1. Leveling

Although I am a little tired of killing raptors and going to the same camps over and over, I still feel shades of FFXI while grinding.
XI had crawlers, crabs and -- later in it's life -- little pink birds. XIV has coblyns and raptors. Same experience.

THE MAIN FOCUS OF LEVELING YOUR CHARACTER SHOULD BE GROUPING.. ANYTHING IS UNACCEPTABLE AND WILL LEAD TO THE DEATH OF THIS GAME.
It's been clear that the focus of this game will be on endgame activities. Thus, they're not messing with some arbitrarily long grind.

The concept seems to be "easy to start, difficult to master." People tend to jump on every single announcement SE makes because it's "zomg easy mode." But they're trying to make a game for a broad audience.

The short, easy exp grind will be for the folks who want start the game and play with friends without needing to spend an arduous six months of severe grinding to just be able to start having fun.

To me, the materia system is for the hardcore crowd. A sort of levels beyond cap. Again, it's easy to start, what with a 100% success on the first attachment, and difficult to master since each attempt carries more risk.

There's the grind people desire.

I know some might say, "but how will new players learn their jobs?" To which I ask, how will any of us learn our jobs? In the next few months SE will not only change, add and delete abilities from classes, but they'll and the job system.

Certainly, we're not all going to go back to level 1 just to grind again to "learn" our new classes and jobs. We'll do that exactly how new players will. By adapting and experiencing fun content with friends.

People seem to get hung up on leveling being the game.

2. Grouping
What's so "normal" about six-member parties other than that being the number in XI? They have a plan, and it involves using four to eight members.

3. Quest
I'd hardly call them worthless. More like "reasonable." I, personally, wish there were repeatable quests that gave just as much exp.

SP from quests was a huge help in getting my MRD to 50. Between those and levequests I got to level on my own schedule instead of shouting for hours to try and build a party only to discover any viable camp was already taken like in XI.

I'm not sure why it should bother anyone if they make leves/quests a viable option for gaining levels. With the upcoming changes like the claim system and exp chain bonuses, parties still will hold superiority over the solo route. But the glacial pace at which one could solo in XI -- when the player base would often ostracize certain jobs making partying nigh impossible at times -- did more harm than good.

4. Crafting
Don't really have a counterpoint. If someone has designed a bot that can successfully craft through the minigame, kudos to them.

5. Sense of acomplishment
It's really in the eye of the beholder. I know some of the more vocal folks on these forums sigh if anyone mentions Darkhold as a challenge. I personallt find it very challenging.

So when I was finally present for a kill, and recieved my Helm of the Lone Knight, I wore it proudly. Even if it isn't exactly the best for that slot. I felt a great sense of accomplishment, and it was delivered through challenging content instead of arbitrary time sinks.

6. Endgame!!
On its way, of course. But you've got to build the basement before you can build the roof.

A. HNM
What else was there to do in the pointless 72 hour wait between dynamis entrances?

Id rather do hnm where people botted then do gay dungeons and other instanced content that is easy and the gear will just become obsolete with a new patch.
The dungeon's sexuality aside, why does something being instanced automatically make it easy?

The only real challenge in XI's HNMs was getting a claim, which was a matter of cheating and proximity to the servers. There's nothing fun about waiting for three or more hours to see your target pop claimed.

Even if you did get a claim, the challenge was over. After that, it was a matter of having enough people to cast cure on the tank and black mages/archers to kill it.

XI was a game designed around spending your career chasing after a handful of items. That's why a lot of what they added over the years were sidegrades at best. It worked fo XI because of the fanbase it attracted early in its life. But XIV needs to be a new game for a new generation.

Instances and raids can be more challenging and more fun than HNMs ever were. The exclusivity allows for better development and the guaranteed chance to participate on one's one pre-planned schedule means more people will be interested in playing.

B. Open world content-
Holy freak was sky and sea amazing.... I mean seriously years and years people spent doing those things.. It offered so much content and was so well done. It let linkshells compete against each other in certain ways. All I will say is if there is no sea/sky in this game I will most likely quit.
Both sky and sea were in a way "instanced" content with public hubs. I quote instanced because they weren't truly instanced, it's just that you could reserve an area for you and your party.

Even the jailers were force spawn mobs.

The only thing that wasn't "private" to the spawning party were the pop items, most of which had miserable drop rates. In the early days it took months sometimes to even fight the NMs just because of competition and drop rates.

Personally speaking, that's not something I ever want to go back to. The absorbent amount of time it took for so many people to get one person a reward was insane.

C. Dungeons- Plain and simple if I wanted to do instanced dungeons id go play other mmos. Not only was darkhold horribly done, it was just a bunch of copy and paste tunnels that offered nothing but repetitiveness. Oh and please do away with gear dropping from chest before the freaking bosses... really??? You want to reward people just for putting a group together and running in a kiling a few lvl 50 mobs to get a few pieces of gear? What a joke. My favorite thing on 11 was that gear was hard to obtain but it made it worthwhile once you got it. A dungeon here and there is ok, but if this is the main focus for endgame content, again I will not play.
The best gear comes from the highest risk. If a group only ever takes the time to get to the first chest, all they're ever going to get are some r50 mage feet. How is that game breaking?

But ultimately that's the point. Once again, easy to start, difficult to master. A few friends can net some exp and pop a few chests. The best of the best can speed run and kill Batraal in the special time limit.

It sounds less like you want to play XIV and more like you want to play XI. Yoshi-P has stated that the game will focus on instanced content. It's a core part of all the things they're changing in patches 1.18-1.21.

As far as Darkhold being "copy and paste." How different can a cavern be? I feel there more than enough unique landmarks in it. Stalagmites, claustrophobic areas, agoraphobic areas, small waterfalls in the wide open areas. There's lots to see if you take the time to look.

D. Make endgame acess for certain things actually hard/worthwhile to obtain..
Hard to argue that something should separate the men from the boys. But in XI it was pointless time sinks. Few things in XI were truly hardcore. People only convinced themselves of that while they stared at their screen unblinking for 10+ hours waiting for a mob to spawn purple.

Instead, it should be something actually challenging. Give everyone a chance to step up to the plate, but be unrelenting in content at which they take a swing.

JUST TO PUT THIS IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS, US FF FANS ARE HARDCORE AND WANT HARDCORE CONTENT NOT THE SAME CONTENT IN OTHER MMOS.
Speak for yourself. I've been an FF fan since I had my NES back in the day. I put seven good years into XI. I want casual. And by casual, I mean I want a fair shot at doing something meaningful on my own schedule.

XI required a minimum of three hours per session to get the most mundane tasks done. I've stuck around in XIV because of the potential in being able to hope on with only an hour or two to play and being able to do something other than watching a moogle spin.

E. Instanced content- There is a place for instanced content such as something like a dynamis, nyzle isle, salvage, ect.. but please make them fun/memorable and something you want to keep coming back to. Please stay away from instanced dungeons.
Again, Yoshi-P has said instances are the future of XIV.

And again, they can be more fun and more challenging than anything XI had to offer.

Sorry if you don't want to do Darkhold or Toto-Rak again, but I find myself doing them on a regular basis. I've even leveled a few classes to 25 just for the fun of being the minimum level in Toto-Rak.

F. Meriting- One of my favorite things about ffxi. Plain and simple I loved it and i wish this game would even go further in detail with it.
Materia seems to be the start of that, though I did enjoy the concept in XI, despite the majority of it being useless. The trouble was endgame min-maxing mentality dictated what merits players were expected to have which sucked all the fun out of it.