Please change Road to 70. Forcing new characters 90 days bonus exp is a punishment.

[HyperiusUltima]

I hate "Road to 70".

I'm just going to put this out there: Road to 70 ONLY applies through the first 90 days. You want to know why? Because if they don't want to buy the Story Skip and Level Skip, they have to Level through the game. And if they have to level through the game, then they need to do MSQ. If they have to do MSQ, they have to have appropriate levels. We're not even accounting for the Aetheryte Earring here, and it literally does a lot to help new players get up to speed in terms of Level with their friends.

In no way does Road to 70 ruin this game. You're still going at your own pace through MSQ(not telling anybody new to RUSH IT like you apparently assume new people are prone to do) and I literally told my friend who I gave a sub to to take the story AT HIS PACE. That's literally all that needs to be said. It doesn't matter if you're going 50 days or 80 days without doing anything in regards to MSQ or Leveling, it's still going to help push them through MSQ faster. The only hang-up right now if you're pushing MSQ is around Stormblood Lv 67, and that's still pretty close without Road to 70. Even so, THIS IS NOT A PUNISHMENT.

Also, let's read into your assumption about speedrunning this game, shall we? That community is literally 0.0001% of the playerbase, and is extremely minute in size. As far as people trying to speedrun the game, they probably just don't care about the story and want to get to content. WoW Players have been like that before, even the Refugees; but that's just stating some things I've seen with a fraction of that community in particular. A supermajority of people however will watch the story even with the buff on because they want to understand what's going on in said cutscene and the like, and how it leads into other things. If you're so afraid of a BUFF that helps new characters, then you do you Boo-Boo. I'm just stating the facts here, and speedrunning has not been a prevalent thing in XIV at all with new players just joining the game for the very first time.

[HotPixels]

I am lvl 76 and get synced in every instance I join, including main story. I don't see a problem at all.

I'm in stormblood and will be 80 by the time I get to shadowbringers. I don't really get xp from quests, its all from roulette daily . I wouldn't say its too easy at all, the only thing thats faster is random open world mobs which are very few and far between sticking to the MSQ.

I would rather this than having to grind boring side quests, I never had a bonus xp either I just did daily roulette a lot through ARR and heavensward so it can happen either way. Does it really bother you that you have access to more abilities to get out of the boring 123 button rotation faster? I have quit this game multiple times due to extreme boredom in rotation until 60+..

[van_arn]

OP hasn't wrapped his head around levels not mattering in this game until your MSQ is caught up.

The buff exists to accelerate new players, because a level below 70 should be beneath your notice.

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

I still don't really understand this gripe. So I am going to start a new character and see how this plays out. Because I only have one alt and I made it back in Heavenward and it was the same horrible crawl to get past the lvl 50 content, into the Expac. Still got stuck behind dungeon level requirements. Still struggled through story instance battles (back before the game gave you obligatory healing during those). So I'm not seeing where being a higher level and still being hobbled to story areas with vendor gear suddenly becomes game-breaking.

You realize that no new players can play the game 'as it was originally intended' because it has been changed with every Expac? In the days of HW, only certain areas carried certain level gear and only for the classes/jobs that city would unlock--now the major cities carry all the available gear up to level 50 without you having to go to the area appropriate to that level. Back then, to advance your job you had to level a sometimes completely unrelated class to lvl 15 to get your job stone. And you could only use certain skills if you leveled the class that had that skill to the appropriate level. You want Swiftcast? You better level that THM, cause that's the only class that had it. Not to mention certain skills being locked behind job quests.

ARR is an almost completely different animal now. But it can still kill you. The fact that you can level faster just makes it so you can survive being smacked around a little better (and honestly only just). But to each their own. I'm going to start a new character and see how much the extra leveling negatively affects my experience.

On a side note, have you tried doing a new Game+? I'm curious as to how that plays out.

[GeminiReed]

I'm going to start a new character and see how much the extra leveling negatively affects my experience.

As an unrepentant (read enthusiastic) altoholic the Road to 70 is a godsend. Not having to worry about that inexplicable xp gaps before and after level 47 is fantastic. Leveling past the point where those stupid frogs in Mor Dhona just ignore you is worth it. Similarly the mob density of the Sea of Clouds is no longer a bother. And before somebody says "b-but mob kill xp" the paltry xp you got at level really was not worth the aggravation. Being able to unlock DNC and GNB before setting foot in HW is brilliant.

[ItMe]

Being able to unlock DNC and GNB before setting foot in HW is brilliant.

Oh man, I didn't even think of that.
That's really helpful.

