We should get exp boost in the game.

[EaMett]

They're going to simplify the process in the next patch. Also, FF14 is heavily story based like others have mentioned. Skip the story and you basically miss out on 70-80% of the actual content released in patches. So obviously it's not something that is encouraged.
Comparatively, WoW has little to no story attached to leveling so they can just fast track you to end game.

[MariaArvana]

They're going to simplify the process in the next patch. Also, FF14 is heavily story based like others have mentioned. Skip the story and you basically miss out on 70-80% of the actual content released in patches. So obviously it's not something that is encouraged.
Comparatively, WoW has little to no story attached to leveling so they can just fast track you to end game.

uhh, the MSQ in most patches barely lasts 2-3 hours. Compared to the huge replay-ability of raids, ultimates, savage raids, 24 mans, dungeons, Ishgard restoration, Side stuff like Eureka/Diadem/etc and everything else they throw into the patches, MSQ is nowhere close to 70-80% of content released in patches, I'd give it 10-15% at generous best.

As far as the topic, I'll just repeat what others have said. Doesn't really matter if FF14 is a story based MMO. There's tons of people who don't care for it and like to reach endgame to play with their friends at max level content, raid, etc. A good friend of mine has been playing since ARR continuously without ever letting his sub lapse and if you asked him anything regarding the scions, the most you'd get is 'the who?' Since he pays zero attention to that stuff. Luckily at least they introduced level & story skips so the people who want endgame don't have to get lost within or worse, quit during the ARR slog.

People find enjoyment in different parts of the game. Such a foreign concept, I know.

Yea, let's just skip everything and reach the endcontent without any effort.
You want to get the latest BiS gear too, so you don't have to grind it by yourself?

>Implying reaching endgame takes even the slightest bit of effort.

it takes effort to learn your jobs and compete in Savage/Ultimate to get the BiS gear. You can expend zero effort getting to endgame due to how easy the solo MSQ instances are, on top of the fact the mandatory dungeons/trials someone could easily get carried in without any issues due to undersizing. It takes time to reach endgame, not effort.

Complaining about the story in a Final Fantasy game is the equivalent of complaining about shooting people in a Call of Duty game.

If the Call of Duty game had major balancing issues, busted crosshairs giving inaccurate visual data on where your shots were going, weapons that completely dominated and annihilated every other choice in the game, etc. it'd be quite correct to complain about shooting people in a CoD game. Just as if the story of a final fantasy game is hugely overburdened with fetch quests, filler for the sake of filler without contributing anything to the development of the story, it'd be fine to complain about how badly designed the MSQ is. Just because its a trend in a franchise doesn't excuse it when one title has that trend badly designed compared to others.

I'm no elitist, but I say each job a person plays should be understood by them.
->Looking at many new players (including rushers) I have seen in the last years, people who take their time with FFXIV are usually (far) better in this undertaking than those who can't wait to join in the tomestone-grind-machine.

That's a failure on not reading tooltips, not 'getting the most out of it'. I boosted PLD to 70 in SHB because I wanted to try something different, took 10 minutes to read all my tooltips hit a target dummy for 5 minutes, went into an undersized dungeon for a bit to practice positioning mobs, and now I arguably tank better in about an hour of practicing than a sizeable portion of the playerbase that never pop their CDs, single pull, etc that leveled GLD from level 1 and 'got the most out of it.'

The game literally spells out the general idea of how to play jobs when you read the tooltips, you could start at level 1 or level 70, someone who wants to learn and get better will do so, regardless of time spent leveling. Ask all the dps who don't use key parts of their kit how much they 'got out of it' leveling from 1.