7th Astral is a mess

[Stepjam]

I remember buying the game for the new MCH job and got mad when it wasn’t a Lvl 1 start job and got even more mad when I had to beat all of ARR to get to it. Then got even more mad when I had to beat all of the post game content until the very start of HW! I truly feel sorry for anyone that got the game for Dancer or GNB. Pray to god the new jobs don’t start at 70

They will. They don't want players jumping into brand new content with classes they don't yet understand. Especially since with every passing expac, you'll start with more skills to work with (generally speaking).

[Jirah]

They will. They don't want players jumping into brand new content with classes they don't yet understand. Especially since with every passing expac, you'll start with more skills to work with (generally speaking).

So for new players they have to grind through ARR,HW,and SB plus HW/ARR post content just to try out the new jobs? I feel 50 is the perfect starting point since players that just finished ARR can enjoy their jobs sooner than at the tail end of 2 expansions.

[Stepjam]

So for new players they have to grind through ARR,HW,and SB plus HW/ARR post content just to try out the new jobs? I feel 50 is the perfect starting point since players that just finished ARR can enjoy their jobs sooner than at the tail end of 2 expansions.

I think the reason they don't start lower is so that the grind to get a new class up to speed isn't TOO long. Squeenix may not want you immediately entering new content with new classes, but they don't want to make you spend like 20+ hours leveling a class to get there either. Starting at 50 would be 30 levels of grinding to hit the starting level for 6.0

[Frizze]

So for new players they have to grind through ARR,HW,and SB plus HW/ARR post content just to try out the new jobs? I feel 50 is the perfect starting point since players that just finished ARR can enjoy their jobs sooner than at the tail end of 2 expansions.

Actually, no. The devs realized that having the HW jobs locked by Ishgard access wasnt the best idea, so they changed it for SB and ShB(and likely would for the next expansion too). Instead, now you just have to level a class up high enough. Once you hit level 60 with a combat class, you can just do the quest to unlock any job that starts at 60(whether you have the story at a point close to that expansion or not - just have to have the expansion on your account). The first quests for all these expansion jobs are in starter cities(so ul dah gridania and limsa). Lets pretend Time Mage was a 6.0 job(all of this is hypothetical to illustrate the point - no new jobs have been mentioned yet). The quest to unlock the job would start... lets say in Ul Dah. Someone(either from the thaumaturges guild or just a rich member of the syndicate/wannabe) unearths some ancient tomes, and it leads to a hidden shrine where the secrets of time magic can be unlocked(someone visits from the past to teach you how to get started maybe? some sort of stasis field?). The job would start at level 70, so to unlock the class you would need to get any other job that far. That could mean playing Black Mage for 70 levels and a few expansions worth of story, it could mean getting to 50 and finishing ARR then grinding 20 levels on roulettes(leveling MSQ and alliance is a lot of exp without having to go past level 50 in the story - this person would end up doing the HW expansion and everything after as the new job). Some new players would spend the money to buy a level skip to get Summoner to 70(while still being at the very start of the MSQ), then instantly unlock the new class and play the whole game with it. And of course, some people would hear that this is coming in the expansion and start playing a month or two before it launches to get themselves into position to unlock it on day one naturally. So a few different options.

[Arohk]

I was already 60 before i finished ARR and continued with GNB.

[Jirah]

Actually, no. The devs realized that having the HW jobs locked by Ishgard access wasnt the best idea, so they changed it for SB and ShB(and likely would for the next expansion too). Instead, now you just have to level a class up high enough. Once you hit level 60 with a combat class, you can just do the quest to unlock any job that starts at 60(whether you have the story at a point close to that expansion or not - just have to have the expansion on your account). The first quests for all these expansion jobs are in starter cities(so ul dah gridania and limsa). Lets pretend Time Mage was a 6.0 job(all of this is hypothetical to illustrate the point - no new jobs have been mentioned yet). The quest to unlock the job would start... lets say in Ul Dah. Someone(either from the thaumaturges guild or just a rich member of the syndicate/wannabe) unearths some ancient tomes, and it leads to a hidden shrine where the secrets of time magic can be unlocked(someone visits from the past to teach you how to get started maybe? some sort of stasis field?). The job would start at level 70, so to unlock the class you would need to get any other job that far. That could mean playing Black Mage for 70 levels and a few expansions worth of story, it could mean getting to 50 and finishing ARR then grinding 20 levels on roulettes(leveling MSQ and alliance is a lot of exp without having to go past level 50 in the story - this person would end up doing the HW expansion and everything after as the new job). Some new players would spend the money to buy a level skip to get Summoner to 70(while still being at the very start of the MSQ), then instantly unlock the new class and play the whole game with it. And of course, some people would hear that this is coming in the expansion and start playing a month or two before it launches to get themselves into position to unlock it on day one naturally. So a few different options.

Thats all fine and all but why start so high? I’d love to imagine getting Dark Knight at Lv 30 rather than 50 post ARR. and if the new jobs start at 70 how would they even do job quests? Since 70 has role quests. I don’t mind leveling as it’s gotten easy and love growing with my job but the SHB jobs getting is so late It felt like I was getting a jump potion

[Stepjam]

Thats all fine and all but why start so high? I’d love to imagine getting Dark Knight at Lv 30 rather than 50 post ARR. and if the new jobs start at 70 how would they even do job quests? Since 70 has role quests. I don’t mind leveling as it’s gotten easy and love growing with my job but the SHB jobs getting is so late It felt like I was getting a jump potion

Well the start of the dark knight quests don't exactly work unless you are in Ishgard, same with the others. Squeenix realized it was a bit of a mistake to lock the classes behind MSQ progression instead of just levels which is why it's different from Stormblood onward. But as for future classes, I'm sure they'll get a 10 level questline even if that makes them stick out due to being from 70 to 80.

[Frizze]

Why start so high? The story of the next expansion will start at level 80. Some people will want to play it on the new jobs(whatever they end up being). Starting 10 levels below the story gives the players both a chance to learn the class before being tossed into unfamiliar content and a reasonably short grind so they dont have to wait too long to catch up.

As for class quests, whoever teaches the new class to us will have some sort of drama going on and we will be involved in it. Story wise, most people will be past the ShB point where they need to have completed their role quests(and for the ones who arent and choose a new class, theyll just get an extra quest for exp every couple levels). The next expansion is highly unlikely to be set on the first, so their wont be any continuation of the current role stories(the ones ive done all seem fairly well wrapped up as well). As for whether returning to the source will see us back to doing individual class quests or whether role specific tales will be told, its impossible to say. They could even combine them(say with class quests at 85 and 90, role quests at 80 83 and 88) if they wanted.

[Stepjam]

As for class quests, whoever teaches the new class to us will have some sort of drama going on and we will be involved in it. Story wise, most people will be past the ShB point where they need to have completed their role quests(and for the ones who arent and choose a new class, theyll just get an extra quest for exp every couple levels). The next expansion is highly unlikely to be set on the first, so their wont be any continuation of the current role stories(the ones ive done all seem fairly well wrapped up as well). As for whether returning to the source will see us back to doing individual class quests or whether role specific tales will be told, its impossible to say. They could even combine them(say with class quests at 85 and 90, role quests at 80 83 and 88) if they wanted.

I get the feeling it's gonna be role quests from now on. Means less writing has to be done as more and more classes get added. Not to mention many of the level 80 class quests kinda served as an epilogue to what they had going up to that point.

[VictorTheed]

My advice for people in your situation would be to buy a story skip potion that jumps your story start at heavensward, you can always go to your inn and watch the cutscenes to get caught up on what you missed story wise.