This game is in desperate need of persistent progression content for main jobs...

[Kraniel]

That will always be true as long as people want the hardest content to drop gear upgrade. Imagine if Ultimate/Savage doesn't drop gear but drop cosmetics (whether title, mount, minion, glamour, etc.), but you need to gear up first in order to beat that fight. That would be the only scenario where there is incentive to do something after you gear up your main.

But I assume people don't want to do hard content without being rewarded with actual upgrade to their character, whether in terms of gear or added abilities/traits.

Since that is the case, the incentive then is on your own to make, whether you like clearing the fights again with different people in the party finder or you gear up your alts to clear the fight on your alts or you do other things in the game or unsubscribe for a while until new content arrives.

Again, you're right, but that is not what i was talking about.
I agree with everyone saying that there is/could be more stuff to do after you have geared your main class.

However what i was specifically referring to (and where i agree with OP), was the fact that once you have geared your main class, you don't need to use it anymore for any activity.
Sure, SE can add more mounts/cosmetics in Savage (it's already the case with Extreme primals), but still none of this is tied to your main class' progress. You can farm those any way you like.
For people like myself (and OP, i assume), this is a bit frustrating since we want to put in more hours in our main class, to optimize it as much as possible.

For example, i could totally see some kind of special materia that enhances one of your existing skills when melded on your weapon. A WHM could give Assize an additional HoT effect, for example.
Even crazier, you could get access to a weaker version of a skill from another job.
These are just examples that just came out like this, we don't need to debate if they're a good or bad idea, but my point is : SE has plenty of areas to explore to make the end-game of a specific class longer if they wanted to.

The reason i think they don't want to, is that if they do this, people who play the game more casually will complain that they can not get the same stuff as others, and they don't want to take the risk of losing that part of the player base, which i completely understand.

[linay]

once you have geared your main class, you don't need to use it anymore for any activity.
Sure, there could be mounts/cosmetics in Savage (it's already the case with Extreme primals), but still none of this is tied to your main class' progress.

How is that not related to your main class's progress? You need to be geared to do Savage. So if Savage itself doesn't give gear, but requires gear to complete, then you need to gear up your main to use it to do Savage.

[Kraniel]

It's not "related" to your main class in the sense that "it does not reward you with things that help you optimize your main class", which is what i was talking about in my previous post.
Again, i'm not saying i disagree with you. It's just that your reply doesn't answer the problematic i was talking about, which is that some players (like myself) want to feel rewarded if they decide to specialize in one specific class.

If we're talking about a mount, for instance, why not having class-specific mounts ? Like, you get a special PLD mount if you clear Eden Savage a hundred times or something.
I know this kind of stuff has already been done in the game, but i honestly think they could do it more.

[linay]

It's not "related" to your main class in the sense that "it does not reward you with things that help you optimize your main class"

Why should it? If it rewards you with things that help you optimize your main class, that means you haven't finished gearing with your main class. I thought you wanted something to do with your main class after you finished gearing with it (at least, until the next patch update). Once you're done with gearing, optimizing is about practicing the content you want to do and using all the tools you have (gears, potions, meals, abilities) to beat the content with whatever metric you want.

some players (like myself) want to feel rewarded if they decide to specialize in one specific class.

Outside of weapons/gears, most rewards in this game are based on the content, not the job that you use to clear the content (tank mount being one notable exception). It's unrealistic for them to offer 17+ mounts for one single content.

It would also backfire. You say you want to be rewarded for specializing in one job, but if they give different rewards for each job, there is bound to be some reward that you would like outside of your job, creating some pressure to level another job just to get that other reward. The fact that there is few such job-specific rewards (outside of gears) actually means that you can simply use one job and be content with it, knowing that most content and reward in the game are available to you. The only reason to level another job is if you're interested in another play style/glamour or if you want more story quests or whatever few job-specific rewards are in the game.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

I play my main job in this game less than my other jobs, and I feel like that is a problem. I don't really have a schedule that permits savage raiding, and I'm not entirely into it. Each week, I do what I need to do to cap tokens, then I go fool around on my other jobs doing roulettes, beastmen dailies, etc. because there is nothing else to do to progress my main class outside savage raiding. I really wish my progress on my main wasn't so time-gated.

For this reason, I usually burn out around the x.1 part of patches, and don't come back until x.5 to finish up everything that has come out along the way. This time I decided to come back for x.2, and I had a pretty good time for a few days until I finished the normal raids and story content. Now, I'm already burnt out again.

