The skill progression is atrocious

[Jirah]

Hypercharge gives +20 potency to single target attacks though, so it's not useless by itself.

Which only applies to a skill with 220 potency which is weaker than your Slug combo and forced to press it 5 times in a timeframe. It’s not useless but just oddly designed

[linayar]

That's some seriously poor bait.

Well, I felt like I had taken your bait. So please don't make such outrageous claims like that again.

Now, if you're saying that somehow those early abilities don't count for whatever reason, then given on objective reason for why and not because you don't find the early rotation fun, because fun is subjective. At the end of the day, you're given enough abilities to do the content at every level.

I have not said anything about the time between patches and expansions.

There is no other way for the word "sporadic" to be anywhere near accurate in describing character progression in FFXIV.

I guess the game is not based on using skills because the gold saucer exists? Of course you can spend hours walking around cities, chatting and so on without using any skills, but that does not mean that the main part of the game is not based on using them.

Hence, why I said it's a good thing that the game gives you enough skills to do the relevant content that requires the use of skills.

[Jirah]

In the past, I may have agreed. However, the devs have routinely shown they don't give a flying hoot about balance at lower levels. Look no further than Dancer, which is hilariously OP at >50. Red Mage is comparably far stronger than Summoner and Black Mage until the 60ish mark. Meanwhile, Samurai is so comically weak at 70, it's actually out-dps'd by all three Range even in Ultimate. Once you factor in how significantly they've nerfed older content, it's more than apparent they don't pay the slightest bit of attention to balance below max level.

Which in a way, contributes to this "low level is boring" theme

Without proper structure, instances are farrr to easy to beat somtimes even rendering some mechs pointless due to their focus on Max level. and since all of them are a cake walk, remotely challenging fights are seen as alien thanks to nothing giving them even a once of challenge mid game. Goes for roles aswell but thats a whole other discussion progression through and through is a hot mess due to not only wayward job structures or lack of skills in some cases but the content itself

[tdb]

Which only applies to a skill with 220 potency which is weaker than your Slug combo and forced to press it 5 times in a timeframe. It’s not useless but just oddly designed

I was specifically talking about the level range (Lv30-34) when you have hypercharge but don't have heat blast yet. The +20 potency applies to the slug combo too, because it's made up of three single-target weaponskills.

Also, when you get heat blast, the entire point of hypercharge becomes to give you a quick burst of attacks. The potency of heat blast may be weaker but it has a lower cooldown (1.5s vs. 2.5s) so it actually deals 40% more DPS. And it reduces the cooldowns of gauss round and ricochet as well so you can weave those in between each heat blast for even more damage. Not to mention the synergy with wildfire.

Oddly designed? Well yes, it changes the regular pacing of attacks. You could also say BLM is oddly designed with how the player has to manually manage MP where every other magic user can basically ignore it (aside from pressing lucid dreaming every now and then). Or RDM is oddly designed since they're mostly a caster and can stay at range but occasionally have to get in melee range for their big combo. Each class has a gimmick and some of them result in more gameplay changes than others.

[tdb]

There is no other way for the word "sporadic" to be anywhere near accurate in describing character progression in FFXIV.

Maybe "sporadic" is a bit strong, but fact is that early abilities have been getting further between with every patch. ARC and WHM don't get anything at all between levels Lv18 and Lv30. GLD and MRD have a plateau from Lv15 to Lv26. SCH only has five useful combat abilities at Lv30 and doesn't get an AoE heal until Lv35. Things generally seem to pick up after Lv30, but the levels before that seem kinda neglected.

[Reap00]

There is no other mmo out there with better combat design. What is the point of continuing this back and forth banter?

[ForteNightshade]

Which in a way, contributes to this "low level is boring" theme

Without proper structure, instances are farrr to easy to beat somtimes even rendering some mechs pointless due to their focus on Max level. and since all of them are a cake walk, remotely challenging fights are seen as alien thanks to nothing giving them even a once of challenge mid game. Goes for roles aswell but thats a whole other discussion progression through and through is a hot mess due to not only wayward job structures or lack of skills in some cases but the content itself

While you are correct. The point remains if they aren't going to balance lower level content properly, why not clean up the skill progression and be done with it? If Dancer can blow things away to a comical degree, then let Bard have Wanderer's before 50. Personally, I'd prefer the both fix how unbalanced lower level content is but also tweak skill progression because certain jobs feel awful at lower levels. Things such as Dragoon and Ninja not getting an AoE until level 40; the former not getting its full AoE combo until 72. Dark Knight being the only tank without an AoE mitigation at 70. And that isn't even how boring some jobs are to play synced (Dancer is often criticised due to not having Flourish).

[Absurdity]

There is no other mmo out there with better combat design. What is the point of continuing this back and forth banter?

Just maaaaybe because "There is no other mmo out there with better combat design." is a subjective statement with no arguments made to back it up. And even if we assume that there is indeed no other game that does it better right now, doesn't mean that it can't be improved.

[Lumberfoot]

Now, if you're saying that somehow those early abilities don't count for whatever reason, then given on objective reason for why and not because you don't find the early rotation fun, because fun is subjective. At the end of the day, you're given enough abilities to do the content at every level.

I don't know about you, but I don't use "return" in my rotation, neither is the melee classes ranged attack a part of it. They count, but the problem with such abilities is that you rarely use them. Bard has 7 skills at lvl 29, but 80% of your skill usage consists of heavy shot.
And I don't know what makes you think that criticism based on the level of enjoyment you get from a video game is illegitimate? That's the whole point of the product. But if all that counts is that the game functions and you can finish it, then I guess there's nothing to complain about.

There is no other way for the word "sporadic" to be anywhere near accurate in describing character progression in FFXIV.

There is an obvious bump in skill progression at lvl 50 for most classes. Before this the skills mostly consist of your basic attack chain along with some rather generic "buff damage by X for Y seconds" and, if you're a melee job, some ranged attack that's almost never used. Then, somewhere between 64 and 70, the skill acquisition suddenly drops again till 80. Sure, maybe "sporadic" might be a bit harsh, but it sure don't come across as gradual.

Hence, why I said it's a good thing that the game gives you enough skills to do the relevant content that requires the use of skills.

This is not about being unable to do the content however.

[Puremallace]

And it's only going to get worse with each expansion.

All jobs should have full kit at lvl 50, and from that point only traits that eventually upgrade animation (with option to toggle them off, in case you don't like new animation, would be great for MCH to disable heated actions). Change my mind.

This is just insane and not how any MMO has ever worked. For one major reason this is FF14 and your idea would literally break all content between level 1-50 and also destroy Palace of the Dead runs.