As a general rule of game design, more options > less options. This became a huge issue for Diablo 3 fans when Blizzard decided for them that boss runs weren't an acceptable way to farm loot. Blizzard nerfed this, ignoring the outcry from fans who really, really wanted the option of doing boss runs. (The game had other issues, but this was among them.) Why couldn't Blizzard have given players who didn't want to farm bosses alternatives to doing so for loot, while allowing those with the tolerance for repetition to continue to? There really isn't a good enough excuse for the decision they made.

How does this relate to FFXIV? I'm among the players who would really like the option of XPing in dungeons, or even by setting up parties and farming overleveled mobs (as we did in FFXI). I miss these options and I feel that it actually hurts the game not to have included them at all. More options > less options, and I feel very much like I'm going to be forced to grind FATEs on all of my future DoW classes now that I've hit DRG50 and finished the story line. That's wrong, plainly and simply; it just doesn't need to be that way.

I'm all for virtually anything that opens the game up a bit and enables alternative (legitimate) pathways to success. Let us farm high level mobs for XP; let us run dungeons for levels the same way we do it for relics; but if FATEs are going to be our only real option for subsequent level 50 classes, don't nerf FATEs. That's just ridiculous!