Is 7.2 the last patch to even save Dawntrail at this point?(SPOILERS AHOY)

[Evergrey]

Just think of Dawntrail as WoW's Shadowlands, players didn't like it and a lot of people stopped playing thanks to it.
But now WoW has The War Within and a lot of players say that it's really good and a lot of players returned thanks to that.

Point is, Dawntrail might not be the best for many but just endure (or take a break) and perhaps the next expansion will be better and people can just "forget" that Dawntrail ever happened.

[Daralii]

Just think of Dawntrail as WoW's Shadowlands, players didn't like it and a lot of people stopped playing thanks to it.
But now WoW has The War Within and a lot of players say that it's really good and a lot of players returned thanks to that.

Point is, Dawntrail might not be the best for many but just endure (or take a break) and perhaps the next expansion will be better and people can just "forget" that Dawntrail ever happened.

You could also compare it to BfA, being the expansion following the conclusion of the main conflict. That paints a much more grim picture for 8.X.

[Evergrey]

You could also compare it to BfA, being the expansion following the conclusion of the main conflict. That paints a much more grim picture for 8.X.

This is a "glass half full / half empty" kinda mindset.
You chose to pick an expansion that is followed by another bad one / glass half empty
Where I picked an expansion where the following one ended up to be an improvement / half full.

This kinda shows the mentality whether or not people choose to hope that things can get better or not.

[Hallarem]

You could also compare it to BfA, being the expansion following the conclusion of the main conflict. That paints a much more grim picture for 8.X.

BFA had a good start, the world was interesting, until it botched up in the later patches.
Dawntrail like Shadowlands has been crap, start to finish.

And at least WoW even in it's crappiest days had the balls to TRY SOMETHING NEW and INNOVATE.

[Xelanar]

Just think of Dawntrail as WoW's Shadowlands, players didn't like it and a lot of people stopped playing thanks to it.
But now WoW has The War Within and a lot of players say that it's really good and a lot of players returned thanks to that.

Point is, Dawntrail might not be the best for many but just endure (or take a break) and perhaps the next expansion will be better and people can just "forget" that Dawntrail ever happened.

There is an essential difference though.
In World of Warcraft, you can opt to ignore Shadowlands and BfA.

In FFXIV every single new player joining in will have to bear through the drastic drop in story telling quality right after Shadowbringers and Endwalker set the bar really high. There is no skipping or avoiding story in this game. Dawntrail is the new low, far worse than pre-revamped ARR (to be fair, ARR wasn't even bad. It just had and still has pacing issues).

Dawntrail is the new "it gets better after"-breaking point... potentially. We don't even know for sure yet. Considering last patch we witnessed a relevant story NPC showing more interest in selectively protecting one random entity of wildlife from another random entity of wildlife, than they showed for protecting their own father figure from being killed, my hopes are not exactly skyrocketing.

Unless they revamp, no one will be able to forget how full of severe plotholes and things that don't make any sense Dawntrail is.

[Evergrey]

There is an essential difference though.
In World of Warcraft, you can opt to ignore Shadowlands and BfA.

In FFXIV every single new player joining in will have to bear through the drastic drop in story telling quality right after Shadowbringers and Endwalker set the bar really high. There is no skipping or avoiding story in this game. Dawntrail is the new low, far worse than pre-revamped ARR (to be fair, ARR wasn't even bad. It just had and still has pacing issues).

Dawntrail is the new "it gets better after"-breaking point... potentially. We don't even know for sure yet. Considering last patch we witnessed a relevant story NPC showing more interest in selectively protecting one random entity of wildlife from another random entity of wildlife, than they showed for protecting their own father figure from being killed, my hopes are not exactly skyrocketing.

Unless they revamp, no one will be able to forget how full of severe plotholes and things that don't make any sense Dawntrail is.

If you really want to compare you have to talk about BfA and Shadowlands as if they were the current expansion, seeing how Dawntrail is the current right now.
And at those times people couldn't really opt out of BfA and Shadowlands as they can do now.
And once Dawntrail isn't current it will sooner or later get a "skip potion" from the store so people can opt out of it as well if they so choose to.

If people really dislike Dawntrails story that much, why not just pretend that it's not happening?
I played through out most of Dawntrail and skipped almost every single cutscene and I don't look back and think "this happened in Dawntrail".
I simply focus on what I think is enjoyable.
To be fair however, I've probably skipped like 80% of all cutscenes in FXIV from 2.x up to now.
So I'm not the targeted audience when it comes to this whole "Story Driven" game that most FFXIV players seems to gather behind.
But that also means that the "problems of Dawntrail" isn't a problem for me so I can just enjoy the game like I've always done and not be bothered.

That being said, I've been on a FFXIV break for a while now.
Just returned for a month to buy the new mount from Chaotic and my sub will run out before mid-Februari. Edit: Correction, it ends tomorrow. I really forgot when I resubbed.
Then my break will continue and I will continue playing other games.
Not that I think FFXIV is any worse than before.
I'm just at the time of "burned out" of FFXIV from playing for years upon years.

I would recommend others to try taking a break from FFXIV if they are tired of the "poor quality".
There are plenty of games to explore while waiting for the game to "get better" instead constantly complaining about it.
Why waste precious time of ones life complaining when one could fill it with enjoyment instead.