Increasing stats and ilevels

[Fuddy]

I kind of hope they don't raise the level cap too soon. The problem I have with raising the level cap (If done WoW-style) is that a ton of gear and content instantly becomes obsolete. I almost am tempted to say that the level cap should be gated behind some kind of content & quest that requires say iLvL 80-90 so you have to spend some time on the current level 50 content before moving onto 50+ content. Until you complete that quest you can't level past 50. Otherwise future new players will just be trying to skip all of the current 50 content as fast as they can in the future. They shouldn't need to spend months on it as we have but it would be nice to have it still have a reason for existing in the future. It's one thing I really don't like about WoW.

[Jinko]

I kind of hope they don't raise the level cap too soon. The problem I have with raising the level cap (If done WoW-style) is that a ton of gear and content instantly becomes obsolete.

Every major patch, gear is made obsolete, its is no different.

I almost am tempted to say that the level cap should be gated behind some kind of content & quest that requires say iLvL 80-90 so you have to spend some time on the current level 50 content before moving onto 50+ content. Until you complete that quest you can't level past 50. Otherwise future new players will just be trying to skip all of the current 50 content as fast as they can in the future. They shouldn't need to spend months on it as we have but it would be nice to have it still have a reason for existing in the future. It's one thing I really don't like about WoW.

I really don't want to see limit break/genki style quests like in 11.

One thing WoW does right IMO is it allows new content to be open to all players something this game is failing at pretty badly, especially with the most recent patch.

[Fuddy]

Every major patch, gear is made obsolete, its is no different.

You're missing my point.

iLvL 70 gear is NOT obsolete right now to somebody who JUST turned 50. They need to do dungeons to get iLvL70 stuff so they can move onto the more difficult dungeons and get better gear to advance onto next content. This is called a progression. In WoW they release a new expansion and suddenly you can skip nearly 10 levels of content and you don't even have to think about any of the gear or content in those 10 levels. It is more like a leapfrog in the progression. Basically ignore 99% of the content of an expansion. There should remain a progression that keeps this content and these items at least somewhat relevant to the progression.

[Skull_Angel]

You're missing my point.

iLvL 70 gear is NOT obsolete right now to somebody who JUST turned 50. They need to do dungeons to get iLvL70 stuff so they can move onto the more difficult dungeons and get better gear to advance onto next content. This is called a progression. In WoW they release a new patch and suddenly you skip nearly 10 levels of content and you don't even have to think about any of the gear or content in those 10 levels. It is more like a leapfrog in the progression. Basically ignore 99% of the content of an expansion. There should remain a progression that keeps this content and these items at least somewhat relevant to the progression.

The reason this happens in WoW is because when they (Blizzard) release an expac with new levels, they basically hand every player raid level gear from previous content (through new quests or vendors); there's no real transition or overlap, old lower-level content just gets phased out. Even if you consider making old raid level gear viable as entry level dungeon gear for new level-cap content, it's still very hard to make old content viable because of other options of gear progression (crafted gear comes to mind).

[Fuddy]

The reason this happens in WoW is because when they (Blizzard) release an expac with new levels, they basically hand every player raid level gear from previous content ... it's still very hard to make old content viable because of other options of gear progression (crafted gear comes to mind).

Yes I'm aware of how it works in wow. However, I think a possible solution to this would be to gate players from skipping over a lot of content by forcing them to gear up to complete a quest that allows them to move to the next level cap. It shouldn't need to be full raid gear, unless it's made much easier to get I suppose, but just require iLvL 80-ish or something or maybe iLvL 90 once myth is even quicker to get. A modest iLvL players have to work for to move to the next content. If you did this then new players leveling up in the future will have a reason to do the large amount of level 50 content we're all doing right now.

The only pitfall I can think of right now might be players could buy expansion crafted gear to skip that content but if SE just makes it require level 51+ then it wouldn't be an issue.

