An idea on how to improve early gameplay?

[ItMe]

what if we instead went the opposite direction, to where things were dangerous enough that AoE would be something much more situationally applicable, and CC, focus targeting, and the like were brought back to the fore?

Adding in CCing, DPS peeling and kiting mobs, and more situational tactics?
Neat idea, there is content in FF14 that uses those skills (like deep dungeons & PVP), so having low level dungeons teach those skills doesn't sound bad on paper, but... if dungeons don't play that way at endgame I'm not sure it's a good idea. The early stuff should ideally reflect how we play later and unless later dungeons need those skills too it'll ultimately make the endgame feel more hollow as those elements fall away.

[Shurrikhan]

but... if dungeons don't play that way at endgame I'm not sure it's a good idea. The early stuff should ideally reflect how we play later and unless later dungeons need those skills too it'll ultimately make the endgame feel more hollow as those elements fall away.

Right, but is "run to end, spam AoE, run to end, spam AoE" exactly the content we want? Is that experience not already hollow?

If it's a matter of time constraint, note that the rewards can absolutely be increased in proportion to the additional time taken.

At present, though, any variety in playstyle is effectively just a trap that causes considerable tension between players. What if weren't? What if it weren't all just an illusion of depth or variety?

[ItMe]

Right, but is "run to end, spam AoE, run to end, spam AoE" exactly the content we want? Is that experience not already hollow?

If it's a matter of time constraint, note that the rewards can absolutely be increased in proportion to the additional time taken.

At present, though, any variety in playstyle is effectively just a trap that causes considerable tension between players. What if weren't? What if it weren't all just an illusion of depth or variety?

I think at that point this is going into a different topic.
Not "how to make the early game better," and more "what could be improved about FF14's gameplay."

[Shurrikhan]

I think at that point this is going into a different topic.
Not "how to make the early game better," and more "what could be improved about FF14's gameplay."

True, but early gameplay is still gameplay. If the limit of making early gameplay suck less is to make it suck exactly as much as the endgame experience (at relatively equal difficulty levels/types), that's both a narrow and not wholly necessary constraint.