Level 100 and Beyond

[Amenara]

3. Grinding for power is avoided since job skills gained or bought past 100 are simply animation glam or a readjusted skill for varied playstyle and personal comfort.

It sounds like you are trying to do a gimp version of FFXI's post level cap gameplay. A staple of MMOs is player progression and even FFXI had the merit point system which increased player power and now the master level system which does the same while maintaining a "Level cap" of 99 and allowing players to continue to grind to become stronger.

I don't think SE can do anything but level squish or just keep plowing ahead as the game isn't really designed for horizontal progression or a stalling of character growth. If there is no real player progression there is no gameplay reason to continue playing past the level cap.

[RitsukoSonoda]

It sounds like you are trying to do a gimp version of FFXI's post level cap gameplay. A staple of MMOs is player progression and even FFXI had the merit point system which increased player power and now the master level system which does the same while maintaining a "Level cap" of 99 and allowing players to continue to grind to become stronger.

I don't think SE can do anything but level squish or just keep plowing ahead as the game isn't really designed for horizontal progression or a stalling of character growth. If there is no real player progression there is no gameplay reason to continue playing past the level cap.

Also bear in mind that FFXI also had 1 thing available to players that FFXIV doesn't when it came to progression. FFXI had an abundance of horizontal progression options which allowed the game to stay at the same level cap for years while releasing new content and expansions. This also made things like Relic weapons more appealing to players as their long term goal because there wasn't a mindset of the weapon being obsolete when the next expansion launched. However the reason for FFXI's abundance of horizontal progression options stemmed from options found on the in game gear itself as jobs weren't pigeon holed gear wise into only having options for 1 stat + vit, gear could have skill bonuses, add skills, weapons could have added effects of their own, some even had impacts on the character's elemental affinities. FFXIV has steadily been losing the RPG aspect of it's MMORPG classification resulting in what some have called the MMO version of Mystic Quest. The game's story is good and it is entertaining enough to attract players. However the question arises of whether or not the game can really be considered a JRPG anymore.