Anyone else feel this way?

No. I don't want FFXIV to do what wow did with endless AP grinding and other obligatory "chores" that never end. That would burn ME out.

The fact that I can finish stuff for my main job each week and have the freedom to do whatever I want on alt jobs/glam hunt/etc, is one of the greatest pros of FFXIV for me. Beyond doing my weekly stuff, I don't feel obligated to do X chores every day without pause for fear of falling behind. I get to do stupid silly things without fear of "not progressing my main". Time spent leveling other jobs, gathering, crafting, glam hunting, etc isn't time wasted because I can actually finish my weekly things.

[Razard]

No. I don't want FFXIV to do what wow did with endless AP grinding and other obligatory "chores" that never end. That would burn ME out.

The fact that I can finish stuff for my main job each week and have the freedom to do whatever I want on alt jobs/glam hunt/etc, is one of the greatest pros of FFXIV for me. Beyond doing my weekly stuff, I don't feel obligated to do X chores every day without pause for fear of falling behind. I get to do stupid silly things without fear of "not progressing my main". Time spent leveling other jobs, gathering, crafting, glam hunting. etc isn't time wasted because I can actually finish my weekly things.

All of This!

I like the fact that I don't feel like I have a chore list and a gun to my head like Modern WoW. The fact that when I am done for the week I can just chill and do whatever. I don't want this game to a second job that I pay for.

Currently replaying FFIX on my downtime.

[Aeos]

Just because people min-max doesn't mean they have an endless pool of time

[Kraniel]

Why should it? If it rewards you with things that help you optimize your main class, that means you haven't finished gearing with your main class. I thought you wanted something to do with your main class after you finished gearing with it (at least, until the next patch update). Once you're done with gearing, optimizing is about practicing the content you want to do and using all the tools you have (gears, potions, meals, abilities) to beat the content with whatever metric you want.

Then i would argue it's way too easy to gear up your main class.
That said, when i was talking about optimizing, i specifically meant the extra 5% that you can do if you really wish to get the best of the best for your main class. Not something that would be mandatory to enjoy savage raids and such.

Outside of weapons/gears, most rewards in this game are based on the content, not the job that you use to clear the content (tank mount being one notable exception). It's unrealistic for them to offer 17+ mounts for one single content.

It would also backfire. You say you want to be rewarded for specializing in one job, but if they give different rewards for each job, there is bound to be some reward that you would like outside of your job, creating some pressure to level another job just to get that other reward. The fact that there is few such job-specific rewards (outside of gears) actually means that you can simply use one job and be content with it, knowing that most content and reward in the game are available to you. The only reason to level another job is if you're interested in another play style/glamour or if you want more story quests or whatever few job-specific rewards are in the game.

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on that. I've grown up with the extra grindy MMOs and while i agree it was over the top sometimes, i liked the "no pain, no gain" aspect they would bring to the table.
And sure, i don't think it's realistic for them to make one mount per class for every extreme raid, but then again, that was not a serious suggestion. I was just stating that there are many things that can be explored in order to satisfy more hardcore (?) players.

[linay]

Then i would argue it's way too easy to gear up your main class.
That said, when i was talking about optimizing, i specifically meant the extra 5% that you can do if you really wish to get the best of the best for your main class. Not something that would be mandatory to enjoy savage raids and such.

Content should be tuned to the best that you can do. You don't get an extra 5% without affecting content.

And yes, it is easy enough to gear up your main class, and yet we still have people that complain it's too hard/grindy/time gated/etc. Considering the state of current WoW, the other other MMORPG I play regularly, I'm good with FFXIV being what it is in terms of gearing.

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on that. I've grown up with the extra grindy MMOs and while i agree it was over the top sometimes, i liked the "no pain, no gain" aspect they would bring to the table.
And sure, i don't think it's realistic for them to make one mount per class for every extreme raid, but then again, that was not a serious suggestion. I was just stating that there are many things that can be explored in order to satisfy more hardcore (?) players.

It's still no pain, no gain in FFXIV, but less pain for more gain.

[Kalise]

Content should be tuned to the best that you can do. You don't get an extra 5% without affecting content.

Uhh...

Literally all content in the game is tuned to be possible to complete at minimum item level.

Hence why there exists the option to partake in content, while sync'd to minimum item level.