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[Allard]

Kind of sucks were not at P2 yet, but at least we know they are trying to get the kinks out before they move. I may play some this upcoming weekend. Got to 17 on my Archer and did TTD once. I'll probably try out a Lancer or Conjurer for P2. Is it in P3 that we will be able to start out as more disciples of war/magic?

Supposedly yes, they are opening up the other leveling paths so that should mean the other 4 classes (yes even Arcanist) alongside the 6 other crafting classes, miner, and maybe even fishing. I'm honestly looking more forward to the crafting classes getting opened up as that was my primary focus during the end of 1.0. I really want to see what they will bring to the table and maybe just maybe it will be possible to 'properly' test the new market wards with the other crafting classes + changed materia system. I have access to my retainer in beta, but I got nothing I could possible want to sell, especially since I tend to use my gear and get it spirit bound. Gridania might have 3 combat classes to use but it only has 2 crafting classes compared to the three at the other 2 cities. I can't even test the crafting classes we have right now properly as there are so few pieces of gear you can personally make or buy from other players because its made by a different craft. :/ (Speaking of crafting, looks like Alchemy will be one of the primary means to make grimoires for Arcanist judging by the repair type associated to some of the books in the venders).

As for the 'elongated' phase 1 beta test, its technically not been elongated as far as I can tell. Didn't the road map say 2-4 weeks for phase 1? Not that I believe this coming weekend will be the final weekend of phase 1 either, just technically they are still on track as far as I can tell.

 

[Jinko]

^ I did some searchs on the marketwards and it seemed to work quite well, there is much better filtering capabilities now, could do with a bit more streamlining though.

Didn't buy or sell on there yet, was meaning too but completely forgot about it, guess ill have to do that next weekend, ive got a lot of materials and crystals which I could do with offloading.

 

[Robobandit]

This upcoming weekend will be week 3 of the planned max of 4.. perhaps if things go well without a hitch with regard to lag this weekend, they'll be ready to move on to phase 2.

It may be more of waiting until they are confident that their dev team can sign off on the phase 2 update

They had planned to have 5-10 worlds during phase 1 but due to server load issues they now have 15 worlds up. I guess they just want to make sure that they get the load issues sorted out now before they move forward.

 

[Jinko]

Uhh no this is will be the 4th.

25th, 2nd, 9th, 16th.

 

[DrDogg]

I'm a bit concerned that you can get to level 30 in just three weekends of play. If the cap remains 50, it's giving me bad vibes of WoW and the current state of FFXI where you can solo to cap in no time.

Maybe my way of thinking is just off from the norm, but I don't want to be able to hit cap in a single week of steady play. FFXI may have been a time sink that people didn't like, but as I mentioned before, I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I hit cap. If I can hit cap in a week in ARR, that sense of accomplishment will be severely lacking.

Still holding out for the retail version, but getting more and more skeptical that I'll like it.

 

[Lucis]

I have some grip with the chat system.

Other than the chat box bug
We really need some type of global LFG channel I think. Before 30, it's all good since the dungeon you need to participate in is in the zone you are leveling. But at 30, Hakkuen is in central and are leveling in south part of south...

 

[bardia]

I got my gla to 35 and personally I thought holding hate really isn't too much of a problem. For the last dungeon all I had was archers doing their aoe moves so you constantly have to be cycling targets to see which one you're about to lose hate on and use your WS on the mobs accordingly. The only time I've had problems with hate has been when the melees were a few levels above me

Also I agree with the poster above on how provoke works, it doesn't really seem to work at all if you open up the fight with it.

 

[Jinko]

I'm a bit concerned that you can get to level 30 in just three weekends of play. If the cap remains 50, it's giving me bad vibes of WoW and the current state of FFXI where you can solo to cap in no time.

It's not even 3 weeks, more like 6 days, but to be fair there is a system in place to boost you from 19 > 25, which won't be in release.

The days of slow FFXI style levelling is long gone, you won't find any MMO these days with that kind of time sink, especially before end game.

I have some grip with the chat system.

Other than the chat box bug
We really need some type of global LFG channel I think. Before 30, it's all good since the dungeon you need to participate in is in the zone you are leveling. But at 30, Hakkuen is in central and are leveling in south part of south...

Won't be needed when they add the content finder.

Chat log is being redesigned for phase 3 from scratch supposedly, I'm hoping it allows us to link items and right click names etc.

