Post-Honeymoon SHB thoughts?

[Amaeth]

Overall, really good.

Story has always been one of the big components of FFXIV compared to other MMO's and I think they did a really good job. Added loads of lore in to flesh out the cosmological and metaphysics stuff which was really cool. Lots of interesting characters, good development of the Scions as well. And Emet. I have found my self in the past agreeing with the bad guys (As far as i'm concerned Gaius's speech back in Praetorium I 90% agreed with) and this expansion it happened again. Not all the time, but there were definitely times I felt for them.

Dungeons were good - i've accepted now they are always going to be pure linear runs, and within that I think they did a good job. Couple of nice variants on bosses as well.

Mechanics...eeeggh..... Once again they continue they're never ending quest to simplify combat and classes and par them down to the bone. A couple of people already mentioned, but any class that had buff/debuff stuff got battered hard to clear room for Dancer. I fundamentally disagree with Yoshi-P about class synergy. Optimized raid comps will always be a thing for world-firster's unless you make every class literally identical, so just suck it up and do interesting stuff, most players dont care if 1 class is mandatory for savage. Tanks I was narked at on first login but over time i'm happier, they seem to have just massively loaded all mitigation right at the top end for WAR...if fact most the tank classes dont feel right in some way now until high levels, GNB being the exception. I am still disappointed at the homogenization of tanks though, difference between them is ever shrinking.
Healers I am seriously pissed at. They destroyed AST. I actually swapped which character was my main so hate filled am I at what has happened to it. WHM is however awesome. I didnt mind old lillies, but the new way is good, blood lilly is nice extra DPS skill, but I mourn the loss of AOE Aero. And every dungeon I start with saying *Casts Protect* you will never be forgotten old friend.

Kinda long ramble this, but overall I wish they'd just bite the bullet, create a fourth role, support, and properly define it. And stop simplifying classes so support can do stuff. It also means we may get Blue Mage as a class rather than the joke it is now.

I have high hopes for the patch content, and overall I rate the expansion highly, probably 8.5 or 9/10 as combat in FFXIV has never been great and I play the game knowing that but expecting a good story, and ShB has delivered on that front

[Sorimachi87]

Want to replay SHB story again

Simply put. Loving it so far. Every single bit

[Sathona]

I liked it,the story was better than Heavensward IMO and interacting with the Scions together throughout the story was awesome compared to how little it was previously,some cringe here and there but it was to be expected and did not bother me!
The Dungeons are fun and i dont mind redoing them to lvl classes unlike lvl 16-70[yikes] also the Twinning is amazing,sadly i hate Akadaemia as its the only dungeon i get in expert and its a remake of Saint Mocianes which i also highly disliked due to the enviroment, the only redeeming value Akadaemia has is the final boss~
The music was great and it keeps on improving but i hate it when the boss music is something from older expansions
The class balance atleast for the classes i play RDM/DRG/BLM were okay but RDM is boring sadly still a rez bot for progression
DRG and BLM aka my mains feel really good to play,i hope they wont nerf them~
DNC is fun but feels weak to me,GNB was ok but i hate the new sounds so i dont feel like lvling it to 80 anymore~
Sad about what they did to Scholars as i was interested to lvl it but not now~
Overall the delivery of 5.0 was great,sadly the re-adjustment of ARR story being 9-10 months away is a negative.
If it came with 5.0 it would have attracted even more people,but better late than never~

Overall ill give it my final judgement once the 5.x series is over but so far a 8.5/10~

[Vivi_Bushido]

I think it's to soon to tell. I think people are still making opinions on the new expac hype and it's easy to say SB sucked because we can include all of 4.1-4.5 into our opinions of it. I think we need to see how the content though 5.1-5.5 goes before we can really say which is better. Cause if the story takes a downhill slope til 6.0 like it did in SB I expect opinions to change. So for me, the honeymoon phase isn't over yet and most people that say SB sucked compared to Shb I honestly feel are making assumptions at this time. It's like comparing apples to oranges until all of Shb is over.

I say this because I feel people have forgotten how they thought SB destroyed HW when that expac was fresh and now people are saying HW was better than SB when it concluded it's full story.

[Allegor]

Tbh, what disappoints me the most is the lack of sin eaters outside MSQ. For being a realm plagued with them to the point people are afraid of even going outside town, there's none on the overworld, and not a single fate or side quests that involves sin eaters (not that I recall at least). Makes it feel like they weren't really a threat to begin with.

[Nixxe]

The MSQ is better; crafting is worse; the overall design is a copy and paste of SB, which was a copy and paste of HW.

[Liam_Harper]

Having a lot of fun, overall really good expansion. I'm baffled WoW is still going when ShB exists, but different people have different preferences I guess.

Crafting is a bit lukewarm this time around, class design was hit and miss with some but I love WhM and I'm enjoying Sam. MSQ was brilliant, raids and trials are good fun and dungeons were all decent. Zones look great, music is top notch.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

Tbh, what disappoints me the most is the lack of sin eaters outside MSQ. For being a realm plagued with them to the point people are afraid of even going outside town, there's none on the overworld, and not a single fate or side quests that involves sin eaters (not that I recall at least). Makes it feel like they weren't really a threat to begin with.

The same holds true for Voidsent on the Source.

[Divinemights]

Much better than WoW 8.2, non sense of the story, mindlesss grind or you’re are behind in raid dps

[Shurrikhan]

Story: Quite good; not quite great. About equal to former expansions in execution, but well ahead in terms of core concepts and novelty. ~87/100?
Dungeons: Mediocre. With few exceptions, the worst -- on average -- of the expansions thus far. ~72/100?
Gameplay: Hit and miss. Seems mostly to be a matter of which jobs were least harmed, rather than most improved. SB saw this already to a degree, but ShB makes this feeling almost a cornerstone of the experience. ~65/100.