There will be new main content to rank up?

[Betelgeuzah]

Yes, of course, there's always going to be a grind. That's unavoidable in a game with character progression. I think what he meant though -- and what most people mean by grind -- is that he wants to step away from just killing with no lore or item or monetary rewards, and no objective or goal beyond simply getting experience.

I take that as there will be less XP gained from a single activity, but more activities grant XP than before, along with other rewards, secondary or primary.

To analyze his posts: leves grant less XP, quests grant more XP. Dungeons grant XP. Company content will probably also grant XP. Each of these activities most likely grants another type of rewards (money from leves, items from quests, marks from class quests, unique loot from raids).

I don't really like that myself (personally I'd like for every activity to reward us with certain type of character progression) ,but it'll probably even out in the end so it's just a personal preference.

Either way it's a nice opportunity to say "no more grind guyz" so win/win!

[AlexiaKidd]

Well just in case there isn't anything I will be abusing the crap out of leve abandoning before this patch hits ^^

[Delmontyb]

Something they announced a while ago sounded like they were going to use the outlying settlements for these kind of events.

The hamlet defense system I believe, which would be exciting and hopefully tie into large scale PvE.

[Gidonoidon_Sur]

Well just in case there isn't anything I will be abusing the crap out of leve abandoning before this patch hits ^^

I would do the opposite. Very little is being added end-game (i.e., 1 dungeon) with no cap raise for at least 1 year. Most of the content being added is for earlier ranks.

[Req]

It's possible that the quest hubs, first mentioned in letter IX, may have content for group play.

If they are waiting until 1.19 to introduce the new ways to level for group play you can kiss a majority of the games population goodbye. You can't take away the main way of leveling and not introduce something else. If they are under the assumption we can just go form parties and kill random mobs then they clearly haven't played their own game since there isn't a single leveling area that can support multiple parties at once.

I find it a bit odd that more people aren't worried about this because it is a bit telling when just about every single person posting about the guild leve reform with a level 50 job is saying the exact same thing.

[Molly_Millions]

The hamlet defense system I believe, which would be exciting and hopefully tie into large scale PvE.

Although I haven't heard crap about hamlet defense since early beta (even then I think it was only rumor) that would be fantastic if it came in 1.19.

[Malakhim]

Hamlet Defense was mentioned back in Tanaka's original long term update schedule. I can't imagine what the status on that plan is, but I'm sure it's still in the works.

[darkstarpoet1]

I find it a bit odd that more people aren't worried about this because it is a bit telling when just about every single person posting about the guild leve reform with a level 50 job is saying the exact same thing.

the people with high classes spoke of this because the mob spawns are horrible at this point and we have already seen it. there's a few camps that are good enough for a single party, but if it tries to handle 2 or more there's going to be a long slowwwwww grind. i am trying to get every ounce of sp i can get before the change happens since we do not have any kind of info of what it is being replaced with.

i'm sorry i do not play a mmo for the solo play. i play it to be able to group and do things in a party. once it goes to the party grind it will be the same complaints that we had when the first mid level nm's were put out. grinds spots are over camped and you sit and can never get a claim.

i just wish we had more info on what they were going to be releasing that was going to take the place of the leve linking for sp. as of right now everyone is just purely speculating on what they hope it will be.

[Molly_Millions]

i just wish we had more info on what they were going to be releasing that was going to take the place of the leve linking for sp. as of right now everyone is just purely speculating on what they hope it will be.

Indeed, everyone is cheering the demise of the fail fest (leves), but I have yet to hear that anything is replacing it in 1.18. If that is truly the case, prepare for a shitfest of boredom and claim wars between dungeon runs in the time between 1.18 and 1.19.

[northernsky]

I take that as there will be less XP gained from a single activity, but more activities grant XP than before, along with other rewards, secondary or primary.

To analyze his posts: leves grant less XP, quests grant more XP. Dungeons grant XP. Company content will probably also grant XP. Each of these activities most likely grants another type of rewards (money from leves, items from quests, marks from class quests, unique loot from raids).

I don't really like that myself (personally I'd like for every activity to reward us with certain type of character progression) ,but it'll probably even out in the end so it's just a personal preference.

Either way it's a nice opportunity to say "no more grind guyz" so win/win!

I think that being rewarded exp for different activities is not in contradiction with having different types of rewards and progression depending on said activities.

There is already the faction points from leves, there's gotta be a progression (probably fame like) system in the grand companies, and there might be a type of progression regarding the dungeons, whether it relates to having access to different routes or loots upon completion of a successful run.

If those different types of progression each leads to exclusive content (gear, unlockable abilities or attributes bonuses, titles etc.), having exp rewards in parallel won't dampen the incentives to do a little bit of each leveling acitivity.