I believe any non-limited expansion job a player owns should be selectable as a starting job at level 1. Someone may buy an expansion for a particular job, only to discover they must play something else for many hours before accessing it. Letting players experience the MSQ through the job that attracted them would improve onboarding, job familiarity, alt creation, and retention.
This would not require abolishing ARR classes or changing how additional jobs are unlocked. Expansion jobs could simply become character-creation options, while their existing requirements remain for changing to them later.
A new introductory quest may not be necessary. A short opening cutscene could show the character finding or receiving their selected job’s soul crystal. Existing job stories could then become available at their original levels. Scenes where an NPC treats the player as a complete beginner would need only minor revisions, instead presenting the training as mastery of advanced techniques. Abilities could unlock automatically through leveling, while job quests remain worthwhile for lore, artifact gear, titles, and other cosmetics.
Evercold would be an ideal time to introduce this alongside Evolved Mode and the Armoury update. Evolved jobs are already being redesigned to possess their core toolkit by level 50, with later progression primarily improving existing actions. That naturally creates the gradual level 1–50 progression expansion jobs need and lets new players learn their kits one ability at a time instead of receiving dozens at once.
Equipment would not require complete new catalogues. The race-specific starter clothing every character receives could provide scaling baseline stats through level 50, adjusting to the current class, job, and level. This should apply to traditional classes as well, keeping it fair. FFXIV already supports equipment with adaptive attributes. Each starting job would need only one weapon that scales until its original unlock level, after which normal weapon progression could take over.
Existing level 1–50 gear would remain valuable. Glamour already allows equipment appearances to be used regardless of level or role restrictions, so MSQ, dungeon, vendor, and crafted gear could remain as collectible fashion. A synced starter set prevents players from becoming severely undergeared or constantly replacing short-lived equipment until a point they're much more well learned in their experience.
This would preserve the MSQ while reducing early gear stress, Armoury Chest clutter, and ability overload. It would not require removing classes, rewriting entire job questlines, relocating every trainer, or creating dozens of low-level equipment sets. It would combine systems that already exist or are already being revised for Evercold into a focused improvement that lets players begin FFXIV as the job they actually want to play.
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This would not require abolishing ARR classes or changing how additional jobs are unlocked. Expansion jobs could simply become character-creation options, while their existing requirements remain for changing to them later.
A new introductory quest may not be necessary. A short opening cutscene could show the character finding or receiving their selected job’s soul crystal. Existing job stories could then become available at their original levels. Scenes where an NPC treats the player as a complete beginner would need only minor revisions, instead presenting the training as mastery of advanced techniques. Abilities could unlock automatically through leveling, while job quests remain worthwhile for lore, artifact gear, titles, and other cosmetics.
Evercold would be an ideal time to introduce this alongside Evolved Mode and the Armoury update. Evolved jobs are already being redesigned to possess their core toolkit by level 50, with later progression primarily improving existing actions. That naturally creates the gradual level 1–50 progression expansion jobs need and lets new players learn their kits one ability at a time instead of receiving dozens at once.
Equipment would not require complete new catalogues. The race-specific starter clothing every character receives could provide scaling baseline stats through level 50, adjusting to the current class, job, and level. This should apply to traditional classes as well, keeping it fair. FFXIV already supports equipment with adaptive attributes. Each starting job would need only one weapon that scales until its original unlock level, after which normal weapon progression could take over.
Existing level 1–50 gear would remain valuable. Glamour already allows equipment appearances to be used regardless of level or role restrictions, so MSQ, dungeon, vendor, and crafted gear could remain as collectible fashion. A synced starter set prevents players from becoming severely undergeared or constantly replacing short-lived equipment until a point they're much more well learned in their experience.
This would preserve the MSQ while reducing early gear stress, Armoury Chest clutter, and ability overload. It would not require removing classes, rewriting entire job questlines, relocating every trainer, or creating dozens of low-level equipment sets. It would combine systems that already exist or are already being revised for Evercold into a focused improvement that lets players begin FFXIV as the job they actually want to play.
Continue reading...