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

[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.

[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?

[linay]

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

There's being social, like helping FC/LS/Fellowship/static/friends to clear/farm things, or just doing it on another job, or fun with strangers on PF/DF.

But yes, if you're done with the content, then you're done, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's also why rewards are time gated, so people don't run out of content sooner, but there really shouldn't be any reason to prolong the content more than that other than if you just enjoy running the content, which is fine too. Otherwise, find something else to do in the game or play other games or do something else. Extending the gearing treadmill is not the answer, at least with relic existing.

As for any kind of "prestige" system, if it offers any reward other than gear upgrade or any kind of combat progression, then that's fine.

[ForteNightshade]

There's being social, like helping FC/LS/Fellowship/static/friends to clear/farm things, or just doing it on another job, or fun with strangers on PF/DF.

But yes, if you're done with the content, then you're done, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's also why rewards are time gated, so people don't run out of content sooner, but there really shouldn't be any reason to prolong the content more than that other than if you just enjoy running the content, which is fine too. Otherwise, find something else to do in the game or play other games or do something else. Extending the gearing treadmill is not the answer, at least with relic existing.

As for any kind of "prestige" system, if it offers any reward other than gear upgrade or any kind of combat progression, then that's fine.

You do realize having to lock everything behind a time gate suggests the content releases themselves aren't offering enough, thus they're intentionally staggered to keep people subbed, yes?

Being social isn't an argument because it still boils down to you running the same handful of things over and over again. If there is one area FFXIV severely lacks in, it's end game content below Savage. In fact, even Savage itself is more or less dependent on a third party site because people like leaderboards. The fact we're almost a year into Shadowbringers and the relic is only just now coming out in a month or so certainly hasn't helped that feeling there is very little to do.

Ironically, I've had this discussion with my best friend who has been playing far more sporadically these days. She usually does everything, including clearing out the entire map of side quests. To quote her, "If I wasn't raiding. What's even the point of logging in?" The aforementioned delay on the relic is a big complaint of hers.

[Renato]

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

I would be entirely cool with some kind of prestge system that allows you to get unobtainable items like the Lonewolf set from the Feast rankings or past event items. Everytime you reach max EXP at level 80, you get a point that can be exchanged for various items. It would at least give people a reason to do dungeons once they hit lv80.

If anything, SE really needs to work on the achievement system as well. There's literally no reason to care about them anymore since all of the items you could obtain are practically given to you nowadays.

I did like the idea of deep dungeons as well. But I hope the next one allows you to use your own gear. I hated the whole light weapon/armor thing. Make the dungeons actually interesting...instead of boring backgrounds, make some kind of labrynth type area akin to the Northen Crater from FFVII with alternate paths. Instead of just annoying traps, have puzzles that require you to work together to solve. Hell, put some jumping puzzles and hidden paths in. Something that requires players to actually explore opposed to just running through looking for chests and skipping enemies.