There was far less content in Heavensward than in Endwalker

[Kaurhz]

Innovation is precisely why in some respects I don't want to see another iteration of exploratory content... Whilst I know it can be innovated on, the probability of them actually doing just that is not so great. Content never usually goes beyond the scope, which is pretty unfortunate.

That being said, you're always going to get a greater excitement factor with the first iteration of a system, than what you will after the second or third reskin. Purely because of the novelty of it, and beyond a certain point, the foundation of the content doesn't have that same novelty, to be honest.

Also, depending on how you view content, I wouldn't necessarily say HW had more. It was just that the fewer 'content streams' that it did have required an obscene amount of investment, e.g., leveling crafters, and getting Penta-melded required far more effort then, than it does now. I wouldn't necessarily ascribe that to having more actual content. Otherwise, we could really jump the gun, and saying that grinding the Wive mount is potentially hundreds of hours of actual content, even if all you're doing is farming FATEs. Or similar to the case with Divine Provider... Just begs the question is it actually content, or is it playing the busybody game?

Edit: HW outside of the story I would only really see as being successful by virtue of basically setting the foundation for the game, nothing more, really.

[NailBach]

Never get tired of seeing Heavensward brought up in this context. Early HW AST was nearly unplayable. Diadem flopped, got redone, and flopped again. Feast 2.0 did nothing to revive PVP. HW raiding almost killed the raid scene outright. All of it added up to make 3.4-3.5 kinda sleepy community-wise.

I would really, really think twice before holding HW up as a paragon - it's very easy to turn it into a golden age fallacy.

indeed. HW burned me out so hard i came back when 5.5 got released.

[KitingGenbu]

Personally, I feel like too many people are focused on content and not actual rewards. Most of the content ends up dying because the incentive is just not there.