 

[Lucis]

I got my gla to 35 and personally I thought holding hate really isn't too much of a problem. For the last dungeon all I had was archers doing their aoe moves so you constantly have to be cycling targets to see which one you're about to lose hate on and use your WS on the mobs accordingly. The only time I've had problems with hate has been when the melees were a few levels above me

Also I agree with the poster above on how provoke works, it doesn't really seem to work at all if you open up the fight with it.

From what I saw it most likely works as how WOW's taunt/provoke works.

You get equal agro of the top agro holder. So if you do nothing after that, the target might go lose. If you open with it, it does NOTHING since there's nothing on the list.

Also i think it works with wow's agro management. the peal off is not immediately, probably 110% of the current target. I don't think range has a 130% modifier.

 

[Robobandit]

Uhh no this is will be the 4th.

25th, 2nd, 9th, 16th.

Not the 4th week, though. The 25th and the 2nd were in the same calendar week. (monday and saturday)

This upcoming test will be the 4th test, but they said between 2 and 4 weeks is what they were shooting for. They could do one a week from friday as well and still be on schedule... but I'm sure they'll do however many they need to.

 

[Ravidrath]

I'm a bit concerned that you can get to level 30 in just three weekends of play. If the cap remains 50, it's giving me bad vibes of WoW and the current state of FFXI where you can solo to cap in no time.

Maybe my way of thinking is just off from the norm, but I don't want to be able to hit cap in a single week of steady play. FFXI may have been a time sink that people didn't like, but as I mentioned before, I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I hit cap. If I can hit cap in a week in ARR, that sense of accomplishment will be severely lacking.

Still holding out for the retail version, but getting more and more skeptical that I'll like it.

So far I'm OK with the current rate of advancement, but wouldn't mind if was slowed down a little. The highest I got was Level 15, though, so I haven't even done the leveling dungeons, which sound like the best way to level.

But keep in mind that in this game you pretty much need to level three classes at a minimum to be competitive, so I'm not sure you should base everything on the growth rate of one.

You also need to keep in mind that getting the job quests done, getting your artifact armor, etc. requires parties, and they'll practically be a requirement once those are added in. So that will slow things down a bit, too.

And the cap will be 50 at launch, but it sounds like it'll be raised to 60 pretty quickly, if not in the first major update. So right now, with the cap at 50, I feel like that's just to establish a baseline level of abilities, and as more levels are added you'll need to focus more and more on a single class/job.

 

[Zios]

I'm a bit concerned that you can get to level 30 in just three weekends of play. If the cap remains 50, it's giving me bad vibes of WoW and the current state of FFXI where you can solo to cap in no time.

Maybe my way of thinking is just off from the norm, but I don't want to be able to hit cap in a single week of steady play. FFXI may have been a time sink that people didn't like, but as I mentioned before, I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I hit cap. If I can hit cap in a week in ARR, that sense of accomplishment will be severely lacking.

Still holding out for the retail version, but getting more and more skeptical that I'll like it.

Your way of thinking is off, the current design philosophy for MMO's is different from that of the days of FFXI. MMO's today are focused on endgame content, not spending months to reach cap. Like it or leave it, this is how all MMO's will function. Leveling exp is boosted in beta, and their are options to instantly go from 1-15, and 20-25, so people are getting to the beta cap fast. Regardless, leveling in FFXIV will be fast come release.

This game is not designed for traditional FFXI grind parties, nor do they have a real place that fits in the current game design. Quests-Instances- Hunting logs- Levequests-FATES- will be the primary ways to level, as zones/mobs/mob placement, are all designed around those options. Perhaps the dev team will give in, however I just don't see how it would work in this game. People bring up the notion that quests will eventually run out after leveling multiple jobs, which is true. However I do see SE changing this down the road.

Sorry for the rant, just annoyed that the beta forums will be plagued by various "this game will fail because of combat and no exp grind parties"

 

[Allard]

I'm a bit concerned that you can get to level 30 in just three weekends of play. If the cap remains 50, it's giving me bad vibes of WoW and the current state of FFXI where you can solo to cap in no time.

Maybe my way of thinking is just off from the norm, but I don't want to be able to hit cap in a single week of steady play. FFXI may have been a time sink that people didn't like, but as I mentioned before, I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I hit cap. If I can hit cap in a week in ARR, that sense of accomplishment will be severely lacking.

Still holding out for the retail version, but getting more and more skeptical that I'll like it.

