Eureka... what were you expecting?

[Genz]

I was only expecting an area to explore where regular monsters are a little dangerous, I've even been nicely surprised to see new detection types by monsters.
Except there isn't much to explore, and all of this disappear when, in the end, we're just grinding by being mostly afk against easy boss that seem hard only of the weird one-shot fetishism from the devs and a stupid technical limitation that should have been corrected 4 years ago.

As long as they don't add flying mounts, there is still hope.
(it would have been best without regular mounts too, but well...)

[Valdegarde]

I was expecting something I could run solo as was promised and instead got an NM farm. Choo choo.

^
Yep. Solo options, party options, not just one feasible option. Every other relic step I could make progress step by step on my own time or accelerate it in a party.

This one thus far has me trying to spend 30~60 minutes at a time in there, only to get like 10% of a level and something like 8 crystals, or I play "correctly" and mob up and be a completely useless, faceless aspect of a giant human blob that doesn't give one damn what my class is or party contribution is aside maybe as a raise dispenser, running all over the beautiful map that you won't pay attention to due to keeping your eyes trained on disappearing and reappearing people and the constant lala laugh in the crowd, AFK-ing most of the time since half the FATEs require monsters that'll wipe you clean in one hit so you're useless for spawning it too.

[AxlStream]

Dynamic fates that influence monsters, the land itself and how you interact with it.

[SicariusSeven]

I was expecting something similar to POTD but a bigger map. Running around still killing things but having it manageable. Not taking a long time to kill one mob with a small group and dying horribly to an AOE if there too many players on the screen. Also I was expecting it to be melee friendly. Guess I gotta level my ranged classes now.

[Krotoan]

All I expected was an entirely different way to level up my armor. Perhaps killing monsters of a certain element charged aspects that fueled different stats. Kill fire monsters for ATK and so forth. I'd have different goals as I went but it sounded like we were going to have more power over the customization of what we were wearing.
It was hard to think that they were going to give us anything other than a revolutionary system with how tight lipped and mysterious they were about it. Sure some people got a little overhyped, but that's kind of understandable. What I don't think anyone expected was for them to outright make it so... hostile.
FFXIV has always been forgiving since 2.0 at least. You learn by trial and error, you talk to people. Now? Better have a res with you or hope someone is nice enough to res your white magic user, or 25% down the toilet, possible delevel.

I expected more involvement in the build, not more time investment than ever before.

[Vivi_Bushido]

I was expecting something I could run solo as was promised and instead got an NM farm. Choo choo.

I see a lot of people saythis and I will never quite understand how people expect content they can run solo when they're playing an "MMO". A game intended for team play and socialization.

[Krotoan]

I see a lot of people saythis and I will never quite understand how people expect content they can run solo when they're playing an "MMO". A game intended for team play and socialization.

Because FFXIV has usually allowed solo playing of MOST of it's storyline with dungeons in between. Most of the Job stories are all solo as well.
It's very droll to whip out the "well MMO = MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER" but if we're going to be pedantic about it the only thing that title requires is that lots of people be playing the same game with a (usually) persistent world online. Not that they have to work TOGETHER.

We were specifically told it was solo-able. They conveniently left out the part where they should have said "But it makes it about 100X longer". That's the problem.

[Fawkes]

I was definitely expecting more solo options. It seems like it's already hard for low level players to catch up to a point where they can do anything. All the ways exp is decreased by parties and level gaps makes it hard to find a full group that works.

And I expected more to the magia board. Only tanks really have to put any thought into it, and I never felt as a non-tank that putting points in the defensive element was doing anything like helping me survive when I would have died. Leveling up has made a huge noticeable difference and feels way more important than the magia board.

[Isala]

I expected, you know, actual Eureka, from FFIII. A land filled with relic weapons requiring you to fight specific bosses to obtain, in a massive void area. Not this copout of merging the concept of Eureka into the storyline about Krile's missing island, which has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH EUREKA. They didn't add the original soundtrack, instead, opted to put it in as the FATE intro/outro theme instead, created a massive slogfest of a grind, where you either play alone, and get nothing, party up, and get slightly less than nothing, or follow the train to get something, provided you got credit on this boss that disappeared with his AoEs, and spent most of the fight on the floor. This isn't Eureka, this is Diadem Part III: Further Disappointment.

[White_Wolf_X]

"Eureka... what were you expecting?"

After so many delays i was expecting alot more then just a mob / fate grind.