Throw awat the iLv system, implement a PvE Rank system.

[Cherie]

Yes and with that, people can also just buy the gear they need. You can buy full ilvl 70 for like 500k (which you should have around 150k by the time you hit 50) and unlock all content. Or you can buy a few ilvl 70, do a couple dungeons, do your relic, and then suddenly you can do all content.

Don't forget, soon you can buy ilvl90 gear in the next patch. There was a recent article mentioning the new ilvl90 crafted gear. It will be expensive at first for the myth mats, however, farming it will be the standard farm routine.

[Lurkios]

Open the party finder and you'll see them.

Setting an ilvl requirement simply means you want players with the necessary gear to complete content at the desired pace and success rate. It has nothing to do with skill.

[Gamemako]

Setting an ilvl requirement simply means you want players with the necessary gear to complete content at the desired pace and success rate. It has nothing to do with skill.

Yeah, because you totally need ilvl75 for Titan HM, which can be completed with 4 players--

[Lurkios]

Yeah, because you totally need ilvl75 for Titan HM, which can be completed with 4 players--

Setting an ilvl requirement simply means you want players with the necessary gear to complete content at the desired pace and success rate. It has nothing to do with skill.

[Cherie]

Yeah, because you totally need ilvl75 for Titan HM, which can be completed with 4 players--

LOL, Once we finished it with 3 in a duty finder pug. The other 5 died promptly after the heart phase! Poor things, wait till they see extreme mode... ; ; At least my healer friend and I helped 5 others get their relics. Doing this at launch was alot harder, cause very few even had darklite, since farming it was more difficult back then (first 2-3 weeks of the game). You almost had to have everyone survive to kill it before Titan's stomps murdered everyone.

[Daenerys_Sedai]

Open the party finder and you'll see them.

I am not sure how that equates to skill. It's simply a matter of either a) What Lurkios said above; or b) Wanting to overgear for the fight. Nobody, at least in this forum or in my experiences in game, has ever made the statement: oh, he's ilvl 87, he must have leet skills (or something to that effect).

[LalaRu]

The "large group of players locked out from doing any post-story content" is already addressed by the old content being made more accessible, when new content is added. I don't see the need to rewrite the full game. Whatever the system will be, there always will be a large group of players not reaching the top tier.

[Eardstapa]

So let me get this straight... Because we grind for gear, and for higher item levels, they are stupid and should be done away with, so let us implement a rank, which we grind for, that gives us stronger gear, so that we can do content that may, or may not need this gear, at the pace we wish to... And lock out story content while we're at it? Wonderful.

[AdvancedWind]

-

Titles for beating content before X do not work as a measure for skill. A player can be perfectly good and not beat certain content due to lack of time, will or even just finding a group to do it. Also, players that started playing the game later cannot get said titles at all, no matter his / her skill. It's a good metric, but not perfect. In fact, there's no perfect way of knowing one's skill other than actually playing with the person. Ilv at the very least allows us to know beforehand if a player's gear meets our requirements; the only true way of checking skill is actually playing together, there's no other way.

With that said, you can check first kill date for most important content by checking the achievement page. If knowing when someone beat X so important to you, just check his achievement page.

[Traek]

I am not sure how that equates to skill. It's simply a matter of either a) What Lurkios said above; or b) Wanting to overgear for the fight. Nobody, at least in this forum or in my experiences in game, has ever made the statement: oh, he's ilvl 87, he must have leet skills (or something to that effect).

Actually a lot do think that. You are on the same server as me, so I'm surprised you try to claim otherwise. It is really terrible on Sarg. *They've cleared content, and have i90 pieces, so they must be good.* Honestly the ilvl reqs are a joke. I cleared Garuda EX > Ifrit EX in a weekend on my MNK alt with i72 gear. I out dps'd everyone in the party, was always last one standing, and on all fights it was my first clear as a MNK (I did go MNK one time on main for Titan EX to give some FC people practice, they didn't get past heart). Even with all that said, I can't get into most EX parties currently because of ilvl lockouts, and I'm ilvl81 now. Most Garuda farms lockout melee, and ask for i85+. I never get hit by wicked wheel, and any i80+ parties I join I out DD the other ranged by 50-90 each time. It is really rather sad, especially considering MNK loses its GL3 about every phase change.

/endrant

ilvl req's put in place by SE is fine, they are reasonable and know the minimum amount to complete content. It is pretty sad to see the playerbase rely so heavily on them as some marker of completing fights. Most the time the players are terrible, regardless of ilvl.

All that said, cleared content isn't much of a marker toward rank either. There is always small exceptions, but I'd find the system just as abrasive if not more so toward new players, and people without the time to run on the raid treadmill as much as others. Asking for experience for content needing experience isn't a bad thing. I've seen people in T5 weapons eat dirt just as much on Titan EX as about any other. Skill isn't easily measured.