Well 3 things are probably influencing your perspective 1) Dungeons are giving a decent amount of EXP to the point you gain half a level in the higher level ones each time you go through them. I think this will be in for launch I see no reason it shouldn't be but as the EXP goes higher, so too will EXP from dungeons impact your EXP to next level less and less, still among the more efficient ways to level. 2) You have a lot more options for EXP on your first class due to all the one time quests and I too think this is intentional, Yoshida probably wants people to get to cap at a somewhat decent pace on their first class (to hold peoples attention). and 3) a Beta only trait, you skip lvl 20-25 and if it wasn't for the bug, would have skipped 10-15. Those 5 levels probably would have upped the time considerably, not to mention we don't know how much traveling could be involved in some of the other quests due for launch, and at lvl 30 you should be getting access to job quests, grand company quests and missions, a whole host of new content that should distract from leveling once they get implemented.

Right now we are basically 'only' testing the new stuff, and not even all of it. Once the old integral content gets added in like guildhest (which hasn't shown up yet that I know of), job quests, more intricate missions, and also PvP (which Yoshida said would become a source for EXP if one desired it at lvl 30), so much more milestone related stuff shows up you won't even notice or care about leveling up before you finish that stuff. Old FFXIV it was ridiculously easy to level up, especially if you had a treasure trove of Guildleves, honestly I find the current leveling speed to be a bit of a slog compared to FFXIV leveling in 1.0. The only time it started getting slower was lvl 35+, and even then you had a ton of options to level, like lets not forget EXP chaining in the beastmen camps once you hit lvl 41. I remember going 1-35 in a day on some classes, and this was after the plvl nerf.

 

[Jinko]

Perhaps the dev team will give in, however I just don't see how it would work in this game. People bring up the notion that quests will eventually run out after leveling multiple jobs, which is true. However I do see SE changing this down the road.

I can see them just adding more quests as the game matures, much in the same way WoW did, when WoW was first released they had so few quests you had to grind in between lol.

I think Yoshida did mention something about daily quests as well, although I though that was what guildleves were.

 

[omlet]

2) You have a lot more options for EXP on your first class due to all the one time quests and I too think this is intentional, Yoshida probably wants people to get to cap at a somewhat decent pace on their first class (to hold peoples attention).

And honestly I think this is great and they shouldn't go out of their way to change that.

Hurry to cap on 1-3 classes via questing, story, and things along the way (like FATE), establish yourself, so to speak, so you are able to farm, explore, get your foot in the door for events at cap, etc. and then to really maximize your character you will need to put in some extra work--leveling those other classes the manual way not the autopilot questing way.

I kind of suspect some people will just make alts for other classes (or sets of classes) to take advantage of quest availability.

Well, either way it won't impact me much at launch. I got everything but fishing capped before servers went down because leveling battle classes was silly fast even without PL.

 

[Jinko]

Interesting post from the UI lead.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ARR-Te...ation-JP-to-EN?p=272039&viewfull=1#post272039

 

[Jijidasu]

Like a lot of you I'm pretty burned out. I'm anxious for phase 2 as I'm a controller user and I hate that janky-ass side run thing you see when strafing.

Cool story: think Ifrit extreme was hard? I had to do it with a controller while using near-56k level connection speeds (wifi dongle).

I'd be more tempted to jump in on the weekend if they opened West Shroud.

 

[Allard]

Like a lot of you I'm pretty burned out. I'm anxious for phase 2 as I'm a controller user and I hate that janky-ass side run thing you see when strafing.

Cool story: think Ifrit extreme was hard? I had to do it with a controller while using near-56k level connection speeds (wifi dongle).

I'd be more tempted to jump in on the weekend if they opened West Shroud.

I just want to see more new areas period. Tired of seeing the rocks obscure access to Coerthas and Thanalan, I can also see the potential entrance to west shroud and those stupid boulders are always there! Thankfully I am playing FFXI and its new expansion soon so I'll have plenty of things to keep me busy till phase 3, the phase I have been waiting for, so sick of Black Shroud even though it is very beautiful now. I'm also really curious to see if Coerthas/Mor Dhona will be available in beta test or if its going to a be launch element. They kind of have to open those areas up for launch because a lot of Job quests deal with those areas and I doubt the will lock jobs out with players migrating over from 1.0 on them, but the only thing we have seen/heard on areas opening up is the Thanalan and La Noscea areas for leveling.

 

[Mastamind]

At some point, wasn't it stated that the chat system would be redone after the chat bug was first reported on?

 

[Munba]

I dunno if West Shroud exists.. but i'm pretty sure there is a new area in the west path of north shroud (in the old pdf it's called "to the mountains").

