So What do you guys think of this expansion so far?

[Nixxe]

Linkshells have limits, not everyone can join the popular linkshells. Usually those popular hunt linkshells fill up super fast leaving no space for others.

Linkshells have overlapping membership, so there are numerous good linkshells to join, and hunts will be reported to all of the ones hunters are in. I've never actually had a problem getting into good hunt linkshells, even on Balmung, and if it's going to be a problem anywhere, it's here.

There is no such thing as far as SE is concerned. You can solo an S rank and you wouldn't have broken any rules, despite it being a resource dozens if not hundreds of other people on the server were interested in as well, and now have to wait at least 3 more days to have a chance at.
That said, the biggest problem with hunts is their random timer. Finding them is easy enough.

Uh... The community aspect exists regardless of SE's philosophy on who "owns" the hunt. I'm not sure why you'd think it's sensible to suggest otherwise.

[BillyKaplan]

I don't see why the community aspect of the hunts

There is no such thing as far as SE is concerned. You can solo an S rank and you wouldn't have broken any rules, despite it being a resource dozens if not hundreds of other people on the server were interested in as well, and now have to wait at least 3 more days to have a chance at.
That said, the biggest problem with hunts is their random timer. Finding them is easy enough.

I'm enjoying the expansion itself overall so far. What I can't stand is how much it seems like SE's hubris got the better of them. I don't ever recall so many emergency patches in such a short period of time, over bugs that never should've went live in the first place because they're so banal they should've been on every test-plan from the get-go.

Uh... The community aspect exists regardless of SE's philosophy on who "owns" the hunt. I'm not sure why you'd think it's sensible to suggest otherwise.

What is it with editing your posts to answer things that happened later?
I never said the community aspect doesn't exist, I'm in half a dozen hunt linkshells myself. But it's not anything SE will make design decisions based on, because they don't care for it. Otherwise we'd have had level sync for hunts ages ago

[Nixxe]

I never said the community aspect doesn't exist, I'm in half a dozen hunt linkshells myself. But it's not anything SE will make design decisions based on because they don't care for it.

That seems like a pretty careless interpretation. Making hunts first come, first serve is a pragmatic move to prevent SE from having to try to regulate hunt participation via GM intervention. It's a hands off approach seen in many aspects of many games for the sake of practicality. Maybe they don't care, but the mere fact that they don't thrust their GMs into a largely intractable quagmire of petty personal disputes should not be seen as a blanket dismissal of the value of the community element of hunts.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Underwhelming would best summarize my opinion of Stormblood thus far.

Numerous features which were hyped significantly failed to offer much "wow" factor or even prove necessary in the grand scheme of things. Chief among them being the job gauges. Touted as a major improvement, they serve little purpose for most jobs or feel entirely tact on (DRK and NIN come to mind.) Eureka suffers in a similar capacity, being a glorified FATE/Hunt amalgamation with very little substance. Granted, it's only had a single installment, but I cannot say I am overly impressed after the frequent delays—especially when they choose to highlight the stale nature of combat without mechanics. The general difficulty of Stormblood as a whole plays into that lack of engagement, at least for me. Everything, be it dungeons, crafting all the way to Savage feels neutered to a certain extent. While I, by no means, expect Final Fantasy: Dark Souls Edition, I do like to feel engaged. When the overwhelming majority of content is something I scarcely even pay attention to because things no longer even phase me, I'm simply less inclined to do it. Which is why I've long stopped queuing for roulettes. I appreciate they wanted to make things more accessible, however there are ways to accomplish that without making it brain dead. Perhaps this has more to do with the stale progression system, who knows.

Now that doesn't mean I have not enjoyed dungeons, because I have my moments. I merely wish they offered a bit more. I like doing casual content as a step away from the harder stuff. It still needs to feel engaging though.

In terms of story, Stormblood falls a bit short—delivering ultimately a good story, just never one which rises to the occasion. Their decision to tell both Doma and Ala Mhigo's respective arcs definitely stretched the narrative too thin, and I feel Ala Mhigo's side suffered noticeably for it. Still, I did enjoy Stormblood, especially the subsequent patches once things began piecing together. Character wise, Yugiri, Gosetsu and Hien were all excellent whereas Lyse... didn't quite capture the important her role in the story should dictate.

I suppose, at the end of the day, Stormblood has been something of a highs and lows. Despite my earlier complaints regarding Eureka, it's still enjoyable enough with friends. And I think that speaks to the overall stance I have on the expansion. It's enjoyable, but little else. After Heavenswards, I expected more chances taken since they have long moved away from 1.x. Instead, we have an expansion that played it punishingly safe at times. It's still a good expansion. Just not a very memorable one.

[Elamys]

This expansion just isn't as fun to me as Heavensward was. I feel like there's nothing really to look forward to. The storyline isn't as engaging, every patch is pretty much the same content with some small extra thing tacked on, even most of the fights in dungeons and raids feel like the same fight. Like Bourne mentioned above everything feels too easy, and I say this as a casual to midcore player, I don't get the same satisfaction out of clearing new content anymore. Even the casual fights in HW had some substance to them (Nidhogg for example was really fun, at least we got Shinyru).

