Any ARR 2.0-2.55 players? Tell us your experience during those times.

[kevin_satron]

Can be any, like something fun/weird/annoying/stressfull/boring/etc experience.

Also something that you missed during those times, like systems/job skill/etc

[Vahlnir]

I miss going into Labyrinth of the Ancients and Syrcus Tower and actually seeing boss mechanics. ARR is also what made me hate doing Fates so much, because they were the most optimal way to level alt jobs at launch. I was 100% over them by the time 2.1 came around and I continue to hate doing them to this day.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

It's hard to describe what it was like back then. Everything was new. It was all exciting. Every patch was fun. I still miss the feeling I had when I was raiding Coil. It's something no other raid has given me. People here like to talk about how bad ARR is. It wasn't bad then. It was incredibly fun.

[Kuroka]

It's hard to describe what it was like back then. Everything was new. It was all exciting. Every patch was fun. I still miss the feeling I had when I was raiding Coil. It's something no other raid has given me. People here like to talk about how bad ARR is. It wasn't bad then. It was incredibly fun.

I might have only joined at HW, but i miss the old trailers, twice as long as our current ones, im dissapointed at ever new trailer, no matter how good they are...

[Shougun]

It's hard to describe what it was like back then. Everything was new. It was all exciting. Every patch was fun. I still miss the feeling I had when I was raiding Coil. It's something no other raid has given me. People here like to talk about how bad ARR is. It wasn't bad then. It was incredibly fun.

I don't mean this as pure doom, but I strongly believe that a significant part of what makes MMOs so damn fun is an element that is extremely difficult to replicate within itself regardless of quality dev team.. and that's the newness and awe that comes with playing it for the first time.

My beginning experience of WoW... amazing, FFXI.. amazing, FFXIV... it was 1.0.. so.. touch and go... 2.0- amazing lol.

Companies will try to make the game last forever, and PvP scenes imo can help add variety- like people playing LoL still.. something about the human competition element that helps keep things from going stale, but for a world and PvE like element it becomes harder and harder to capture that one element of 'new awe'. I don't mean it as doom, just that.. the first few years of a new MMO, that you like, is REALLY special.. and I just think it becomes harder and harder high to chase by players and devs no matter how hard they try to keep a game alive.

Not exclusively the reasons I occasionally mention another FF MMO but certainly something in my mind when I do (usually list the other reasons, so it shouldn't be a secret).

As well again, FFXIV is not doomed for it.. just a feeling I think is amazing but one that you can't get easily and can't make easily, if at all, the older your game becomes.

I believe emphasizing the journey, and interactions with it, even more and paying even less head to the end game meta could help, like skyrim but an MMORPG, BuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuT....... I think a lot of MMO players are trained, bred, and hardcoded for that gotta get to the end gotta go fast and would be caught off guard if you designed a game more specifically ignoring the end but focusing on long immersive journeys (probably one of the key reasons why I keep bringing up better movement systems, I believe such a thing has a profound potential to experiencing the game and should be utilized).

Dream game in my head I play when I'm waiting for something lol. Not that there wouldn't be hard late content, but I imagine such a game would be less preoccupied with the next savage or ultimate, and be far more into making large world spaces with lots of things to do any many ways to approach it. Some games do more or less of this already, but personally as a casual / semi solo focused / df player, on a selfish level the 'dream game' in my mind wouldn't really revolve around such things and would rather ensure you could spend insane amount of time exploring interesting things. Not even sure I'd officially recommend SE the idea.. though it sounds fun to me. Naturally a proper developer has to think about more than their own desires.. I believe I've noted a few occasions where Yoshida has stated their preference but gone against it due to player desire, for example, so uh.. someone irresponsibly give me loads of money and no expectations-- it'll be Grrreat!!

Anyway, that new quality MMO smell is certainly an amazing moment to have~!

[Evergrey]

I miss how you had to think more before engaging packs in dungeons.
Like using Sleep spell was used whenever possible.
Was important to pull 1 pack at a time a lot of times, as more could prove fatal.
And non-magic-user jobs used TP for skills and could run out of it if spamming TP-heavy skills.
Using Sprint drained all TP so that was a no-no during fights.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I miss how you had to think more before engaging packs in dungeons.
Like using Sleep spell was used whenever possible.
Was important to pull 1 pack at a time a lot of times, as more could prove fatal.

I don't think it was really. I remember wall pulling in WP and AK even back in i90 gear. Sleep was just used to make it so you didn't have to kill trash mobs, you just bypassed them and locked them out with the boss wall when you pulled. That's why they added the forced parts to both dungeons.

[Evergrey]

I don't think it was really. I remember wall pulling in WP and AK even back in i90 gear. Sleep was just used to make it so you didn't have to kill trash mobs, you just bypassed them and locked them out with the boss wall when you pulled. That's why they added the forced parts to both dungeons.

sure, endgame 2.0-2.55 one could do so with higher gear.
I did runs with all tanks that went better and faster than a normal group setup.

was more refering to during leveling.
the feeling of adventure and danger.
that's something really missing in a lot of MMOs lately.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

sure, endgame 2.0-2.55 one could do so with higher gear.
I did runs with all tanks that went better and faster than a normal group setup.

was more refering to during leveling.
the feeling of adventure and danger.
that's something really missing in a lot of MMOs lately.

When I first started I remember reading books while using one hand to tank dungeons....

It wasn't that much harder back then. Everyone was just new.

Sure those same dungeons are easier now. But that's due to a multitude of reasons. One of them is potency increases. Another is the way ilvl sync works. They changed it at some point either late ARR or in HW to sync to HQ stats instead of NQ. That also had a lot to do with stuff getting drastically easier.

[Evergrey]

When I first started I remember reading books while using one hand to tank dungeons....

It wasn't that much harder back then. Everyone was just new.

well everyone have different experiences I guess.
just because I had it one way doesn't mean it was always like that.
have to remember that it's a personal point of view, not a fact.
neither is more right or wrong than the other, as like said, everyone have different experiences.