 

[Allard]

I dunno if West Shroud exists.. but i'm pretty sure there is a new area in the west path of north shroud (in the old pdf it's called "to the mountains").

Its Coerthas

Spoiler

The NPCs at the Aether in North Shroud talk about the 'dangerous snowy path' to Coerthas at the new Inn that showed up in Beta.

The West Shroud/Ancient Eorzean Stratum entrance is either the area swamped by ghosts (haunts whatever they are called) or down in the spriggan ravine in the far west end of Central Shroud. You can barely see the stratum from North Shroud, but almost right next door in central.

 

[Jinko]

Its Coerthas

Spoiler

The NPCs at the Aether in North Shroud talk about the 'dangerous snowy path' to Coerthas at the new Inn that showed up in Beta.

The West Shroud/Ancient Eorzean Stratum entrance is either the area swamped by ghosts (haunts whatever they are called) or down in the spriggan ravine in the far west end of Central Shroud. You can barely see the stratum from North Shroud, but almost right next door in central.

If you go east of fourguard float or whatever its called there is a new area there, it had lvl 48 mobs in it so I didn't go far, couldn't enter it in alpha.

I did enter it and it was named something shroud but I didn't pay much attention.

 

[theSlacker]

I can see them just adding more quests as the game matures, much in the same way WoW did, when WoW was first released they had so few quests you had to grind in between lol.

Not really true. You couldn't level off of just following one races quests like you could later, but you could get to 60 from just doing quests and instance runs that were part of quests. What I did at least, and even ended up doing greyed out quests just for funsies because I loved them.

Not that this really maters.

Chat log is being redesigned for phase 3 from scratch supposedly, I'm hoping it allows us to link items and right click names etc.

Hope so too. Sending tells typing out peoples long ass first and last names can get annoying.

If you go east of fourguard float or whatever its called there is a new area there, it had lvl 48 mobs in it so I didn't go far, couldn't enter it in alpha.

I did enter it and it was named something shroud but I didn't pay much attention.

Northeast of it? Was just a bunch of Ixali with a camp of them at the top of the hill. Didn't see anythings that looked like possible exits to other areas. To the like west of fourgard float seemed to be a path that should of continued but was blocked by boulders though. That is if we are talking about the same area, the floating camp in the north shroud. There seemed to be a bunch of boulder blocked paths, but the only map that I just couldn't go to a new area that was on the map was in eastern shroud. Was marked "sylph lands" or something and had a "gate" thing that wouldn't open.

 

[QisTopTier]

Having to wait til phase 3 to play Arcanist is painful

 

[Xux]

I thought Yoshi-P said in one of the Alpha Q&As that Arcanist wasn't going to be in the Beta...which means an army of Marauders in Limsa, lol.

 

[Munba]

Its Coerthas

Spoiler

The NPCs at the Aether in North Shroud talk about the 'dangerous snowy path' to Coerthas at the new Inn that showed up in Beta.

.

I see. In that case coerthas will be too close to gridania imo... unless that snowy path is considered a new area between north shroud and coerthas.

 

[QisTopTier]

I thought Yoshi-P said in one of the Alpha Q&As that Arcanist wasn't going to be in the Beta...which means an army of Marauders in Limsa, lol.

Arcanist in phase 3 or 4, and smn in release.

 

[Xux]

Arcanist in phase 3 or 4, and smn in release.

Where'd he say that? I have a link of the GAF member's summary of the questions they asked Yoshi-P including where he said that Arcanist wouldn't be in Beta if you want me to PM it.

 

[desu]

I'm also really curious to see if Coerthas/Mor Dhona will be available in beta test or if its going to a be launch element.

Limsa/Uldah/Coerthas and Mor Dhana related files like maps and so on are already in the beta client.

 

[Munba]

Limsa/Uldah/Coerthas and Mor Dhana related files like maps and so on are already in the beta client.

There are new names on it?

 

[Jijidasu]

Limsa/Uldah/Coerthas and Mor Dhana related files like maps and so on are already in the beta client.

Links!

 

[desu]

There are no links, just stuff I heard. There are like 10-15k map tiles in the files (a map is usually 16x16 tiles). I know that there are Limsa/Thanalan maps. Then there are region texts for all big regions, as well as placeholder dungeon names and tons of new company ranks.

I am sure that stuff will be all over the fan sites once the NDA lifts.

 

[Jijidasu]

There are no links, just stuff I heard. There are like 10-15k map tiles in the files (a map is usually 16x16 tiles). I know that there are Limsa/Thanalan maps. Then there are region texts for all big regions, as well as placeholder dungeon names and tons of new company ranks.

