I sure hope HW is not going to be more armor grind treadmill!

[Chiramu]

The OP is only a few sentences long. Come on, guys.

Maybe MMO is not the type of game that suits the OP? All MMOs have grinds.

[SpookyGhost]

Maybe MMO is not the type of game that suits the OP? All MMOs have grinds.

I think OP is less concerned with the grind and more concerned with how quickly the grind ends, thus causing many people to leave since they no longer feel like they've anything to do. If you're not interested in crafting or gathering, and you mainly want to focus on the battle aspect, you kind of hit a dead end when you've got a full set of the current raid gear (or if you're not interested in gear, when you beat the final boss of the current raid). It was more of a problem in 2.0 since there was literally nothing to do once you beat T5, but now you at least have the option to help friends with older raid content or the current stuff. Still, it's a concern that is rooted in games with vertical progression and it's why horizontal progression is favored in terms of making things last.

Obviously horizontal progression is not without it's problems, sometimes you end up with items that just aren't worth it, or items that are BiS for years (XI blah blah blah). But it's essentially the only way to introduce content and make it worth doing when you've got a raid that's been cleared already. EX Primals in 2.1 were actually a good example of this, especially Garuda who had an i90 ring that you could get in place of an Allagan ring that might not have been dropping for you. Personally, I'd like more stuff like the EX Primals from 2.1, and I believe (?) they said there would be more horizontal progression options in the expansion so I hope that was a thing that they said and not just something I am misremembering. ' - ')b

[Owatatsumi]

I think OP is less concerned with the grind and more concerned with how quickly the grind ends, thus causing many people to leave since they no longer feel like they've anything to do. If you're not interested in crafting or gathering, and you mainly want to focus on the battle aspect, you kind of hit a dead end when you've got a full set of the current raid gear (or if you're not interested in gear, when you beat the final boss of the current raid). It was more of a problem in 2.0 since there was literally nothing to do once you beat T5, but now you at least have the option to help friends with older raid content or the current stuff. Still, it's a concern that is rooted in games with vertical progression and it's why horizontal progression is favored in terms of making things last.

Obviously horizontal progression is not without it's problems, sometimes you end up with items that just aren't worth it, or items that are BiS for years (XI blah blah blah). But it's essentially the only way to introduce content and make it worth doing when you've got a raid that's been cleared already. EX Primals in 2.1 were actually a good example of this, especially Garuda who had an i90 ring that you could get in place of an Allagan ring that might not have been dropping for you. Personally, I'd like more stuff like the EX Primals from 2.1, and I believe (?) they said there would be more horizontal progression options in the expansion so I hope that was a thing that they said and not just something I am misremembering. ' - ')b

One thing they can do, which they seem to be adding in Heavensward, for horizontal progression is glamor rewards. They've already done some housing items, mounts and mini pets which I think is cool. If they expand this I think it would be fun and take away from maybe the "grind" just to level and gear up. They could even reuse old content for this.

Just some thoughts.