What do you miss from ARR?

Everything was fair

FATEs feeling more immersive at times and impacting the zone itself. Southern Shroud is my favorite FATE zone because of the Red Belly fort and the series of FATEs that gave you the chance to drive them out. Followed by the series of FATEs where they try to take it back.

Also East Thanalan where beastmen try to abduct citizens from the bridge settlement and if it's failed you get a chance to free them

It's also been mentioned a ton already, but some raids levels with more than just boss arenas.(T1,T2,T6,T9 Special shout out to T4 for the threatening level of adds in a gauntlet-esque fight. E8s adds is the closest I've come to enjoying trash in awhile.)

Dungeons with punishing mechanics (Amdapor Keep pre demon wall nerf)

Give me a dungeon-like raid where if you wipe you start back at the beginning.

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Originally Posted by Johaandr

Everything was fair

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...Was it, though?

/memories of GL originally not affecting a handful of skills, our strongest skills being cross-class GCDs to spam at high TP cost, and our maximal dps still being less than most DPS's even after having fully ramped up and being played optimally.

When falling off the arena meant you were unraiseable (Titan Hard/Ex & Levi Ex)

I miss Raging Strikes

The game felt more like MMORPG, than one time rollercoaster, that don't even have depth behind it, just flashy stuff with a story. Devs really tried to create living and breathing world, with some unique and deep mechanics like crafting.
The raids looked like raids, even if they cut them on parts. Now we have just bunch of trials without actual environment.
3 dungeons per patch, which had at least some difficulty.
Tanks had to manage their aggro, different buffs, cross skills and even stats. Game just had more depth into it and didn't tried to please everyone.

Coils...

:'(

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Originally Posted by Leareaux

When falling off the arena meant you were unraiseable (Titan Hard/Ex & Levi Ex)

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I had a love/hate relationship with that. On the one hand it forced people to get good or be left out of content. On the other hand it got REALLY aggravating when all I wanted was a Titan EX clear and the ever present latency issues ensured people were being knocked off left and right, even if they reacted to dodge the landslides. I felt Levi EX was pretty fair by comparison however, since you had generally enough time to react without lag killing you.

3 dungeons per patch.

I miss not knowing how useless my gear would be the next patch or expansion. I guess the surprise and wonder. I used to think that all my hard work was worth it obtaining the certain gear set. Until 3.0 came out and I saw how useless the grind was. Why waste time grinding when it gets replaced and made easier to obtain later.

So you got that shinny new weapon who cares the next patch will have a better looking one. Theres no incentive to grow when we all start over at lever 1 each and every patch.

Coil. None of the other raids came close to being as good as coil.

...I miss that you could cross over certain skills from other classes-- for example, having Physick on BLM was actually very useful.

Also miss the intensity of working towards the complete ilvl 90 AF+1 gear-- at one time, it was as a very solid set for your job class.

The difficulty.

Mana Shift.

The amount of content.

Nothing they've added since they started reducing content added in each patch accounts for the amount of stuff they've reduced. They took a problem of being overworked on patches and started reducing content instead of hiring more staff to keep up the pace of content on the company's biggest cash cow.

They say it's to give us more varied content but that's just a spin. We're still getting less than we used to, accounting for the stuff they're doing "instead". Wanna cut something? Stop giving us things like lords of vermilion, mahjong, chocobo racing, 3 versions of diadem... and maybe a controversial opinion, the feast. So much effort goes into it for the ver small group of players that actually play it and it's just not good content. Use the other subpar pvp mode that's actually more popular check your obligatory "we have pvp too!" checkbox.

Don't get me wrong, I love this game, but that's exactly why decisions like getting the amount of new dungeons we get these days instead of 3 dungeons EVERY major patch just don't sit right with me. Sad part is, many people playing nowadays weren't around back then and don't know what they're missing and so SE gets away with it.

I miss cross-class skills and how I miss cleric stance. It was so fun and hectic at the same time to DPS and heal. Shoot even some of the older skills that are no longer around. Like how DPSes leg sweep actually placed slow on mobs because its a leg sweep. miss stat materia lol

Map exploration. miss having to uncover the map. Now its like you never been here, but you know entire map already =/

Hellluuuuu

Post moogle quests.

I liked having a chance to learn more about some of the minor NPCs we ran into during the ARR MSQ. They were good for both world-building and some laughs.

Short answer would be everything probably.

