Please no more levels.

[Astrus]

I wouldn't be surprised if a level squish happens with 8.0.

I fully expect this to happen eventually and was mildly surprised we even went to triple digits instead of stopping at 99.

Implementing it looks like a mixed bag.
Just looking at what levels do for a combat Job it's not even going to be too hard on them to cut levels by half as every uneven level past the Job Quest range is mostly empty anyway, with traits and skills coming in at the even levels. The obvious rebalancing of encounters aside the meat of going from a level cap of 100 to a cap of 50 would be rebalancing at what levels you get new toys and Job Quests so things until Shadowbringers flow correctly, from there on out we'd just go to one skill/trait per level as far as combat goes (with all the level sync implications that entails).

The real challenge then becomes fitting content unlocks of an expansion into the new level range, do we go from 10 levels per expansion to 5 with a new duty unlocking every level?
How are they going to preserve the speed of progression without making things feel like they drag (levels taking twice as long to increment is going to see pushback even if the overall time to cap an expansion stays the same)? Is one level per duty enough to keep them populated outside of roulettes?

Would a level squish be accompanied by another stat squish while we're rebalancing things already? What about ilevels, are we fine with letting those approach the ilevel 1.000 range in the not too distant future or should those get squished too?

[Aulainn]

I've created numerous alts just to level, I wish I didn't need to. I wish there was some mechanic to reset levels, my personal dream would be that resetting your level to 1 would turn your equipped gear to All Classes so others could wear them. That would give me even more motivation to level.

[Zaniel]

WoW specializations are orders of magnitude more complicated than any FF14 job, and yet Blizzard continues to manage add several new abilities and talents for all 36 of them every 2 years, and that's on top of new trinkets.

And look what happened with that design choice, an unbalanced mess of a game with flaming toxic meta builds, where DPS variance is not +/- 1% but +/-200% and specs or whole classes are unplayable for years. No thanks.

[Garnix]

"Our classes/jobs becomes cluttered with random things because the devs HAVE to find something new for them."

I agree with this. But look where we are now, with people complaining jobs did not change enough in DT.

Also personally I am just exhausted of leveling with so many jobs available now, I think they should implement a role based leveling system. Make all future jobs start at 90 so that you still have to play them a bit on your way to 100 to get a feel for them but after that just take your role XP.

[MoofiaBossVal]

"Our classes/jobs becomes cluttered with random things because the devs HAVE to find something new for them."

I agree with this. But look where we are now, with people complaining jobs did not change enough in DT.

Also personally I am just exhausted of leveling with so many jobs available now, I think they should implement a role based leveling system. Make all future jobs start at 90 so that you still have to play them a bit on your way to 100 to get a feel for them but after that just take your role XP.

I don't think it is reasonable to expect to have every job at max level. You can try out every job for a bit, but eventually you're going to focus on your favorites and that is what your character is going to be known as and what sets you apart from other players.

[Shibi]

You can always untrivialise old content with MINE

Adding levels at least lets more casual people experience that once top teir content solo unsynched in many cases (outside the 5 people must click this ball type of trial) and get the stories.

[Mikey_R]

If they don't add levels, they will add something else that is levelling in all but name.

They need some way to restrict the MSQ and access to dungeons, so whether it is a straight level, or something like 'Job Mastery', the end result is the same.

[Granyala]

And it could have been done in a way that wasn't a detriment to the past content.

Why? It's not as if actual raid groups go back to progressing old content.

Is this about your E-Peen? (since you mentioned invalidating accomplishments)
Feats are temporary in any videogame.

The real treasures are the fun we had and the memories we make on the way.

Also personally I am just exhausted of leveling with so many jobs available now

I'll be blunt: That's a "you" issue.
Neither the DEVs nor the community expects any player to level and master all jobs.
It is an OPTION for people like me that do not care about making alts, not a requirement.

Would a level squish be accompanied by another stat squish while we're rebalancing things already?

I expect the combination to happen in the next expansion, to be honest.
At some point a gazillion levels becomes detrimental to the new player experience, making them feel that they can never catch up to current content.

Though XIV would need to address the mandatory length of the MSQ first.

You can always untrivialise old content with MINE

You could theoretically make content impervious to levels (and gear) fairly easily:
Outgoing DPS, Incoming DPS and mechanics act %age based.

While new tools would still make some scenarios easier to deal with, the bulk of the mechanics would be just as deadly on a Lv 100 vs a Lv 50 character.

[GrizzlyTank]

Is this about your E-Peen? (since you mentioned invalidating accomplishments)
Feats are temporary in any videogame.

Mature...

No I'm on the other end of the spectrum of that conversation. Rather, least over on the WoW forums have advocated for better ways to get the more casual players into higher end content, as well as not infantilizing them or threatening them with removing any tangible rewards.

The issue i have is that with unsynced and overgearing we pretty much hit a situation where a painting or portrait to say, have it's very centrepiece removed. The encounters aren't just the environments and the rewards, but the mechanics as well. And with the mechanics gone, why was it even designed?

And this is a problem that's exclusive to these service games.

If you play a zelda game, it will always be the same, even when another zelda game have released.

[Astronema]

They could do talent trees or sto specializations but who knows. My old mmorpg anarchy online let you choose from multiple talent lines at once for some customization.