What is Missing in 2.0 - Ways to Level classes

[Rowyne]

I agree with the OP, this is something that concerns me, as well.

When leves were reformed so that they would no longer be central leveling content, Yoshi-P announced this change in design philosophy:

"We still have some ways to go, but FINAL FANTASY XIV will gradually shift from being a grind-centric game to one that offers enjoyment for all playing styles and circumstances with its ever-expanding variety of content."

It sounded like FFXIV was going to move toward a leveling model that would bring it in line with modern MMOs. Players would be able to take on "large volumes of quests" that required actual interaction with NPCs. These quests were indeed described as a viable leveling tool when it was said that, "In addition to guildleves, sidequests will also be made to yield skill points upon completion, thus providing players with more avenues for advancement."

This obviously has not fully come to fruition, as quest rewards are minimal and the number of quests are insufficient to really progress your character. While the new leveling model implied perhaps some WoW-style or Aion-style questing (which I would personally love to see), that doesn't seem to be something that's coming anytime soon. Perhaps this is in the works for 2.0. I wouldn't be surprised if they held off until then, considering the large-scale changes to maps and zone progression that will be coming. A lot of the quest writing and hub setup would all change, with a lot work wasted.

The fact of the matter is, when leves were repositioned, there was no real alternative put in their place. Open-world monsters were tweaked to facilitate grind parties. While the repeatable monotony of leves didn't lend toward making them the best idea of central progression, at least they gave us a reason to go out into the world and complete a mission, rewarding gil, items, and faction reputation. But now, it's mindlessly killing the same monsters over and over a la FFXI. Often through powerleveling.

I am seriously hoping this was only done as a temporary solution for a game that lacked content, and will change in 2.0. Reason being, this is actually a large step backwards from the goal that Yoshi-P announced last June. What modern MMOs like WoW accomplish from their method of progression is disguising the grind behind story-driven content, dungeons and battlegrounds. You have fun and play the game and don't worry about the levels. Whereas FFXIV separates the grind from the story, so all you do is worry about gaining levels, making the game too much naked grind.

The OP really hit the nail on the head with many points about lack of leveling content, especially this:

Leves - I hate to say this, but I have been thinking about WoW and something they do really well is breadcrumb the player. You go from one hub to the next doing quests that teach the player about the people and the lore of the world. I get that most of the quests are essentially the same, go kill 10 xyz things. In XIV you just repeat leves, behest, and dungeons over and over. At lease Blizzard covers up their grind with new locations enemies and lore as the player progresses through to highest level. WoW has thousands of quests and XIV has maybe 100. I am not saying that questing is going to fix XIV's leveling. I guess I just want more variety in how we level.

Leves and sidequests really need some more love. Especially the sidequests. While it's fine for leves to be nitty gritty kill 10 xyz, quests can be so much more than that, and have multiple steps in a chain. Breadcrumbs lead us to dungeons, to hamlets, to other questhubs, and help facilitate progression. Many players are indeed questers, and this game just does not deliver in that regard.

Behest - Super grindy and seem pointless, I haven't done in months and months

Behests are actually a great idea, just implemented poorly. They remind me of a simpler version of Warhammer's public quests, which was a great way to spontaneously group people together to do open-world content. You could easily join, and weren't out of luck if the quest had already started (it was just likely you wouldn't get the best rewards due to lower contribution). Behests might be more successful if they took on more of these concepts, especially auto-grouping the participants and offering more substantial rewards for completion and contribution.

Dungeons - More low level dungeons would be nice. All we have is 1 R15 and 1 R25.

Absolutely. Dungeons are not just for endgame. These are great ways to gain exp, get a couple low-level pieces of gear, and teach players how to work together in a group. Give us more Shposhae and Toto-Rak! There should 3 instanced dungeons and 3 open-world dungeons for each level tier (I say three because it would provide one corresponding to each city-state). If this is put in place, I'm hoping the leveling speed will be slowed down a bit so that low-mid level content will be worthwhile.

Hamlet Defense - I am not sure how Hamlet Defense is going to play into leveling our characters but it sounds interesting.

I'm looking forward to these, hoping they will be similar to FFXI's Besieged.

I'm concerned that what will be the central means of level progression in 2.0 has not been made clear to us. Will we be moving more toward a quest/dungeon/public content model? Or will the structure remain generally much as it is now with grind parties taking center stage and alternatives that are less than meaningful? I personally have no interest in the latter as I left that kind of naked grind behind in FFXI years ago and don't want to get back to that. I know that if we don't get some real meat and potatoes leveling content in 2.0, the game will lose its appeal for me, and I'm afraid it will for others, as well.