First off, let me get this out of the way. I am not trying to say that leveling should take longer or be more of a grind than it already is. Also, what I am asking for would most likely be more enjoyable after 1.20 when combos are implemented.

Final Fantasy games have had, arguably, some of the slowest combat systems of its genre. They are by no means button smashing games and content takes careful thinking and planning to complete. This tends to be true in both the single player titles and FFXI alike.

The way the exp system in FFXIV is currently setup, you get a party of 8, do pulls that link 5+ monsters and kill them in 45 seconds to get a ridiculous amount of experience. The system leaves no time to really cooperate with teammates or use even simple strategies to kill the monsters.

This brings me to my request:

The idea behind what I am proposing is to make the combat system less hectic and instead more concentrated on a single target with emphasis on team play.

1) Make monsters have more hp so they don't die in 15 seconds.

2) Reduce the amount of experience required per level to combat the increased duration of encounters. (This should be calculated to make it take approximately the same time to get from 1-50 as the current system)

3) Reduce the amount of links that are tagged on to a pull.

4) Make experience gained while solo or in a group of less than 4 have slightly increased exp gained per kill over a light/full party. (This should make solo or small group play still be a viable option as they would gain more exp per kill, but at a much slower rate.)

5) Increase the time allotted between chains. (Seems like a given considering battles would take longer.)

Again, these changes would be exponentially more enjoyable in 1.20 when combos are put in place.