Level Cap Increase

[Niwashi]

I did, and I doubt that would be the case if you blitzed the content. Remember that trials give diddily squat for EXP, and there are only 2 dungeons that are part of the MSQ (Snowcloak and Keeper of the Lake). From 49-50, you needed about 4-5 dungeon runs of AV, full clears with EXP bonuses, to get to 50.
So yeah if you finish all the MSQs and don't dawdle around with other content, you'll get MAYBE level 51 or 52, which is fine and just gives you a little bonus leg up on the expansion content to counter the fact that the people who finished it are decked out in gear that likely won't be replaced until 60 dungeon/raid content.

Has it never occurred to you that there are players who actually want to play the game? Not everyone wants to blitz through everything and skip every piece they can get away with. It's the players who will be doing everything that exists at level 50 who have the problem and need to be able to stay 50 for a while before unlocking the level cap increase.

[Spawnie]

I rather have a few more levels and be able to learn new abilities to make the game interesting than to play inventory: the management game, and wonder why am I going nuts over gear if I am just going to be using the same moves regardless.

this.. games need level cap increases not just play dress up with different armours lol god i wouldnt last long in games like that with no level cap increase

[JakzChurchill]

I did some guesswork using the information we know and came up with some predictions on to how far the 2.1~ would take you into level 50+.

Looking at the previous exp increases (no definable pattern I can see) I worked out it will take around 8 million exp to hit level 60.

Level 49 quests give 14,500exp each, so I put level 50 at around 16,000.

If every level 50 quest gave 16,000 you'd be level 52 by the start of Heavensward.

If each new patch gave an increased amount of exp youd gain around 2mil from the quests putting you at level 53.

So if they unlocked the level cap from just owning the expansion you'd enter heavensward at the very least 2 or 3 levels into your cap, This feels fair to me and I can this being the option they take.

[Radacci]

Remember this is XIV, not XI.
Key word is *accessible*
It's highly likely you will be able to lv to 60, as soon as you register Heavensward, without having to do any quests.
It's like with Reaper of Souls expansion for D3, the disc contains a 2.5mb file, that doesn't really do anything, you don't patch the game; the normal patch to D3 already has all RoS content, but you need to enter RoS key, to get access to it. you cant level to 70 without RoS, even though there's not even any extra patch for it; you only register the key, then you have instant access to all RoS content.
I'm pretty sure that patches for ARR will contain Heavensward content as well, or you wouldn't be able to see mach/DK/astro ppl, or the equips they are wearing. But you'll need to register exp key, to lv to 60, and all that.

[Niwashi]

I did some guesswork using the information we know and came up with some predictions on to how far the 2.1~ would take you into level 50+.

Looking at the previous exp increases (no definable pattern I can see) I worked out it will take around 8 million exp to hit level 60.

Level 49 quests give 14,500exp each, so I put level 50 at around 16,000.

If every level 50 quest gave 16,000 you'd be level 52 by the start of Heavensward.

If each new patch gave an increased amount of exp youd gain around 2mil from the quests putting you at level 53.

So if they unlocked the level cap from just owning the expansion you'd enter heavensward at the very least 2 or 3 levels into your cap, This feels fair to me and I can this being the option they take.

But that's just taking the quests into consideration. How many tens of thousands of mobs will people kill while farming all the level 50 dungeons? There's enough content at level 50 to have kept a great many people busy for over a year and a half. The people who get to it in a couple months, or next year, or whenever, should get to do all of that, too.

(Personally, I'm going to begin the expansion at level 1, because the Au Ra are one of the main things I'm looking forward to from it, so I'll be starting over with a brand new character. Unless SE decides to include a few lower level zones in addition to all the 50-60 ones, I won't even reach any of the expansion areas for at least a year or two after getting the expansion. In the meantime, all the ARR 2.0 - 2.55 content has to work as it was designed to, regardless of having the expansion on my account.)

