Just remove leveling altogether if it's such a hindrance.

[Grimwald]

So many bad ideas in this thread. A lot of you are masochists, and not in a good way.

[Kikosho]

No point in "additional" or "alternative" progressions..when a new player joins an MMO they expect to do content and etc, however usually a good MMO will have low and mid level content, XIV will not have a reason for low and mid level content if the leveling will mean nothing other than just being there. This is why XI had the perfect setup in terms of content offered, it had numerous low and mid level content due to the moderate speed of leveling so it served a purpose as something to do to break up leveling.

A lot of that content died out when people only cared for...*drum roll* rushing to end-game so a lot of newer players post 2002-2004 never got to experience a lot of things like Eco-Warrior or Expendetions to try to claim lands/reclaim lands from beastmen or even Garrison. In XIV, all you have to do is make your character, find someone to pl you, sit on your ass and bam you can be end-game ready in no time in terms of progression. Hell, due to the fact you don't even have to "practice" or "train" your character in an area you can easily watch a tutorial video or tag along with some friends who will let you experience a battle win or lose to get your feet wet and you're good to do all end-game content.

Fast leveling is meaningless just like the ability to spam content is meaningless in the long run, look at Tera, a lot of people blew through all of that content within a week or two simply because you not only get skyrocketed to end-game levels, the content gets used up fairly quickly in that game since there's honestly no low or mid level content to speak of. A good MMO will have a moderate leveling (the only people fine with are those who already leveled everything or couldn't care less about the journey to end-game) sprinkled with low and mid level content to do while you progress. You can argue the open world low level dungeons and toto-rak serves that purpose..think about it, Shposhae is completely skippable and only doable (for it's purpose) if you don't get power leveled, and Toto-Rak is literally forced onto you otherwise that too is skippable.

That shouldn't be the case but that's how it is when leveling is pretty much an afterthought in the grand scheme of things, but we all know people won't complain about having nothing to do when they blow through everything the first week of 2.0 going live.

Eco-warrior/Garrison/etc. all the same content with a different coat of paint. The reason people rush to end-game is because that is where all the fun stuff is located, where players have all the skills available to them and thus more detailed encounters can be experienced. Honestly, no matter what, MMOs are always going to have the problem they have now with content being burned too quickly because the encounters, for the most part, always remain static. People know what to expect when they are going in there so the only main drive is either for the gear or push the envelope and do it faster/different setups to break up the monotony. Then it's just a long wait for new stuff cause no dev can keep up with the pace. MMOs honestly need some form of PvP, maybe not necessarily against each other directly, to add some spice to content. XI's Conquest had a good base but they never really did anything with it besides being able to attain Outposts.

I honestly don't think SE should spend a great deal of time on low-to-mid level content since it's all temporary and not where the majority of the playerbase will be in a couple of months. However, I don't think they should negate it entirely either. A problem that everyone complains about with fast leveling is that people end up at cap not knowing what the hell they are doing. This is where low-to-mid level content should concentrate on. Keep powerleveling but add in level limit quests/dungeons that people need to complete to be able to continue leveling up or to gain skills. Tune the encounters so it tests the class/job the player is on. Make some of the content solo so people can't get carried through it.

Leveling speed is fine, I don't need to spend 300hrs grinding to know how to combo properly but they definitely need to pace the game around the skills you get so you're forced to use it at some point. Give WAR a reason to use Rampage or Berserk. Give WHMs are reason to pop on cleric stance and nuke some shit. Metroid for example (different genre but bear with me) gives you abilities and then bases the area around you using the ability you just earned. Fast forward later, and you reach areas that force you to use another ability you just earned along with previous abilities. And along the way, they sprinkle some areas and items that are optional with the caveat being that you need to be on point with your abilities to even get to it. At the end of the game, you're already proficient with your arsenal.

[SuzakuCMX]

Leveling is terrible as it is now. Getting from 1-25 is a gigantic pain in the arse that consists of literally nothing but grind. It's quite frankly ridiculous and the reason many of my friends have refused to get past level 10. I mean level 1 to 10 can be done in 3 hours solo; easy, no problem, without using any leves. But then you get to 10, 11, and 12 and suddenly progression hits a brick wall. You're SOL if you don't have 3+ people to be on to party grind with you or if you don't have hours to spend just grinding away with leves and ... literal grinding.

[Dragon]

So many bad ideas in this thread. A lot of you are masochists, and not in a good way.

Why are we masochists for liking something that YOU don't?

[Grimwald]

Why are we masochists for liking something that YOU don't?

Well, you're welcome to go go play another Tanaka styled game if you'd like. I'm happy with 1.22c and 2.0

[Dragon]

Well, you're welcome to go go play another Tanaka styled game if you'd like. I'm happy with 1.22c and 2.0

Again, why don't you tell us why we're masochists for liking something you don't?

[Grimwald]

Again, why don't you tell us why we're masochists for liking something you don't?

Because this game will never be FFXI-2, and you have to accept it. I'm sorry.

[Dragon]

Because this game will never be FFXI-2, and you have to accept it. I'm sorry.

Good job sidestepping the question again. Are you afraid to answer or do you have no reasonable answer? Hint: my question has nothing to do with Tanaka or FFXI-2; why are people like myself masochistic for liking content that you don't like?

Besides, this game is changing come 2.0, and your little claim you just made that "we have to accept" something is false and makes the claim that only suggestions/threads you agree with should be discussed. This is a general discussion forum related to FFXIV, and if you think it's wrong for me to have made this thread then you do yourself a little favor by using the report button instead of continuing to respond.

[Jynx]

Weapon skill points fell behind so easilly for some skills like evasion, parry, marksmanship (For thief)

[Grimwald]

Good job sidestepping the question again. Are you afraid to answer or do you have no reasonable answer? Hint: my question has nothing to do with Tanaka or FFXI-2; why are people like myself masochistic for liking content that you don't like?

Besides, this game is changing come 2.0, and your little claim you just made that "we have to accept" something is false and makes the claim that only suggestions/threads you agree with should be discussed. This is a general discussion forum related to FFXIV, and if you think it's wrong for me to have made this thread then you do yourself a little favor by using the report button instead of continuing to respond.

Removing experience points isn't something an Eastern MMORPG has ever accomplished before, and quite frankly, they are afraid to do it. The majority of players who are complaining for features like weapon skill points are looking through incredibly foggy nostalgia goggles. I'm sure you agree with me that more grinding doesn't equate to fun. The current EXP system is a short, yet sweet experience if you played when EXP parties actually existed, and it wasn't boring Leve grinding.

I'm sorry, although SE is a company that is slowly moving towards listening to their customers, that doesn't mean everything you want will be included, or asking them to rework the entire class system - especially when their game is currently in a position where it could potentially flop again. No amount of deadpan arguing or trying to sound smart on a forum is going to change that.