Stop Raising Item Level and build foundation with Horizontal Progression first

[Magis]

We are not even at the first expansion yet and we've already seen the first three extreme primals as well as the first floor of crystal tower completely invalidated. People only care about the item level because the artificial inflation of it means we need to get higher item levels to play the new content. Since it is so time consuming to acquire, old content is utterly abandoned, thus pidgeonholing players into specific set of activities instead of building a diverse set of options.

The only problem with FFXI's rate of progression was that it was painfully slow, which doesn't need to be carried over nowadays because MMORPG developers have gotten a lot faster at being able to put out content. Please consider making the next few patches of content (past 2.4) the same item level, but perhaps use different kinds of mechanics for preventing players from bowling through them (like atunement quests).

Mhmm, instead of just incrementing ilvl, make itemization more complex and interesting. The stats really don't mean anything right now, it's just the big ilvl number that is important. Give bonus stats and buff individual abilities, and spread items across different dungeons, mobs, etc. Right now it's: Go to coil for ilvl 110, Go to Syrcus for ilvl 100. Why not have players go to different dungeons to mix and match to create a set that are best for certain fights and ok for others. Instead of a generic BiS, have optimal items for different fights.

Also, start putting materia slot into dungeon items. You already have a way to expand itemization farther, yet only use it on DoL/DoH classes and crafted gear?