Two things FF14 can adopt from Guild Wars 2.

[Sylve]

The grave mistake was just to not make all jobs have some basic stuff on lower levels... like pala has no aoe till 46... and that one does no agro...

AoE is only as effective as it is at level cap because we blatantly overgear the content.
Take a minimum ilvl sync group into something like The Burn and try to mass pull the same way. It gets exponentially harder because the Tank takes too much damage, requiring more healing leading to less Healer dps contributions and MP troubles combined with TP Jobs running out of TP before all the mobs die …

We actually had a really fun problem with players who did FATE grinding in ARR to level cap. They got so used to just spamming AoEs during the FATE trains that they literally never learned how to do a single target rotation.
Paladins who would simply cast Flash on bosses until their MP ran out were the most egregious example of this. That was all they knew how to do.

AoE is the absolute least fun thing to do.
You'd be taking an already small pool of abilities and making it even smaller.

[Judas_Ramirez]

Hi everyone.

I played Guild Wars 2 for about two weeks and quit as soon as I experienced its trivial, terrible, gathering system. However, there are two things in that game that I think FF14 should consider imitating.

Number one... Being able to retain high-level abilities even when your level is synced. Wouldn't that be great? So at lower level dungeons, your stats (str, int, vit, whatever) would be nerfed but you won't get thrown off by getting cut off with your high-level abilities.

Number two... Never experience gear decay unless you actually just DIE. In Guild Wars 2, your gear will never deteriorate unless you completely die. I think it'll make a lot of people (me included) less paranoid about forgetting to get gear repaired. I'm one of those who mostly gets his gear repaired at 98% condition.

What do you all think about this?

I agree with those 2 things.
Probably more so than FFXIV players because i've played both games. (& most of the others on the market)

[Alexandre_Noireau]

And comparing isn't allowed?

It is.

But im talking about Final Fantasy XIV. Are you?

[Berethos]

Im talking about Final Fantasy XIV.

Really? Hadn't noticed.

Joking aside, comparisons are clearly allowed when making a specific point like the one I made, namely that the percentage of players actively playing the game versus the number that have tried it is basically an industry standard (it's actually better percentage-wise than most other MMO drop-offs).

Considering you were trying to suggest that the number of players sticking around would be higher if players saw the abilities/rotations they'd have access to later (which is speculation I personally think is unlikely - seeing gear and seeing what more complex boss fights look like, in my experience, draws more in than seeing what rotations look like, based on 13 years of playing MMOs and observing the kinds of things new players talk about...and one of those we already have access to), pointing out that only 5-10% player retention is normal in even the most popular western MMO we've ever had is very much relevant.

[JohnSpawnVFX]

It is.

But im talking about Final Fantasy XIV. Are you?

Right, comparing FF XIV to WoW means you're not talking about FF XIV, everyone.

Or is it just because it invalidates your argument about player retention?

[Crushnight]

for point 1. i don't see it changing there is no real need to there are plenty of people running leveling roulette if this was to change then there will be a new carrot to entice people into it again if that fails then they may look at what is driving players away from it till then do not expect to even hear whispers of synced content changing to include max level rotations
as for point 2. i'll be ok with this if they keep current degradation levels so as to not harder cap how long groups can prog before need to leave and repair

[linay]

Seriously guys, if balance gets in the way of fun, screw balance.

Not having balance would get in the way of my fun.

When I synced down from 70, the enemies already die fast enough in Sastasha. Using SMN as an example, that's just using one basic spell, two DoT spells, and 1 aetherflow ability. And even with that limited amount, sometimes I don't even need to use all of them.

So there is no reason for me to bring the full set of abilities of a level 70 SMN when I don't necessarily need the entire set I currently have at appropriate level.

More abilities also means longer rotation. So even if they scale me down so much to the point that I would ever need to use the basic set of 70 abilities, it still means I will have to do more work than an unsynced SMN running the same dungeon.

Why would I want to do all that for a leveling dungeon I've done many times and will likely do more in the future? Just so others can see me showing off pretty lights? That's no fun for me.

[Krojack]

#1. This tends to be bad in the long run. It makes scaling lower content harder to start. Also as others have stated, getting new people that are still low level will most likely have a harder time.

#2. Get your crafting to lvl 60 and self repair solves all your problem and saves money in the long run.

[Kuroka]

We actually had a really fun problem with players who did FATE grinding in ARR to level cap. They got so used to just spamming AoEs during the FATE trains that they literally never learned how to do a single target rotation.
Paladins who would simply cast Flash on bosses until their MP ran out were the most egregious example of this. That was all they knew how to do.

Im here since then yes, i took quite some time in thanalan, norther fate train was such fun, but i never got tempted to play like that, lol rather ranted for using aoe too few xD

And im not about doin mass extermination like in the burn, but at least some aoe, some rotations, just not like it is atm where a war slays like stupid, DK aoes the hell outa mobs and pala flashes xD