Wow, Wuk Lamat is really single-handedly ruining the DT story...

[AlucaDragonheart]

So I finally slogged through this story enough to the point that I got all the keystones, but to avoid spoilers... It just feels so off putting when this chick is just given everything, with zero character development, just the same broken record crap about peace, kindness, happiness, etc. It's so annoying how everything through the story was just handed to her, it really does give off the feeling that she's the self insert OC of the VA.

[Malthir]

I think the biggest issue they are going to have, is try getting a new person into this game, it was bad enough when they knew they had to slog through ARR. Now they have ARR 2.0 but worse to get through. The barrier to entry for this game is about to cause some problems I think.

[Verathel]

Silence on Y'shtola. I would rather simp for her than deal with Wuk Lamat.

[HeyMcFly]

Silence on Y'shtola. I would rather simp for her than deal with Wuk Lamat.

I'd rather not deal with either- it was nice to skip yshtola's monotone over explaining

[Colt47]

Wuk Lamat didn't ruin the MSQ in the first half, at least. It was when the second half hit that it became unbearably awful and forced. The author basically wanted Sphene to be a dark mirror to Wuk Lamat but it just went into a freaking dumpster fire from the forced dialog and stupid decision making that didn't account for anything involving the lore of the past expansions. Just because it is a new start doesn't mean that all the existing lore suddenly gets voided.

[Raven2014]

Wuk Lamat didn't ruin the MSQ in the first half, at least. It was when the second half hit that it became unbearably awful and forced. The author basically wanted Sphene to be a dark mirror to Wuk Lamat but it just went into a freaking dumpster fire from the forced dialog and stupid decision making that didn't account for anything involving the lore of the past expansions. Just because it is a new start doesn't mean that all the existing lore suddenly gets voided.

The first half is about stacking the dumpster with dried straw, the second half lit the dumpster on fire and the ending fight basically pouring in extra gasoline.

[Aneshda]

Many players wrote in the last expansion that there was far too little to do. And did SE learn from that?
No, instead they had the brilliant idea of ​​having our WoL almost exclusively be a spectator during the entire MSQ!
It's not satisfying to just run around as a maid for Wuk Lamat and do her job so she gets all the credit.
So what's coming in 8.0? Can we just forget about buying the expansion and instead stream the game on Twitch or YouTube and watch Yoshi play the MSQ with some random NPCs?
I paid 95.57 euros for Dawntrail, with game time + retainers... just to sing the praises of an NPC I can't stand.
There's almost no negative response that could have been given to Wuk Lamat in the entire MSQ.
Yoshi P. should have made it very clear to the players from the beginning what was going on, but as it is I feel completely deceived.
He should have told the players what role they will have in the next MSQ and I'm pretty sure half the players wouldn't have wasted their money on Dawntrail.

[BunnyQueen]

Wuk Lamat was my favorite character of DT.

[HighlanderClone]

Wuk Lamat was my favorite character of DT.

it's ok to have poor taste

[MeteorShan]

I'll need two posts for this! Sadly Wuk is written as a truly insufferable force of nature that we can’t get away from during the entire expansion and she suffocates everyone around her. The quality of writing throughout the entirety of the expansion is the major problem in all aspects, and Wuk is the major symptom caused by it. There are too many instances of quite clearly copy pasting almost exact lines from earlier expansions (e.g. “Hear, Feel, Think”) along with turning Scions into caricatures of themselves (e.g. Alphinaud firewood collecting once again), plus the constant callbacks by using OSTs from SHB & EW to try and invoke emotion / weight to the cutscenes they’re used in (e.g. Vrtra with Footfalls), which fails dramatically as players know (or should know) this is just a key jangling trope similar to what Disney Star Wars has become. The point of Dawntrail and this entire new saga they’re trying to create is supposed to be moving on from the ARR - EW saga, but they seem to be unable to let that go and need it as a crutch to try to support the poor themes and writing they’ve come up with.

I tried so hard for the first few zones in the game to try to like Wuk and let her grow on me, I’m the type of player that does every single side quest and takes on board every piece of lore in the game (four full playthroughs of the FFXIV including doing every sidequest available). MSQ 90 to 93 is a real chore in Dawntrail compared to HW through to EW, every previous expansion still had the same formula of two quests from NPCs taking you to two separate zones which build up the lore in each of those two areas. The HW to EW starting quests had way more intrigue, interesting dialogue and compelling world building than anything DT had to offer.

As I posted in another thread, the instanced fight at level 94 is what finally broke me and I finally accepted that this expansion wasn’t salvageable, where you have to fight Bakool Ja Ja as Wuk Lamat which is utterly ridiculous. People who are defending it and think Dynamis is what caused her power boost are fundamentally wrong according to the lore:

"Dynamis is another form of energy distinct from aether that permeates and conforms most of the physical universe, and in pure quantity is the more abundant of the two, accounting for approximately 68.3% of all known energy. However, its effect on the material realm is much weaker than aether's and is almost completely drowned out in the presence of equivalent amounts of aether. As such, dynamis only shows tangible effects when in large quantities, most notably outer space, away from comparatively aether-rich planets."

Humanity was sundered by Hydaelyn so that we had a chance to defeat Meteion by being able to interact with Dynamis in her own realm at the edge of existence, this is not possible on Etheirys as it is rich in aether.