A Modest Thought

[hellmach]

snip

That's not reflective of the system we've had to my knowledge since HW. This is more like it:

Entry is 290 not including accessories
First 3 level 70 dungeons drop 300 gear.
Verity- 310 including weapon
315 is Skallic gear introduced in 3.1
Omega Normal-320 and Susano gives you a 320 weapon and
Creation Tomes/24 Man 330... 330 weapon is locked behind doing O4 normal weekly where you need 7 weeks to get your weapon. You can get one Savage 340 upgrade material per week by doing the 24 man content in 3.1
Shinryu 335 Weapon
Savage 340 and a 345 weapon. You can upgrade tomestone gear with material drops you get here weekly.

Sample Source: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...3&category3=34
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...=1&category3=2

I didn't include crafted. This is the pattern every patch to my knowledge since 3.0. How does this promote a feeling of progression when more difficult content, that intuitively should give you better rewards, only gives a slight advantage against just grinding tomestones in the case of Shinryu or before creation Susano? I also wouldn't mind tomestone grinding if the dungeons actually felt challenging, which they don't (I'm not speaking for Lost Canals because I haven't done it), and I had the feeling that I earned them, which I don't. Hardcore players can get their BiS and casuals can get high ilevels with low effort but where's the middle ground for midcore players who may not be able to do Savage or don't have time to do it but want that feeling of progression when the mid core rewards are barely better then the casual ones?

I can't say you even put forth anything valid because your very sample system isn't reflective of the one we're using now as I proved and it seems as if you think progression... actually getting more powerful in an RPG through challenge is considered "grinding artificial stairs" which sounds outrageous to anyone who's played RPGs. By your logic the grinding of say Sphere points in FF 10, Experience in 9,7,5,6 or earning gear through defeating powerful bosses, finding it in chests or doing exceptional feats like beating a side quest tournament arena are "artificial" stairs. I don't want to assume the worst case scenario because I'm misinterpreting what you're saying, but it sounds like you're ok with getting rewarded for barely anything. If that's the case, and excuse my French, how the fuck would that be good game design?