This game is in desperate need of persistent progression content for main jobs...

[TheJarvisMan]

I play my main job in this game less than my other jobs, and I feel like that is a problem. I don't really have a schedule that permits savage raiding, and I'm not entirely into it. Each week, I do what I need to do to cap tokens, then I go fool around on my other jobs doing roulettes, beastmen dailies, etc. because there is nothing else to do to progress my main class outside savage raiding. I really wish my progress on my main wasn't so time-gated.

For this reason, I usually burn out around the x.1 part of patches, and don't come back until x.5 to finish up everything that has come out along the way. This time I decided to come back for x.2, and I had a pretty good time for a few days until I finished the normal raids and story content. Now, I'm already burnt out again.

Anyone else feel this way?

[Doozer]

Give yourself something to do that's time consuming. Do a ARR/HW/SB relic weapon or something.

[DrWho2010]

I play my main job in this game less than my other jobs, and I feel like that is a problem. I don't really have a schedule that permits savage raiding, and I'm not entirely into it. Each week, I do what I need to do to cap tokens, then I go fool around on my other jobs doing roulettes, beastmen dailies, etc. because there is nothing else to do to progress my main class outside savage raiding. I really wish my progress on my main wasn't so time-gated.

For this reason, I usually burn out around the x.1 part of patches, and don't come back until x.5 to finish up everything that has come out along the way. This time I decided to come back for x.2, and I had a pretty good time for a few days until I finished the normal raids and story content. Now, I'm already burnt out again.

Anyone else feel this way?

if you are not savage raiding then you are the type of person yoshi-p says to just play what you want to do then just go take a break and do something else. come back when you want to play again. this game is not designed for casuals to play all day every day. you WILL run out of things to do if you're just "dabbling" in other things.

[Sated]

I do my weekly raids and my daily EX on my main job, and I don't know what else I'd need or want to do on it besides those? By the time I'm done I want to be working on something else anyway.

Both of my mains are DNC though so I guess I probably feel like I'm playing it more than I would be if I only had one character, but I also think this game is designed to be played across multiple roles, not just one job.

[Kalise]

The issue with such content is trying to make it worthwhile, without causing strife in the community.

Like, what kind of progression would you even put?

You can't put gear becasue well, why bother spending 100 hours grinding out something equivalent to Tome gear? If you put upgrades to that gear then you'll get Savage Raiders annoyed that Casual Joe can get equal or better gear than they get for doing the hard content in the game.

If you don't put gear... Then there's no "Progression" for that job is there? I mean, unless you put in Materia that is better than grade VIII (But then you'll get a bunch of people complaining about how they need to grind so much for it).

To be honest, I don't think the issue is lack of "Progression" for jobs, but rather the lack of content for to use up to date jobs in. Once you're geared out in Normal/Tome gear what is left? EX, Savage and Ultimate. After that? Uhh...

Even doing side activities like farming FATEs for Shared FATE progress and Bicolour Gemstones ends up being meaningless for "Progression" due to ilevel syncs on everything that isn't the newest level 80 content anyway...

At best, you can hope for something like Eureka, where you can grind out for a shiny glamour (While for the time before you get it, you have little progression because lulilevelsync)

Edit:

This is generally the issue with using acquiring gear as the end-goal of "Progression". You get the gear and then... You've finished the game until the next content drops (That will likely be tuned to a lower ilevel than said gear, so people who don't have it can be on a level playing field, aside from say, Savage which will be tuned to the new crafted stuff which will be better than all the gear you farmed for making it ultimately pointless anyway)

Hence why the "Glamour is the true end-game" meme exists. Due to the irrelevancy of gear as nothing requires it outside progressing into Savage.

[linay]

To be honest, I don't think the issue is lack of "Progression" for jobs, but rather the lack of content for to use up to date jobs in.

The problem is a lack of people to do those content. There are people like the OP who don't have the schedule to do savage raiding, for example, while others cannot do it or do not like it. There is no point in creating more content for people who won't do said content. As a theme park MMORPG, you get more mileage out of FFXIV if you can enjoy and do a variety of content. Otherwise, outside of keeping your house (and maybe FC ownership/rank/membership), you can just unsubscribe when you've done what you want. People just need to not view that as a problem if the latter is the case for them.

[Seraphor]

This is kinda what relic gear is for. At least in HW you had to play the job you were gearing. It should be the best weapon you can get outside of savage.
But it will depend on what the new relic system is like.

[Kalise]

The problem is a lack of people to do those content. There are people like the OP who don't have the schedule to do savage raiding, for example, while others cannot do it or do not like it. There is no point in creating more content for people who won't do said content. As a theme park MMORPG, you get more mileage out of FFXIV if you can enjoy and do a variety of content. Otherwise, outside of keeping your house (and maybe FC ownership/rank/membership), you can just unsubscribe when you've done what you want. People just need to not view that as a problem if the latter is the case for them.

