Heavensward the worst expansion

[Jeeqbit]

Heck it was the expansion where it almost KO'd the raiding scene

I think it wasn't just the raids themselves that did this though. We actually did not have cross-world parties until halfway through the final tier of Heavensward and we did not have World Visiting until Shadowbringers. So consider that for a moment. We were restricted to worlds and raiding with people on the same world.

If you wanted to raid but were on a dead server, then you were out of luck. You could try to join a Free Company and raid with the 7 people you could scramble together, but it was rough.

You would come across the same people in Party Finder a lot. The parties appeared more toxic, because instead of [Duty Complete (Weekly Reward Unclaimed)], we had "2 chests, no bonus" which implies people will get kicked if they have already recleared or have a bonus message. At first, it put me off a lot, but once I was reclearing raids, I was putting that myself... because what other option was there? It made raiding look toxic.

Because it was restricted to worlds, it was more likely that statics would be part of raid FCs because you'd look for those so that you could raid. And they were pretty toxic because obviously they wanted to filter out players that weren't good in an era where jobs weren't as braindead, bosses didn't auto-position etc. So you could actually get Summoners that did a fraction of the damage they were supposed to, whereas now it's difficult to imagine someone being capable of being that bad at Summoner.

We didn't have discord or cross-world static listing discords and websites like we do now.

So given all these factors, if you put something like Gordias in today's environment where the population is far bigger, it may get tons of criticism like P8S did, but the landscape is just far different; more content creators, optimization communities like The Balance; several times bigger population; bigger pool of people that can mix across worlds and data centers. People may figure out how to get through it easier than back then. Not to mention how you wouldn't get a Warrior using Shake It Off to do the healer's job for them sometimes, back then.

Paladin and White Mage being non-viable in raiding.

Paladin was perfectly capable of getting through Creator at least. It just wasn't pleasant, because Alexander could take you down to double digit HP due to doing magic damage against physical mit.

[Zolvolt]

HW had a great story, a great aesthetic, and cool new jobs, but yeah it was the worst expansion by far.

[localareanetwork]

I'll take a janky "unbalanced" job system that isn't anywhere near as homogeneous and actually keeps some semblance of party utilities in non-tank jobs over the dull trash they've been striving for since Shadowbringers.
Not like the "unbalance" prevented raiders from clearing with the so called "not meta" comps anyway.

The whole era from ARR patches til the end of Stormblood was peak PvE in XIV for me. And no Endwalker apologist is going to change my mind, because I can play the game and I can tell what I miss.

Well, you need to strike a balance. Jobs being that hard in addition to the way raids were tuned almost killed the game. Also, while I did not play in Heavensward, everyone I've talked to who did says if your favorite job was Monk or Paladin, you were shit outta luck.

[Krokov]

Worst no, just because someone says that in a video doesn't make it true. Each x-pac has its perks and worst or best is simply what an individual player thinks of it. IMO there are no bad ones if you will, though if I had to pick one I guess SB cause Ala Mihgo wasnt a regular town though that's a weak reason at best.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Well, you need to strike a balance. Jobs being that hard in addition to the way raids were tuned almost killed the game. Also, while I did not play in Heavensward, everyone I've talked to who did says if your favorite job was Monk or Paladin, you were shit outta luck.

You have extremes on both sides. Sure many look at HW with rose tinted lenses. However you also have those looking at it through a the old grainy black and white movie filter.

HW was essentially their first actual foray into making a harder raid tier a standard practice. The initial experiment being that 1 set in coils that I think just had titles attached to them.

Some of this was overtuned a bit. However it did not nearly kill the game or raiding scene as some people apparently want you to believe.

What it did do was cause a spike in raid statics compared to ARR along with an increase in meta mentality. Paladin in general I recall running into issues with meta mindset ppl because it was essentially at the time the bottom tier tank. Trying to remember monk's issues and the item that keeps crossing my mind is the piercing meta where ppl wanted to load all the DPS slots with a DRG and a bunch of BRDs. I can't remember if that was HW or SB though when that was considered peak meta comp.

[Aravell]

Trying to remember monk's issues and the item that keeps crossing my mind is the piercing meta where ppl wanted to load all the DPS slots with a DRG and a bunch of BRDs. I can't remember if that was HW or SB though when that was considered peak meta comp.

Monk's issue was that them bringing blunt resist down only synergised with other monks, and also their INT down was worthless because DRK brought it with Delirium. Also didn't help that MCH and BRD were in an arms race, which makes DRG a definite lock-in due to their piercing resist down.

[Jeeqbit]

You weren't out of luck on Paladin, at least in Creator, but rather you knew you were trying to optimize a sub-optimal job and you had to endure everyone trashing it. What Paladin lacked in DPS it had in utility, but nobody appreciates that, they only appreciate DPS.

And its damage was significantly lower than Warrior from what I recall.

[TheMightyMollusk]

(though I won't lie. I am a brute justice simp. Voltron fight lets go)

Their English names were inspired by the Combaticons.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I've played since early 2014 and all of that is true. I don't hate HW. But many hold it up as the end-all be-all and crap on EW for it when HW had very similar issues.

I meme on hating it sometimes like with Shadowbringers but I also liked Heavensward's story. I just hate people overly praising it to such a high degree because seriously what kind of rpg people played with this expansion? Its the same shit as in ARR just that the setting was more interesting but people act like its the second comong of Jesus or something.

Its stupid. Also Im glad somebody pointed how how awful the HW zones were. Sure Sea of Clouds is pretty but traversing and questing there was one of the worst and boring experiences Ive ever had in an MMO.

[Jeeqbit]

I meme on hating it sometimes like with Shadowbringers but I also liked Heavensward's story. I just hate people overly praising it to such a high degree because seriously what kind of rpg people played with this expansion? Its the same shit as in ARR just that the setting was more interesting but people act like its the second comong of Jesus or something.

Before Shadowbringers, it was legitimately regarded as the best story they had done. It was an adventure with little fights between the people there and it wasn't as simple as "kill all dragons" like you'd first assume. ARR was good, but Heavensward kept taking it to the next level with each story patch and each dungeon and trial. The music just got better every time as well. I already knew this game's story was magical but when 3.3 released it had taken it to another level and it felt like it was going to keep on climbing, and did in other ways.

You can of course look at flaws in hindsight and compare it to future expansions but at the time it was the best stuff they had done and a big improvement over ARR in the flow of the quests.