What's your favorite storyline so far? ARR, HW, Dragonsong, Stormblood?

Stormblood, because it was made personal. I was never given a reason to care about the grand majority of the things in Heavensward, the world itself and the characters themselves always acknowledged often that you were just being strung along the events and fixing everyone else's problems.

I'm not a fan of Lyse or Hien very much at all though, especially Lyse, so Stormblood fell flat with me in the end as well. I don't set the bar very high, but none of FFXIV's stories thus far have really put their foot in the door for me aside from certain class/job stories.

Honestly I prefer the ARR storyline above the others. It was unique to me in that I felt like I was growing as a player alongside my character who was growing as a brand new adventurer. I loved exploring the realm, watching as her journey continued on through each area, learning about the different parts of Eorzea, meeting all the main MSQ characters along the way. I miss the humble beginnings, before the whole world knew who the WoL was, and before it got to the point where every time sh** hit the fan in <location here> the first response is 'send in the Warrior of Light'.

I'd say at this point Heavensward/Dragonsong although that might change by the end of Stormblood. The reason is HW seemed more fleshed out as far as the MSQ and it also felt like there was more content to the story. As far as specific story arcs I like the Hildebrand story across the full game and would like to see it made longer and pop-up more often.

Heavensward for me. Stormblood would have been in my top spot if not for the fact that it feels like they crammed the entirely of an expansion and it's supplementary patch cycles into the story and it just ended up falling apart towards the end. Ala Mhigo was rushed when you went back to it, characters either halted their development or regressed entirely. Lyse was a prime example of this because she HAD an arc up through the Steppes before the developers realized they still had yet to make her the face of the resistance. What followed was the most unearned of all ass pulls I've ever seen in this game to date, which was made even MORE jarring by the fact that they then turned around and made Lyse pretty much useless outside of the fight with Fordola. She could have done everything the same without being the defacto leader of the Resistance and the story would have had the same impact. Because at the end of the day even when it was her big moment to shine the writers were more concerned with throwing moments that should have gone to her onto Raubahn and Pippin.

I am however hoping that they'll continue to ramp up the drama as the patch cycle goes forward. My chief complaint about HW was the fact that it lost most of it's steam after release and never managed to get it back.

Heavensward.

ARR has an awful too long section after 2.0, akin to filler episodes in TV shows, where you are sent everywhere with no goal in mind.
Stormblood is nice, but the Doma section also suffers from too drawn out quests, the fishing village and Azim Steppes ones being the worst.
Heavensward, however, although it had its share of filler quests too, I think managed to flow better. My favourite arc was the WoD storyline, which had a magnificent ending.

I did quite liked HW (more then I thought I would before I started).
But Stormblood I like a bit more ... I just wish there was more.
I'm not talking about the future MSQ updates, but just what we got at launch and that felt a bit ... short?

1. Heavensward & Dragonsong Wars - I regard these as the same thing
2. ARR
3. Stormblood

The Heavensward expansion for me is easily the best that SE have produced.

I put ARR in second place, as it's easy to forget how good this was the first time you experienced it. All the newness, the story, allies and protagonists.

Stormblood for me is too shallow, and whilst there are still some more bits to be added, the main part is simply over too quickly. It feels like a rushed through story from one area to the next, without anywhere near the depth of story telling seen in HW.
Characters come and go with seemingly little consequence or attached emotion, forgotten about as soon as the next npc dialogue pops up.

I am really hoping the next expansion returns to the depth and involvement seen in HW.

There were some aspects in Heavansward that was rushed but Stormblood generally was especially the main villain and the war could have lasted further into SB
I am on the fence between ARR and Heavansward

Stormblood.

I felt like Heavensward dragged forever and as result the transition to Stormblood felt a bit too rushed. I had issues with some moments but as overall, loved the NPCs, (especially the villain) the zones and music way, way more. I just felt Stormblood better and it made me feel good at the end. Heavensward honestly left me feel sad and without sense of accomplishment (excluding the patch MSQ) and ARR felt bit too cheesy, (excluding the patch MSQ, I loved the 2.55 finale.)

Honestly I don't even play this game for the MSQ anymore, didn't play it much for 2.0's msq either. Then again I was a sucker for romance plots in the final fantasy series and there really isn't any here (probably why I hated ff15 and ff13 for the most part...) Not expecting much if any from an mmorpg either. Some of heavensward's dragon lore was very interesting along with bits and pieces of sidestories MSQ wise but beyond that it was a bore. Stormblood brought an interesting character into the mix (yotsuyu) and I'm fairly interested in seeing how that plays out but everything else is just text to me. I think part of the problem is that my character feels too unbecoming of a hero. He's literally too accepting of situations and outcomes but this is a linear story so it can't be helped somewhat... I wish my character would take a stand for what he believes in and be his own person during one of these MSQ archs instead of just blindly following orders and directions from everyone.

I didn't even play ffxi for the msq, chains of promathia was interesting at times but meh. I play these games for the online social aspect and challenge more than anything. If I had to pick an expansion in that regard, I'd prolly pick stormblood but I didn't really engage into the challenging aspect for heavensward so its not really fair to pick.

Edit: As far as I'm concerned Hildibrand is more entertaining than any of the MSQ archs cause its not based around my character being a hero and blindly following orders. That and all the characters are more expressive, interesting, and cut scenes feel alot more intuitive which is ironic for a side story.