Quote Originally Posted by Penthea View Post
You misunderstand. Those raids people used to solo are not lvling content at all. They were the endgame of previous expansions. They're not going back to solo group content they skipped in the lvling experience because it's not content used for or intended to be for xp gain. It never was. There aren't even roulettes you can use to do these old raids. They are completely irrelevant when it comes to xp gain. It's just like how savage and ex difficulty content in FFXIV isn't used to gain xp...
I understand all of that, but it doesn't change what I said because...

...So yea while WoW does let you get to max lvl with zero group content, the solo content it has in general is very lacking when compared to FFXIV.
... I wasn't really comparing the two games. My point is simply to use an example of a popular MMORPG to show how "mmos" don't necessarily have to encourage teamplay anymore. It doesn't mean that the game doesn't have group content, but if you want to play it solo, you can very well do so.

With that said, I will say something about this part:

[*]It is very rare for WoW to introduce max lvl story content that isn't somehow connected to gearing up for endgame, whereas this is common in FFXIV.
I would disagree with that statement.

Max level story content includes:

Max-level MSQ - includes mandatory dungeons and trials, requires gearing up for endgame and grouping up (outside of TRUST) until you can solo them in future expansions.

Alliance raid story quest - includes mandatory raids, requires gearing up for endgame and grouping up, even just to enter the instances in future expansions.

Trial series story quest - includes mandatory trials, requires gearing up for endgame and grouping up until you can solo them in future expansions.

Regular raid story quest - includes mandatory raids, requires gearing up for endgame and grouping up until you can solo them in future expansions.

Relic weapon story quest - may or may not require gearing, but definitely encourages grouping up for at least parts of them.

Those are, I think, the main max level story quests in FFXIV. Other side max level story quests may or may not require grouping up or gearing.

With WoW, it's important to note that dungeons and raids are not always required to continue the story. Or they may be required at the beginning, but then become optional later in the same expansion. So the only gearing required for endgame for story purposes is to deal with the scaling done to the open world enemies or specific quest-related enemies.