Level Cap Increase

[Niwashi]

I am certain you will not be able to skip levels. There will probably be plenty of quests, dungeons, trials and raids to help level you to the new cap. There is no reason why they should have a quest that lets you skip 5 levels.

Nobody's talking about a quest that would let you skip those levels. It's a question of whether there would be a quest to unlock the level cap before we can start earning the XP for those levels (maintaining the current level 50 level cap until that quest is done). Having such a quest unlock would allow players who still have all the current level 50 content to do to have some time where they can do it while staying at the appropriate level for it. Then once you're finished with the 2.x content and ready to move on into Ishgard, you could do the quest to unlock the level cap increase and start leveling again as you head into the new regions.

Without such an unlock, people are going to end up already being level 60 before they complete even a tenth of the 2.x content that was designed for 50, and then all the Ishgard content intended for leveling up 50 to 60 is wasted because you're already 60 before even reaching the beginning of it.

[Alberel]

Nobody's talking about a quest that would let you skip those levels. It's a question of whether there would be a quest to unlock the level cap before we can start earning the XP for those levels (maintaining the current level 50 level cap until that quest is done). Having such a quest unlock would allow players who still have all the current level 50 content to do to have some time where they can do it while staying at the appropriate level for it. Then once you're finished with the 2.x content and ready to move on into Ishgard, you could do the quest to unlock the level cap increase and start leveling again as you head into the new regions.

Without such an unlock, people are going to end up already being level 60 before they complete even a tenth of the 2.x content that was designed for 50, and then all the Ishgard content intended for leveling up 50 to 60 is wasted because you're already 60 before even reaching the beginning of it.

This is actually a very good point. All of the quests from 2.1 to 2.5 require you to be level 50 and are required in order to access Ishgard... Even if the quests reward no xp, the content itself will cause you to be well on your way to 60 before you even have access to the expansion. With this in mind it suddenly does seem likely to me that there will be a quest within Ishgard to unlock the ability to make the 50-60 level progression. I didn't think it likely before but I see no other way to handle this now...

[kyuven]

This is actually a very good point. All of the quests from 2.1 to 2.5 require you to be level 50 and are required in order to access Ishgard... Even if the quests reward no xp, the content itself will cause you to be well on your way to 60 before you even have access to the expansion. With this in mind it suddenly does seem likely to me that there will be a quest within Ishgard to unlock the ability to make the 50-60 level progression. I didn't think it likely before but I see no other way to handle this now...

Other than, y'know, having the quests themselves continue to not offer EXP.
They also said the road from 50-60 is going to be as long as the road from 1-50, so make of that what you will.

[Purrfectstorm]

Other than, y'know, having the quests themselves continue to not offer EXP.
They also said the road from 50-60 is going to be as long as the road from 1-50, so make of that what you will.

As a player who actually loves leveling, I think this would be great and I really hope it's the case.

[Alberel]

Other than, y'know, having the quests themselves continue to not offer EXP.
They also said the road from 50-60 is going to be as long as the road from 1-50, so make of that what you will.

Did you even bother to read my post? I already pointed out that even if the quests themselves offer no xp the content itself (killing stuff, dungeons, trials) will reward enough xp to have you well on your way to 60.

As for the leveling curve I wasn't aware that they'd made any statements at all yet. I find it very hard to believe they'd make it so steep after 50 given the more casual audience of this game. Care to give a source for that? I recall them saying the story content covering 50-60 would be as long as the 1-50 story stuff but that is not the same thing as the leveling speed.

[StouterTaru]

As for the leveling curve I wasn't aware that they'd made any statements at all yet. I find it very hard to believe they'd make it so steep after 50 given the more casual audience of this game. Care to give a source for that? I recall them saying the story content covering 50-60 would be as long as the 1-50 story stuff but that is not the same thing as the leveling speed.

It takes about 7.7 million exp to go 1-50, and the current exp trend puts level 51-60 at roughly 8-9 million total.

[kyuven]

Did you even bother to read my post? I already pointed out that even if the quests themselves offer no xp the content itself (killing stuff, dungeons, trials) will reward enough xp to have you well on your way to 60.

