Which Patch was your favorite and least favorite? Why?

2.2 was my favorite.

2.4-2.5 was my least favorite. They just didn't feel right. Felt like Copy Pastes of 2.2 and 2.3 without the... without something.

2.3, and the terrible imbalance of the Hunt.

Get the pitchforks ready when I say this, but I really feel like the Zodiac Saga's Nexus step was a slick way for SE to fix the imbalance they encouraged with the almost-too-good Hunt rewards, and get people running instances again. Hell, you could get just about everything but Atma from hunts back then.

Also, Ramuh aside, it was a low-tide for the story, especially when weighed again all that came after it.

2.5 due to the lack of an extreme tier fight. It left many players in my community extremely bored.

hmm. no particular patch has really been a favorite or a least favorite... it's more the additions that do that. Favorite being Ninja as I love it's speed with low / no positionals to worry about.

Least favorite being hunts as you either a) hope to god you are playing at just the right time and in exactly the right spot to get in on it. or b) join a ls and hope you make it to the hunt on time. Even tho it's a mmo i don't think you should have to depend on others for anything outside dungeons but that's just me.

2.55 i guess was a big disappointment as most of it's story elements seemed rather... pointless or serve to make our character look stupid.

Honestly it is hard to say for me because every patch had something I really liked. I really enjoyed the last patch for the story, it is just sad that our character did not fight more, also the Gold Saucer patch was nice.

2.1 was probably the worst patch. PVP, Beastman Tribe, EX Primals, Roulettes and Free Company Housing were added. Pretty much the worst content in the game was added in that one patch alone. I don't particularly dislike PVP (the idea of it) or Housing but both were very poorly implemented, really should've waited until later or even the expansion to add it. Maybe if they focused on world PVP instead of locking in behind a dungeon wall, would've had much better reception.


2.2 and 2.3 were both pretty solid patches. Second Coil and Savages were very good additions, granted the story in 2.3 sucked. The Ramuh portion was probably easily the least enjoyable part of the story, but at least Rogue/Ninja teasers from 2.2 onward were hype inducing. More good stuff like Desynthesis helped bring experienced players and endgame crafters into trials for the primal goodies helping the newbies get their clears much easier. Hunts (despite some people hating them) added some more activity in the open world since the world was totally barren prior to hunts. Also gave players' more reasons to use linkshells and come together as a community.

2.2, by far the patch with the most grind added, we did get a lot of mindless bashing and grind that was at the opposite of the game we had soo far. most of the farm added was aimed for "casual" when it was clearly not the case, it was more for the hardcore and even yoshida did admit that they had added too many mindless grind.

but for me the whole 2.X was testing and such, we can see a lot of stuff that was blantly bad.... like the hunt, the atma grind, the personal housing, the wedding mess.... a lot of stuff that will have been avoided by have a test server. i will not talk of the lack of real content outside raid and....raid? the lack of difficulty of the game outside bahamut coil. the fact that they have miss the opportunity to make something more solid and interesting with the hunt, than a simple FATE system without the UI....

ps: i did forget to talk about the fact to put the raid in the wrong sense.... meaning, getting CT after BC.... when it will have make a smoother progression to have the inverse.... but well. it seems they don't learn and will redo the same error in heavenward...

Either 2.4 or 2.55 for my favourite patches. 2.4 for the introduction of the Rogue class and 2.55 for the "conclusion" of the 2.x story, enjoyed that a lot. Least favourite... probably 2.5. The WoD raid seemed very 'samey', its visuals weren't all that appealing in comparison to CT or ST, that goes for the music too (all my opinion of course). I don't do coils so I can't say if I enjoyed those in their respective patches.

i wasn't really "around" for 2.1 and 2.2. I mean my account was active but i wasn't lol
That said, I don't really hate any of the patches, so i'd only have a "least favorite" by virtue of it not being my favorite.
of the ones i was actually around for, it'd probably be ranked, from best to...less best...:2.0->2.4 ->2.5->2.3
though in reality since the OP didn't specify ARR, I'd ACTUALLY say that 1.0 was my least favorite patch :P

My least favourite? Wish I could put a number to it (I'm sure some bright spark could) but it was the update where Poetics were introduced. Here's why:

- AF gear which could be traded for Mythology tomes was relegated to random dungeon drops.
- The AF gear was also removed from the choice of Hunt rewards.
- Soldiery tomes were awarded in lesser amounts for a while, making it harder to get gear.
- It was a repeat of what happened with Philosophy tomes, undermining the linear progress set by the original release.