They shouldn't have put Doma and Ala Mhigo in the same expansion. The result is that neither gets the attention it needs, and that's with them ignoring the hell out of Ala Mhigo. (Where's my Ala Mhigan furniture, SE????????)

I enjoy crafting more than anything in this game but it feels less and less like there's a point to it short of making consumables for raids. Rare glamours and furnishings get added to content like HoH because we're not allowed to have these exclusive items for some reason, there's no point in making leveling gear because of the rewards from MSQ which in turn get sold for cheap on the MB, and even the highest end gear doesn't sell well because of a combination of it not competing well with a lot of the tome/raid gear (except for tanks) and bots that SE for some reason won't attempt to control. And since they made crafting a lot easier, there's not much effort to be had anymore, everything can be macroed to be 100% once you get the stats. There's no more thought, it's not like a puzzle anymore, I just autopilot through my rotation.

I used to come home from work and be excited to log in and do things with my friends until I went to bed. Now more often than not I come home, maybe get on to do Eureka for a little bit, then log off and sit on the couch instead, and that's if I log in at all. I used to finish up a patch MSQ impatient for the next story installment and now I just feel meh about all of it.

[HyoMinPark]

WARNING: Novel incoming...

MSQ thoughts — Story and Characters
Obviously, there will be mild spoilers. Read at your own risk.

Story-wise, I felt like the main 4.0 MSQ was particularly rushed towards the end, what with us liberating 2 countries during the main part of it. I feel like they should have focused on our liberating one country during the main patch, and then used the subsequent patches to liberate the other while also serving to transition towards 5.0’s story (which, I feel it’s inevitable that we’re going to Garlemald in 5.0 at this point). I feel like this expansion has focused a lot on Doma’s Liberation, and sort of forgot that Ala Mhigo was even there in the first place. I don’t mind the focus on Doma, but when it seems to be at the expense of the other part of the storyline, it’s a bit irksome in my opinion, because I was looking forward to spending a lot of time in Ala Mhigo, personally. The main expansion should have been focusing on Ala Mhigo (because I feel like we spent quite a bit of time in Doma taking care of it, and then around level 68/69 remembered “oh snap, there’s another country we need to liberate” and squeezed Ala Mhigo in that small quest frame), with subsequent patches focusing on liberating Doma—I feel like this would have also allowed a decent lead-up to heading into Garlemald in 5.0 considering the way Patch 4.2 and 4.3 were handled.

I feel like a lot of the “main” characters in SB have sort of fallen flat. We hardly see Lyse now that 4.0 proper is over, and she has fallen very flat in terms of a heroine figure in my opinion. I wasn’t really impressed with her portrayal. I don’t feel much attachment to the characters prevalent in SB compared to the way I felt attached to the ones that were featured in HW. I feel a bit indifferent towards Hien, definitely not feeling like he had the kind of impact on me like some of the HW characters did. Honestly, the character that has impacted me the most was Gosetsu—though, I was torn emotionally between being happy and annoyed at his supposed death and the “Surprise! He’s not actually dead!” at the end of 4.0...because the most impactful part of HW for me was us losing two comrades, and how our character was affected by it (still remember watching the scene after The Vault for the first time and being sad that my character looked so sad).

I was glad to see Alisiae take some spotlight, since she hasn’t been seen since early ARR (or Coil, if people did the Coil storyline), but it’s been a very long time since some of the other Scions have been dealt with (mainly Thancred), and I wonder why they seem keen on not featuring them in more than a single cutscene with a few bubbles of dialogue with each patch’s release (again, Thancred).

The ending fight for 4.0 was an improvement over Thordan. Shinryu was challenging, and had that “final boss” feel to him because of it. Compared to Thordan’s MSQ fight, where he rolled over in i150 gear, and really rolls over now when everyone is overgeared for him. I am not, however, pleased with the “Zenos is actually alive!” insinuations that are going on now; I really hope this is just an Ascian possession, and not another fake death. That is getting a bit old at this point; why can’t the character’s stay dead?

I was satisfied with Patch 4.3’s MSQ, because I didn’t like the idea of a redemption arc (bit too cliche), so I was glad that it ended the way it did, and I think it had more of an emotional impact that way. I personally think that 4.3’s story was the second best out of the entire Stormblood expansion so far, beaten only by the Azim Steppe arc in 4.0 proper. I am excited about Patch 4.4, mostly because of the end of 4.3 with our...”new” friend Alphinaud made in The Burn.

None of these criticisms are to say that I didn’t still enjoy Stormblood’s story; I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I did Heavensward.


Stormblood Areas — Maps and Music

I loved the areas they added in SB, and I have spent quite a bit of time just flying around them taking in the sights. My favorite by far is The Peaks, because I really like the colors there (something about the reddish rock with the blue water, and the green grass with the purple flowers). I share sentiments with others, wishing that there were more things to bring us out into these beautiful maps aside from our own personal sightseeing.

Kugane and the Far Eastern aesthetics they’ve put into it and Doma are really nice, since I’ve always liked those aesthetics.

