I like how some players here think FFXIV is designed for hardcore players, always gives me a good laugh. Just a word of advice to you though, if you are playing this game in the hopes that it will be the ultimate test of your gaming skill, then you are sadly mistaken. There are other games out there with content more focused on pure min-maxing and being the best of the best gamer. FFXIV is not that kind of game, so prepared to be increasingly bored from every update from this point on. The casual player-base is the majority here, and majority rules all in the end. What little hardcore content exists at any give time will be softened in order to satisfy the casual playerbase. If you are ultra-hardcore and insist on playing FFXIV, you will just have to make due with whatever new content is added each update until that is inevitably eased. You are the extreme minority, and your demands carry little, if any, weight. Although FFXI isn't as hardcore as it used to be, it's still up and running and may be the better game to satisfy your specific needs in MMORPGs. That's the reason why FFXIV isn't FFXI-2, and why FFXI continues to exist...they are completely different games with completely different goals in mind of who they will cater to the most.