Hey, OP.

I also left GW2, one of the reasons being that skill level was just too much for me in conjunction with the graphics getting flashier, my general health and, well, put it this way: I know what you're talking about. Also, the story was getting progressively worse.

This game started out being much better for me, but the natural difficulty increase, particularly post-60 (arbitrary, but I'm going with it), is eventually going to do the same to me. I don't really know if this is something can be fixed, but given I love the story of FFXIV, I'm going to try and stick it out as long as possible. I know practice also helps, and I've practiced ARR stuff a fair bit so I feel confident with that at least. Beyond that, the worst thing for me is not just a difficulty spike, but it's the graphics. I see them getting flashier and flashier, and I know I won't be able to play through that (given I have photo-sensitive epilepsy, I could be rather dramatic and say that stuff can actually, literally, for real kill me, so perhaps the other difficulty may end up not being the overriding issue). Most fights I figure I can learn with enough practice, but if they involved certain flashes or colours (for example, first boss of WoD or Tsukuyomi have black/white going on which actually have nearly broken me, let alone any other things that go on in those fights), then I either have to avoid altogether or be exceptionally careful. I worry about taking part in a simple roulette for this reason alone.

I don't want or expect people to carry me in this story stuff. I mean, it's not fun for me, and it's not fun or fair for them. I have, and continue to do my best to learn things and keep pushing so I can be a better player, but sooner or later, I know it just won't be enough. I won't be able to keep up and I will have to quit. I think I'll be very sad when that happens, because I have fallen for this game in a quite a big way. On one hand, I grew up never expecting to play computer games ever, so I'm happy that I have, and if I had to stop tomorrow, it would suck, but such is life. On the other, it still sucks to feel I've "beaten" a thing (epilepsy, and I mean beaten even if it's only artificial) for it to come back and give me a good old whack in the face because of "difficulty increases".

So, OP. Believe me when I say, I understand exactly what you're saying. When you decide to call it a day, however, focus on the good stuff that happened rather than all the bad. Then it'll just be a fond memory to reminisce over every now and then whilst you get on with something else. Welp, that's what I'm going to do, anyways. Until then, I intend to have a damned good time here. <3