There was far less content in Heavensward than in Endwalker

[Sindele]

Never get tired of seeing Heavensward brought up in this context. Early HW AST was nearly unplayable. Diadem flopped, got redone, and flopped again. Feast 2.0 did nothing to revive PVP. HW raiding almost killed the raid scene outright. All of it added up to make 3.4-3.5 kinda sleepy community-wise.

I would really, really think twice before holding HW up as a paragon - it's very easy to turn it into a golden age fallacy.

[Noumenon]

Never get tired of seeing Heavensward brought up in this context. Early HW AST was nearly unplayable. Diadem flopped, got redone, and flopped again. Feast 2.0 did nothing to revive PVP. HW raiding almost killed the raid scene outright. All of it added up to make 3.4-3.5 kinda sleepy community-wise.

I would really, really think twice before holding HW up as a paragon - it's very easy to turn it into a golden age fallacy.

At the same time, it also had some of the best content and design we've seen in the game - A8S, DRK, MCH, PotD, GPose.

It also created the first treasure dungeon, the first custom delivery, the first field content, the first Savage raids...

It's a controversial expansion, with a lot of good and a lot of bad, but it at least did a lot of the things for the first time that we now take for granted.

But EW doesn't have a lot of good. The bad of EW is also not bad like HW's bad, it's bad in the sense that it's just boring. What is there in EW that was done for the first time? Island Sanctuary is a glorified Doman Reconstruction with a clunky UI. Variant is a regular dungeon with multiple routes. Criterion is three short Savage bosses smashed into a corridor. Even these things that EW has made for the first time is just a rehash of previous ideas.

[DiaDeem]

HW raiding almost killed the raid scene outright

[NailBach]

Never get tired of seeing Heavensward brought up in this context. Early HW AST was nearly unplayable. Diadem flopped, got redone, and flopped again. Feast 2.0 did nothing to revive PVP. HW raiding almost killed the raid scene outright. All of it added up to make 3.4-3.5 kinda sleepy community-wise.

I would really, really think twice before holding HW up as a paragon - it's very easy to turn it into a golden age fallacy.

indeed. HW burned me out so hard i came back when 5.5 got released.