Any ARR 2.0-2.55 players? Tell us your experience during those times.

[Raikai]

I remember the old map...

[Cilia]

Chocobo not being a given, you had to work to get a significant number of GC seals at level for it.

Titan HM was challenging, and you couldn't queue for it. So people stood around in Mor Dhona looking for parties like classical MMORPGs, and everyone wanted to do it because he's the last step to finishing a vanilla Relic Weapon. Taught me the value of getting more expensive tome gear first; accessories might be cheaper but they do nothing for your VIT, which was a necessity for surviving his party-wide AoEs.

Demon Wall was a real challenge.

Relic Atmas were super low drop rate. Could go days farming FATEs for them, only to find out in the end all they really did was palette swap the Relic Weapon and you had to do another long-ass grind afterward to actually make it better.

3 new dungeons per patch was god-damn heaven, compared to 1 these days.

Catboys everywhere.

[LisSquid]

I made it to the end of ARR and then HW dropped the week after.

It was pretty magical, ngl.

[Anienai]

I think I started during that time. I recall Fate farming Dark Devices in Ceruleum Processing Plant and ppl getting pissed if it ended early.

[ReynTime]

I absolutely LOVED doing dungeons and fighting in general. All the jank that some people say when referring to the job design was actually enjoyable to me. Protect, cleric stance, aggro management, being a healer with proper buffs like a real FF game, etc...

[Semirhage]

I remember a lot of the old glitches you could use to get out of bounds. There used to be holes in the map in Outer La Noscea and Costa that were really fun to explore. The monstrous potency with no falloff damage that Holy and Flare used to have were really satisfying. Leveling all of my crafters and being delighted by the cool cross-class skills that had a real impact on getting your other classes up; having a 50 weaver with Careful Synth 2 was excellent when starting over with a new class to level. Houses weren't impossible to find. I don't miss Northern Thanalan FATE farming for that awkward leveling gap in the mid 40s when there wasn't much else to do for experience.

[PaulH]

Pharos Sirius oh i loved that dungeon it hit hard and then they nerfed it but it was good, Arum Vale before it became easy was quite fun and everyone hoped for SMN/BLM or WHM to be able to take down the adds of the last boss haha. Amdapor Keep and Wanderers Palace the level 50 dungeons to get the Darklight armour, haha could basically run to each boss and lockout the adds, bummer if a player died. Oh i miss my dots as a scholar.

I suppose I remember the original fate chain dark devices in Northern Thanalan when we were level capped at 50 where we would all aoe the hell out of one of the fates to level by never completing fate properly it was insane XP till it was nerfed. ARR wasn't so bad I think for me as we took the content as it came out as it was all had nothing else so the levelling and number of quests didn't seem as bad as people who go through all expansions.

[Rannie]

Demon Wall was a real challenge.

Those bees still give me nightmares..... ;_;

Or when the tanks (or someone didnt have to be a tank) would accidentally aggro mobs from those two rooms in Stone Vigil. Until the higher gear and such Those two rooms were hell and only one was optional. >.<

[Moomba33]

I started the game back in beta 4 on PS3.

It was my first MMO and I started with 3 friends, eventually we were joined by 2 more. Everything was a new experience. Even with the slower parts of the story we were still having fun fighting classic FF bosses in the trials as we unlocked them.

We really struggled in some dungeons. I remember grinding Ifrit HM for the weapon to make it easier to beat Demon Wall in AK and to help get past the dps check of Titan HM's heart. I was reeeeeally bad at the game back then and ignoring a lot of my skills as a Bard. It was honestly playing in 8 man instances with strangers and seeing other Bards in action that encouraged me to use more of my skills.

I remember on the run where I finally got my Ifrit Bow the party nearly wiped but I was able to save the day with the Bard LB3 which was the same as the healer LB at the time.
A lot of us were pretty bad at the game back then. I remember Ifrit HM groups disbanding if we didn't have a caster to LB the nails or a Paladin to stun Eruptions. The DF couldn't fill parties in progress for trials at launch.

We had to level multiple classes for cross class skills. As a Bard I needed Pugilist and Lancer for their damage buffs. Roulettes didn't exist, so FATE parties were a common way to level. I remember being excited when chains like the Highbridge fates in East Thanalan and the Svara ones in Coerthas spawned.

Glamour didn't exist at launch. I remember hating my Darklight bard sandals.

I and a lot of my friends fell in love with Ishgard during the ARR story so it was a dream come true when Heavensward sent us there.

Edit: I really miss the Flaming Arrow ground aoe on bard it was fun.
I vaguely remember Rain of Death having an additional effect on it that lowered enemy damage but it was taken away and given to one of the Warrior combo finishers instead.
Ah yes there's an old salt topic about it on Reddit haha

[AnnRam]

It was a wonderful era, you could find players around every corner exploring, doing content , asking for groups instead of having the whole server in Limsa/Uldah wearing shirts/sneakers/short pants and doing bee dance 24/7 pretending to playing some alternative version of Second Life/Sims.

People were more friendly and nobody cared about you "social status/logs/gppse/mods" back in ARR we didn't have players crying or having "anxiety " about everything unlike now.

Also farming Atmas was the peak of rage in shout chat.