[Myrany]

I wish there was a way to shut off exp gain entirely either an object I had to buy in the store or something in game. When I hit 50 I still had a huge amount of stuff left to do (beast tribes, harder modes of things, side quests). After a short time I gave up and started Heavensward MSQ because I was outleveling so much. Well now I am finished with Heavensward MSQ and my character is even more above level for Heavensward. Once again I don't dare do ANYTHING but move on to the next xpac. I haven't even unlocked everything in Heavensward yet. It is frustrating the heck out of my completionist way of playing.

I am the sort of player for whom getting to max level usually destroys a game for me. So I am not looking forward to it. I really wish I could periodically stop my experience gain and just sit at a level for awhile until I finished everything I wanted to do on level.

I get it this is not how most people play games. I am not talking about changing a thing for others. Just give us an option to choose to shut off/turn on exp at will. Even if it costs gil or even real money in the store.

[BlitzAceRush]

The thing is though, level stops you from doing none of the things you listed, want to finish unlocking everything before entering HW? You can, your level means nothing, if you don't want to blow stuff up or be unkilable you could just go get a low level weapon and gear and control your power that way, being level 80 and doing the ARR beast tribes is no different than being level 50 and doing them, all you are is stronger, which you can easily throw away if you're so inclined.

But there's a even easier way to fix your issue, just use another class, you get two that start at 50 for ARR stuff, two that start at 60 for HW stuff and many others, if you're new and want to always be at level you can do that, but like I said, pretty much all your power gained is in your weapons and gear, want to do stuff like a level 50, just put on 40ish gear and away you go.

[Myrany]

The thing is though, level stops you from doing none of the things you listed, want to finish unlocking everything before entering HW? You can, your level means nothing, if you don't want to blow stuff up or be unkilable you could just go get a low level weapon and gear and control your power that way, being level 80 and doing the ARR beast tribes is no different than being level 50 and doing them, all you are is stronger, which you can easily throw away if you're so inclined.

But there's a even easier way to fix your issue, just use another class, you get two that start at 50 for ARR stuff, two that start at 60 for HW stuff and many others, if you're new and want to always be at level you can do that, but like I said, pretty much all your power gained is in your weapons and gear, want to do stuff like a level 50, just put on 40ish gear and away you go.

You simply do not understand. I shouldn't have to start over on another class. I do not want to play another class. I shouldn't have to deliberately downgrade my gear. Why can't I just turn off my exp at say 60 and stay there until I am ready to move on? It does not affect anyone else's game only mine. Why so resistant to the idea?

There are some real disadvantages to being 67 and seeing 60 content for the first time. For one people expect you to know a whole lot more than you actually do. Sometimes they can be pretty darn ugly about it too. For another others expect you to rush to endgame and refuse to see why you might not want to do so. I do not enjoy playing games at current endgame. It destroys games for me. I much prefer to meander through content at my own pace. So I ask again why so much resistance to the idea of my being able to shut off exp gain at will? It does not affect any one else gameplay only my own.

Edit: I have even gone so far as to look into getting a new account and simply buying the game one expansion at a time to put a hard cap on my leveling. Looking at the options though that really is not one either. Also I shouldn't have to get a new account and start over because as a newbie I was dumb enough to buy the more economical bundle of expansions.

[BlitzAceRush]

Snip.

At no point was I resistant to the idea, I simply pointed out everything you claim can't be done can be regardless of your level, you say you shouldn't have to downgrade yourself but that is exactly what your idea entails, regardless of weather you're telling the game. "I don't want the powerful weapons or gear you're trying to give me, I'll use these weaker ones" or "I don't want all this XP you're giving me and stat increases it would lead to, I'll stay at my weaker self." The result is you're weaker than the game tried to make you, one would require dev time no matter how small and the other you can achieve yourself in a few minutes.

As for your other points:
1: People expect of you regardless of level, if you're doing old content and you run into someone like that, they'll just counter with "It's old read a guide" or may simply think you're an alt, you're also acting like being new is a shield, new players get harassed over making mistakes just as much as if they think you're a veteran, so this point is moot.
2: People expecting you to rush to endgame has no bearing on your level, you telling them. "I can't I turned off my ability to level" won't stop that, not sure what this has to do with your point, your desire to stay at a level has no bearing nor will it stop others if they want to try and rush you, I too do things at my own pace and if anyone ever told me to hurry up and get to endgame I'd just tell them no and move on.
3: You're free to go at your own pace and I wouldn't care if they added this, I simply pointed out it has no point as all the things you claim are "ruined" or can't be done can very easily be done even if you level.

At the end of the day, if they added this, more power to you to play how you want, however if it bothers you so much that you'd be willing to buy another account, and buy each expansion one at a time, I'm not sure why spending 5 minutes at a vendor to buy low level gear to get the same effect is so outlandish.