[Lexia]

I would like to see some type of quest to unlock the higher level cap besides just buying the expansion.

[Conradus]

I would like to see some type of quest to unlock the higher level cap besides just buying the expansion.

Gee, Maat, fancy seeing you here...

[Firepower]

Considering how FFXIV is built and using Maat's trials from FFXI as an example it could certainly be some very similar tasks. I for one think it would be a very nice throwback idea to have Maat return and offer almost identical quests it would be rather nostalgic.

The 50-60 quest would simply be to just again collect the bomb coal, exoray mold and ancient papyrus again. It wouldn't be too hard to just have them drop from ??? pop enemies that are soloable at a reasonable ilvl maybe similar to the boarskin or alexandrite maps but would require a few people at fresh ilv50, thus allowing the majority to continue at a reasonable pace and giving the newbies a decently challengable quest that would require some working together.

[kyuven]

Has it never occurred to you that there are players who actually want to play the game? Not everyone wants to blitz through everything and skip every piece they can get away with. It's the players who will be doing everything that exists at level 50 who have the problem and need to be able to stay 50 for a while before unlocking the level cap increase.

Yes, it does occur to me.
But it doesn't matter.
I've played a LOT of games that increase their level cap with expansion, and there's kind of a big problem inherent with the process:
No one does the old "HM" style content anymore, or at least not to a noticeable degree.
So yeah, stick around and do everything at 50...and the queues will be terrible.
After all let me ask you: What reason would the majority of the playerbase have to do Titan EX when absolutely everything except the pony is irrelevant, and there's 10 more levels of content? Imagine the current queues for cape westwind if you want an example of what it'll be like.
Moreover, since SE has all but specifically stated that the current relic will be made obsolete, as the 60 one will in no way require any stage at any point of it to be done, you can bet dollars of donuts that all that 50 "HM" content is going to come secondary to the expansion content.
As an example: If a player so wanted in FFXI, EQ1, EQ2, SWTOR, or WoW, they COULD very easily get to the new level cap introduced with an expansion by doing ALL the old content rather than moving on to the new content as it becomes available.
Most players do not, since there simply aren't enough players actually DOING that content anymore and it's just as easy to go back and do the content at 60 as it is at 50 since it either becomes easy to steamroll or you can find people to actually do it.
The impetus for the majority of players is to reach max level and do the content that carries them there. There ARE players that want to do EVERYTHING but they're in the minority.
After all, even after the content has been out for a year, how many people STILL haven't done the mooglemail or hildibrand quests?

tl;dr: People won't do content that requires groups if there are no groups to do it with.

[Firepower]

They already added ifrit/garuda/titan HM to the mainstory in the last patch I think they were a pre-requisite for one of the more recent parts of the questline. Mog/levi/ramuh/shiva are already in main story so they will all have to be done to progress to heavensward anyway. You also have the fact that currently the later parts of the main story require increasing levels of ilv to progress, if square wished for people to complete a decent amount of 50 content they could gate the 50 cap quest (if there is one) requiring completion to the current point in the main story.

Thus new players would HAVE to complete: castrum, praetorium ifrit, garuda, titan, mog, levi, ramuh, shiva, snowcloak and steps of faith, whilst raising their item level to 90 to get access to steps (which would likely require grinding a few dungeons for drops) We already know this will be the case to get access to the newer areas but wether they gate the level cap behind this too is unknown. Following on from this they could add a "story mode" roulette which would have all of the above trials included with reasonable rewards much like they have done so far in the past.

The EX primals and pretty much ALL of bahamuts coil is likely to be completely ignored though since they would no longer provide anywhere near a level of risk/reward worth doing anymore. Maybe if they upped the pony drop rates to over 50% and forced more materials (allagan silk etc..) to drop from the trials to make the newest crafted gear, otherwise interest is likely to get very thin. I can see the crystal tower questline getting abandoned too since they require even more people to do with even less incentive.