The music has been on-point, like always. I was super excited when the first SB OST was finally released.


Patch Content Thoughts

I know the developers talked about staggered releases for content, but I have to disagree with this approach for future expansions. Though it didn’t affect me as much as some because I raid Savage and participate in Ultimate, I felt like there wasn’t much to do sometimes during the patches because content releases were delayed or staggered.

Patch 4.1 was probably the worst, what with Eureka Anemos being delayed until 4.25, and the only content present being niche content that not everyone will enjoy (UCoB, Perform, Rival Wings). Patch 4.3 wasn’t much better, in my opinion, because it only gave non-raiders new MSQ, a new 24-man, one new dungeon, and, maybe, an Extreme primal to do until HoH’s release in 4.35 and Eureka Pagos’ release in 4.36 (which I also feel has a very delayed release...I wasn’t too thrilled to see that August release date, personally). I hope the developers do not do this staggered release in the future, or, if they do, decrease the weeks between the major new content releases. I also hope that they learned from Patch 4.1, and don’t introduce niche content such as Ultimate or PvP without also giving something to the non-raiders/non-PvPers.

The raider in me is happy for the inclusion of Ultimate fights, and I hope to see more in future expansions.

I am concerned about Patch 4.5~4.55 and the potential content drought that may be present there. Patch 3.55 was really dry in terms of things to do (even with me starting to get into raiding and doing PotD Floor 200 runs then), so I’ve deliberately started holding off on certain things now to give myself stuff to do in 4.5~4.55 (e.g., Primal mount farming). I am saddened to see that there would be no Ultimate for 4.51 because I do really enjoy that content, even if it is niche. I can only hope that the MHW crossover is enough content to help keep me busy before 5.0 comes out. If nothing else, at least I have alts that I am slowly taking through the ARR and HW MSQ; I haven’t played them much lately so that they will also be there to give me a reason to play when content gets dry.

I hope that the developers seriously consider adding in more types of content in 5.0. I would still like to see the inclusion of more challenging 4-man content that isn’t Deep Dungeons. I would also like to see the developers move away from the predictable release cycle they have, and take a bit more risk. I know they’re hesitant after 1.0, but everything feels stagnant, and I don’t find it fun to predict “every even patch, new capped tomestone; every odd patch, new 24-man; etc.”.


Other Thoughts

I was pleased with some of the job changes that SB brought about—mainly BRD. While I didn’t mind the bowmage concept (yeah, I know, the most unpopular opinion there), SB BRD is perfect in almost every way (just needs some QoL changes), and I really hope they leave my job as is going into 5.0. You got it right; don’t touch it. Instead, focus on fixing the other jobs that really need it (like MCH), and give TLC to ones that could use it (RDM, SAM, DRK).

I was not pleased with the PvP skill consolidation they did. But, then again, I’m not that huge on PvP anyways. I did it a bit during the Garo event with friends, but lost any and all interest in it once I saw the way our PvP skills were handled. I don’t know; I just didn’t like it. I don’t know what the developers are trying to do with it, other than turn it into some e-sports thing... but I think they should seriously consider making major changes to it because of how unpopular it seems to be. I do think that adding in EXP to it was a very bad decision; it’s probably part of the reason why Frontlines is bot city anymore.

I was happy with the introduction of cross-world Linkshells, and I hope that this system is expanded later on to allow for more than just one CWLS. Since I own one, I cannot join any other ones that other cross-world friends may want me in, and I would like to be able to have that option.

I really hope that the developers consider more forms of instanced housing with the way 4.1 Shirogane went, and with the complaints that still circulate about the RNG timers and shortage of houses on high-population worlds. I know they mentioned small/medium/large apartments, but I haven’t heard anything else about that since the initial talk about it. I am glad that they are wanting to make a system where alts can all share a house with the main character—I want to see that introduced as soon as possible.


These are, of course, my own opinions. Apologies for the long post. I think I covered everything I wanted to say.

[TheGrimace]

I love Stormblood a lot. I just think that staggered content is stupid. Just put everything out at once again.

[Maero]

Story is great i just think Heavansward had far more going for it

[Iscah]

I wasn’t keen on Stormblood’s all-too-easy revolution either, although the patch stories have been better than the main quest. Overall I much preferred Heavensward’s fantasy quest vibe, and I also found those characters more engaging. They seem more complete, I think? I feel like we’ve had very little engagement with the Stormblood characters besides discussing the current mission or events. The Heavensward characters had clearer personalities and more backstory, or at least an impression of it - lots of characters that know or are related to other characters across different quests.

[Elamys]

I feel like we’ve had very little engagement with the Stormblood characters besides discussing the current mission or events.

That's another thing too. The characters in Heavensward were my friends. I had a real investment in them and it meant something if anything happened to them. It made the WoL feel connected to the story, unlike in WoW where you're basically faceless and nobody really cares about you, you're just a cog in the machine. And now it feels that way in Stormblood, none of the characters really seem to have any link to us. We're just kind of...there while the other characters act out their own personal dramas.