Please no more levels.

[BigCheez]

Personally, I don't mind having to level all the jobs through another 10 levels with each new expansion but I do think that the current progression system is bad for the game as a whole.

Perpetually adding a few new skills to the last few levels and removing some old skills to make room for them creates problems with how they play at lower levels. FFXIV prides itself on its level sync system and allowing old content to remain playable but there are horrendous balance issues at lower levels.

In the level 70 ultimate, there are some jobs that massively outperform the others and some jobs that struggle to the point of being barely functional. SMN and RDM do more damage than the other jobs by a considerable margin while RPR and BLM are behind by a mile. DRK does less damage than the other tanks and also doesn't have its external mitigation yet for some reason. WHM still relies on medica 2 for most of its AOE healing and really struggles to keep up.

IMO it would be better if the level cap remained at 100 and the devs took a holistic approach to updating the jobs each expansion instead of simply sticking 3 new skills on the end and deleting some old skills to make room for them.

[Reinha]

The level cap can be raised without putting 2-3 new skills in the last ten levels and pruning lower levels. Those are two separate issues. We could have almost our entire rotation at level 1 if the devs wanted to design it that way, but the levels themselves serve a different purpose: to nerf old content and to reset the effects of stat points we keep getting more and more of.

[RinaB]

I don't mind the level increases I just always wish for a couple of things. A: 1 other spec for each job. I understand they're deathly afraid of this for balance reasons but they don't have to go too crazy with it, just give us a bit of variety so not every SAM is the same etc. B: I like the roulette system, I find it fun and helpful for people leveling etc but I do not like losing all my abilities. For example I am far more beefy and comfortable tanking Alexandria then I am tanking malikahs well for all the wrong reasons.

[ForteNightshade]

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.

Unfortunately, the sync system still makes us grossly overpowered for most old content. Alliance raids suffer the most but even normal modes from past expansions simply melt nowadays due to potency changes and the aforementioned sync being far too generous in where it puts us.

I don't mind the level increases I just always wish for a couple of things. A: 1 other spec for each job. I understand they're deathly afraid of this for balance reasons but they don't have to go too crazy with it, just give us a bit of variety so not every SAM is the same etc. B: I like the roulette system, I find it fun and helpful for people leveling etc but I do not like losing all my abilities. For example I am far more beefy and comfortable tanking Alexandria then I am tanking malikahs well for all the wrong reasons.

XIV's version of specs is essentially being able to swap jobs on a single character. They're never going to do it otherwise. Not only is it a balancing issue but that's essentially adding 21 new jobs. Considering how much they've struggled with creative avenues for what they're doing now. I can't imagine making specs that turn Dragoon into a tank or Summoner into a healer would ever go over well. Even if the specs were simply a handful of different abilities having a choice. Yoshida isn't wrong when he posits players will largely pick the stronger of the two (or whatever Balance suggests) and that's it. In other words, instead of every SAM playing the same, almost every SAM would. It's simply not worth the time for them to develop.

[BigCheez]

Some sort of levelling system is required because the game needs to sell you the fantasy that your character is becoming more experienced and a better warrior, and honestly it's not hard to just give every job one or two new abilities or passives every 2 years. 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. There is no reason why FF14 can't do the same for its jobs every 2 years. I do not find getting gear with higher arbitrary numbers on it to be more immersive than my character simply becoming better and learning new techniques.

I disagree. The WoL has essentially been the strongest being in the universe for a very long time. We don't need 10 levels every few years to fuel a power fantasy.

[GrizzlyTank]

Unfortunately, the sync system still makes us grossly overpowered for most old content. Alliance raids suffer the most but even normal modes from past expansions simply melt nowadays due to potency changes and the aforementioned sync being far too generous in where it puts us.

Especially the mess regarding certain end-fights. Least they did eventually fix endsinger... Thordan however largely skips over the victory lap while the other penultimate fights are trivial.

yes, yes they want people to get through the story. Bust still those fights should at least give a sliver of resistance for suspense sake.

[ForteNightshade]

Especially the mess regarding certain end-fights. Least they did eventually fix endsinger... Thordan however largely skips over the victory lap while the other penultimate fights are trivial.

yes, yes they want people to get through the story. Bust still those fights should at least give a sliver of resistance for suspense sake.

Funny enough, trials are the only piece of content without a sync. Which is why we absolutely annihilate them nowadays. They put one on Endsinger to prevent that skip but haven't gone back to the others.

Unfortunately, Thordan needs a complete overhaul. His normal mode was always comically undertuned. I remember clearing him in like 3.3 and watching everyone ignore practically every mechanic just like they do now. It really took all the excitement out of the fight, if I'm being honest.

[koko-on-da-forumz]

It's almost like experiences in MMO's are subjective? And everyone may have a different experience based on where or even the time of day they play? Hmmm....
Also, you are naming very specific content.

So there's also a bias in games where people assume if they were able to find help with some old content, then everyone must be able to. This just isn't the case. But there is some content in GW2 that people seem to love to run over and over. I never stated that people in GW2 don't like to do any old content at all - that's how you took it.

What are you having trouble with finding a group for? I'll gladly help you find a group lol.

I'm in several guilds that run strike and raid training weekly and is always seeking new people. Metas are easy to find, dungeons are easy to find, fractals are easy to find, I join groups literally every week working on silly dumb achievements. I literally just today at 9am asked map chat for help with an event I needed for an achievement and like fifteen people came.

I'm struggling to even imagine what you're having trouble running. Were you just looking for a partner for map completion?

[Chasingstars]

Either:

1. Level Squish and Stat Squish (similar to what WoW did)
2. A stat squish (like from endwalker)
3. No more levels or higher item gear (like GW2)

As we are starting to approach that upper limit for what the system can handle.

For example lets go over the job stone part of the inventory. If you factor in the crafter stones, and have unlocked each of the current jobs available, there is exactly 1 slot remaining, and we already know that the beastmaster is on the way for this expansion to occupy that slot.

Which speaking of beast master and therefore limited jobs, brings us to our next related manner: Eventually blue mage would reach level 100 if the cap is 100 in just one more expansion after this one, and however many expansions it would take for beastmaster to reach cap.

Final Fantasy 11, the predecessor mmorpg to 14, it's level cap is 99. And that evidently started to break things as FF11 for awhile was designed around level 75 cap.

Although what can be done, similar to FF11, is Master Levels. Levels where you get exemplar points and that results in stat benefits for maintaining those levels, with a cap of 50. But if you die, you lose some exemplar points and this will result in your level decreasing again. Similar in FFXIV to the gaining and losing of Eureka levels.

[koko-on-da-forumz]

Although what can be done, similar to FF11, is Master Levels. Levels where you get exemplar points and that results in stat benefits for maintaining those levels, with a cap of 50. But if you die, you lose some exemplar points and this will result in your level decreasing again. Similar in FFXIV to the gaining and losing of Eureka levels.

I love this system, but it will never happen in XIV. They would sooner get rid of progression altogether and just have a movie followed by raids than create a system that requires grinding, risk, and customization.