We Really Need To Talk About The State And Path Of FFXIV

[Lauront]

My main wishes going forwards are:

1) Lower GCDs, in the 1.5-2 sec range. I hate the current one, even if it's somewhat made better by the presence of OGCDs, but it remains horrid at low levels and even at max levels for jobs with higher than usual instants. It will require some reworking e.g. of mob HP levels, but I would like to see it.
2) More variation in the content offered each patch. They currently stick to a very fixed formula for each patch, and it's grown rather boring.
3) Improved customisation options. This would include more facial options across the board, more options for body customisation, including differing levels of bulkiness (not just tone) within the parameters of each race.
4) Better focus on existing job design. I'd also like to see more innovation and more abilities with modifiers. For example, I'd like to see BLM build up to a state where Void energies predominate, which may rejig their entire elemental configuration for the duration of that state; I'd also like to see spells, such as Freeze, re-designed to have variable effects based on the elemental aspect.
5) Graphics enhancements. I don't see the point of putting these off until 6.0 or later, when we're right about at the middle of this game's lifecycle, and when it is beginning to fall behind newer competitors. Stormblood got a bigger budget, and SE is known for cross-subsidising other titles with profits from FFXIV, so I am not too keen on hearing that they lack a budget to do so.

There's other stuff, like which locations we go to, jobs we see (BLU, DNC, etc.), but the above would be the most important points IMO. In general, I'd like to see them take some real risks with the gameplay, including the combat.