What happens at endgame?

[Holymoly]

My first character has just hit 70 about 20% of the way through Stormblood and I am girding my loins for the final push to get to cap and complete Shadowbringers. I've got to say that so far, with the liberal use of gatherer and crafter jobs, I've enjoyed the solo progression. I always told myself I wouldn't join an FC until I got to 80 and finished the MSQ in case it interrupted my progress. In previous MMOs that I've played, predominantly EQ2, I spent the vast majority of my time in hardcore end game content and in those games it could be successfully argued that the game didn't really begin until you got there. FFXIV however appears to be different as the journey does continue to stay interesting and relevent.

So the question is.. What DO I have to look forward to at cap? Is it rewarding or will I have already experienced the best the game has to offer?

[zeylos]

My first character has just hit 70 about 20% of the way through Stormblood and I am girding my loins for the final push to get to cap and complete Shadowbringers. I've got to say that so far, with the liberal use of gatherer and crafter jobs, I've enjoyed the solo progression. I always told myself I wouldn't join an FC until I got to 80 and finished the MSQ in case it interrupted my progress. In previous MMOs that I've played, predominantly EQ2, I spent the vast majority of my time in hardcore end game content and in those games it could be successfully argued that the game didn't really begin until you got there. FFXIV however appears to be different as the journey does continue to stay interesting and relevent.

So the question is.. What DO I have to look forward to at cap? Is it rewarding or will I have already experienced the best the game has to offer?

I would say the latter is most likely right. XIV's endgame isnt horrible, but its basically composed of content thats extremely repetitive or is so hard you have to do it so much so it will take you time. It also consists of old content, btu I would say that the story is the best part of the game. If you decide to go with shadowbringers, don't rush it and try to enjoy every moment of it ot its fullest ^^

[LunaChild]

Once you have reached cap and finished latest patch's MSQ, things you can do while waiting for new patch are...
- Grinding your equipments to highest IL to prepare for new patch. (If you are crafter or having gils, you can get new equipments that better than best of current patch tho.)
- Extreme/Savage/Ultimate difficulty 8-man contents
- Leveling alt jobs/classes (either Battle/crafter/gatherer), some job's quests have their story related to Main story.
- Go back and experience series of sidequests. (Hildebrand Saga, Warring Triad, Crystal Tower, Binding Coil of Bahamut, etc.)
- Try PvP Contents

Personally, I find crafting/gathering and collecting archievement's rewards is my things in this game.

[Brightamethyst]

So the question is.. What DO I have to look forward to at cap? Is it rewarding or will I have already experienced the best the game has to offer?

That depends mostly on what you want out of the game. Some people live for the hardcore raiding, and for them hitting the level cap is just the beginning. Some people don't care about endgame at all, and spend their time leveling other jobs, doing quests, crafting, gathering, etc. There's no right or wrong answer here. If you want to just keep living in the world and ignore the raid scene entirely, you can. There are always more jobs to level, items to craft, fish to catch, treasure maps to find...

It's easy to forget out here in internet land where people like to have technical discussions about endgame content, but very few people are actually pushing progression. The vast majority of players spend the vast majority of their time not raiding. Most of us wouldn't still be playing if raiding was the be all end all at level 80.

[Holymoly]

That depends mostly on what you want out of the game. Some people live for the hardcore raiding, and for them hitting the level cap is just the beginning. Some people don't care about endgame at all, and spend their time leveling other jobs, doing quests, crafting, gathering, etc. There's no right or wrong answer here. If you want to just keep living in the world and ignore the raid scene entirely, you can. There are always more jobs to level, items to craft, fish to catch, treasure maps to find...

It's easy to forget out here in internet land where people like to have technical discussions about endgame content, but very few people are actually pushing progression. The vast majority of players spend the vast majority of their time not raiding. Most of us wouldn't still be playing if raiding was the be all end all at level 80.

