Older Content

[sp4c3j4m]

I am a new player that is just switching over from WoW, and one of the aspects of WoW that I have come to hate the most is the state of older content. You really no longer even play WoW, or even the the current expansion - you are only playing the most recent patch, and everything before it is dead. This is true with a lot of the lower level content that just gets skipped over and the end game content that gets left behind for dead.
I was wondering how FFXIV is with it's older content. At level 50 and 60, is there still any kind of incentive and/or need to run the older dungeon and raid content to get to the newest content, or are the older raids now dead?

Thanks!

[Maero]

Well what they have done is add older content to Roulette's for players to do every day for tomes and also older raids such as Crystal Tower series you get a weekly reward that is an item for the Relic.
Older dungeons are also part of the Relic quest as well.
Since having cleared coil in 2.X i have never went back but do believe people still run it for the music rolls and gear for glam

[Edvardelis]

There is actually a bit of "outdated" content.

There are a number of dungeons that you run as part of the story mode, however the "hard"/"heroic" equivalent of those same dungeons were used for the old level 50 end game and aren't a requirement with the new expansion. There is a section to queue into them with the Duty Finder, but it's optional. People run them for level 50 tomes, the drops themselves are mostly out of date (unless you like the look).

The level 50 tomes (equivalent to badges/valor in WoW) actually are still useful, they can get your (second/third/fourth/etc) jobs a head start on good gear at level 50 for the 50->60 climb since the story quests in the expansion can only be done once.

There are also a number of level 50 trials (in "extreme" mode) that can be totally skipped, though people do farm them at level 60 for the special mounts they drop.

Crystal tower a special case, they changed it into a way to help get your Relic (WoW legendary equivalent weapon) so it does get run.

The old level 50 raid, Binding Coil of Bahamut, doesn't get run at all.

[Iromi]

Not only that but they release things that are dead on arrival. Bismark, no one plays Lord of Vermillion, etc...

As far as older content goes it just becomes outdated. I am not happy with this either. Never played wow but as someone who came from FFXI I am not really a fan of them just killing off content that caused delays and that they worked hard to make. Seems extremely counterproductive.

[Niwashi]

Besides getting tome rewards for running lower-leveled dungeons when you're at level cap, the fact that you can level every class/job with the same character encourages many people to go back to leveling content after they've maxed out their main job. Although there certainly are a lot of players who simply keep repeating the latest patch's content over and over, there are also plenty of others who prefer going back to level additional classes, or to go after more "fluff" types of rewards like mounts and glamour gear.

There are some instances that get left behind, though. SE puts the most effort into ensuring that players can still get through the Main Scenario, so any dungeons or trials required for that get a lot of rewards to keep going back to it. Some of the optional dungeons or raids are a bit more lacking in incentives.

[Edvardelis]

As far as older content goes it just becomes outdated. I am not happy with this either. Never played wow but as someone who came from FFXI I am not really a fan of them just killing off content that caused delays and that they worked hard to make. Seems extremely counterproductive.

World of Warcraft has the concept that only the current expansion matters. Even though they are up to expansion #5 and #6 is just around the corner.

I think due to all jobs being on the same character older dungeons and gear won't get quite so out dated in FFXIV but some things are still going to drop by the wayside.

[EveK]

Welcome, Space. As many have pointed out, the "old" content remains incentivized and viable for all. In addition to some of the items they pointed out, you may have noticed the "level sync" mechanic that allows higher levels to do lower-level FATEs, dungeons, etc. while being temporarily reduced in strength to not totally trivialize the content. When synced, players still receive EXP for their actual level, though!