Suggestion: new classes to start at lower level

[Videra]

There's a difference. BAck in ARR, leveling up was also getting a grasp of the overall gameplay, how tanking / healing / DPSing works in this new game etc.

Now two expansions in, we know how that works. We know tanks have DPS combo, agro combo, invuln, CDs, stances. Healers have Single target heal, AOE heal, DPS spells. Shield or Regen. We know that, all jobs are just "aspected" versions of roles. We know the core concept of roles by now.
So I'd rather focus on learning a proper complete rotation starting higher level that clawing my way through Sastasha with an incomplete combo or running around in PoTD pushing random buttons.

Precisely, this is what people don't get when they ask for jobs to start at lower levels.

[wereotter]

Nothing is going to stop you from playing the job synced at a lower level to learn the basics before going on. That's exactly what I did with dark knight when it released, and how I did red mage. The benefit of being at level 60 is that once you get to that "yeah, I get it" moment, you can skip ahead to the next skill and see if/how that changes anything without having to grind out XP to get there.

It lets people progress through the learning curve at their own pace. People who are confident can jump right in, and people who want to take the skills slower can still do that. There's not much down side to starting the job at a higher level, and actually the up side of letting people progress through the story without having to backtrack to level up a new job.

[Barraind]

I know I sure love having to grind lower level dungeons over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over before I can use new classes in current content.

Why, it's probably the best part of the game to not be able to play the relevant parts of the game while I figure out what random skills I get at lower levels that will either be completely different or used in different ways by the time I get to the things I care about doing.

[Vespar]

As much as I would prefer everything started from lvl 1 just because I'm traditional and I love to level jobs in their entirety and really try to learn them (plus would love to be able to play the game start to finish as newer jobs...) I think a good middle ground would be to keep all new jobs starting at level 50 and make them separate from MSQ progression (unlike how the HW jobs were introduced).
This way, anyone just having finished the base game (ARR) can hop onto the newer jobs and progress from there. Plus you have most of your basic kit by 50 for most jobs and can learn the rest as you go. Stormblood's jobs worked in this manor and I though it was a good way to do it, HW jobs being tied to Ishgard access however wasnt a good idea though imo.

[Bonbori]

If you want the full levelling experience, what prevents you from going through all the dungeons in order? And doing FATEs in old areas while in queue? (Not that there's going to be much of one given that we're getting a tank and possibly a healer)

Sure, your XP bar wouldn't be moving, but that's irrelevant to your learning process as a player, right? Dinging a level does not indicate that you've learned something new, it just means your character did. Whether you're ready or not to use it is entirely up to you. One would assume that if you are learning a job one skill at a time, you would be able to determine by yourself when you're ready to move on to the next one and make the jump from Haukke to Brayflox.

A new job releasing at level 60 does not deprive you of the experience of gradual learning. And at the same time, it also serves the needs of players (like me) who learn differently, by mastering a functional rotation first and then optimising it.

In that way, I think starting off at a higher level is better for everyone. Players who learn bottom-up can still do that by taking advantage of level sync, and players who learn top-down have a solid base to start off from (assuming the new jobs are as well designed in that department as RDM and SAM). On the other hand, starting at lvl 1 or even 30 would only serve one kind of learner and completely exclude the other.

[Zeromon]

As others have said, I don't think lowering the starting levels will improve the playerbase that much. I do think that argument has merit, but I'm not willing to trade the QoL that is skipping the leveling process for 60 levels. FFXIV has 15 jobs right now (let's not talk blue mage), and soon to be at least 17. It may be just me but I'm not interested in slogging through the leveling process that many times just so I have something to do. I'd rather repeat high level content than old content. Jobs are always better at max level than before it anyway.

Since the game came out most people know the fundamentals of healing, tanking, dpsing anyway, so we won't take as long to learn new jobs since those fundamentals can't change due to game design. Setting to jobs to level 60 is a good decision in terms of QoL and the general player base is skilled enough to deal with it too (generally speaking of course).

[Astarotha]

id actually much prefer all new jobs start at 50 because that way they not only unlock at prae right in time for you to get into full swing, but also i love the job storylines and any chance to get more story is a plus in my eyes, and as epic as drk 30-50 is being locked behind hw nowadays means youre pushing 60 before you even get close to being able to unlock it and having to basically powerlvl hw 20 full levels before continuing on is a pain (drk 30-50 is soooooooo worth it though, mch and ast not so much)

i will admit though that this does put more pressure on the dev team that will only get bigger with each new set of jobs they add with needing to add levelling weapons to the 50-60 tier and new story on top of the 15 current jobs (im really hoping shb jobs starting at 60 doesnt end up meaning no more 50 glams like ramuh or shiva weps though cause i love the ramuh stuff and a friend uses shiva glam)

tldr im torn, i realise at some point the devs have to draw a line to preserve their sanity with each expansion adding more work to the job side of things, but on the other hand i love the lore and glamgame starting at 50 right as you get out of 2.0 and if you didnt cheat and potion your way out you should have a basic enough understanding to know how to learn a new job

[Gemina]

About three days ago, I would have agreed with you OP and I always used to feel that the earlier you start the more you learn. After unlocking SAM I no longer feel that way. I was quite happy that the job started at 50 with a nice set of skills to dive into. I still believe that someone just starting out should begin from level 1 to learn the very basics and fundamentals to PvE in any given role, but for veterans of the game, especially if the job is the same role as one they have become proficient at, they don't need this at all. They can read the tooltips and beat up a dummy and/or some FATEs for a few minutes, adjust their hot/crossbars accordingly and they are good to go to queue up for some content. Sure, there is still a bit of a learning curve, but you don't even hit this curve until you are actually level 50 which is when you start using all these skills in unison.

Another thing to factor is the amount of EXP required to get from starting level to max level. The amount of EXP to get from 50 to 70 is much higher than what it takes to get from level 1 to 50, so you're not really denying yourself a learning process that doesn't even really take place until you get to that job's starting level. With that in mind, it only makes sense for this starting level to rise with each expansion. A career tank is going to pick up Gunbreaker fast. Like really fast. Sending them back to level 1, 30, or even 50 is just going to make them drag their feet when they want to fly. The ten level they have to go through to get to the level cap of the previous expansion is more than enough time for them to become adept with their new job.