As for the leveling curve I wasn't aware that they'd made any statements at all yet. I find it very hard to believe they'd make it so steep after 50 given the more casual audience of this game. Care to give a source for that? I recall them saying the story content covering 50-60 would be as long as the 1-50 story stuff but that is not the same thing as the leveling speed.

I did, and I doubt that would be the case if you blitzed the content. Remember that trials give diddily squat for EXP, and there are only 2 dungeons that are part of the MSQ (Snowcloak and Keeper of the Lake). From 49-50, you needed about 4-5 dungeon runs of AV, full clears with EXP bonuses, to get to 50.
So yeah if you finish all the MSQs and don't dawdle around with other content, you'll get MAYBE level 51 or 52, which is fine and just gives you a little bonus leg up on the expansion content to counter the fact that the people who finished it are decked out in gear that likely won't be replaced until 60 dungeon/raid content.

[StouterTaru]

I did, and I doubt that would be the case if you blitzed the content. Remember that trials give diddily squat for EXP, and there are only 2 dungeons that are part of the MSQ (Snowcloak and Keeper of the Lake). From 49-50, you needed about 4-5 dungeon runs of AV, full clears with EXP bonuses, to get to 50.
So yeah if you finish all the MSQs and don't dawdle around with other content, you'll get MAYBE level 51 or 52, which is fine and just gives you a little bonus leg up on the expansion content to counter the fact that the people who finished it are decked out in gear that likely won't be replaced until 60 dungeon/raid content.

There were no level 50 dungeons in MSQ for 2.1, 2.2, or 2.3. 2.4 had a dungeon and a trial, 2.5 had a dungeon and two trials. I think it's safe to assume we'll have at least 1 dungeon in the 3.0 MSQ, probably a few.

[Niwashi]

I did, and I doubt that would be the case if you blitzed the content. Remember that trials give diddily squat for EXP, and there are only 2 dungeons that are part of the MSQ (Snowcloak and Keeper of the Lake). From 49-50, you needed about 4-5 dungeon runs of AV, full clears with EXP bonuses, to get to 50.
So yeah if you finish all the MSQs and don't dawdle around with other content, you'll get MAYBE level 51 or 52, which is fine and just gives you a little bonus leg up on the expansion content to counter the fact that the people who finished it are decked out in gear that likely won't be replaced until 60 dungeon/raid content.

Has it never occurred to you that there are players who actually want to play the game? Not everyone wants to blitz through everything and skip every piece they can get away with. It's the players who will be doing everything that exists at level 50 who have the problem and need to be able to stay 50 for a while before unlocking the level cap increase.

[kyuven]

Has it never occurred to you that there are players who actually want to play the game? Not everyone wants to blitz through everything and skip every piece they can get away with. It's the players who will be doing everything that exists at level 50 who have the problem and need to be able to stay 50 for a while before unlocking the level cap increase.

Yes, it does occur to me.
But it doesn't matter.
I've played a LOT of games that increase their level cap with expansion, and there's kind of a big problem inherent with the process:
No one does the old "HM" style content anymore, or at least not to a noticeable degree.
So yeah, stick around and do everything at 50...and the queues will be terrible.
After all let me ask you: What reason would the majority of the playerbase have to do Titan EX when absolutely everything except the pony is irrelevant, and there's 10 more levels of content? Imagine the current queues for cape westwind if you want an example of what it'll be like.
Moreover, since SE has all but specifically stated that the current relic will be made obsolete, as the 60 one will in no way require any stage at any point of it to be done, you can bet dollars of donuts that all that 50 "HM" content is going to come secondary to the expansion content.
As an example: If a player so wanted in FFXI, EQ1, EQ2, SWTOR, or WoW, they COULD very easily get to the new level cap introduced with an expansion by doing ALL the old content rather than moving on to the new content as it becomes available.
Most players do not, since there simply aren't enough players actually DOING that content anymore and it's just as easy to go back and do the content at 60 as it is at 50 since it either becomes easy to steamroll or you can find people to actually do it.
The impetus for the majority of players is to reach max level and do the content that carries them there. There ARE players that want to do EVERYTHING but they're in the minority.
After all, even after the content has been out for a year, how many people STILL haven't done the mooglemail or hildibrand quests?

tl;dr: People won't do content that requires groups if there are no groups to do it with.