An option for characters to start at level 50, pre-heavensward, for FREE

[MariaArvana]

It would be daunting for new players, to suddenly be given a dozen of combat attacks and abilities without even knowing what a combo is or how the basics of combat works. The big problem with getting into HW is the MSQ filler which grinds the leveling process to a complete halt for about a dozen hours for fetch quests that have no rewards.

Especially for new players to the genre(which there are a lot, considering the FF single player fan draw) ARR is necessary as a teaching tool, so no. I really don't want to subject some brand new, only played FFXV, bright eyed newbie to the Sohm Al bosses just because they think using a sword and shield makes them look like Gladio. And that's just the second dungeon of HW...

ARR is a pretty bad teaching tool besides introducing the player on how to talk to NPCs. Whether you start them at level 1 or level 70, people who want to learn will, and those who don't won't. Take a look at the still large amount of players at level 70 who refuse/don't/etc use AoE when 10+ mobs are pulled, do whacky rotations, don't maintain/use their full toolkits/buffs, don't even read some of their tooltips, etc. Saying they should go through ARR to be taught is pointless when starting them at 50/60/70 with some extremely powerful tutorials (Like a mandatory hall of the intermediate) can accomplish the same thing in 1/100th of the time with 10000% more effectiveness.

I think part of the problem here is people coming in with other MMOs in mind, thinking current endgame is the only thing that matters.

This game is more like a traditional rpg. The entire journey matters.

You wouldn't buy final fantasy 7 and request to only play the last disk, skipping everything else, would you?

Believe it or not, FF14 is still an MMO first and foremost by a VERY large margint. Lots of people like to join to play with their friends and don't care much for the story when there's big, epic bosses to kill with said friends. Half of my friend group has been around since 2.0 and none of those people could tell you the name of half of the scions or major characters in the story due to how little they pay attention. Scaring off potential new long standing, long paying players with a gigantic, forced storyline will only hurt FF14 in the long run as old players leave and new ones aren't staying to replace them. That being said, Jump potions are a good compromise anyway, though I feel their price could do with being cut a bit or a free one being given away for buying a special version of the game.

[Edax]

ARR is a pretty bad teaching tool besides introducing the player on how to talk to NPCs. Whether you start them at level 1 or level 70, people who want to learn will, and those who don't won't. Take a look at the still large amount of dps players at level 70 who refuse/don't/etc use AoE when 10+ mobs are pulled, do whacky rotations, don't maintain/use their full toolkits/buffs, don't even read some of their tooltips, etc. Saying they should go through ARR to be taught is pointless when starting them at 50/60/70 with some extremely powerful tutorials (Like a mandatory hall of the intermediate) can accomplish the same thing in 1/100th of the time with 10000% more effectiveness.

Just because some players can't learn from experience doesn't mean most players don't. I personally have not seen that many dps players not use AOE attacks when 10+ mobs are pulled. For me personally, learning how to Dragoon was far easier for me because I started as a Lancer from scratch then when I became a Samurai suddenly at level 50. It took me 2 days with a house dummy to figure out how to arrange the Samurai abilities onto my hotkeys to get the rotations to even work, more days still to commit them to muscle memory. AAR introduces abilities one at a time, which is far better then introducing abilities a dozen at a time.

[Kaethra]

Believe it or not, FF14 is still an MMO first and foremost by a VERY large margint. Lots of people like to join to play with their friends and don't care much for the story when there's big, epic bosses to kill with said friends. Half of my friend group has been around since 2.0 and none of those people could tell you the name of half of the scions or major characters in the story due to how little they pay attention.

My group of friends does this as well. Currently have one playing catch up through Stormblood and they're skipping the cutscenes. I give them a brief gist of what's going on as they complete sections. But truth be told, if we had the option to go straight to dungeons. We would.

I'm not particularly fond of granting levels. I don't mind some sort of uber tutorial that offers a way to speed things along like my suggestion on page 2. Something akin to 5 duties covering the major points and each one gives 10 levels or whatnot. But truthfully I think it should be an option at the very least to opt out of the story entirely. If someone wishes to level 1-70 in dungeons and have access to any dungeon their level or ilvl lets them have access to without needing the plot, story, or interaction, they should be allowed to do so.

There is a ton of Dungeon content in this game. Far more than most MMORPGs. The MSQ for those of us who wish to skip it, is really a minor distraction. In less than two days you can go complete Stormblood in this manner. Why not simply give us back those two days to get some tomestones? Let friends who get started behind their group jump right in with the rest. Its hurts no one else. It doesn't cheapen the story for anyone who wants to experience it. It doesn't take away from how they wish to play.

Everyone ought to be able to play FFXIV the way they wish to play it. I'm personally not even looking for an easier way to get to max level. As everyone knows, the MSQ is one of the most efficient ways to level as a solo player. I just wish we had more options.