Regarding your last comment, that's where FFXIV tends to diverge from "old school" MMOs then I guess. My memories of EQ2 are spending 4 or 5 hours a night with guildmates raiding the vast amount of end game content. It never seemed repetitive as the progression was quite competitive with the other guilds on the server (and worldwide). In those games it was the journey to cap that was the grind. I guess I'd better slow down and begin to smell the flowers then as one thing that kills MMOs for me is grinding the same instance for gear, especially if there's little point to it once the next expansion comes out and makes it all redundant anyway.

Still, I'm enjoying it atm.

[Maero]

Glam, is the true end game.. Always ~
Other then that you have your Extreme fights and savage content. If/when you clear the Savage portion of the current raid you could move on to Ultimate which is of even higher difficulty.
It all really depends on the order you level stuff, as others have said you could level other jobs, crafters and gatherers (take Advantage of the Ishgard Restoration xp) and also there are level 80 content like treasure maps.
You could of course go back and do older raids like coil, you do not need to be @ 80 for that however but it is still one of the best if not the best and is worth doing for the story tied to it

Regarding gear, that is always the case but we still have time to go before next expansion

[Iscah]

Something worth mentioning if you were previously in a "rush to endgame" mindset and now intend to slow down and enjoy the journey: you may have rushed past "ex-endgame" content at the old level caps, but these are worth doing - and best done sooner rather than later to keep some things in the intended chronological order. (If you go back to play level 50/60 content at this point, it will still be set in that timeframe of post-ARR / post-HW and not where you currently are in the story - eg. the Binding Coil would be "the first time you meet Alisaie since the start of the game" even though you're travelling with her now in Stormblood.)

Major endgame quests at Lv50 are the Binding Coil (first quest is given by Urianger - pick up all his other quests too) and the Crystal Tower alliance raids (starting in Mor Dhona). CT is easy to get into via the duty finder, but for Coil you'll need to use party finder and do it unsynched. Likewise for the EX primals.

At Lv60 you have the eight-man Alexander raids (in Idyllshire) and Warring Triad trials (Ishgard near Fortemps Manor), and Sky Pirate alliance raids (Ishgard airship landing).

Once you get to the end of Stormblood, you'll have Omega, the Four Lords and Ivalice.

TL;DR: do any sidequests with a blue marker and plus sign, which indicates that they unlock something - either a dungeon or a game feature.

[Coupain]

What happens at endgame?

the beginning of the problems

[Hasrat]

Arguably, you may still be able to get some of that end game raid rush feeling. You just won't find much of the sentiment here on these forums, and would have to look elsewhere to find anyone likeminded looking for that world first progression style. But, I'm not familiar with older MMOs. It may also be you just won't find the same levels of difficulty here. From what little I've paid attention to, most of the "world firsts" for the game happen in the span of some hours to a couple days. At that point, yeah, likely it just becomes grinding for a piece of gear, to make grinding for the next piece of gear a little easier, making the next piece of gear a bit easier still, until you're all geared up, with nothing to really test it out on, until the next patch when you start all over. Although, I believe maybe the Ultimate fights exist somewhat outside the gear treadmill. Ultimates may be the closest thing you'll get to that old feeling, but they may not prove as satisfying.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

Well, for example, there is a lot of raiding to be done. At the moment we have at level 80 3 Extreme Trials, 4 Raids (Normal and Savage (Hard) Mode), 1 Alliance Raid (24 People) and 1 Ultimate. Those numbers will propably swell up until the next expension to 7 Ex-Trials, 12 Raids, 3 Alliance Raids and 2 Ultimates. Ultimate is the hardest content there is, content which may keep you busy for months until you get the clear. Progressing in Savage-Raiding will also take you a while.

And then again, the leveling won't stop just because you hit level 80 with one job as you can level all the jobs, crafters and gatherers up to level 80. And if you are new there is also a lot of old content to catch up with mounts, glamour and other stuff to collect. This game will keep you busy for a while for sure.