I am in no way advocating something has hard or as tedious as FFXI and I didn't mean to turn this into a thread where everyone can reminisce about how awful it was.

[Jinko]

Yes I'm aware of how it works in wow. However, I think a possible solution to this would be to gate players from skipping over a lot of content by forcing them to gear up to complete a quest that allows them to move to the next level cap. It shouldn't need to be full raid gear, unless it's made much easier to get I suppose, but just require iLvL 80-ish or something or maybe iLvL 90 once myth is even quicker to get. A modest iLvL players have to work for to move to the next content. If you did this then new players leveling up in the future will have a reason to do the large amount of level 50 content we're all doing right now.

The only pitfall I can think of right now might be players could buy expansion crafted gear to skip that content but if SE just makes it require level 51+ then it wouldn't be an issue.

I am in no way advocating something has hard or as tedious as FFXI and I didn't mean to turn this into a thread where everyone can reminisce about how awful it was.

This is exactly what they do right now, content has both a level requirement and a gear level requirement, also it has a story requirement on top of that.

I really don't think we need anything more to inhibit players progression.

I see no reason why it matters about leap frogging old content anyway, if a developer/publisher is happy to throw their old content away then that's their choice, I don't see any reason to make new players do everything I did, as long as they are enjoying the game is all that matters.

Some content will always be there in the form of quests and class based content.

One of the biggest issues I have with this game right now is how some content (Titan ex) has cut off a large part of the player base from new content, obviously an elitist minded person would say well good we don't want them in Ifrit, moogle and Levi extreme, however it can be pretty frustrating to have 70% of the 2.2 content (this is including Coil2) behind a closed door.

If they keep this up they will end up with no players left because lets face it large group of players can't get past Titan let alone Twintania.

Edit:- This has nothing to do with the OP's post really so sorry about that.

[LineageRazor]

Yes I'm aware of how it works in wow. However, I think a possible solution to this would be to gate players from skipping over a lot of content by forcing them to gear up to complete a quest that allows them to move to the next level cap. It shouldn't need to be full raid gear, unless it's made much easier to get I suppose, but just require iLvL 80-ish or something or maybe iLvL 90 once myth is even quicker to get. A modest iLvL players have to work for to move to the next content. If you did this then new players leveling up in the future will have a reason to do the large amount of level 50 content we're all doing right now.

Here's how I think it will play out.

Whenever someone joins the game, their goal is to acquire awesome loot and join their Free Company buddies in tackling the toughest game content. Right now, the progression for this isn't unreasonable:

Level up -> AF -> do dungeons for level 60 through 80 gear while grinding myth for 90 gear -> do primals for level 75 to 90 weapons -> do coil and save soldiery for higher level gear

It's not a horrendously long progression right now. A casual player could get it done in a couple months, while a hardcore player could do it in a couple weeks.

But years down the road, when FFXIV has three or four expansions under its belt, endgame ilvl is in the thousands, and characters cap at level 99? Each step of the way, more content and higher ilvl gear is added. If it takes months now to get a casual from ilvl 1 to ilvl 100, it will take YEARS for a new player to get from ilvl 1 to ilvl 1000 if they're forced to take all the same steps along the way that the rest of us did. A lot of folks will be turned off by that.

So, SE will add shortcuts to allow new players to catch up to old players more quickly. It's already started; while not as easy as picking up Darklight gear used to be, getting Myth armor is tons easier than it used to be. Players can grind dungeons for Myth and more or less bypass the level 60-80 stuff. Retainers are walking home with Primal hard mode weapons.

It may seem kind of sad to imagine a future where players outright skip content that we see as mainstays now, but that's just how it goes. Getting from 1 to 1000 in ten-level increments will just be too much of a chore to attract new players.

[Astralos]

I would like to have seen similar limit break quests implemented in XIV on the way to level cap, but I know it's not going to happen. There's too much leeway and opportunity for "carrying" in this game.

(Am I the only one who liked facing Maat? I even did it as RDM for my first time.)