Ability Points, Skill Trees & Talents being considered to replace leveling. Thoughts?

[Zaniel]

Levels are just a number, it doesn't matter if it's 50 or 500, reworking levels like WoW did to cut them in half isn't actually about game design or efficiency, its a placebo to placate players who struggle counting without using their toes.

On another level what many people are asking for when they ask for "ability points" is a grind, they want to grind power so there is a functional disparity between the people who play 23 hours a day and other players. It doesn't matter whether this is grinding levels or grinding points its just a desire for grind. If you want to see how this pans out you can look at Everquest and Black Desert. EQ introduced ability points on top of levels and it became an absolutely MASSIVE gatekeeping system. Want to join a top guild? Sorry, you don't have 300+ AP so no. Want to do top shelf content? Sorry no, need to grind mindlessly for months for sufficient AP. The system also runs away with itself with the required AP becoming more and more absurd with new players never able to participate with veterans and even veterans quitting because they can't keep up with the need to fuel an endless appetite for grind. It's a guaranteed way to crucify your game. Black Desert has an exponential XP system where grinding for higher levels requires progressively more XP but if you live in the game and never visit the toilet you are rewarded with an enormous power advantage because levels mean a lot because they are so hard to get. Same problem.

Also, meta builds make the game unbalance-able - cf: WoW. Also these people who say FF14 isn't perfectly balanced now are COMPLETELY mentally insane. Have they even played an unbalanced game like WoW before? Where DPS log differences between classes and builds could reach +200% (not the 1-5% in FF14).