Any HW 3.0-3.55 players? Tell us your experience during those times.

[Tetsujin]

I wonder when players actually had to do the mechanics in those fights. It was before my time.

Around release and up to 2.5, I think. I look upon those raids fondly still, they were good fun. Loved WoD too, there you could really get screwed if people didn't know what's what.

[Vahlnir]

Around release and up to 2.5, I think. I look upon those raids fondly still, they were good fun. Loved WoD too, there you could really get screwed if people didn't know what's what.

People were already skipping some mechanics in LotA and ST prior to 2.5 (as early as 2.4 even) because they weren't designed to scale well, apparently. And by "some" I mean most mechanics of any real significance. The first few times it was amusing. After that it was just plain sad, and now all I do is groan when I load into LotA and ST.

[Jeeqbit]

Behemoth, Svara, and Odin FATEs were still ran pretty regularly.

Odin and Behemoth are still run regularly, but normal fate farming in Coerthas and Northern Thanalan was what used to happen, until Palace of the Dead released and became the new efficient way to level. We also got adventurer squadrons then as well.

We didn't used to have a crafted weapon, so we had to use the old tomestone or savage one, do our relic weapon or clear extreme for a weapon before doing savage and toward the end of Heavensward this was reflected on and changed. Now, it isn't particularly necessary to do extreme but still common because the item level is a bit higher.

[Rokke]

Odin and Behemoth are still run regularly, but normal fate farming in Coerthas and Northern Thanalan was what used to happen, until Palace of the Dead released and became the new efficient way to level. We also got adventurer squadrons then as well.

I completely forgot about the old fate caravans. My only surviving screens are poorly cropped and compressed af: when Svara was up you HUSTLED.


look at all those fresh ast/drk/mchs :')

In hindsight potd too efficient at leveling...It pretty much singlehandedly killed the overworld outside hunting ^^;

[RitsukoSonoda]

TBH the thing I recall most of all was all the crying here over steps of faith because ppl couldn't clear it due to not actually doing mechanics and as such couldn't actually enter Ishgard to start HW for the first few weeks after it launched... lol

[Hasrat]

I joined along with patch 3.1. There were still a lot of ARR elements to enjoy and gripe over. Behemoth, Svara, and Odin FATEs were still ran pretty regularly. There was still attribute points you had to allocate. The cross class system (role skills now). Needling to level multiple classes in order to unlock jobs. Elemental resistances were also around. I remember a lot of those things because even then, they were antiquated mmo concepts that bled over from FFXI.

Crafting was a giant convoluted mess back then. Cleric stance was... 'fun' to sugar coat it a bit. Sadly, the CT raids were still the snorefest they are today. Yup. They have been this way for years. I wonder when players actually had to do the mechanics in those fights. It was before my time.

Pretty similar experience. I remember the Svara days. Kinda miss that, tbh. A nice simple social FATE chain that everyone always ran for decent exp for the time investment at level.

Likewise, I started playing during 3.x, but I didn't actually pick up HW until just after 4.0 released. I kinda enjoyed staying capped at 50 and doing all the 50 things.
Everyone says CT was faceroll by then, but I say no, not as bad as it is now. I remember when the bone dragon zombies would actually wreck house if they weren't dealt with properly, or at the very least if you didn't have a healer that knew what to expect. The behemoth fight would regularly turn chaotic when nobody paid attention to the iron giants (but by then we were already ignoring the bombs and towers and whatever that whole mechanic is about). And... I think Glasya in ST still had some mechanics happening... but that impression is just based on being surprised at seeing how easy he's gotten over time.

I remember going through Coils at the time. Unsynced, naturally. I never felt good enough to tackle them properly, but you still had to know what was going on, even a group of 60s had trouble in some fights. Being the lowly level 50 in the group usually, I did my best to learn and everything. Always felt good when I could clear mechanics better than the 60s that thought they could just burn through. To this day I still don't understand why meteors are so hard for people... Bahamut always wrecked my face, tho. Never could survive Megaflare on my own as a 50 BLM, until maybe I got fully geared up, I think...

I remember initially thinking "I'm gonna craft one of everything for that completion mark." All the WVR cotton stuff put that idea in the ground. So much cotton.

I'm not a glamour fiend, but I remember sometime around this point is when they changed glamour crystals to the generic ones we use now.

I don't really miss the Vase Off GATE. But I do kinda miss the dancing one. Simple easy "repeat emotes." But I guess with more races, they ran out of room on stage for example NPCs.. And dammit, I rather liked the glamour GATE, I don't care what anyone says, that one was fun.

Surprised there's not been more mention of Diadem. It was kinda completely abandoned by the time I ever reached a point I could've participated, tho. Heard it was an absolute mess.

I remember back before Ifrit got changed to have invulnerability at certain stages. Back in the day, you had to be careful with DPS and not skip the nails. DPS too hard and he just instant jumps to enrage-Hellfire. Even Thornmarch was pretty wipe-prone.

I recall hearing that The Vault was a pretty rough dungeon for healers. If you got someone new or just not up to snuff, you were in for a bad time.

Retroactively, it also feels like it was the last time we had a really good hub city. Everything was usually nice to look at and it didn't feel like there was a lot of wasted space like in Kugane or Crystarium, which are expansive and have a lot of neat things, but even in the height of their popularity it felt like they were still partly empty because they were so big. Sharlayan feels busier than Crystarium, but it doesn't fill a lot of vertical space on the screen like Kugane and especially Ishgard had.

I'd... disagree with a lot of that. Ishgard may have some architecture going for it, but it's otherwise pretty bland. Snow and stone. And absolutely there's a ton of wasted space, the entire top half of the Pillars is pretty neglected.

[Darkpaw]

I remember so many “Skip soar or disband party listings” for Zurvan extreme.

I remember before Proto Ultima we had a generic sucubus mob in that arena for Dun Scaith and they swapped it for Proto Ultima for a weekly quest to get new accessories.

I remember diadem was battle content and there was an emergency mission you could run for and only one person per group would get the weapon (with randomized stats)

Mch had a cast bar, and bullets, wildfire did actual damage, and endless amounts of a9s for light farming for anima weapons lol

[Duskane]

gameplay wise I really liked DRK,DRG,SMN and NIN
remembered getting macro spammed to use Goad.
spamming a1s and Gobul hard a million times for light
Bard and MCH had cool aoes
Warrior needing esuna after berserk
Balsear wall also use to have a jank elevator after 2nd boss was changed in SB.

good times

[TaleraRistain]

Hustling to Svara was great.

The Vault was an absolute healer check. Those portals on second boss would eat someone alive in no time. My friends and I didn't finish our first time. We managed to squeak by the second. It also didn't help in HW as a WHM that we had MP issues. It's very cathartic to get that in roulette now and just curbstomp it.

Oh man, A1S light farming XD

I still have a piece of pink Diadem gear I kept for glam

I remember before Proto Ultima we had a generic sucubus mob in that arena for Dun Scaith and they swapped it for Proto Ultima for a weekly quest to get new accessories.

I liked her a lot better because she fit the aesthetic and she could wipe the raid.

[Sacae]

I mained NIN at the time, was great when I had a WAR in the party to apply slashing debuff, was annoying when WAR wasn't there because I'd have to do it myself.

On the plus side, I was aggro king, and when I ran into annoying off tanks in roulettes I could basically turn their enmity off. Good times.