Personally, i don’t think that Stormblood was a waste of money. Far from it. From the moment i sat foot in the expansion, i’ve been thoroughly enjoying myself with the new areas, the story and the general esthetics of the Stormblood expansion.

While i agree that the formula remained the same as ARR and HW, we do have to keep in mind that SE did expand on the formula as the game evolves (by introducing new types of content as well as adding different levels of difficulty and adding means to connect/play with players from other servers).

Granted, not all of the new types of content and features were well implemented by the team or received by the players, it’s still shows that SE is trying new things as they go. Diadem, Golden Saucer and the Palace of the Dead being the main examples for that statement.

But, that doesn’t mean that maintaining the current formula is a bad thing. We currently have the following content at our disposal:
  • 57 Dungeons (of which 8 were introduced in SB and based on what Yoshida mentioned at the Live Letters, we’ll be getting 6 new ones through the 4.1+ updates)
  • 46 (Primal) Trials (divided between Story, Hard and Extreme modes)
  • 3 8-Man Raids (with 13 Normal and 4 Savage Turns for Coil, 12 Normal and Savage Floors for Alexander and currently 4 Normal and Savage Versions of Omega)
  • 2 24-Man Raids (with a 3rd to be released with patch 4.1)
  • Guildhests
  • Guildleve’s
  • Diadem
  • Gold saucer (with mini games like a cactpot lottery, Chocobo racing, Triple Triad and GATE’s)
  • Palace of the Dead (with a new one being introduced in Stormblood)
  • Treasure maps (with Aquapolis and the Lost Canals)
  • A whole lot of Side quests
  • Daily Beastmen quests
  • Hunts (Daily, Weekly, A-Rank and S-Rank hunts)
  • FATE’s
  • PvP
  • 15 Jobs (Paladin, Dark Knight, Warrior, White Mage, Astrologian, Scholar, Summoner, Bard, Machinist, Black Mage, Monk, Dragoon, Ninja, Red Mage and Samurai)
  • 8 Crafting classes (Alchemist, Armorer, Blacksmith, Carpenter, Culinarian, Goldsmith, Leatherworker and Weaver)
  • 3 Gathering classes (Botanist, Miner and Fisher)

Ofcourse, not everyone is interested in certain types of content like the side quests, diadem, FATE’s, etc, etc (and i haven’t even touched the subject of Glamour and Housing). But, there currently is a wide variety of content for people participate in with a wide range of jobs to do it with.

In my opinion, that’s still the biggest selling point for this game. You can play every single classes with just 1 character. Simply by changing your Weapon / Primary Tool, you can switch to any class/job available within the game. You don’t have to create a new character with each class/job you want to play, resulting in you having to run through same content multiple times in order to unlock every feature or content type for each character.

Some things will most likely remain the same as the game continues to evolve, like:
  • There will always be dungeons tied in with the Main Story.
  • The “Expert” dungeons will always be tuned in a way that everyone will be able to clear these dungeons. Even if it means that we’ll be carrying them through it.
  • Tomestones will always be tied to various types of content, so that we can purchase new gear, items and materials with it.
  • The Relics will return, but not at the start of the expansion (if i remember correctly, the Stormblood Relics are scheduled to be released with patch 4.1)
  • Raiders will always have the means to get the Highest iLvl gear first (through Savage).

When playing this game, i have a few objectives / targets i wish to clear every week, which are:
  • (Weekly) Capping my top tier tomestones by running 1 Expert Roulette each day until i reach the cap.
  • (Weekly) Run each Version of Omega Normal once a week (at least), in order to get the drops i need to gear up my jobs.
  • (Daily) Run a leveling roulette on the job i’m currently leveling (which is the Red Mage)
  • (Daily) Run a 61+ Dungeon on the job i’m currently leveling. I’ll be running the dungeon closest to my current level, which be “Bardam's Mettle” when i’ll be logging in later today.
  • (Daily) Clear the daily quests from the Sylphs, Amal’ja and Kobolts for Tier 4 Materia (which i meld into my leveling gear)
  • (Daily) If i have time left, i’ll either run a MSQ Roulette, Palace of the Dead or another level 61+ dungeon.

By doing this, i have multiple things i can do and switch the order around or do something else within the game (like gathering or crafting) whenever i feel like it. I never get bored doing it like this. There is always something for me to do.

When it comes to grinding content, like the Relics; I always see them as a side project i work on, while i’m running the content as mentioned above. I’m not in the raiding scene at the moment, so i’m not in a rush to get the best weapon available even though i like working on getting them. I’ll get one (or more) at my own pace.

The only reason why they don’t release the new (tier) for the relic weapon of the current expansion, is so that they can give Raiders the opportunity to get the best weapon for the current patch cycle and introduce an “equal” weapon within the “catch-up” patch as an alternative.

But, i do visit the forums on a regular basis and have read several threads about people who are bored with the current formula and that they want something different.

The main question is, what would you like to see? Do you expect a completely new “experience” with each expansion? And what is it that you would like to see?

If i compare my experiences with games like WoW, i don’t feel that the expansion packs from WoW are all that different from each other. There are still side quests, dungeons and raids in each expansion. They feel different because of the setting they have been placed in, but other then that… Not really. I also don’t as engaged with the story and the lore as i do with FFXIV.

With Warlords of Dreanor they introduced the Garrison. But, personally i hated it because in order to maintain it, i felt “forced” to log in every single day, just to manage it. The Class Guilds in Legion was a step in the right direction, because i didn’t feel “forced” to go there, unless i wanted to progress in the story or upgrade my Artifact weapon.

The world quests was a nice addition to the game, but after doing them for about a week or two, i wanted to do something else. Like trying out a different class. However, i would have to make a new character and go through the whole ordeal again. In the end, i had 3 character leveled to 110 and in order to keep those characters up to date, i would have to log onto 3 different characters and do the same content, just to keep them on the same level.

It felt more like a job then doing it simply for the fun of it. That’s where i draw the line and stop playing those characters or the game in general.

In short, it’s a matter of preference and taste.