Post-Honeymoon SHB thoughts?

[Ibkee]

Among the best expansions in MMORPG history, IMO.

The story was engrossing, compelling and never once dull or predictable. Character interaction improved and new characters stole the show, looking at you Emet-Selch. The music is a whole new level, Soken is an absolute legend. The new jobs are fun and well designed. The new races add a welcome dose of variety to the glut of sun seekers and au ras. Most jobs feel better than ever, kudos to Yoshi P and the crew for balancing the tanks so well. The Extreme fights and Eden raid are fun and there's plenty to do.

All in all, Shadowbringers is the perfect storm. The universal critical acclaim is fully deserved and the game has literally never been better. Just think about how good it will be after 5.1.

[Paladinleeds]

The story was engrossing, compelling and never once dull or predictable. Character interaction improved and new characters stole the show, looking at you Emet-Selch. The music is a whole new level, Soken is an absolute legend.

I have to agree with this. As much as I was cursing out Emet at times for the stuff he said, I still loved his character. He was a well developed character in my opinion. There were times where I even agreed with him. Square Enix really hit the nail on the head with him, and I am sad to see him go. As for music though, like always, it's a bit hit and miss. But the hits seem to be better than ever this time. That level 80 trial theme. Thanks for send my hype up so much it broke my hype meter... And the fight itself was an absolute treat. Looking forward to the Ex version in 5.1

[KageTokage]

The expansion was probably my favorite they've released so far overall, but it remains to be seen how things pan out in the future patches.

We'll almost certainly be getting some new form of content aside from the likely doomed-on-arrival Ishgard Restoration (Dev logic: add competitive rankings to the aspects of the game most heavily exploited by cheaters), but I'm hoping it's not like Eureka unless they seriously change things up.

[Waliel]

Obviously no one has the numbers but Square Enix; however, based on 3rd party sources and my personal experience, I would say it's too early to cry bleeding subs.

Didn't Squenix state in the live letter before ShB launch that the active sub count was at an all-time high? Not to mention they just added two new servers to EU. Unless the sub numbers have done a total 180 I'd say we're not bleeding them. What little anecdotal evidence I can offer is that there seems to always be queue to my server regardless of the time.

[Supersomething]

Still finding it to be excellent. Wishing there were some more dungeons to complete at 80, but three will suffice for the moment. Absolutely love The Twinning. Story really floored me in how much I felt sympathy for the antagonist. Normally by this time I fizzle out with an MMORPG after an xpac release, but this one has managed to have sticking power for me.

[Amaeth]

Overall, really good.

Story has always been one of the big components of FFXIV compared to other MMO's and I think they did a really good job. Added loads of lore in to flesh out the cosmological and metaphysics stuff which was really cool. Lots of interesting characters, good development of the Scions as well. And Emet. I have found my self in the past agreeing with the bad guys (As far as i'm concerned Gaius's speech back in Praetorium I 90% agreed with) and this expansion it happened again. Not all the time, but there were definitely times I felt for them.

Dungeons were good - i've accepted now they are always going to be pure linear runs, and within that I think they did a good job. Couple of nice variants on bosses as well.

Mechanics...eeeggh..... Once again they continue they're never ending quest to simplify combat and classes and par them down to the bone. A couple of people already mentioned, but any class that had buff/debuff stuff got battered hard to clear room for Dancer. I fundamentally disagree with Yoshi-P about class synergy. Optimized raid comps will always be a thing for world-firster's unless you make every class literally identical, so just suck it up and do interesting stuff, most players dont care if 1 class is mandatory for savage. Tanks I was narked at on first login but over time i'm happier, they seem to have just massively loaded all mitigation right at the top end for WAR...if fact most the tank classes dont feel right in some way now until high levels, GNB being the exception. I am still disappointed at the homogenization of tanks though, difference between them is ever shrinking.
Healers I am seriously pissed at. They destroyed AST. I actually swapped which character was my main so hate filled am I at what has happened to it. WHM is however awesome. I didnt mind old lillies, but the new way is good, blood lilly is nice extra DPS skill, but I mourn the loss of AOE Aero. And every dungeon I start with saying *Casts Protect* you will never be forgotten old friend.

Kinda long ramble this, but overall I wish they'd just bite the bullet, create a fourth role, support, and properly define it. And stop simplifying classes so support can do stuff. It also means we may get Blue Mage as a class rather than the joke it is now.

I have high hopes for the patch content, and overall I rate the expansion highly, probably 8.5 or 9/10 as combat in FFXIV has never been great and I play the game knowing that but expecting a good story, and ShB has delivered on that front

[Sorimachi87]

Want to replay SHB story again

Simply put. Loving it so far. Every single bit

[Sathona]

I liked it,the story was better than Heavensward IMO and interacting with the Scions together throughout the story was awesome compared to how little it was previously,some cringe here and there but it was to be expected and did not bother me!
The Dungeons are fun and i dont mind redoing them to lvl classes unlike lvl 16-70[yikes] also the Twinning is amazing,sadly i hate Akadaemia as its the only dungeon i get in expert and its a remake of Saint Mocianes which i also highly disliked due to the enviroment, the only redeeming value Akadaemia has is the final boss~
The music was great and it keeps on improving but i hate it when the boss music is something from older expansions
The class balance atleast for the classes i play RDM/DRG/BLM were okay but RDM is boring sadly still a rez bot for progression
DRG and BLM aka my mains feel really good to play,i hope they wont nerf them~
DNC is fun but feels weak to me,GNB was ok but i hate the new sounds so i dont feel like lvling it to 80 anymore~
Sad about what they did to Scholars as i was interested to lvl it but not now~
Overall the delivery of 5.0 was great,sadly the re-adjustment of ARR story being 9-10 months away is a negative.
If it came with 5.0 it would have attracted even more people,but better late than never~

Overall ill give it my final judgement once the 5.x series is over but so far a 8.5/10~

[Vivi_Bushido]

I think it's to soon to tell. I think people are still making opinions on the new expac hype and it's easy to say SB sucked because we can include all of 4.1-4.5 into our opinions of it. I think we need to see how the content though 5.1-5.5 goes before we can really say which is better. Cause if the story takes a downhill slope til 6.0 like it did in SB I expect opinions to change. So for me, the honeymoon phase isn't over yet and most people that say SB sucked compared to Shb I honestly feel are making assumptions at this time. It's like comparing apples to oranges until all of Shb is over.

I say this because I feel people have forgotten how they thought SB destroyed HW when that expac was fresh and now people are saying HW was better than SB when it concluded it's full story.

[Allegor]

Tbh, what disappoints me the most is the lack of sin eaters outside MSQ. For being a realm plagued with them to the point people are afraid of even going outside town, there's none on the overworld, and not a single fate or side quests that involves sin eaters (not that I recall at least). Makes it feel like they weren't really a threat to begin with.