endwalker seen as low point?

[Kaurhz]

If you're gonna grade all expacs, you need to separate their Content from their MSQ, and by Launch and their Post-Launch.

This, honestly.

If I had to rate it according to this, for me personally, it would be:

Content:
S - ShB
A - HW, EW
B - SB, ARR.

I rank SB lowly because whilst it had, say, exploratory and deep dungeon, I don't think either of them had enough substance. I felt with Eureka a lot of it largely came down to... I was doing it because of relics, not because exploratory at the time was something grand and revolutionary, at least not until BA anyway, ShB I at least felt semi-comfortable that I was in there because it was somewhat enjoyable and not because of relics... EW I rate highly for a myriad of reasons. If I look at it in terms of enjoyment I think it's appropriate - If I look at it exclusively in terms of replay value then I'd score it a little differently - But I'm giving the benefit of the doubt in that Island and V/C dungeons are still a WIP., Just wish they had more 1-time only steps for the relic. ShB wins here courtesy of having Ishgard Restoration, I've packed more hours into this than most other content, and some of the socializing in Diadem has been great.

Base Story:
S - ShB
A - EW, HW
B - SB, ARR.

Post-patch story:
This is where a little more variance comes into play but...
S - HW
A - SB, ARR (Bloody Banquet carried it so hard. - It had a metric tonne of filler, but the story was still there)
B - ShB, ARR.
F - EW

I rate ShB so lowly because the build-up simply wasn't suited to the format that EW ended up going with, and similarly wasted far too much time on useless towers, and what they did to Elidibus was a straight-up criminal, raw unmitigated tragedy. EW fails because predictable and the whole all trials being tied to MSQ just simply kills it for me. I said it to a friend, but I'll repeat it here, (and this has no bearing on how I feel about 7.0 itself but just the volume of disappointment that I have felt with it), I'm more excited for this story to just be over than I am for experiencing a new one.

[Boblawblah]

I don't have nearly as much to say about rankings as others here. For me it's just

ARR: good, but dragged a bunch
HW: awesome
SB: boring
ShB: good for the most part
EW: good for the most part

[Vyrerus]

If I was gonna draw up a simplified tier list it'd be:

S - HW
A - ShB
B- StB, ARR
C - Endwalker

No expansion is completely failing to hold my interest, so none of them are F tier, and overall I do still enjoy the gameplay, albeit it was better earlier on. The tiers are based on overall/composite experience of story and gameplay and post content.

Stormblood could have been a lot better, if they were willing to try and scale it better. More Ghimlyt Darks and instanced battles the size of the Naadam / post Naadam would have helped a lot.

6.5 may raise Endwalker up a tier, but I struggle to feel as though it will. I smell letdown, as was most all of EW.

[GoatOfWar]

i was just watching a youtuber and he mentioned endwalker is seen too some as a low point for ff14 but didnt expand on it...any ideas why people think that? im not an endwalker lover or anything but i started ff in shadowbringers so i dont have a history i can use to see why people would think that.

Hi elz! Funny to see you here.

It's my second expansion, but the first one i actually played through for more than 100 hours. So there's that.
The balance seems kinda... bad... at the moment, and healer design was a lot better back in the day from what i understand.
As for the story, it's a decade long storyline that has been wrapped up in a nice bow. So now they have to sow the seeds for new plotlines and characters, and it's going to take some time before that goes anywhere i'd reckon..
So i do predict that it's only going to get worse, if you're not a fan of the story in EW.

[Amenara]

I think it is a lull point more than a low point. The MSQ feels like it is treading water to keep players occupied with something until 7.0 when they actually start a new story arc. Obviously a lot of people are really liking it, but for me I don't care at all about the characters or the story itself as it feels like fanservice to a game I have never played. That is where it being a lull point comes in for me.

[elioaiko]

I think most people who's been with the game for awhile just feel underwhelmed by EW.

Endwalker is the safest they've played with content changes and job changes while making a lot of questionable choices.

HW was perfectly crafted storywise and probably the most experimental the devs ever went with job design. The fact they had to tell people they won't get back to that level of complexity proves so.

ShB was well-received and a great expansion despite its shortcomings. For one, it told a story that felt like it had real stakes. And the fact that it's story is not held by the shackles of the main plot. ShB is very much a side story but a very well told one. In a nutshell ShB is probably how they would have set the OG lot if they had the choice.

Personally, EW isn't as bad as ARR. But it ranks below everything else. The content feels really lacking for some reason and I find myself just not caring about the story anymore. On top of the very bad job changes and disappointment of Savage dungeons, even Eureka Orthos didn't do much for me.