The more exploritive dungeons, the difficulty of dungeons even on lower levels, following mechs, freely giving advice w/out worring about "You dont pay my sub" as much and more people asking "big pulls or no" and "full run or no"(expecial if someone was new or not synced) more often. Fall damage and the ability to prank my friends with it and having a laugh about it. (The shear number of times I pulled the skipped enemies over the cliff w/out dieing after the 2nd boss in Hullbreaker on my FC mates, Provoke on dps, tanking cartucce. My friends and I had fun in premades.) Enemies in dungeons you could outrun and therefore kite. ...also you cannot tell me that taking no fall damage makes sense. Weird gripe but still.

Crossclass system which was the entire reason I decided to pick up tanking, goons having higher HP than other dps because lore-they can wear scale. The synergy between classes because of the veriety of debufs and buffs, Bard being a support class with a healer limit break, the customability like bonus attribute points, the options for divercity in play style like vit/str, tanks tanking with tank stance because they were tanking instead of metaing damage for the sake of numbers. Mitigation as a whole across the classes. DOTS! The divercity between classes in general. Emnity management.

Non aggressive enemies, multiple level enemies w/in an area, the number of people just running around cause you couldnt fly. B rank hunts not needing to be assigned to get seals.

Drunken Friday Night Clears with team Mario that cleared content w/out charging for it for fun. Being trapped at the bottom of Titan. Not feeling like I had to raid just to get a good weapon/keep up. Raides that had more areas with them than trials.

Crafting stations being useful for me, GC stuff being at least semi relivent and useful, non-premacroed PVP hotbars, Veteren rewards like fantasia.

Sheilds and onehanded main hands for Casters (if youre gonna take onehanded weapons away can we at least be allowed to glamour them on twohanders?) Normal/less over the top weapon designes. Overmelding, less numbers bloat, CT mechanics. Less hand outs. No lvl1 weathered jewelry thats better than anything you can craft/buy till like lvl20 or higher.

The veriaty in expert roulette, WAR not being a meme. Having a better kit at low lvls. Most of the removed abilities for magic and war and their animations. And probably even more stuff I cant think of off the top of my head at this moment.

I do like some things, and understand why SOME of the stuff I really liked was removed. I still absolutly love the story. I just miss stuff I've lost... and find it infuriating that some NPCs can still do moves I want back.

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Originally Posted by Lumina

The amount of content.

Nothing they've added since they started reducing content added in each patch accounts for the amount of stuff they've reduced. They took a problem of being overworked on patches and started reducing content instead of hiring more staff to keep up the pace of content on the company's biggest cash cow.

They say it's to give us more varied content but that's just a spin. We're still getting less than we used to, accounting for the stuff they're doing "instead". Wanna cut something? Stop giving us things like lords of vermilion, mahjong, chocobo racing, 3 versions of diadem... and maybe a controversial opinion, the feast. So much effort goes into it for the ver small group of players that actually play it and it's just not good content. Use the other subpar pvp mode that's actually more popular check your obligatory "we have pvp too!" checkbox.

Don't get me wrong, I love this game, but that's exactly why decisions like getting the amount of new dungeons we get these days instead of 3 dungeons EVERY major patch just don't sit right with me. Sad part is, many people playing nowadays weren't around back then and don't know what they're missing and so SE gets away with it.

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^ This x 10

I miss Fracture....
I miss Howling Fist ....
I miss Steel Peak ...
I miss Goon’s pole dance.....
I miss Bard’s Valley-something skill.....
I miss Paladin’s Flash.....
I miss Black Mage’s Apocalypsaurus....

Hildibrand.

Specially because Shadowbringers doesn´t feature a Hildibrand questline, but I also mean that the quality of Hildibrand´s antics dropped each expansion.
They are the only quests I entirely rewatch when I create a new character.

Pole dancing Dragoons.

Relics.

They took you out into the world in many stages, had you participate in a variety of content and in some stages gave you multiple options for completion. We haven't had much outside of glorified fate farming since.

They also looked MUCH better and didn't suffer from particle effect overkill

Extra-game purchases really only used for character services.
Previous event rewards returning for the next event with the addition of new items.
3 dungeons a patch / hardmode sequels to leveling dungeons
Explorable building interiors that aren't just used for quests.
Sight seeing log being a scavenger hunt with hints instead of "stand on the glowy thing and /lookout"
Fate chains opening up inacessable parts of the map
8man raids being explorable areas instead of A Square or A Circle or if SE is feeling REALLY adventurous, A Rectangle.
Similarly, branching paths on dungeons with optional side stuff (finding and saving the sex slave prison in sastasha.)
More toned down and practical armor design.
Similarly, more down to earth stories.
The comradere of fate grinding to level up with the entire server in Costa Del Sol, Coerthas, and Northern Thanalan. (yes yes pure nostalgia at this one)

Hildibrand’s questlines and the original relics.

