What does Heavensward actually bring to the table as an expansion?

I personally think the big issue was how they went about Alex - Normal.

* There was little to no challenge once people understood the base mechanics;
* The developing story had nothing to do with the encounters;
* The gear there was obsoleted three weeks into its existence by both AS and Eso gear simultaneously;
* and They didn't even give it anything rare or exciting to chase.

The only thing I've head that's really worth doing it is if you're gearing up an alt. Otherwise, if you're not and/or just want to do something relevant with your main, your options are Eso, AS, or bust.

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Originally Posted by Lemuria

Sorry, I have to vehemently disagree with this. Right now ALL we have are mandatory upgrades. How is that any different? It's no longer a case of picking out one benefit over another, it's just "Is this a higher ilvl than my last piece?".

You may prove correct in assuming that some people will choose one bonus over another, but I'll say this much for having unique benefits - it's a lot less boring. And right now, vanilla is about the only flavour this game has offered when it comes to equipment. It's already gotten stupid with item level 200 being bandied around, and who knows where it will end. Are we all going to end up with item level 999 when 5.0 arrives?

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Unless you're actually a hardcore raider, there is nothing mandatory there, the relic quest brought sidegrades. People created a BiS meta around that too, but unless you raid or do EX primals, it really doesn't matter and you can implement whatever sidegrades you want in your relic.

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Originally Posted by Arashmin

I personally think the big issue was how they went about Alex - Normal.

* There was little to no challenge once people understood the base mechanics;
* The developing story had nothing to do with the encounters;
* The gear there was obsoleted three weeks into its existence by both AS and Eso gear simultaneously;
* and They didn't even give it anything rare or exciting to chase.

The only thing I've head that's really worth doing it is if you're gearing up an alt. Otherwise, if you're not and/or just want to do something relevant with your main, your options are Eso, AS, or bust.

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What makes it obsolete? Unless you are a raider, the gear in Alex Normal is pretty much as good as you're gonna need until the next drop of content comes along.

If you look at the game exclusively from a raiding stand point, then some of what you say could be considered true (but not absolute). But from the point of view of players who are not raiders, your criticisms are kind of baseless.

No offense, but this game is not targeted at hard core raiders, nor will it ever be targeted at that specific community. It's targeted at a broad range of players. You need to consider those other points of view when forming your criticisms. In all honesty unless a game focuses almost exclusively on raiders, I don't see how it can ever satisfy raiders because there will always be compromises made for non-raiders. FFXIV focuses on the broader base of what is commonly called casual players, it's inevitable that thre will be compromises made in the game that raiders see and feel are problems. That is simply the nature of the beast.

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Originally Posted by Arashmin

I personally think the big issue was how they went about Alex - Normal.

* There was little to no challenge once people understood the base mechanics;
* The developing story had nothing to do with the encounters;
* The gear there was obsoleted three weeks into its existence by both AS and Eso gear simultaneously;
* and They didn't even give it anything rare or exciting to chase.

The only thing I've head that's really worth doing it is if you're gearing up an alt. Otherwise, if you're not and/or just want to do something relevant with your main, your options are Eso, AS, or bust.

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Its a Story mode. For people who wanted to see the story. Whats so hard to understand about this?

Ah. Story. The big draw of any MMO. And at least Coil actually had something worth being called 'Story'. I'm betting we're going to be fighting Touchyscar's Lovemate at some point soon because 'What a twist!'. EDIT: And let's not forget that I did address this in part; the developing story really had nothing to do with what was actually happening. I would have loved if there was some proper lore given to the bosses, but instead, Touchyscars.

They should be able to accomplish story without also killing all of the other aspects that make content enjoyable.

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Originally Posted by Lemuria

Sorry, I have to vehemently disagree with this. Right now ALL we have are mandatory upgrades. How is that any different? It's no longer a case of picking out one benefit over another, it's just "Is this a higher ilvl than my last piece?".

You may prove correct in assuming that some people will choose one bonus over another, but I'll say this much for having unique benefits - it's a lot less boring. And right now, vanilla is about the only flavour this game has offered when it comes to equipment. It's already gotten stupid with item level 200 being bandied around, and who knows where it will end. Are we all going to end up with item level 999 when 5.0 arrives?

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Valid points, but as I stated, it will eventually get boring anyway. I`m all for unique upgrades but they`re not unique when everyone is the same. It just presents the same problem in a different way than now. It`s a temporary fix.Why would you take Gordian armguards of Aiming +3 when Belias` armguards of Aiming gives you Barrage +1? Barrage +1 hands become BiS and Gordian becomes useless to the point where people will skip getting those and just farm Belias.Gear progression in this game is pretty set in stone, boring or not. You can't gear swap so sidegrades are pointless by definition. And with current community mentality, BiS is all that matters at 60. You don't pick out the benefits because other people will math it out, determine the best bang for your buck and the sheep will follow.

Newsflash people: Flying IS the new content in Heavensward. That was the "new feature" that was added this xpac.

Is it good new content? No because honestly it didn't add much to the game... yet. If they put something in 3.1 or 3.2 that makes use of flying then maybe it will be better, but right now it feels like kind of a "who cares?" feature. They need to add some kind of interesting and exclusive feature around flying, because like it or not flying is the big "new feature" of the expansion.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

Unless you're actually a hardcore raider, there is nothing mandatory there, the relic quest brought sidegrades. People created a BiS meta around that too, but unless you raid or do EX primals, it really doesn't matter and you can implement whatever sidegrades you want in your relic.
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That only makes sense if the side stats actually contribute something other than more DPS. There is no reason to choose side stats over side stats that give less DPS at all.

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Originally Posted by Arashmin

Ah. Story. The big draw of any MMO. And at least Coil actually had something worth being called 'Story'. I'm betting we're going to be fighting Touchyscar's Lovemate at some point soon because 'What a twist!'. EDIT: And let's not forget that I did address this in part; the developing story really had nothing to do with what was actually happening. I would have loved if there was some proper lore given to the bosses, but instead, Touchyscars.

They should be able to accomplish story without also killing all of the other aspects that make content enjoyable.

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But thats the point of normal mode. I dont really get your point. normal mode is for people who dont want to/cant/arent good enough for the harder raid. That is literally the only reason it exists. people asked for it.

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Originally Posted by Kaurie

That only makes sense if the side stats actually contribute something other than more DPS. There is no reason to choose side stats over side stats that give less DPS at all.

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Sorry, but I don't buy into the meta that the only thing that matters is DPS, if I did, I'd never play Paladin, nor wear anything other than slaying accessories. Unless you're desperate to meet difficult DPS checks, then performing your job decently is far, far, far more important than anything other than the main numbers on your weapon.

Unless you're raiding, there is nothing I am aware of in the game that provides a stiff enough dps check for that to matter.

True, they'd have to make the content a bit more fitting to that, and then that may necessitate certain Jobs over others in high-end content, which to an extent is already the case.

However, sidegrading doesn't have to be limited to equipment. I'd like to see something along the lines of non-equipment passive upgrades, perhaps that slot into your existing active skills. There'd obviously end up being some that are BiS over others but then wouldn't have to compete with gear, and it could be developed so some are more suited to PvP, some to solo content, some to dungeons, some to raids, and so on.