Quote Originally Posted by ty_taurus View Post
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If I had to guess, I would say that's best explained by PLD enjoying a pretty consistent design continuity from 4.0 all the way through to 6.2. PLD spent two and a half expansions as basically the same class, with a consistent rather than burst-focused damage profile, 100% DoT upkeep, the dual FoF/Physical and Req/Magic damage windows, etc. It's easy to imagine people who might prefer the Stormblood version (PLD was hard meta, game was overall more complex, Cover was good, etc), other people who might prefer the Shadowbringers version (game was less complex, PLD was still a solid performer), and still other people who might prefer the original Endwalker version (even if performance was bad, it was the poster boy job, people enjoyed Holy Sheltron and the Blade combo, etc). Taken together, the 4.x, 5.x, and 6.0-6.2 versions are nearly twice as popular in total as the 6.3+ version, while all being fairly similar in gameplay.

In contrast, I would expect that when WAR or DRK players say their favourite version is from Stormblood, they probably don't have much in common with players who say their favourite version is from Shadowbringers.