I've never been a fan of gear 'updates' which make the older gear harder to obtain or force you to aim for higher tiers. It makes the natural gear curve too sharp for new players, which may eventually become a wall for some. It also feels like a very cheap way to fast-track people to endgame content they're not ready for and makes the middle-man dungeons completely redundant aside from a handful of people running their zodiac and relic quests.

But why have a journey when we can simply shorten the road, right?

2.0 was my favorite and least favorite - see a lot of improvements on the game but also lost skills/abilities and downgraded graphics/details.

I think I'll go with the 2.2 patch. SCOB changed the way we used to raid introducing some neat and complex mechanics that were also fun at the same time. Leviathan was a new and innovative fight as well, both musical and mechanic-wise. Uh, Challenge Log changed the way we level up, it's a super nice buff that helps you a lot with that process. Glamour system: It saved the game. Dungeons with their own music (Lost City), Ventures! etc, etc! It was an amazing and fun patch that changed the game a lot.

With my least favorites, I would say any patch after that. They were a bit repetitive and they didn't add up much to the game. It doesn't mean they were awful, new content is always welcome, but I think the 2.2 patch was the best so far.

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Originally Posted by ThirdChild_ZKI

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This for me as well. In 2.3, I do not enjoy hunts and how they were implemented, and I did not enjoy how the rewards in ST were handled (specifically the tomestones) alongside the sands/oil from hunts.

Can't say about my favorite, but I guess 2.4 if only because I have the least gripes with what they put in.

I only started playing in 2.2 soo;
2.2: I did not enjoy the design of SCoB fights. Made for very exclusive party/statics and it doesn't really get easier overtime as you obtain more soldiery/SCoB Gear.
2.5; I feel like has too many content deserts inbetween 2.5, 2.51 and 2.55

In general? I really feel the lack of content outside of raiding. The expert dungeons don't even last for a week since players already over gear it on release.

The Second Coil patch, because it was my favourite armorset and coil.

My least favorite? the one introduce hunts... that one make me lose half of my FC cuz they stop playing

2.1 was my favorite. The EX primals were challenging, fun and kept people busy outside of coil. Met a bunch of people farming. And it was great having something outside of the one and only end game raid.

All the rest of the patches were just meh . . . although gold saucer is nice to fool around with. And I also like the patch that made crafting relevant again.

I'm not sure I could pick one favourite, most of them are mixed bags of good and bad.

But (as long as we're not dissecting them all) the awfulness in 2.3 easily makes that the worst for me: hunts screwed everything up, the air balloon that "personal housing" turned out to be is another losing-trust-issue almost at the same level as the whole 1.0 version had been (imo), and quite frankly I'm still not entirely convinced desynthesis is a good thing.

2.1 - hate extreme primals (still stuck on Titan; since then a blatant reuse of previous content "secured" for the long run; swarm of ponies in a land where they're supposedly barely even heard of); lotsa love for the Aesthetician and CT and Treasure Hunts and Duty Roulette though - minor and completely trivial things by now, but can you imagine there was a time they didn't exist?

2.2 - The Lost City of Amdapor is still the most beautiful place in the game, as far as I'm concerned; glamour system is like a double-bladed sword, loved for its mere existence, hated for all its restrictions.

2.3 - Frontline actually made PvP kind of enjoyable, too bad about the GC-restrictions though (even if they're justified by lore). On the other hand, those abovementioned features completely blew this portion of the game out of the water, in my opinion.

2.4 - Shiva is again a mixed bag, love her being in FFXIV, but the fact that she's basically half-blood bastard (as opposed to an actual primal) is kind of a letdown. Snowcloak was a nice change after Brayflox HM and Hullbreaker though.

2.5 - WoD and its story felt rushed and meh (getting rid of G'raha, WHY!?); Gold Saucer is a massive disappointment with its insane grinds and totally random and unfair elements (I've loved TT since FFVIII, here my deck's still barely over a dozen cards); Steps of Faith is interesting but with every type of mechanics one can think of thrown in, after all the hand-holding throughout MSQs, and with no reset on wipes...yeah, I'd say unfortunate.

And let's not forget each and every part of the relic/zodiac questline in each and every patch, adding more and more insane, tedious, mind-numbing grind to the game.

Story-wise, 2.5 is my favorite. It went down a darker path compared to the other patches, and I like dark stories.

2.0 was awesome.
Everything was new and ppl were friendly.
I dislike every patch except gold saucer patch cuz almost every trial/ instance became a know ur role, have multiple clears, 3 strikes ur out kind of thing.

Serious tho, gold saucer patch and the patch where they introduced the turn in artisan set were my fave cuz TT was fun and the set got me back into progressing my crafts from no star -> 4 star.
All because i hated melding materia for all the crafting gear lol.

Everything after Shiva/FCOB.... cause it feels like I haven't gotten anything since.