The great streamer Asmongold is joining FFXIV

[Plastics]

In comparison with all other expansions, it is. Not to mention, a big partion of new players have reportly quit during ARR slog.

Having leveled through ARR to Shadowbringers about 7 times now, I will heavily disagree with this. SB is much worse than ARR. The reason people quit during ARR is because they're constantly told how bad it is, and so any negative reinforcement demotivates them and they stop playing. If your goal is to just skip through it and not care about anything, it is a lot of work to get through and you feel like you're wasting your time. It's mostly just a tutorial, but there's a ton of stuff to do and unlock in ARR, and by the time you get to the "pre-HW grind" as people call it, the story has picked up. Slow down, enjoy it, and it's completely fine.

I would happily recommend people skip SB and just watch a MSQ synopsis video, and it's the only part of the game where I think that recommendation is warranted. Specifically the MSQ, not the raid content, which you can do at any time.

[ItMe]

Having leveled through ARR to Shadowbringers about 7 times now, I will heavily disagree with this. SB is much worse than ARR. The reason people quit during ARR is because they're constantly told how bad it is, and so any negative reinforcement demotivates them and they stop playing. If your goal is to just skip through it and not care about anything, it is a lot of work to get through and you feel like you're wasting your time.

Not to mention that ARR is where new players get a feel for if this game is up their alley or not.