What are the largest issues plaguing XIV currently?

[Barraind]

As opposed to possibly farming the same content for X months and never getting the exact piece of gear you need?

Yes, I would absolutely love having a reason to log in and have meaningful character advancement/progression outside the one regular activity every 6-9 months and possibly one worthwhile ancillary activity in an expansion.

I'll take a system where I can get tokens for some items but feel like I -need- to log in and make certain raids to get specific drops with a low chance, or to work on incrementally upgrading my character from normal gear to early raid gear to token+ higher end raid gear to best in slot, every raid update, over going "All we have to do is kill every boss 4-8 times and we all have best in slot and now we can do it for alts I guess" any and every time you ask me.

If I say, oh... Ochiudo's Kote, Leaping Boots, Emperor's Hairpin, Byakko's Haidate, Sulfuras, Hand of Justice, Ashkandi, Talisman of Ephemeral Power... anyone who's played FFXI or WoW can probably look at that quick list and think, "ah, I remember that!" even if they haven't played that game in years.

Now let's look at... just about anything in FFXIV since the first tier. Heck, even the Relic weapons aren't particularly notable because they're just the same thing as every other weapon. The only distinct thing is how you acquire it, and not since Heavensward has even *that* been notable.

Had the first Nightbane, Dawn, Signet of Might, and Artisans Prize on my server. Have one of 2 or 3? Shield of Spiked Energy that ever existed mounted on the wall in my house. Took almost 3 full expansions to upgrade my leg slot (only because you couldnt kill Tunat until Omens hit, and he was the only place to get the 2 focus effects on the same slot).

Such a better system than everyone gets a token and wheeee coffers.

Though those devs wanted you to play their game and not play their game AND their competitors games at the same time.

I never had more than 2 MMO's installed at any given time until 14, where now I'm logged in to two or more at any given time, because thats how youre supposed to play 14.