If we get ten more years of final fantasy xiv expansions...

[vanaii]

I'd like XIV to enter a FFXI "75 era" of horizontal expansion. Rather than add new levels and stats, I'd rather that "power" be put into expansion-specific "levels." This way, you could get through 6.0 as a "tutorial," then pick and choose any adventure expansion you'd like. You might have full power in 8.0 and be ready for harder content there, but still need to complete the adventure for 7.0 to see its "endgame" content.

It might be time to look into giving battle system changes a "final pass" as well, so the jobs aren't thrown into pure chaos every expansion. Balance and adjustments can still come through, but tacking on 10 levels of vertical powergain is starting to translate into silly rotations both at the low levels and high levels.

Gear? I'm leaning to an end of ilvl with 6.5, but our itemization might be too boring to really do horizontal gear well. That might be something that would need to move to the expansion-specific power gain, or maybe the way we do stats needs to change completely. Perhaps set a final ilvl tier at 6.5, then start offering a higher ilvl for endgame content at that point. Future expansions would start at the 6.5 ilvl, but offer sidegrades to the endgame-ilvl gear. (Maybe you'd want a ring from an extreme in 7.0 but an earring from savage in 8.0. As a result, you'd need to clear both expansions to get your 'bis.')