Quote Originally Posted by GoldStarz View Post
This feels like you're operating under the assumption that the Blessing is a tangible power rather than an unseen buff that affects us within the lore of the story, though, which I'm fairly sure is what it's supposed to be given how characters talk about it.

I think if Hydaelyn is destroyed in EW, as I assume she will be, WoL will be knocked down a few pegs. That's not to say they aren't already incredibly impressive on their own, after all we took down all the 2.0 primals as well as Ravana and Bismarck without the full blessing, just that it will be more understandable if we struggle against some more grounded threats.
I made a whole video about this (Here, if you want, it's twenty minutes long), but the Blessing is indeed a tangible aid from Hydaelyn, although it's less of 'a power granted to us' and more of 'a direct hotline to call for her help'. It comes up in ways that are actually very visible:
  1. Helped against Ultima Weapon,
  2. Made a blade of light to mess up Lahabrea,
  3. Ysayle called on it to get aether enough to channel Shiva in open airspace,
  4. Ardbert used it to kill one Ascian with a blade of light, and fail absurdly poorly at killing a second,
  5. Was probably how we survived fighting Hades

On top of that, Lahabrea and Igeyorhm curse our use of it in the Ascian Prime fight, but given Hydaelyn's aid is normally very visible, and at that point we saw nothing, they might've just been whiny about losing.

While losing access to the Hydaelyn Hotline would suck for the WoL, it's not something that would leave them completely helpless. Like you said, we kept pace for most of 2.0 without it, either almost all of all of Heavensward (since our only possible use of it was the Ascian Prime), all of Stormblood, and almost all of Shadowbringers; we can definitely compete without it.