8.0 Max Level?

[Atma]

We have a full kit every expansion... until we have to level again. We have Logos, Lost, and Phantom Actions... only while in Eureka/Bozja/OC. And our additions at endgame commonly come with degradations to the leveling experience. So while I can understand the dislike, I have to wonder why this would seem a new issue...

FFXIV's zone-locked bonus actions are subsystems, not part of the core leveling

Yes. Which is, honestly, fine. We had an experiemental stage over which to player-test a bunch of different ideas, many of which might be too "out-there" for baseline kits, from which we could then pull into the game not just the ideas the devs thought players would like best but which the players actually did most enjoy according to surveys and other forms of feedback.

Uh. If they want me to playtest for them, they can pay me instead of the other way around? Or they could set up a public test realm like every other MMO? Expansions should not be glorified playtests... Now I'm certainly not going to argue we haven't had class reworks, some of them very massive, but I think Astrologians in particular would probably tell you they're a little tired of their card mechanics being in a nearly constant state of playtesting. I always tell people when they pick up the class that if they don't like the card system, don't worry, just wait till next xpac.

To call that "theft", though, seems odd.

If you played WoW during the Legion expansion, you understand why people would call it theft.

Moreover, if we're talking about zone-specific abilities in this case (rather than per some seasonal or expansion system), they're likely to be thematically insulated

The way I read that post, in the context of this being a thread about the 8.0 level cap, is that they were VERY much talking about this being 'the expansion's leveling system' The proposal was we don't gain any levels and have an 'independent leveling system for that zone.' I'll concede that either the post I responded to could be confusing in the use of the term 'zone' and they were, for some reason, referencing one zone within an expansion... or you might be perhaps reading too much into the word 'zone' and thinking of it from the perspective of per each area, etc. Given kind of the context of the rest of what you're suggesting as you go on, I think you took it this way.

I interpreted their statement to mean we get an alternate leveling system that is only applicable to areas specifically within the 8.0 expansion, to which I am going to give a very, very hard 'no thank you.' I've seen that. And I never want to see it again.