Quote Originally Posted by Malakhim View Post
Time sinks =/ challenging or engaging. There are so many ways they can make questing for your gear/abilities interesting. Your first task as a Dragoon is to go kill off some dragon(or group of dragons) and bring some fang(or something) in order to create your spear(maybe gaining an ability in the process). For Paladin, a trial might involve having to go to an aptly named "Ye Olde Cave of Trials(TM)" where you might have a variety of goals, such as solve some kind of tricky puzzle or fight off hordes o' mobs and kill a boss at the end for your sword. If it ends up turning into a simple matter of "stand in place, what for mob to drop key, lather, rinse, repeat", then there really isn't much to say about FFXIV.

The "Everquest" model of extending otherwise small pieces of content arbitrarily has to go. Current and future MMOs will have to really add some meat to their otherwise skinny frames if they want to thrive alongside other genres of gaming.
Completely agree Hayden and Malakhim.

I'd love to see *interesting* and *engaging* Story Missions / Quests to earn your Job Specific Armor rather than a boring Repeatable Time Sink.

Continuing along the lines of what Malakhim suggested, maybe...

* For the Monk Quest, it's about entering a Tower and using your Hand-to-Hand Melee abilities to overcome a series of formidable foes: There's a deadly Ranged Specialist you have to defeat, followed by a brutal Dark Knight with High Defense, followed by an adept Sorcerer with dangerous Magic Spells, etc.

* For Black Mage, it could be overcoming opposing Elemental Forces at Wyvern's Perch, and utilizing quick thinking and mastering the changing Elemental landscape (e.g., pools of Lava (Fire), Ice Caverns, etc.) to your advantage.

etc.

Anything over a "Collect 50 AF Totems/Nuts to get 1 piece of your AF Armor"-scenario. (~_~)