Well, the thing is that Savage Raiding is literally only one type of content that utilizes full Tome/Normal gear. Not everyone is a raider and thus interested in doing Savage raiding.

There is nothing else that will utilize said gear.

Even worse is there's literally nothing that utilizes full Savage gear. Obtaining the gear simply means you can now... AFK in Limsa with slightly more stats than other people.

Though, the next issue would be implementing things that aren't Savage but still have longevity... Since, for example, you could in theory add another 4 Raid encounters for both Normal and Savage with min ilevel of 480 and 500 respectively that offered no loot but then people would simply run it once and be done with it... (I suppose you could let it drop gear for alts? Since that's always a complaint, that weekly lockouts on Raid loot and tomestones means gearing up alts is impossible if you're spending said lockouts on your main job)

The same could be said about adding in 480/500 min ilevel dungeons/trials...

Really, the best I can think of would be Eureka. Only without its absurd ilevel sync. So that progressing your gear, actually upgrades your performance. But even then, there's still the issue of "What reward do you put there to make people actually care about doing it?"... I suppose the Relic? A shiny glam given that generally they're only BiS for like the last patch of an expansion...

[linay]

Well, the thing is that Savage Raiding is literally only one type of content that utilizes full Tome/Normal gear. Not everyone is a raider and thus interested in doing Savage raiding.

There is nothing else that will utilize said gear.

Even worse is there's literally nothing that utilizes full Savage gear. Obtaining the gear simply means you can now... AFK in Limsa with slightly more stats than other people.

Though, the next issue would be implementing things that aren't Savage but still have longevity... Since, for example, you could in theory add another 4 Raid encounters for both Normal and Savage with min ilevel of 480 and 500 respectively that offered no loot but then people would simply run it once and be done with it... (I suppose you could let it drop gear for alts? Since that's always a complaint, that weekly lockouts on Raid loot and tomestones means gearing up alts is impossible if you're spending said lockouts on your main job)

The same could be said about adding in 480/500 min ilevel dungeons/trials...

Really, the best I can think of would be Eureka. Only without its absurd ilevel sync. So that progressing your gear, actually upgrades your performance. But even then, there's still the issue of "What reward do you put there to make people actually care about doing it?"... I suppose the Relic? A shiny glam given that generally they're only BiS for like the last patch of an expansion...

The way it currently works is better gear helps with current content and can help with next content as well. You don't need savage gear if you're not doing savage content, but getting augmented tomestone gear (which is almost equivalent to savage gear) still helps with regular content even if you don't need the gear to clear the content.

On the whole, I would disagree with the need for persistent progression. Since we have vertical progression, we're already on that gear treadmill, so there's no need to do it persistently. It's a good thing if you're able to say you're done gearing and then can reap the benefit of that gear for the rest of the patch and maybe even the next patch. Relic is a nice alternative for that gearing aspect.

[Kalise]

The way it currently works is better gear helps with current content and can help with next content as well. You don't need savage gear if you're not doing savage content, but getting augmented tomestone gear (which is almost equivalent to savage gear) still helps with regular content even if you don't need the gear to clear the content.

But that's the thing. There's no reason to DO the current content, once you have the gear from it.

That's literally the whole point of OP's post. He does current content up to his weekly lockout cap (Which, even though he doesn't do Savage, would still include Savage raiders too, as weekly caps on loot from Raids). Then... There's no reason to play current content on his main job.

Once you hit the point where you've finished getting your highest item level gear for the level you play at, then there's literally no point at all in playing your main job. You CAN go run the content you've been running over and over to get the gear and be stronger than you were previously, but there's no point to that (Unless you have spare time in before the next content drop to try and get some gear for an alt job, but even then, you'll still be playing your main job in a limited capacity for weekly lockouts)

Hence one of the underlying issues with the OP is not necessarily "Persistent progression" but rather lack of actual reason to play on a main job. With persistent progression being simply an answer to that issue, by providing content with longevity that can be done by your main job irregardless of how geared you are (Whether you're a Savage raider or not)

There is of course, the possibility of simply playing your main job in lower level content, such as farming for Shared FATEs, running Eureka, leveling up Trusts, but even these have limited longevity (If not also additional benefits when done on alt jobs i.e. Experience)

Having content that has persistent longevity, that means you can always log in and play your main job in something relevant. Would be a nice addition to FFXIV, given lack of longevity has plagued much of its content. Though, the issue is content with persistent longevity is really hard to design, as it's very difficult to make a reason for doing content that won't eventually disappear (AND doesn't interfere with other content and systems, since content that you could grind to keep getting +1 item level for gear would theoretically last forever, but would not only destroy the gear treadmill, but also create massive balance problems)

Maybe like a "Prestige system"? That allows you to constantly gain "Prestige levels" for the purpose of... Having a larger level?