Endwalker is my least favorite expansion yet

[Jeeqbit]

ARR-SHB were fantastic, all of the Trials and Raids felt memorable and the mechanics were fun and interesting. But not EW. Every single EW Trial and Raid feels like a completely different team now works on the game and it's taken a giant step down in quality. The mechanics are not memorable or interesting, and almost none of them have any sense of uniqueness to them that all the others did. The creativity of this game's stellar mechanics have died, and it's sad to see.

Then how do you explain how awesome and unique Zodiark is? It's my favorite EW trial by far and one of my most favorite overall.

All the asteroid and memory stuff in Endsinger is neat. I think the mechanics in the others are really great too, just the aesthetic that I'm not really into. Barbaricca was well-received for example and I thought it was really good, just too green for me, like Rubicante is too much fire for me.

Even the leveling dungeons I have found really good too. I love the final Ktisis fight for example. It's well designed and people who do the mechanics wrong wipe. There is even something for the tanks who can wipe their group if they don't know what interrupt is and there are definitely a lot of tanks that don't know what interrupt is. The fights before it are good too, simply requiring you to learn what different head telegraphs mean.

The Tower of Zot fight's mechanics are fast-paced as well which is a change from a lot of fights.

I even find Lapis Manalis' mechanics quite punishing if you aren't paying attention. They give you Doom and kill you and other mechanics I have seen just kill DPS or healers leaving me to finish it.

And the raids are great too. I don't know how you can do the current savage raids and not think they are good, memorable and interesting. I know they are for me.

And what about the 24-person raids? Aglaia was probably one of the most well-received alliance raids in history, if not the most. The Rhalgr fight and the last fight are memorable! The others were interesting too, like Byregot's platform mechanics.

And don't even get me started on the two minute meta.

I think this must be where this is all really coming from, because almost nobody likes this or at best is neutral about it.

It's true that SE has hired new people over time (I have even seen the job adverts for fight designers that say to make a design similar in difficulty to current dungeons that would make a dungeon only last 20 minutes). The fights aren't worse, just different.

If the argument is they reuse mechanics like a lot of people bring up, they did this even in Heavensward.

[Mithron]

Then how do you explain how awesome and unique Zodiark is? It's my favorite EW trial by far and one of my most favorite overall.

It wasn't awesome or unique. The only unique mechanic was Astral End, which is barely anything. Ramuh ex, Nidhogg ex, even Seiryu ex all have truly unique mechanics. Zodiark was a massive let down for 10 years of buildup.

All the asteroid and memory stuff in Endsinger is neat. I think the mechanics in the others are really great too, just the aesthetic that I'm not really into. Barbaricca was well-received for example and I thought it was really good, just too green for me, like Rubicante is too much fire for me.

I didn't find any of them neat or interesting. Barb was just repeated mechanic vomit coming out really fast and I can't even bother to try Rubi ex. Comparing Endsinger ex to Thordan, Shinryu and Hades, it's clear she's by far the worst.

The Tower of Zot fight's mechanics are fast-paced as well which is a change from a lot of fights.

Tower of Zot was a great dungeon for its difficulty and I did enjoy the trash and bosses, but it's just a dungeon. Most of the other dungeons suck, especially the dungeon leading up to Endsinger.

And the raids are great too. I don't know how you can do the current savage raids and not think they are good, memorable and interesting. I know they are for me.

Both O1s and O5s completely ruined my desire to push any further. Hot cold in O1s was so poorly designed especially for off tanks, and O5s devour was also terribly designed. Neither are even unique. They're not hard, just annoying and anti-fun.

And what about the 24-person raids? Aglaia was probably one of the most well-received alliance raids in history, if not the most. The Rhalgr fight and the last fight are memorable! The others were interesting too, like Byregot's platform mechanics.

Algaia was okay, but it left me feeling "Oh, THESE are the gods and goddesses we've been referring to since forever? That's it?"

[Jeeqbit]

It wasn't awesome or unique. The only unique mechanic was Astral End

Can't agree with that then! The whole rotate thing and flow of it was pretty cool and it was a lot of fun being the dorito in it.

To be honest, I've been playing the whole time since ARR and I don't feel this way at all. So I suppose you're just burned out by it for whatever reason.

I can agree with people feeling like Island Sanctuary isn't really replacing Eureka or Bozja and that a lot of this content doesn't promote being social in the same way, or that the normal content is often over telegraphed or not synced well enough for mechanics to matter. I can agree that jobs are being made similar such as MNK and SAM, and soon DRG and RPR, is disappointing, or that the 2-mintue meta makes jobs like DRK less fun, but I still enjoy all of the new fights and story we get.