Also, one thing I wholly miss from ARR is how differently the playerbase treated Binding Coil of Bahamut in the beginning verses the raids now. Savage wasn’t a thing, and Coil was essentially open to any player who was interested. It was hard as hell with our garbage gear, but it was so easy to just go in and bang your head on the wall for a while with randoms on equal footing. I feel like EX and Savage started the break between casual and hardcore players that still lingers.

Smaller zones
Dungeons
Wide Volley
Papalymo
The Three Amigos (Mother Mionne, Momodi, Other Guy)

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Originally Posted by MeeDeggiThePunisher

Dungeons

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I chuckled, but only with great emotional pain.

I really do miss them feeling at least a little novel, taking at least one wipe per PuG run as often as not, and there being 3 of them per major patch.

Hellluuuuu, I miss literally everything from ARR times. <3

Protect and Stoneskin!

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Originally Posted by Luna-M

Protect and Stoneskin!

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^This. This oh so very much.

And expanded on that, the old cross-class system. Yes it got a bit creaky but I still miss being able to cross-class Cure and Raise on my PLD.

Not a thing. The game has only improved by leaving that behind.

It's funny, a lot of these were actually addressed in Eureka - like having a world that felt alive and vibrant, enemies that actually felt intimidating and powerful, FATE trains... even protect and stoneskin are in Eureka if you have the logograms for them. I'm not really defending Eureka because I don't find it fun but I think the whole point of Eureka was to try and recapture that feeling of ARR. Let's hope Bozjan Southern Front is better at it as well as being actually fun.

I miss knowing less about the game. The pure sense of adventure that comes from being a starstruck newbie with no idea what's around that corner or at the end of that dungeon. Seven years later I've done everything and know everything, and while that's fun in its own way, it's very, VERY different from the new player experience. You can't explore something a second time. You can only revisit it.

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Originally Posted by Edax

I guess I miss the semi-realistic armor. A lot of the AAR gear had a sensible design while most of the expansion stuff have gone off the deep end.

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Also this. Foestriker, Warwolf, etc look like practical armor a lancer might actually wear in combat. Slipstream does not.

The chills I got from the Edda easter eggs and storyline. Also her ghost sightings. They should bring that back for Halloween.

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Originally Posted by Enla

I had a love/hate relationship with that. On the one hand it forced people to get good or be left out of content. On the other hand it got REALLY aggravating when all I wanted was a Titan EX clear and the ever present latency issues ensured people were being knocked off left and right, even if they reacted to dodge the landslides. I felt Levi EX was pretty fair by comparison however, since you had generally enough time to react without lag killing you.

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I took a break starting sometime in patch 2.2 for this exact reason and didn't come back until after Heavensward started during 3.35. Missed all of 2.3-3.2 simply because my 180-210ms ping at the time meant that even a full patch after Titan EX dropped I still couldn't progress past it to even unlock Ifrit and felt the game wasn't worth investing my time in until I could get a better connection. I had already reached level 50 with every job/class so there wasn't much left to do for me other than end-game trials and Titan EX was effectively impossible for me without a carry. Once I got back with better internet (90ms which the subsequent server move a year later improved even more to 40ms yay!) I was completely fine doing Titan EX without getting one-shot during plume stacks or getting knocked off. I think there was even some adjustment SE had put in during that time to help account for higher pings... my memory is fuzzy on what that was though.

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Originally Posted by MrPresident

Figuring it out as we went along.

No one knew what the hell they were doing and it was great. Fine tuning our skills, optimising our gear, finding little rewards like minions from fates and dungeons, It was all done on the fly. There may have been a small group at the very top of the game who understood what they were doing from the get go. But most of us were just bumbling through and I liked that.

Now the game is so big and established every major fight is cleared and has an established strategy about a day after release. The dungeons all follow the same formula and rarely deviate while there is also less adaptability and variation in play styles now than ever.

I still enjoy the game and probably will for the remainder of its life span. But it’s hard to replicate that feeling of when it was fresh and original.

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This. Absolutely this.
I still remember partying up with a group back in ARR beta. We were so excited about getting our chocobos. Everything was new, fresh, and mysterious. We didn't know what the future of the game was going to be like.

Looking back, I think ARR was the highest I was ever excited to play the game... I remember being really hyped for patch 2.1. The sheer amount of content it'd bring! Extremes, the first 24-man raid (this is what I was looking forward to the most), PVP, housing (this one hurt lol), and of course, story.

When crafting was good, items were worth something, and there was stuff to spend gil on.

In a couple of months it will be 6 years since I stopped bothering to try to make gil. I fear the economy will never recover.

I miss the amount of content we'd get from each patch in arr, hw was pretty good on this to, but sb and shb felt like we got a lot less content each patch.