It's almost impossible to level a new character now. What gives, SE?

[Quanta]

I don't know about that. The fact that Dwarf Fortress not only exists, but is popular in spite of it's insane complexity, crazy high learning curve, and necessity for long term commitment makes me think that there is a strong market for time heavy games.

Yes, but Dwarf Fortress, like any other game, let's me play as long as I want, save, then go do other things for as long as I want. MMOs, on the other hand, are designed in such a fashion that I have to always be playing if I want to keep up. If I stop levelling, my buddies will pass me. If I stop running dungeons, my buddies will outgear me. We won't be able to do things together anymore, because the game is designed to isolate people who don't keep up from their peers, essentially punishing them for their lack of commitment. It is not fun being a low-level when all your buddies are off enjoying high-level content without you. It's not fun when you're in basic dungeon gear killing basic dungeon bosses while your buddies are in epic raid gear killing physical gods and the like. I should not be forced into this kind of commitment, yet social factors and the game's design will inevitably cause me to do so, and I do not like it.

[Blarp]

Well, are you forced to tweak the car's settings endlessly as well? You do it because you enjoy it, not because you are forced to, by some almighty being, to do it. If you do not enjoy it, you are not forced to do it.

As far as variety, the developers are working on it. That's all they can do. What they can't do, is make leveling faster now because there is less variety and tune it down later when there is more variety. The status quo has to stay, because the playerbase would reject such change later on. They need to avoid nerfing, especially when it comes to such a delicate topic. It can't be always avoided, but in this case it can.

This is an issue that only time can fix, sadly.

I do enjoy FFXIV as a concept, but I don't enjoy the implementation of that concept in the current form. It all boils down to your last sentence. I haven't played for a year. Like many others, I squeed with excitement when it came time for launch, spent $60 on the CE, and immediately started playing. The game was not ready, so I figured I'd give it time to come around. The game is much better, but after five years of development, and a full year of patches, I was expecting much more. Time is a valuable commodity, and I thought one year was enough to add that variety that makes games interesting. They're on their way, but still have quite a long way to go.

I think for a player in my position, coming back after a year off, with no community of friends playing this MMO, that FFXIV asks an awful lot of new players and gives very little in return.

[Betelgeuzah]

I think for a player in my position, coming back after a year off, with no community of friends playing this MMO, that FFXIV asks an awful lot of new players and gives very little in return.

That is true. The changes, which are all very fundamental in nature, will take longer to apply than a year (which comes down to around 8 months right now with the team restructuring and restart of development taking its toll. And an earthquake).

Still, I can't say it's any tougher than it was before. Only because gear actually matters now, which was a needed change no matter how you look at it. The game being forgiving because you could play through it in a bikini just isn't an acceptable trade-off.

[Petdo]

I like this pace. It's should be like this. Pre1.19 was way too fast.
Anyway,I create new char and my friend help PL me with his con.
I was skyrocket from 13 to 20 in about 2 hours.( I soloed from 10-13 in 2 hour too lol )

I think yoshi p made this on purpose ( as he mentioned earlier )

[PaynesGrey]

I like this pace. It's should be like this. Pre1.19 was way too fast.
Anyway,I create new char and my friend help PL me with his con.
I was skyrocket from 13 to 20 in about 2 hours.( I soloed from 10-13 in 2 hour too lol )

I think yoshi p made this on purpose ( as he mentioned earlier )

I sense a little conflict here; You like the current pace so much that you needed your friend to power level your character? And pre 1.19 was too fast even though it probably wasn't as fast as your friend power leveling you post 1.19.. umm so fast leveling through power leveling is okay, but fast solo leveling is not? I find this a bit odd.

[LunaChild]

I 've deleted my character and create new one in 1.19.
I think the time I spend for lvling wasn't that bad. I can fast lvling both DoM by AoEing on mobs and obtain some spells I want my DoW have it then I can solo easiler.
In leve quest soloing, adjust more star didn't seem to give me much more bonus exp per leve mobs IMO.
Rather than add too much stars, I choose only one above my lv and finish it quickly for speed completion bonus.

The only thing that's bother me are bothersome long distance running Storyline Quests.

***My suggestion here***
IMO, they should give us quite large amount of exp as reward for one-time quest (Storyline, side-quest, etc) to have players lvling their main class fast then leave grinding on mobs and leves that take a lot of time to other classes they want to play.

I apologize for bad grammar :/