How Cataclysm killed WoW is how Heavensward will kill FFXIV.

[RiceisNice]

Raiding in Catacylsm didn't get streamlined with easy-mode difficulty until the end of it's cycle (a formula which would then be carried over into MoP). My biggest gripe with Cata is still similiar to that of HW, there's not much to be done after you sit at level cap past the first 2 months or so. The amount of content it brought to the table was less of that of the two previous expansions, the dungeons weren't terribly interesting and it honestly felt monotonous with the BGM and environments.

As in heavensward, there's not a lot of dungeons or trials outside of raids to keep you interested, Alexander still fails to hit the middle ground as far as difficulty is concerned (Alexander is normal is much easier than echo'd FCoB) along with some kinks that result from latency on some boss fights (looking at you, drainage tethers) and the crafting scene has become a circle-jerk joke where crafters only craft for other crafters (and not even gatherers!).

As much as Catacylsm started the decline of WoW and me being there, you aren't exactly hitting the nail on the head on why it was bad.

Ironically, the time they started making raids more accessible was at the beginning of WotLK when they did away with both hard-attunement requirements (every single player hard to do long-quest chains, which required dungeons to be cleared, ones that have no meaningful dungeon drops aside from said quest objectives...They also one person which required a key that also came from a very long-quest chain), extreme vertical progression (with no tomestones mind you, so you always had to gear up from the previous tier of raid, starting from the bottom up which required dungeon tier gear). On top of that, they had an entire continent of Northrend, crafting profession and class, and a very engaging atmosphere (I can easily say I spent more time wandering around in dalaran than I ever did Foundation). It was during WotLK where they had peaked and maintained their subs.