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

[Kuroka]

It's hard to describe what it was like back then. Everything was new. It was all exciting. Every patch was fun. I still miss the feeling I had when I was raiding Coil. It's something no other raid has given me. People here like to talk about how bad ARR is. It wasn't bad then. It was incredibly fun.

I might have only joined at HW, but i miss the old trailers, twice as long as our current ones, im dissapointed at ever new trailer, no matter how good they are...

[Purrsnikitty]

People already covered most of the things I remember from ARR. One thing I will never forget though is when Bard LB3 saved the day, like this.

[Asako]

People already covered most of the things I remember from ARR. One thing I will never forget though is when Bard LB3 saved the day, like this.

Bring it back. In fact I would love to see alternative options for LB3.

[Cach]

-Overall, everything was harder.
-Lag was so bad, Titan was almost impossible.
-People were more snappy and aggressive on chat.
-Aurum Vale would strike fear in men's hearts.
-Grand Company, leves, hunts, FATEs were more reelevant.

I left the game before I got to 50 and didn't come back until HW.

[Shougun]

It's hard to describe what it was like back then. Everything was new. It was all exciting. Every patch was fun. I still miss the feeling I had when I was raiding Coil. It's something no other raid has given me. People here like to talk about how bad ARR is. It wasn't bad then. It was incredibly fun.

I don't mean this as pure doom, but I strongly believe that a significant part of what makes MMOs so damn fun is an element that is extremely difficult to replicate within itself regardless of quality dev team.. and that's the newness and awe that comes with playing it for the first time.

My beginning experience of WoW... amazing, FFXI.. amazing, FFXIV... it was 1.0.. so.. touch and go... 2.0- amazing lol.

Companies will try to make the game last forever, and PvP scenes imo can help add variety- like people playing LoL still.. something about the human competition element that helps keep things from going stale, but for a world and PvE like element it becomes harder and harder to capture that one element of 'new awe'. I don't mean it as doom, just that.. the first few years of a new MMO, that you like, is REALLY special.. and I just think it becomes harder and harder high to chase by players and devs no matter how hard they try to keep a game alive.

Not exclusively the reasons I occasionally mention another FF MMO but certainly something in my mind when I do (usually list the other reasons, so it shouldn't be a secret).

As well again, FFXIV is not doomed for it.. just a feeling I think is amazing but one that you can't get easily and can't make easily, if at all, the older your game becomes.

I believe emphasizing the journey, and interactions with it, even more and paying even less head to the end game meta could help, like skyrim but an MMORPG, BuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuT....... I think a lot of MMO players are trained, bred, and hardcoded for that gotta get to the end gotta go fast and would be caught off guard if you designed a game more specifically ignoring the end but focusing on long immersive journeys (probably one of the key reasons why I keep bringing up better movement systems, I believe such a thing has a profound potential to experiencing the game and should be utilized).

Dream game in my head I play when I'm waiting for something lol. Not that there wouldn't be hard late content, but I imagine such a game would be less preoccupied with the next savage or ultimate, and be far more into making large world spaces with lots of things to do any many ways to approach it. Some games do more or less of this already, but personally as a casual / semi solo focused / df player, on a selfish level the 'dream game' in my mind wouldn't really revolve around such things and would rather ensure you could spend insane amount of time exploring interesting things. Not even sure I'd officially recommend SE the idea.. though it sounds fun to me. Naturally a proper developer has to think about more than their own desires.. I believe I've noted a few occasions where Yoshida has stated their preference but gone against it due to player desire, for example, so uh.. someone irresponsibly give me loads of money and no expectations-- it'll be Grrreat!!

Anyway, that new quality MMO smell is certainly an amazing moment to have~!

[Lunalepsy]

Can be any, like something fun/weird/annoying/stressfull/boring/etc experience.

Also something that you missed during those times, like systems/job skill/etc

2.0 was the best era! Two worlds colliding (1.0 vs 2.0), one path. Everything seemed fresh and cool until they decided that the 2.0-2.5 patches were to be used as the main structure for future content.

[Renalt]

Lots of fates and fate parties. Getting the Fate Chain that had the boss fate at the end was always fun. Now with power creep being real...you can usually solo any of those chains now.

[ReynTime]

Yeah, I miss using TP, aggro management, helping out other jobs with your abilities. It felt like a team effort. These days it feels more like 8 people happen to be fighting the same enemy.

Seeing Ishgard from afar without being allowed entry and only getting little revelations via quests felt pretty magical, too.

I forgot to mention TP but yeah, I liked TP management. Though personally I liked how TP was handled BEFORE A Realm Reborn more. Building it up from 0 to use TP specific actions to me was a better execution.

[Jin-]

It played like an RPG game, now it plays like more like an action game with tab target combat with little to no actual class mechanics, stats etc... to follow. We have quick ground events and fixed rotation with no variation at all, yes Hissatsu: Kaiten more recent one, was one of these, not much compared to what we had in ARR-HW but still.
Soon we could have 1 2 3 and 4. 1 does damage, 2 does AoE damage, 3 does utility and 4 does Supermove. Here we go, action game in a nutshell with hoppity hop avoid the boss.

Gameplay ARR/HW wise was way better but the story and so on was way worse.
Game is now more fun to hang on, but thats all it really offers when the story is done due to gameplay being so boring. It's a lobby afk simulator.

I die a little bit inside everytime someone repeats the stupid saying "FFXIV is an RPGMMO". Must be youngsters who haven't experienced proper RPG game before.

I do admit that i enjoy the game more, but its not because they butchered the RPG part of the combat, its the side things the game has and people to chat with and glamming. Combat content? No thx anymore, i play other games for that.

[Dzian]

I miss Coil. And the story attached to it. Was a time where it felt raiding had a purpose unlike now.

And the difficulty of coil really added a sense of credibly to the storyline associated with it. Those tough choices characters made and the reasons for there actions made sense because the situation felt desperate..

Lost interest in raiding soon as they added unsynced and took away the story. But non of the normal mode stories even come close to coil because that credibly isn't there with hoe easy they are to beat..

I forgot to mention TP but yeah, I liked TP management. Though personally I liked how TP was handled BEFORE A Realm Reborn more. Building it up from 0 to use TP specific actions to me was a better execution.

I Still think the combat system in 1.23 was leagues better than what we have now or even had in ARR... Less spammy more impactful, and rewarding. skills just felt powerful and had weight. Partly because you had to wait to get. to use them. so pressing them felt satisfying and had a sense of choice and decision making.. do you pop that skill as soon as your tp hits x. and hope you can finish the combo or do you keep building tp and drop all your skills in quick succession to spike damage. or even do you go for the high damage combo or the low tp but chance of incapacitation combo.. miles better than this mindless always be mashing buttons crap. And it felt rewarding. If you executed the first skill correctly you were rewarded with the combo. If you didn't execute it properly you couldn't combo..

Arr had none of that. You barely notice if you miss a skills positional or anything it's insignificant. And thus carries no weight or impact.

Oh and a little fun one. Being able to get on top of the rising stones in mordhona with a bunch of well timed jumps and tight rope walking. Used to spend a lot of time up there and so many people asking how to get there..