What do you think was the worst thing this game experienced from 2.0 until now?

[HermitUK]

The Forbidden Land of Eureka: Pagos. Hands down. I would rather do Diadem. I enjoyed 2.0 Diadem more than I did Pagos because at least I could gather stuff in there to turn for profit, or use in company workshop projects (Darksteel Ore, anyone?).

Having spent over a week now exclusively grinding for the emote, I am 100% in agreement. Anemos wasn't the most engaging content, but the community made it fun. I'd hoped they'd build on Anemos and that subsequent Eureka instances would make things increasingly interesting. Instead, Pagos feels like punishment for the player base who didn't play Anemos in the way it was intended. The map design is horrible, the grind for the relic wasn't fun, and the rare loot has so many levels of RNG involved.

I've bought the game at launch and I've been playing my main character regularly since patch 2.5. In that time, Pagos has been the most frustrating content I've played.

[Rangar]

Forced CS in the MSQ dungeons, Daidem, and Eureka (last two are effectively the same crap)

[Tint]

Don't even suggest it! Don't make the devs think they need to spend even more resources on LoV. While it does suck, look at how the diadem rework turned out. We don't need any more resources spent on it, just let it die so they can focus on other, better content.

Sad truth is, they actually spend ressources on LoV every time we get a new minion - and we are getting new minions often.

This means LoV is a good candidate for the top spot of the worst content ever. But it's just too ignorable to be the worst thing ever.

So... Eureka it is.

That level grind inside with the exp penalty when you try to help your lower leveled friends is just a horrible, horrible design! And that's just the tip of the iceberg...

Notable other stuff: Forced cutscenes, that greed only nonsense, waiting for specific fates for hours to finish relic / beast tribe / daylie hunt, Gordias, degrading the relic to a glamour weapon (wich doesn't even glow in every 2nd step).

[Mesarthim]

Creating a game that follows a very predictable and stale formula. Also Eureka.

[Cidel]

Players saying they wanted FFXI content in the game, and look what we ended up with.

Yeah, we ended up with none of the things most actually asked for and instead ended up with a "corrupt-a-wish" response which I wouldn't be all that shocked to find out later down the line that it was something sarcastically implemented as a way to thumb their noses at the very notion of borrowing ideas from XI. It's like asking for favorable aspects from FFXIV in some other new MMO and getting Pagos and the Mogstation as a response instead. I'll digress if I go any further-

The worst thing I think this game experienced was over-reliance on the FATE system as if it's the end-all solution to nearly anything not locked away in a trial or raid, and the complacency that followed. Leveling? FATEs. Relic/Anima? FATEs. Seasonal events? FATEs.(They could get a "pass" here) Diadem rework-attempt? FATEs. Eureka? FATEs. It's a miracle the MH crossover wasn't a FATE. It isn't so bad in the Openworld and has its places in the seasonal events, but they constantly center a lot of their "new" content around it so frequently that the whole thing is looking like a one-trick pony. They do have the potential to get somewhat creative with FATEs (we've seen it, here and there) but most end up being delegated to "1 mob vs the server/instance, with AoEs! What you can't see CAN hurt you!" Eureka as a whole is a byproduct of this inability to wean themselves off of using FATEs instead of something actually the least bit innovative.

Honorable mentions:
- Housing system/shortage/demolition timer
- How they handle PvP in general/ranking system
- The backlash from the companion app
- The backlash from abruptly imposing Greed-only raids.
- Raubahn EX
- WHMs ever since AST appeared.

[TheGrimace]

Bow Mage, Square's over dependency on the Mog Station, and Eureka.

I avoided Bard as much as I could in Heavensward. Changing it back in SB may not have been an easy choice, but it was the right one.

They need to stop relying on the Mog Station so much for nickle and diming the playerbase. Beyond that, the whole rewards system needs a rework. There is no good reason why they can't make items like Matoya's Hat or Wind-up Tsukuyomi account-wide. Same for nearly every item in the shop. They could make this happen, but they don't because of greed, pure and simple.

And then Eureka. As soon as they showed it at Fan Fest two years ago, I predicted it being another Diadem-inspired failure. I called it and yet I'm still disappointed in how bad they failed with it. Jeez.

[LoriCroft]

I've read through all the responses and I agree with almost all of them... Diadem, Bow Mage, Job Rework, Eureka, Mog Station, Raubahn Ex, Forced Cutscenes... but there's ONE thing that got to me the worst...

Story/Level Skipping

I am a major story person and, yes, some stories are boring or lame but some of the main story plus the Dark Knight story are amazing!! but to have such a series that is so heavy on its story to just be skipped is ridiculous...

on top of this, the story skip makes you skip dungeons and trials so you miss out on mechanics... the amount of dungeons, trials and things that I ran through after Stormblood launched that had no clue of what they were doing cause they skipped everything was crazy... I'm not saying you can't but to have run the game since 1.0, the changes and the evolution of the game and mechanics... while some aren't super easy to understand, it was very clear to see who had skipped and who had played through the game... I'm one person to take the mentor status seriously but new people don't like listening and understanding what needs to be done and why... so they just have us failing over and over until someone breaks... #NeverForgetGroupUpMechanics

[hynaku]

Eureka and Diadem.

[Teraluna]

Yeah, we ended up with none of the things most actually asked for and instead ended up with a "corrupt-a-wish" response which I wouldn't be all that shocked to find out later down the line that it was something sarcastically implemented as a way to thumb their noses at the very notion of borrowing ideas from XI. It's like asking for favorable aspects from FFXIV in some other new MMO and getting Pagos and the Mogstation as a response instead. I'll digress if I go any further-

The worst thing I think this game experienced was over-reliance on the FATE system as if it's the end-all solution to nearly anything not locked away in a trial or raid, and the complacency that followed. Leveling? FATEs. Relic/Anima? FATEs. Seasonal events? FATEs.(They could get a "pass" here) Diadem rework-attempt? FATEs. Eureka? FATEs. It's a miracle the MH crossover wasn't a FATE. It isn't so bad in the Openworld and has its places in the seasonal events, but they constantly center a lot of their "new" content around it so frequently that the whole thing is looking like a one-trick pony. They do have the potential to get somewhat creative with FATEs (we've seen it, here and there) but most end up being delegated to "1 mob vs the server/instance, with AoEs! What you can't see CAN hurt you!" Eureka as a whole is a byproduct of this inability to wean themselves off of using FATEs instead of something actually the least bit innovative.

Honorable mentions:
- Housing system/shortage/demolition timer
- How they handle PvP in general/ranking system
- The backlash from the companion app
- The backlash from abruptly imposing Greed-only raids.
- Raubahn EX
- WHMs ever since AST appeared.

The issue with asking for content from the past is people's recollection rarely mirrors the actual experience. All the complaints they had at the time are forgotten in a distorted picture of nostalgia.
But aside from that, if people want FFXI content or any other game's content - go and play that. FFXIV is a separate game, not a hosting house for past memories that players remember with rose tinted glasses.

[RiyahArp]

...eureka isn't that bad. It's still being done, yes even pagos, and managed to draw a decent number of players despite its faults. It's purely optional content, albeit partly due to it being delayed so long, and it hasn't affected the greater game all that much. I mean, come on, SB launch and Raubhan ex was FAR worse than it.