Woah ... Slow down a bit ...

[Jojoya]

But what problem does outleveling the MSQ give you? The problem here seems to be with your perception rather than anything to do in the game itself.

Except it's not even a perception issue. It's the way the game currently works during the early leveling experience.

Players expect gear and jobs to be keeping pace with the content being done. What's the typical reaction when you end up with Cutter's Cry and find a level 41 GLA tanking it in level 18 gear? Players get upset because they feel like the tank is being lazy when the truth is that the game has put that tank in that position with bad design balance.

How do you feel good as a new player when your character is level 41 but the game is primarily giving you level 18 content to do (short of stumbling across the quests for the higher level side dungeons now part of MSQ)? It's almost patronizing, as if the game has already decided you're incapable of doing higher level content at the same time it's awarding you those higher levels.

It is not good design.

It's something that could be partially fixed. Stop awarding bonus XP if the class/job level is greater than the MSQ progression level. I don't need to be getting 300% bonus XP if I'm level 53 but only working on the level 34 MSQ . I can't even get level 53 gear short of spending a half million gil on the MB, which is an amount of gil the level 34 MSQ is not rewarding. I do need that bonus XP is I'm working on the level 53 MSQ and I want a level 34 job to become my main job so I need to get it caught up quickly.

Lock the ARR side dungeons behind MSQ just as all future dungeons are locked behind it. Halatalii- require joining a Grand Company. Qarn and Cutter's Cry - require defeating Titan. Dzamael Darkhold - require Stone Vigil. Aurum Vale and Wanderer's Palace - require Garuda.

While we're at it, lock level 30 MSQ Wrath of the Titan behind completion of a level 30 job quest. That way the player is introduced to the concept of jobs so they'll know that's something they'll need to continue doing, and so they hopefully aren't going into higher level dungeons lacking their full toolkit because they're not doing their job quests.

From 1-50, you can get sufficient leveling gear from vendors, or from previous dungeons (remember, you're now guaranteed at least one piece of job-appropriate gear at the end of a leveling dungeon). And from Heavensward on, you're gated by MSQ progression on dungeons anyway. There's no real need to spend tons of gil unless you really want it for glamour.

How are you going to be able to afford that level 41 gear on the vendors when you've only got 20k gil and still need to worry about things like teleport fees and repairs?

What's the point of getting that job appropriate gear at the end of a leveling dungeon when the dungeon is level 17 awarding level 17 gear and you're level 41?

You should never, ever, ever, spend gil on any gear while doing the MSQ. it gives you dungeons and gear.

Gear at that dungeon's level, not your character's job level.