1.) Ability to play all jobs/classes on a single character.
Because nothing screams as unfun to me as needing to name and make from the ground up 5 different characters to play what I want to play.
And no, doing the exact same monotonous story and unlocks and achievements on a second character is not adding replayability. It’s a chore and a bore and discourages me from trying different classes in this game.
Eg: Why would I level a paladin to try holy paladin when I already have a priest? I don’t want to subject myself to that regrind of boring story.
I should be able to swap from priest to mage if my composition demands it without punishment. In FFXIV I can-- why won’t WoW let me? “BECAUSE REASONS”.
Because “reasons”???
That’s 
Not Good Enough Anymore
This is a relic of the past and poor game design for the modern 2021 era.
2.) Ability to play all classes on all races.
And no your lore doesn’t matter. Not sorry about it either, I have yet to see a SINGLE WoW streamer actually sit through the lore and justify it.
“VULPERA DRUIDS DON’T MAKE SENSE”.
And the fact that the lore cripples the gameplay makes even less sense.
But if you really want to be so hung up on it?
Explain lightforged death knights. Yet they still in game still can use their racials which is to do with the light. Ok then.
Now that you’ve managed to come up with a potential contrived answer / justification for that realize that every single race and every single class can have the same sort of wonky arguments applied.
So no, your lore makes no sense.
3.) Meaningful solo content and meaningful solo progression
Imagine being able to play a game casually where you can take part in other activities other than 20 player recruitment simulator raids, highly organized and competitive (and punishing) mythic dungeons.
And no pvp doesn’t count. And no pvp in ffxiv is not better than wow. PvP appeals to a very small demographic in mmorpgs.
And you wonder why the casual player is moving to FFXIV.
Relic weapons, housing, world altering events (eg: ishgardian restoration), gold saucer (Which is like 100 different things), extreme trials, social events, yada yadda.
Actually let me do this.
3.2) Reviving old content
FFXIV’s relic weapon revives old content like old alliance raids, old dungeons, old maps with FATEs.
Or FFXIV’s special “toy” class the blue mage that revives old content with neat rewards like mounts, achievements, titles, glamors and is just flat out a unique experience.
WHERE IS THE SOLO CONTENT THAT CAN BE MEANINGFUL?
WHERE? IS? IT?
4.) Better balance
The balance between the highest and lowest specs of any role in this game is an abhorrent stain on WoW.
I don’t care what you say, in no situation would anyone logically take a survival hunter over a fire mage in m+ or raid. Impossible, do not peddle these lies to me.
Yet in FFXIV the balance between the top and bottom performers in any piece of content is extremely close-- to the point where people genuinely encourage people to play anything and everything has very much been taken around.
In b4 people bring up old monk during heavensward. In b4 people bring up old AST in heavensward.
Look at it right now. The balance is so razor’s edge close that when you look at warcraft logs it’s almost laughable.
5.) Meaningful CLASSES (rather than “choice”)
In FFXIV you don’t need to feel punished for making a “meaningful choice”. What a tonedeaf obtuse mess of a phrase “meaningful choice” is.
Try telling me you actually have a choice between necrolord druid or night fae druid. Oh yes, the choice to be massively suboptimal and rejected from groups. I love “meaningful choices”.
And let’s not forget that if things are buffed/nerfed heavily each patch then you need to swap covenants or risk being severely undertuned.
9.1 is coming soon and it’s going to be brutal.
Let’s not forget for your “meaningful choice” you will need to when you swap.
-grind renown again
-you lose all covenant features such as mission table, mission table companion levels (yeah rip everyone), any sanctum unlocks.
-you cannot use your unlocked covenant armors /weapons anymore
So can’t wait for 9.1 to “shake up the meta” and invalidate ALL actual progress.
“MEANINGFUL CHOICES”
6.) Meaningful currency rates
Anima. Too stingy.
Stingya. Too stingy.
People calculated it’d take literal years to get all the anima you need to unlock stuff.
People happily defended it as “you aren’t meant to get everything ikmmediately!”
I however wrote it off as an abhorrent joke.
-Mission table missions give 30 anima.
-World quests can give 35 anima at the lowest rank (so flight time, doing it and flying back for 35 anima? ROFL)
Yeah um. Stingy. Not a meaningful currency rate.
Combine this with changing covenants wipes your current progress and yeah… why are we caring about / farming this currency again?
Even the worst grinds in FFXIV (which we no longer see today in any shape) like ATMA grinding for ARR relics BEFORE it was soon nerfed… yeah… Not even that was this stupidly bad.
7.) Meaningful crafting/gathering
People talk about transmog competitions in this game and I am always shocked. Why? There isn’t that much diversity in gear and if you really think there is then please do identify where you can wear a suit and tie in WoW, or what about slippers? Or what about even 1/4th the options FFXIV provides.
The sheer amount of glamor craftables alone in FFXIV makes crafting relevant and provides people with more options.
Or relevant crafted gear (Which no an i510 piece will never compete with an i535 weapon. If you think it does then stop trolling and get real. It isn’t even remotely the same power wise.)
Or relevant crafter/gatherer objectives like ishgardian restoration, their own unique relic weapon lines and so much more.
Yet WoW spits in the face of crafters and gatherers.
