changes to the game that would go hard

[Collin_Sky]

The fact that you consider running savage without savage gear to be griefing demonstrates the problem with gearing in FFXIV better than anything that I could say. In the nicest possible way, I think you've been playing FFXIV exclusively for too long, have become XIVbrained and can't see past the status quo. I'd recommend trying another MMO, like XI or WoW, if only for a short time to remind yourself what meaningful player power progression in an MMO actually looks like. Getting new gear is infinitely more rewarding when it will allow you to do something that you weren't able to do before. Getting new gear to make the content that you're already able to do easier, and then throwing it in the trash and replacing it with a new freebie for the next piece of content, is just pointless busywork.

Working your way through ambu to omen to dyna and beyond in FFXI is fun. Pushing through heroic/mythic or pushing M+ keys in WoW is fun. Doing savage to get savage gear so the same boss you were already able to kill dies 6 minutes into the 10 minute fight is not particularly interesting or fun. The fulfilling part is supposed to be the progression that comes as a result of that upgrade but it's absent in FFXIV.

For what it’s worth, I still play FFXI regularly. I 6box and can fully clear Ody C/Sortie on 3 of them (working on the other 3 now). I’ve more or less completed the game, which is why I'm doing 3 more chars. I love FFXI's endgame gearing progression. Furthermore, I also agree that FFXIV offers very little content by comparison, which is why I keep returning to FFXI. Unlike FFXIV, FFXI doesn’t heavily restrict how you gear up, and it offers far more than just two pieces of content for progression.

In FFXIV, I’m left with no real choice but to run the same content repeatedly, either to help friends or just for fun and to push for self improvement. But at minimum ilvl, neither of those is really possible. I love FFXIV's combat, but I can't enjoy it when I don't have any goals.