwhile if you're doing raids, it's more meaningful to upgrade your healing or buffs. I think it's gonna be fun to explore and build your character.

Leveling system needs a complete overhaul. The new player experience is still bad because many jobs dont even get their AOE ability until they go from a class to a job or their level gets to mid 40s.

give us lvl 110 and some more cool passive buffs on our existing skills or additional charges

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Diablo_Eichenwald

They should use the merit point system of FF11 to give players merit points after LVL100 instead of experience points. You can then use merit points to "hone" your skills, for example raising potency of a dps skill, or range of a healing aoe etc. This way, it would create many ways to play your job, for example, if you want to play solo more as a healer, you could put merit points into your dps skills. Meanwhile if you're doing raids, it's more meaningful to upgrade your healing or buffs. I think it's gonna be fun to explore and build your character.

---

I'll make this quick:
DPS will always be picked over everything else unless the something else is mandatory for the fight, at which point it is no longer a free choice.

If you want to make changes, it needs to not affect DPS at all, otherwise it will overshadow everything.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mikey_R

I'll make this quick:
DPS will always be picked over everything else unless the something else is mandatory for the fight, at which point it is no longer a free choice.

If you want to make changes, it needs to not affect DPS at all, otherwise it will overshadow everything.

---

Obviously bosses will get stronger and have more HP so that you can't just zerg in a few minutes at the beginning of a new content update. Also there would be attacks that force the frequent use of Benediction, Invincible etc. so you still need a full blown party until you're deep into the expansion and can easily beat contents with unconventional setups. People would try out different job combo to see which one is the hardest to survive, similar to FF11. I remember back in the early days of FF11, there was this Red Mage that was soloing contents that full parties were struggle for months to beat. He became a legend in the game, posted a video doing it without explaining anything. It was awesome lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by VeyaAkemi

So long as the button bloat doesn't become worse, I don't actually care what happens, I'd be plenty satisfied with no leveling at all, just iLvl increases.

---

I can't even think of a downside to throwing away leveling. A more free form world that doesn't have to adhere to a very strict and repetitive level increase honestly sounds amazing.

which jobs feels bloated in rotations if you dont mind me asking? honestly feels like all the jobs plays the same since they all follow the same 2 min meta outlier being gnb with 1 min meta

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deejudanne

which jobs feels bloated in rotations if you dont mind me asking? honestly feels like all the jobs plays the same since they all follow the same 2 min meta outlier being gnb with 1 min meta

---

Look back at what new abilities we got in Dawntrail. Most of what all jobs got were oGCDs or upgrades to existing abilities. Room to add more is running out, something needs to be done.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PyurBlue

I can't even think of a downside to throwing away leveling. A more free form world that doesn't have to adhere to a very strict and repetitive level increase honestly sounds amazing.

---

I feel like throwing away traditional levelling is the only option here. A level squish is just not it, a level squish would be too much work for so little return. Look at it this way:
Early levelling is becoming increasingly more boring with each new expansion they add as abilities are moved to the later levels.
If you do a level squish, what do you do? Do you make earlier levels faster? That doesn't fix the amount of time a player needs to do the MSQ and affects too much for it to be a viable option.
Ideally job design and levelling issues could be fixed in one fell swoop with 8.0, both by addressing old aspects and introducing new systems to fix everything.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aidorouge

Probably going to end up with a level squish. Any new system would just feel like "level 110 but with fancier words" where starting back over at level 1 on a new track is meaningless when you still had to reach level 100 to get there and the game still treats you as level 110 for gearing and content access.

---

A level squish is not it, it comes with too many issues. Things are already being gutted from earlier levels in order to be put in later ones. If you squish levels, that would mean the entire levelling process would become extremely boring at earlier levels. A first-timer would feel like the MSQ is a slog due to barely levelling throughout it, and they have to go through every expansion just for a few abilities.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HammAndCheese

Level to 110 and fix the bloat. We don't need another type of leveling system because whatever the alternative will be it will feel the exact same as "level 10 more levels."

---

No one said it had to be the same. It can be different than the current levelling system

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Atreus

Lv100 is fine. It's just numbers with no meaning anyway. If you wanted to, you could just tie ability acquisition to MSQ and it would line up the same way.

The whole thing needs to be redone, squished, something. The issue isn't that we're getting more things, the issue is that the rest of the game below Lv100 feels worse, and worse, and worse every time you have to sync.

---

Something does need to be done, 110 is just not it. I don't think a squish is the issue either because that would make a first-timer's MSQ experience feel like a slog. ARR + 5 expansions just for a few abilities wouldn't really be a good option.
Earlier levels can be made more interesting without a squish by reordering what levels abilities are introduced.