I think feats are one of the coolest aspects of D&D character customization, so it’s always a pain when it’s stifled in favor of number-go-up. Depending on how high I plan to go, I give my players a feat every level or every other level. They end up with more than they know what to do with and end up taking RP feats, which are sorely underutilized because of the opportunity cost of obtaining them.

Yes, the PCs get more powerful, but that just means I rebalance enemies.

Knockouts. It’s a very simple rule. If you successfully sneak up on a creature and successfully hit them with an attack that deals bludgeoning damage, they need to pass a con save with a DC equal to 10 or half the damage dealt (whichever is higher) or they immediately fall unconscious. I feel like 5e doesn’t really encourage stealth enough otherwise, and this way players have a decent way to pick off sentries and such before raiding a camp.

In theory you could do assassinations with a similar rule, but I haven’t tried it out in a campaign.

The story is the main draw, and worth experiencing IMO, even if it takes forever to get going, but it’s still a good MMO. I don’t know if I’d call it “the best of all time,” but I’ve enjoyed my time with it. The reason I keep my sub between story patches is because I like hanging out with friends and being in the world, which is what an MMO is all about.

I don’t really have the time or interest for the super challenging content it offers, but I level jobs, I do treasure hunts with friends, I do Deep Dungeon, I obtain cool outfits, and I hang out at a friend’s RP bar.

Like any game, though, it’s not for everyone. If you like tab-target MMOs, WoW has better combat I think.

Yeah, the base class/job stone system is kind of pointless now. The fact that you even have to equip your job stone doesn’t make sense anymore, with the exception of Arcanist, but hopefully some day SMN and SCH will be separated.

Last time I said this people pushed back a lot, but personally I just want level sync to scale down your damage/healing potencies instead of removing skills. Maybe make it an optional tick in the duty finder and call it potency sync. Slowly learning skills as you level is nice to help you get accustomed to the job, but once you’ve been level 90 for a year it’s really hard to do Sastasha in leveling roulette without falling asleep. Having all this extra utility would hurt the balance of older dungeons, but older dungeons are already unbalanced so I don’t think it’s a very strong arguement.

I think it’s a fine way to balance combat. Utility outside of combat should be, I think, considered entirely separately. Even if you can be the most useful, active character in the party in an RP scenario, being ineffective in combat just straight-up sucks. So I don’t think out-of-combat utility is something that should be considered when balancing classes.

That’s not to say that I think the out-of-combat utility balance should be ignored, just that it should be considered distinct.

I doubt they’ll rework MSQ. It was an intentional design decision to make MSQ extremely accessible to people new to MMOs. It’s not until level 30 or so that dungeons and trials begin to present challenges, and even then it’s generally very easy until max level. FFXIV is a story-driven game, and the MSQ is the vessel for that. Gameplay really only exists in MSQ to teach you the very basics and get you from point A to point B. Any content that’s required to progress isn’t going to ask much of the player.

The real challenge is in the optional content. Extreme trials and savage raids can be very difficult, especially on release. You’ll generally need a preformed group to communicate for these, or all know the strategies beforehand. Extreme Trials tend to take a few hours to learn and clear blind. Savage raids can take anywhere from hours to weeks. Then there’s Ultimates, which are some of the most difficult content in all of MMOs. These can take months of dedicated effort to clear.

As you progress, you can unlock side content every 10 levels from 50 onward. If you’re looking for a challenge, that’s where you’ll find it.