Me as a newbie after skimming through the forum be like

[Zexhar]

Me: decided to make the jump to the complete edition as 3 of my classes are reaching the free trial level cap due to me playing in a new world and not wanting to waste any EXP.

Sweet, I heard that I can only access the official forum (or maybe post a thread?) if I have a sub. Let's see what people are discussing.

People in the forum: balance is out of whack, job identity is non-existent, content has gotten worse, the game is at the lowest point since 1.0, etc.

Me: Did I just make a grave mistake?

[BaconBits]

Me: decided to make the jump to the complete edition as 3 of my classes are reaching the free trial level cap due to me playing in a new world and not wanting to waste any EXP.

Sweet, I heard that I can only access the official forum (or maybe post a thread?) if I have a sub. Let's see what people are discussing.

People in the forum: balance is out of whack, job identity is non-existent, content has gotten worse, the game is at the lowest point since 1.0, etc.

Me: Did I just make a grave mistake?

Yes.

Flee this place while you still retain some semblance of sanity and innocence while you can.

[pyxls]

Me: decided to make the jump to the complete edition as 3 of my classes are reaching the free trial level cap due to me playing in a new world and not wanting to waste any EXP.

Sweet, I heard that I can only access the official forum (or maybe post a thread?) if I have a sub. Let's see what people are discussing.

People in the forum: balance is out of whack, job identity is non-existent, content has gotten worse, the game is at the lowest point since 1.0, etc.

Me: Did I just make a grave mistake?

Become a fellow masochist. Stay a while. Lurk, barely post. Bring your popcorn, or I'll share mine, etc.

[Mosha]

People in the forum: balance is out of whack, job identity is non-existent, content has gotten worse, the game is at the lowest point since 1.0, etc.

Going to real, none of that matters to you right now, enjoy the game it is good. come back in 5 years once you are jaded by duty finder and party finder.

[AnnRam]

Gameplay and progression/rewards haven't change since 1.0 ( 10 years ago)

[Stormpeaks]

Me: decided to make the jump to the complete edition as 3 of my classes are reaching the free trial level cap due to me playing in a new world and not wanting to waste any EXP.

Sweet, I heard that I can only access the official forum (or maybe post a thread?) if I have a sub. Let's see what people are discussing.

People in the forum: balance is out of whack, job identity is non-existent, content has gotten worse, the game is at the lowest point since 1.0, etc.

Me: Did I just make a grave mistake?

True, toxic positivity is so much better !

/s

[Alleluia]

Me: Did I just make a grave mistake?

Subbing to the game? No.

Looking at General Discussion? Possibly. lol Its currently full of complainers (some valid, some trolls, some bitter beyond recovery), people complaining about the complainers, and it just generally may bring down your mood.

On the other hand, the rest of the boards are fairly ok, so if you have a specific thread or question in mind that can fit in one of those, I'd encourage you to post it there.

[Fawkes]

[Renalt]

The forums is a poor baseline for the attitude for any game honestly. However you'll find some friends in low places though. I know I have.

[Jojoya]

Me: decided to make the jump to the complete edition as 3 of my classes are reaching the free trial level cap due to me playing in a new world and not wanting to waste any EXP.

Sweet, I heard that I can only access the official forum (or maybe post a thread?) if I have a sub. Let's see what people are discussing.

People in the forum: balance is out of whack, job identity is non-existent, content has gotten worse, the game is at the lowest point since 1.0, etc.

Me: Did I just make a grave mistake?

Depends.

Are you having fun with the content you've done so? If yes, then you're fine. If no, then you may want to be cautious in continuing a subscription. Not everyone enjoys the same content.

Job balance is generally above par compared to other MMOs and while it's not as good this expansion, it's also not that terrible either. It also only matters if you intend to pug to clear higher difficulty content. The pug community in any MMO ends up a bunch of meta slaves who obsess over 2% DPS differences that generally aren't important unless you're trying for world first.

Concerns about job identity will depend on whether your interest is based more in lore than mechanics. They do have firm lore identities though SE has stopped making additional job quests that expand upon the lore. Mechanically, there is some homogenization but that's a side effect of demands for perfect balance.

Content is fine. Some people are angry that SE didn't make a new version of exploratory content for this expansion. It was apparently all the did with their time the last 2 expansion after they rushed through the MSQ and so now they're bored.

The game is fine. Again, people dumping on it because they don't have get the new mindless mob grind exploratory zone in Endwalker.

Final advice: a game's forums is generally not the place to go to judge the state of a game. Human nature is to be a lot more vocal when you're unhappy about something than to be vocal when things meet/exceed expectations. The best way to judge the state of a game is to play it for yourself.