EW may be one of the worst expansions for raiders but was one of the best for casuals

[Larirawiel]

I would describe me as a casual. But i find, Shadowbringers was way better.


Cheers

[Remish]

So you basically enjoy doing absolutely nothing, nice.

Also a majority of players from the WoW exodus have left, hence why the game is back at about 1 million daily players.

Actually, I heard it was the other way around. I heard it was a lot of WoW players that stayed and that it's a lot of FFXIV Vets exodus-ing over to WoW. No way to really prove or deny either claim though.

[Reap00]

Endwalker was very successful and it is only the depressed and angry vocal minority that believe it has failed in any significant way. These players need to find more to do with their lives instead of playing a game that they hate so much.

Bravo friend. I have been trying to tell these people that for a long time. They have difficulty grasping this so I suggest we work together to get it through their thick skulls!

[Saraide]

3 versions of the same unfunny gimmick account are now just responding to each other. Incredible.

[ChrysOCE]

3 versions of the same unfunny gimmick account are now just responding to each other. Incredible.

We are through the looking glass. What is even real anymore?

[caffe_macchiato]

*subs again*

Honest question, what keeps you subbed?

Why are you subbed? I am subbed because the company has my credit card info. But while I'm very important, there are a million other players who this thread pertains to. You should ask them why they stay subbed despite always pivoting to "just play other games". Because, while you agree that FFXIV is a single-player game and other players aren't important, there are certain things you can't do without others. Every MMO needs a healthy community. You might heavily disagree, but some day your friends will leave and you'll wonder how you can have fun when all of your party members are NPCs.

[RitsukoSonoda]

I am struggling to see how much of that has anything to do with casual players specifically.

They're basically labeling the laziest players and those that primarily want the game to be fantasy themed Sims as the "casual" player base.

[remiff]

You mean Endwalker is the worst expansion for casual players.

The game is experiencing a homogenization of its jobs, making them all seem identical over time, 120s meta.

There's a poor job balance, such as group HOT/HEAL effects on DPS/TANK, which disrupt the primary role of healers.

The Warrior is so brainless that it can DPS/HEAL/TANK simultaneously, allowing for 1 tank and 3 DPS in dungeons, which shouldn't be possible.

The damage/HP balance in level 90 instances is the worst ever, as you can take a lot of AOE damage with no consequences in DPS/HEAL,
in fact, many people don't bother dodging AOE in dungeons anymore because they are like mosquito bites.

The first two tiers of the 8-player raids were so bad.

Aglaia being the only good 24-man among the three,
Euphrosyne and Thalia didn't resemble 24-player raids mechanically; they were dull, featuring a lot of recycled mechanics and even a 3D skeleton copy of the E12 boss for the final boss,
there was also a design copy, essentially taking all the abilities from previous bosses—is hardly inspiring.


The Criterions/variant are fun to do once in discovery mode, but once you've finished all 12 paths, there's no reason to return.
The loot is awful, and the replayability is terrible, you're constantly slowed down by an NPC to the speed of a turtle, scripts that make you wait for mobs for ages or choose between a tree and a rock,
once you've completed the mini-puzzles, there's no fun in redoing them because they are overly scripted and basic, with no option to remove the scripts/pnj,etc,.. for better replayability.

The Island Sanctuary is like a very low-quality Animal Crossing, which could have been interesting but has a minimal and lazy concept,
making the content extremely repetitive and not very interesting..

Most of the trial fights, especially Rubicante, were subpar in normal mode.

I understand that the perception of an expansion can vary from person to person, but honestly, this is the first time in the history of Final Fantasy XIV that I've complained about an expansion and played it very little because there's nothing interesting to do.
In fact, I've been playing the game with a friend since the beginning of Heavensward, with breaks, of course, and even he isn't playing and shares the same opinion as me about the content.
If people were really happy with Endwalker, there wouldn't be so much criticism directed towards it.

Not to mention the patch cycles that went from 3.5 months to an average of 4.5 months for Endwalker, and an average waiting time of at least 9 months in the best-case scenario for the next expansion.

The reason for this is very likely FF16.
Managing two major projects like FF14 and FF16 simultaneously is not healthy.

And we end up with an FF14 predominantly managed by newcomers devs in the 3rd Division team, and it's quite evident.

[Renathras]

I thought it was the worst for casuals because no bozja?

Midcore.

The Bozja thing is a midcore argument. While EW was great for casuals, it largely came at cost to it being the worst for midcore players.

Hardcore complain a lot, but other than bemoaning Job design, they got the same total amount of hardcore content they do in every expansion with Savages and Ultimates, PLUS half the Extremes were made "fun" for them by being at Savage level - again gutting the midcore players of content.

Casuals were eating good in EW, hardcore were slightly better than normal (despite complaining a lot), but the midcore were gutted.

[Hallideus]

These small casual friendly QoL changes are all excellent, very welcome changes that have made the overall game experience better but pull that veil back and the lack of long lasting content has absolutely hurt this expansion's content quality. A huge chunk of players log in for something a bit for fulfilling than simply the social aspects of emote spam in Limsa, glamour, gpose and housing but there's nothing wrong with the players who are satisfied with just that. These small casual friendly changes accumulate over time and consistently help the game feel, play better for all.
However.
Bozja/Eureka aside, it's just sad to see Variants/Criterions fall flat, with a bit of reward incentive to farm them they could really have scratched that itch the lack of Bozja left because the welfare relics which are practically being handed to you for next to nothing could surely have been tied into that content like with Bozja with the ShB relic grind. It just feels like there's been some potentially fantastic ideas absolutely wasted.
The Alliance raids are another example. They're fun, but feel a little TOO easy at times. Maybe we could have seen some mechanics where each Alliance is given specific responsibilities for this encounter that encounter like say with World of Darkness's Cerberus fight. Tiny things like that can make the experience of the content feel more fulfilling and enjoyable.

If the aim of the game is to make all of this more accessible and lower the difficulty ceiling of this sort of content fair enough but as said by critics and people in here, maybe we could also have midcore content for the players who want that tiny bit more from the game but don't want to step up to farming/progging top tier content of Savage/Ultimate.
I feel the game's created a huge gulf between casual and hardcore this expansion.