Add abilities through quests instead of increasing levels

[Grey_Cain]

I am proposing an alternate method of obtaining the new abilities that we all really want without relying on leveling up further and hitting a new ability cap until the next time the level is raised. I believe the vicious circle of requiring level cap increases before adding new abilities is an artifact of an older generation of MMO, and it needs to be stopped.

The current level cap at 50 and the subsequent increase in iLevels without further raising the cap is evidence enough that we don’t need higher character levels, and I believe it would probably confuse matters both for the players and the programmers to increase the level cap to 60, 70, or 99. We also already have a system in place for obtaining new class abilities that aren’t on the class/job list with the level 15 and 30 class abilities that remain invisible until the quest is completed.

My actual proposal is to continue using the idea of gaining abilities from the class/job quests that we went through every five levels. This would give us a system where we continue receiving class and job quests whenever new abilities are to be added that wouldn’t require us to gain new levels to do so, so they could be added at any time it becomes convenient. It doesn’t even necessarily need to be evenly distributed.

Example #1 is, of course, Summoner. With Leviathan being fought now and soon to be Ramuh followed by Shiva, there’s a lot of primal energy that Summoners could be tapping into, but they’re stuck with just Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda right now. In a world where the level cap is increased, they’ll get those three right away, but what happens with future primals? Summoners again have to wait on a new level cap before they can access those energies. And then they have to wait again for the next set after that and again and again until new primals stop appearing. Instead, why not have the Summoner, still at level 50, complete a job quest and then simply add the new primal summon to their list of abilities?

I can understand the desire not to just have every new quest available right from the outset, but we’ve already been shown any number of ways that stuff can be limited: completing FATEs (please don’t make it random EVER AGAIN), obtaining myth/sol tomestones (of reasonable numbers that aren’t over 9000/900), completing dungeons/trials for key items (again, no random), having a certain iLevel when obtaining and turning in the quest (actually makes the most sense but is rather easy to front-load), turning in a number of rare/hidden gathering items or HQ crafting items, specific points during the storyline quests, etc. Other methods could be added as well, such as completing new hunting/crafting/gathering logs, higher-level Guildhests, special levequests, attaining higher GC ranks, achievements, or even as rewards from the Gold Saucer.

This works for every job, it allows abilities to be learned out of order or skipped entirely, and it can even be used for learning additional class traits or job-specific traits. On top of everything so far, you can even add ranks to these new abilities similar to PvP abilities, with limits on the number of rank points that can be assigned to each ability so each player can choose to improve what matters for their own personal playstyle.

In conclusion, I think that this method really has no limits on expanding character options, whereas the level caps can only limit the expansion of character options. So please give us abilities through methods that don’t involve raising the level cap.

[Felis]

After increased level cap there would be new job quests for new job skills

[Gunspec]

Yeah, but they could add in quests and abilities without a level cap increase, if they wanted to. I'm hoping they will implement Blue Magic as cross-class abilities rewarded through a side-story questline. Maybe increase the cap on cross-class abilities at the same time. That way you could enjoy supplement blue magic abilities that wouldn't need to be shoe-horned into one specific role. The quests could relate to studying monster behavior, and we learn an ability from each monster in the questline.

In the future, when they have quests that lead to new job abilities, I hope that the quests are related to the reward abilities more clearly. Like with summoners, you gain new summons related to the quest you completed (along with an additional ability), but for most jobs the ability has nothing to do with the quest itself.

[Fawkes]

It would make sense to separate things like summons from the idea of every job getting abilities at the same time as other jobs.

I don't know how many abilities they can realistically add, though. I feel like the amount of abilities is at about as many as I can handle on a gamepad. Like it already kinda hinders my reaction time a bit to have to fumble over to a different cross hotbar set.

[Grey_Cain]

After increased level cap there would be new job quests for new job skills

Yes, that's true, but then there wouldn't be any new job quests for new job skills until they increase the level cap again. And then we're stuck waiting again kind of like we are now.

Yeah, but they could add in quests and abilities without a level cap increase, if they wanted to. I'm hoping they will implement Blue Magic as cross-class abilities rewarded through a side-story questline. Maybe increase the cap on cross-class abilities at the same time. That way you could enjoy supplement blue magic abilities that wouldn't need to be shoe-horned into one specific role. The quests could relate to studying monster behavior, and we learn an ability from each monster in the questline.

In the future, when they have quests that lead to new job abilities, I hope that the quests are related to the reward abilities more clearly. Like with summoners, you gain new summons related to the quest you completed (along with an additional ability), but for most jobs the ability has nothing to do with the quest itself.

Absolutely, Blue Magic needs a system that isn't tied to regular levels or limited to the same numbers of abilities as other classes/jobs. I mean, I'd want the actual abilities learned by BLU to come from fighting enemies rather than being granted by a quest, but I really wouldn't want their abilities to come from raising levels and having to wait for a level cap increase to get new blue magic spells. And maybe Leviathan has more to teach than just letting SMN call his Egi forth. Maybe a MNK could get a Tidal Fists attack and DRG could get a Wave Jump and WHM could get a real Water spell, and it could all just be themed abilities that all come from quests that only unlock once you've defeated Leviathan with a specific class or job.

It would make sense to separate things like summons from the idea of every job getting abilities at the same time as other jobs.

I don't know how many abilities they can realistically add, though. I feel like the amount of abilities is at about as many as I can handle on a gamepad. Like it already kinda hinders my reaction time a bit to have to fumble over to a different cross hotbar set.

Well, they're going to continue adding abilities every time they increase the level cap if they continue with that plan. I just want to get the abilities sooner, and maybe have a bigger purpose to obtaining each one than just "The Power of the Dragon inside you increases", and then you get the ability to jump backwards suddenly. Hopefully when they do add new abilities they'll be in the flavor of "use this or this, but you don't have to use both" so that the hotbars don't fill up too much, but eventually it's something they're going to have address once more. However, that's a plan for another thread.