Beyond Level 100

[LanceSummers]

I think it has been obvious since Dawntrail that something new must be done instead of raising the level cap. Job rotations have become bloated as is, and there's not much room to insert much new.
That being said, level 100 is a great stopping place for max level, but what should the next form of progression beyond levelling be?

[HammAndCheese]

Level to 110 and fix the bloat. We don't need another type of leveling system because whatever the alternative will be it will feel the exact same as "level 10 more levels."

[LanceSummers]

Level to 110 and fix the bloat. We don't need another type of leveling system because whatever the alternative will be it will feel the exact same as "level 10 more levels."

No one said it had to be the same. It can be different than the current levelling system

[Alicie]

We don't need another levelling system, we need current levelling system to be fixed and onboarding for new players to become easier

[VeyaAkemi]

So long as the button bloat doesn't become worse, I don't actually care what happens, I'd be plenty satisfied with no leveling at all, just iLvl increases.

[PyurBlue]

So long as the button bloat doesn't become worse, I don't actually care what happens, I'd be plenty satisfied with no leveling at all, just iLvl increases.

I can't even think of a downside to throwing away leveling. A more free form world that doesn't have to adhere to a very strict and repetitive level increase honestly sounds amazing.

[LanceSummers]

I can't even think of a downside to throwing away leveling. A more free form world that doesn't have to adhere to a very strict and repetitive level increase honestly sounds amazing.

I feel like throwing away traditional levelling is the only option here. A level squish is just not it, a level squish would be too much work for so little return. Look at it this way:
Early levelling is becoming increasingly more boring with each new expansion they add as abilities are moved to the later levels.
If you do a level squish, what do you do? Do you make earlier levels faster? That doesn't fix the amount of time a player needs to do the MSQ and affects too much for it to be a viable option.
Ideally job design and levelling issues could be fixed in one fell swoop with 8.0, both by addressing old aspects and introducing new systems to fix everything.

[Aidorouge]

Probably going to end up with a level squish. Any new system would just feel like "level 110 but with fancier words" where starting back over at level 1 on a new track is meaningless when you still had to reach level 100 to get there and the game still treats you as level 110 for gearing and content access.

[LanceSummers]

Probably going to end up with a level squish. Any new system would just feel like "level 110 but with fancier words" where starting back over at level 1 on a new track is meaningless when you still had to reach level 100 to get there and the game still treats you as level 110 for gearing and content access.

A level squish is not it, it comes with too many issues. Things are already being gutted from earlier levels in order to be put in later ones. If you squish levels, that would mean the entire levelling process would become extremely boring at earlier levels. A first-timer would feel like the MSQ is a slog due to barely levelling throughout it, and they have to go through every expansion just for a few abilities.

[Atreus]

Lv100 is fine. It's just numbers with no meaning anyway. If you wanted to, you could just tie ability acquisition to MSQ and it would line up the same way.

The whole thing needs to be redone, squished, something. The issue isn't that we're getting more things, the issue is that the rest of the game below Lv100 feels worse, and worse, and worse every time you have to sync.