Fortunately, solo play is far more viable in FFXIV. For the record, I started playing FFXIV expecting it to be like a new version of FFXI. I was shocked like everyone else on earth at the state it launched in, but I was really surprised at how different it was from FF11.

In other words, the answer to your question is yes. As far as I know, they don’t have any plans to change this. Everything Yoshi-P has talked about, points towards even more solo based content in version 2.0.

Most of the story missions I completed in the current version (Basically all of them as far as I know) were fairly easy to complete solo.

The game launched with and still has a Guildleve system. It’s a separate system from accepting missions from an important NPC, or accepting random quests from various NPCs in the game. They kinda all play similarly in XIV though.

Guildleve – You explore the world map and find crystals to sync to called aetheryte crystals. These allow you to “remember” the camp spot on your own personal world map, so you can return to the camp whenever via teleport. You have 100 points to use to port, the further away from a location, the more points it costs to port. The points recharge over time, quicker when you are not logged in.

You basically go to the guild counter in any main city, they have different leves for you to pick. You can only select the ones recommended for your level, unless you already have a job at a higher level. Example – If you are level 10-20, the quests will require you to kill creatures around that level, unless you have something above level 20, you won’t be able to pick those yet.

To perform a guildleve, you go to a main camp, which you will be able to distinguish based on crystal size, name, etc. It’s really not complicated. You click on the crystal and click start leve. Some will allow you to tweak the difficulty rating of the monsters, from easy to hard. This is mostly used for smaller groups who are doing them together, but talented players can up the challenge for more exp. If for some reason you raise the difficult level up and die, you can lower it at anytime by clicking the crystal at the camp. When you start a leve, it temporarily sets you to respawn at that camp. In other words, you don’t have to run way back if you die. (This is a fairly general description of what leves are like.)

Quests- More or less what you expect. Running around town you will sometimes see NPCs with a special white emblem above them. These gives quests, they only allow you to take a quest for your level or lower. The more you level up, the more quests you will be able to do.

Missions – You accept these from the same area as the leves, unless an NPC tells you otherwise. These are also unlocked be level.

It’s fairly solo friendly, and unless you go looking for trouble, you are pretty safe alone. Skill does play a part, but it doesn’t take all that long to learn different tricks for solo play.

I played FF11 off and on again for 4-5 years. I know all about how solo was not an option after level 10 or so. (lol)

They have tweaked XIV quite often, but even with the new combat changes and enemy level tweaks. Back when I was playing actively, I was able to kite and solo monsters 10 or so levels above the max level cap in the game. This required kiting and experience, but I could do it.

If you want some good advice for solo play, XIV is all about using various skills from each job to your advantage. I learned this fairly quickly. For example, Combining skills from Conjurer and Lancer, while soloing on Archer, made me tough to kill back in the early days.

The game was really quite hard back then, but that was mostly because of the state the game itself was in. Lots of stuff was broken, especially for players. Skills wouldn’t work right and crap, it was pretty awful.

Anyways, the game is much improved now, and it’s only getting better. I hope this helped.