What do you miss from ARR?

[SamRF]

tl;dr: title

ARR (A realm Reborn) being either 2.0-2.5 or just all (current) content before Heavensward.

For me it's dungeon design and zones.

Dungeons:
With dungeons I mean any dungeon before lvl 50 (+edit: and some lvl 50 ones as well). The main thing I really like about these dungeons over pretty much any of the other ones is the fact that they aren't hallway simulators.

All those dungeons either have optional rooms, skippable mobs, interaction with environment or irregular paths. This makes them feel more alive and more like a real adventure that doesn't FEEL that scripted. I know what usually happens is that 90% of the runs just take the more efficient path and skip as much as possible, but it still just feels more satisfying and immersive if you simply know that you have the freedom to do otherwise. It keeps them from feeling too stale.

Those extra stuff in dungeons are ultimately meaningless, but there usually is lots of stuff that are essentially meaningless in an RPG but are there for immersion and giving you a (false) sense of freedom. It's all about how it feels and how you experience it.

Zones:
While at first I was excited to see the larger zones and fly around in Heavensward, it kind of got stale pretty fast and can't help but miss ARR zones now. Those zones are much smaller, but more detailed and feel more alive. It feels cozy and gives me a warm feeling when going to those zones right now and comparing it to the larger empty (dead) zones post ARR.

The game is already very instanced and nowadays I kind of wish they had just embraced it and kept zones smaller and more lively.

However one potential problem with smaller zones is the immersion and lack of space to create big (and beautiful) structures that are perhaps relevant to the story. So I'm not sure if it would actually be the way to go all things considered.

The zones aren't nearly as much of an issue compared to the dungeons though for me.


What do you think? Why would you (not) agree? And what (else) do you miss from ARR?

[Crushnight]

Whm/Sch being far more interesting with what they can do despite whm still being the simple healer it had plenty to access to keep it engaging during downtime.

That said cross class was a blessing and curse so I half miss it and half do not want to see it again.

Explorative 8 man raids, these felt bigger and more epic than just boss arena after boss arena, this concept was fine for trials but now just everything just a square/circle seperated from the next is just boring.

I could probably think more but sleep calls and I shall answer.

[Esmoire]

More ways of getting more crafting materials besides gathering them. NPCs, beast tribes, Curious Crop Exchange, and Grand Companies, cover a wide range of everything you could ever need to craft.

Of course, we also want to have an economy or reasons to engage with gatherers, so it's a slippery slope.

[Enla]

The beast tribes having an immense amount of good crafting loot that made them well worth the investment beyond just wanting a dance or two or some levels before never bothering with them again. I still go back and purchase from the ARR beast tribes on the regular for that reason as all of them are worth it even with their comparatively low effort items compared to five years ago.

[Edax]

What do you miss from ARR?

I guess I miss the semi-realistic armor. A lot of the AAR gear had a sensible design while most of the expansion stuff have gone off the deep end. I know it's "Final Fantasy" but still, real looking armor can be cool.

[Iscah]

I miss the feeling of seeing more dangerous high-level areas that you can't get to yet. Being a Lv5 newbie looking down the path from North Shroud's beginner area at the Lv25 banemites ready to eat me alive if I cross the bridge, or peering through the tide gates in western La Noscea to the Sahagin base. It's there to be entered, if only I were strong enough.

Somewhat contrastingly, I also miss non-aggressive enemies. Obviously the further in you get, it's appropriate that there are more things trying to kill you, but there's no reason for everything to be. Passive enemies, where logical, make more sense and add to the world. There's no reason for butterflies to be attacking you viciously.

[Iscah]

I guess I miss the semi-realistic armor. A lot of the AAR gear had a sensible design while most of the expansion stuff have gone off the deep end. I know it's "Final Fantasy" but still, real looking armor can be cool.

Good point, I liked those too - and simpler weapon designs. Especially bows.

I wish they'd give us dyeable versions of some of the ARR designs.

Also, WHM wands. The "blooming flower" ones are pretty and I want a staff version. The plain leafy twig is nice too.

[Shurrikhan]

• Doing dungeons with abnormal comps because those were the people available through Shout chat and it was more fun to just make it work than wait for specific roles, or --in some cases-- outright faster to run 4 kite-heavy SMNs and a Titan tank among them until the Int/Mind split.
• Actually dying to certain dungeon bosses.
• CC being a thing, especially in the tacit targeting order it caused. Long-DoT all but main, sleep them after DoTs, focus main, then focus first DoTed, then next DoTed, etc.
• Less passive mitigation and eHP on tanks.
• Less free/oGCD healing on healers.

[Anienai]

Unchained, Butcher's Block, Inner Beast, Mercy Stroke, Fracture, Brutal Swing, the old Overpower, and a bunch more.

[MrPresident]

Figuring it out as we went along.

No one knew what the hell they were doing and it was great. Fine tuning our skills, optimising our gear, finding little rewards like minions from fates and dungeons, It was all done on the fly. There may have been a small group at the very top of the game who understood what they were doing from the get go. But most of us were just bumbling through and I liked that.

Now the game is so big and established every major fight is cleared and has an established strategy about a day after release. The dungeons all follow the same formula and rarely deviate while there is also less adaptability and variation in play styles now than ever.

I still enjoy the game and probably will for the remainder of its life span. But it’s hard to replicate that feeling of when it was fresh and original.