I am sure that stuff will be all over the fan sites once the NDA lifts.

Bugger. I'd sure like to see them.

 

[Jinko]

Northeast of it? Was just a bunch of Ixali with a camp of them at the top of the hill. Didn't see anythings that looked like possible exits to other areas. To the like west of fourgard float seemed to be a path that should of continued but was blocked by boulders though. That is if we are talking about the same area, the floating camp in the north shroud. There seemed to be a bunch of boulder blocked paths, but the only map that I just couldn't go to a new area that was on the map was in eastern shroud. Was marked "sylph lands" or something and had a "gate" thing that wouldn't open.

Sorry I meant west , west gate there is a zone line at the far west of that area.

The area was more muddy than grassy and had lots of dead trees.

 

[Tesseract]

is this not out yet? fuck.

 

[creid]

Hasn't Yoshi-P mentioned that by doing quests, you'll improve your "fame" in cities? Wouldn't this imply that some quests will be repeatable, and therefore you would be able to re-do them with other classes to level them up?

 

[Freyjadour]

Not really true. You couldn't level off of just following one races quests like you could later, but you could get to 60 from just doing quests and instance runs that were part of quests. What I did at least, and even ended up doing greyed out quests just for funsies because I loved them.

Not that this really maters.

Sort of. Doing it that way took a measure of patience with crossing the continents over and over again that few had. Not to mention that it wasn't a path to wealth when gold had meaning. Spent the better part of 30-40 killing monkeys and cats in STV for vendor trash and skinning mats to sell.

Of course, coming off of XI with quests like the fucking Crawler's Nest map, not as big a deal I suppose.

 

[Jarnet87]

With each of the corresponding disciples classes having a job advancement, do you guys think that in the future they will have to add a new class and a job for that class, or maybe just add more jobs that require a different combination of lvl 30 and lvl 15 requirements?

 

[theSlacker]

With each of the corresponding disciples classes having a job advancement, do you guys think that in the future they will have to add a new class and a job for that class, or maybe just add more jobs that require a different combination of lvl 30 and lvl 15 requirements?

Who knows. If they do make it so multiple "jobs" launch from the same base "class" there will be a problem with them playing too similar though, since a job still just plays like the base "class" with a handful of new skills. So they seem to be limited in what they can do without big changes to the job/class system.

Sort of. Doing it that way took a measure of patience with crossing the continents over and over again that few had. Not to mention that it wasn't a path to wealth when gold had meaning. Spent the better part of 30-40 killing monkeys and cats in STV for vendor trash and skinning mats to sell.

Of course, coming off of XI with quests like the fucking Crawler's Nest map, not as big a deal I suppose.

Of course you know better then most how little I hurt for cash in WoW even with never doing serious farming for it in vanilla. Just wasn't a problem if you did all the quests, and loved to explore in the game. Also after coming from FFXI my tolerance for farming was much higher then it should have been.

 

[Jinko]

Who knows. If they do make it so multiple "jobs" launch from the same base "class" there will be a problem with them playing too similar though, since a job still just plays like the base "class" with a handful of new skills. So they seem to be limited in what they can do without big changes to the job/class system.

Not so sure, looking at the new Bard skills they are literally pigeon holed now, if you wana DD you will have go as Archer or just not use any songs.

I hope for some people who want to play as a ranged DD the second Job they add evens things out a little, example Ranger would play a fair bit different to Bard.

In 1.0 job skills made a massive difference IMO.

 

[Lucis]

Why would you have class and job, if there's only one job coming out of a class?
I don't get it.

 

[Akuosa]

Why would you have class and job, if there's only one job coming out of a class?
I don't get it.

The whole class/job is what I don't get. I always thought it was a crapy band-aid we're carrying from 1.0 design problems... just call them jobs and be done with it, but it's too late now.

The problem I see now with having multiple jobs coming out of a class, it's more long-term related. I mean, what about people that already have every class at 50? Even with arcanist or other future level caps... if that's the case , there soon be a moment when they implement new jobs and you'll do what? Unlock the skills they have via quests and done? Because they'll be already leveled, and I know mmos are almost all about the endgame nowadays, but come on, if they release a new job, I want to level it.

 

[theSlacker]

Not so sure, looking at the new Bard skills they are literally pigeon holed now, if you wana DD you will have go as Archer or just not use any songs.

I hope for some people who want to play as a ranged DD the second Job they add evens things out a little, example Ranger would play a fair bit different to Bard.

