So, as the title says, I'm taking a bit of a break from the game; been playing the game as much as possible since last March, and with my sub having ran out recently, I made the call to try and take a bit of a break before jumping back in. I do have a few things I would like to vent about; nothing about you guys, mind you, I'd say that this forum is probably the brightest spot on my FFXIV experience in general, no joke.

First off, the story. After fighting my way through the entirety of Stormblood and the main story for Shadowbringers, I wanted to try and get my thoughts out. For one, I didn't entirely hate Stormblood by the end of it; sure, there plenty of moments that I disliked, such as the lack of focus on Ala Mhigo, the fact that some areas just seemed to drag on for way too long at points, and the poor development of Lyse. However, there were also points that I loved, like the boss fight against Susano - even though I'm a terrible tank - and seeing my man Gosetsu happy in the post-patch content made the entire situation with Tsuyu worth it.

Also, watching Yotsuyu off her rather dickish family was probably my favorite scene of the entire Stormblood story, period.

By contrast, when I went into Shadowbringers, I was expecting a story that would easily blow everything else in the game out of the water, and... I found the story to be a bit overhyped. Again, it was in no way bad - Alphinaud's roasting of Vauthry, the entire final area and the resulting boss battles, the story and design of the Sin Eaters, and the fact that just about every character in the story felt like they had some form of development and depth were genuine high points.

However, with all of these highs, there were a few lows; in particular, Ran'jit's character felt very flat, and I feel like him being cut from the story wouldn't have made much of a difference. Likewise, there constant feelings of melancholy and depression made some parts of the story a bit of a chore to get through; sure, I knew it was going to all end well, but some parts were just a little too angsty. From a gameplay perspective, I found most of the dungeons to be a bit of a slog; I dunno if it was just the AI of the Trust system, but I found most of the encounters to go on just a bit too long, like we weren't getting out enough damage. Notably, the same dungeons felt a good deal better when I was running with a party of actual players, so I'm not sure.

Make zero mistake, it was certainly a good expansion overall, but I feel like it was blown just a bit out of proportion by the fanbase.

I still have the post-Shb MSQ to run through, though, so maybe that'll help alleviate some of the feelings I have? As for Endwalker... I dunno, I'm interested in it myself, but I've also heard that it's supposedly really bad story-wise, so I'm just a bit hesitant.

Aside from the story, however, I also have been having some mild trouble with gameplay. I was able to find a DPS job I loved - seriously, shout-out to the guys who recommended Red Mage, that job is awesome - but with my group's tank stepping down so he can run Machinist, I'm now going to be taking over that role... and I certainly feel like I'm improving (another shout-out to the guys on the Tank forums for giving me tips, by the way), but it's requiring an adjustment period. That, and I was trying to get a tank job all planned out for soloing old content, like the Bahamut raids; with some jobs just being better than others for solo content, whether it's due to complexity or survivability, it requires a massive chunk of planning.

My last issue is with glamours; aside from the lack of care shown towards the Hrothgar and Viera races, I was also trying to get several glamour designs all figured out, but they don't always fit well with the jobs that they correspond. For instance, there's a certain Sin Eater tank glam that I've been trying to work on: a particular headpiece only works with DRK and WAR. However, neither job really works for said glam; DRK uses a ton of darkness-based attacks - which, given that Sin Eaters are creatures of light, makes said usage look a little odd - while Warrior just simply doesn't have a weapon that I really like the looks of; not really a fan of axes, and the 2 hammers available look too oversized to take seriously.



With all that said: I still love this game. I love the lore, I love the setting, and I love you guys; every time I'd have a question, you guys would be there with genuine support and kindness, which is a massive step above the Reddit and Discord communities. It's not hyperbole to say that you guys are the main reason why I've continued playing; you guys might think it's cheesy, but it's genuinely true.

For now, I'm taking a break to try and get some stuff sorted out; I plan on coming back when everything is cleared up on my end, but for now, I hope to see you later.