In 1.0 job skills made a massive difference IMO.

I guess I was making assumptions about things that I've only read about then, since I didn't play 1.0. For a class like Lancer though I can only see so much variation since it looks like Dragoon will still have to use the same basic combos that you get as lancer, with a few timed jumps added in. The new job would have to add alot more to make that base class play fundamentally different. Of course that fits since the only lance job is Dragoon, but the same problem is in place for any of the "weapon" classes I think now. Since the weapon dictates the class, and that class will always have the same basic combos and attacks.

The whole class/job is what I don't get. I always thought it was a crapy band-aid we're carrying from 1.0 design problems... just call them jobs and be done with it, but it's too late now.

The problem I see now with having multiple jobs coming out of a class, it's more long-term related. I mean, what about people that already have every class at 50? Even with arcanist or other future level caps... if that's the case , there soon be a moment when they implement new jobs and you'll do what? Unlock the skills they have via quests and done? Because they'll be already leveled, and I know mmos are almost all about the endgame nowadays, but come on, if they release a new job, I want to level it.

I would expect there to be gradual increases in level cap, like FFXI had. Didn't that game launch with 50 being it's cap as well? Know the NA version was 75 and it has been there forever, but it wasn't how the game original was.

 

[Lucis]

I am ok with... not having to level a new job.

However if the concern is not able to level new job when they come out because you already have them capped. The same problem will happen reguardless if they raise level cap or not though.

 

[Jinko]

Yea I don't see them doing a FF11 again and idling at 75 for years, I expect 5 levels every 18-24 months or something, maybe every expansion.

I am ok with... not having to level a new job.

However if the concern is not able to level new job when they come out because you already have them capped. The same problem will happen reguardless if they raise level cap or not though.

If people are that concerned they can just make a new character.

 

[Lucis]

The whole point of FF14 is that, you can have one character to do everything (same with 11 too until merit point maybe, but I stopped playing there)

 

[Akuosa]

I would expect there to be gradual increases in level cap, like FFXI had. Didn't that game launch with 50 being it's cap as well? Know the NA version was 75 and it has been there forever, but it wasn't how the game original was.

Yes, but I mentioned the level caps too, that doesn't change my main issue, being that if they release "random mage nº2" comming out of conjurer today, I'll already have it leveled to 50. If they also raise the level cap to 100 the same day, for example, that won't change the fact I already have it at 50, and that's far for being the gradual increase that will probably happen, so it will be even worse. Maybe this isn't so much of an issue for most people, but it really bothers me.

The whole point of FF14 is that, you can have one character to do everything (same with 11 too until merit point maybe, but I stopped playing there)

I agree, but you don't start being able to do everything... getting there is part of the game. A huge part, imo.

 

[theSlacker]

Yes, but I mentioned the level caps too, that doesn't change my main issue, being that if they release "random mage nº2" comming out of conjurer today, I'll already have it leveled to 50. If they also raise the level cap to 100 the same day, for example, that won't change the fact I already have it at 50, and that's far for being the gradual increase that will probably happen, so it will be even worse. Maybe this isn't so much of an issue for most people, but it really bothers me.

Which is why I think it is more likely for them to add more base classes, and keep it at 1 job per base class. Meaning you will have to level it from the start like in FFXI. The biggest problem with that is how they have already done Archer -> Bard instead of Ranger.

 

[DrDogg]

So you can get to cap pretty easily, then what? Just grinding for endgame gear? If that's the case, can anyone give me a quick rundown of how ARR endgame may differ from FFXI endgame? I'm really hoping it won't be, "rush to 50/60, then sit through Dynamis/Sky/Sea-type content". I was okay with FFXI endgame, but only when I could mix in XP/merit parties to round things out.

Also, I know it was mentioned that more party-based content would be added after the initial levels. However, from the looks of phase 1 it seems like you can solo to pretty high levels with ease. I don't mind a step back from the forced party system of FFXI (even though I really enjoyed it), but if most players choose to solo most of the time, I'll get bored of ARR pretty quickly.

 

[Akuosa]

Which is why I think it is more likely for them to add more base classes, and keep it at 1 job per base class. Meaning you will have to level it from the start like in FFXI. The biggest problem with that is how they have already done Archer -> Bard instead of Ranger.

Yeah, I also think they'll go this route, even if it has its own problems.
I guess they can always do something like... scout? > ranger, or something weird like that. Then again, maybe that's more fitting for thief? Gah, whatever.