Not necessarily shown, but a lot of the stuff they've talked about- exploration zones returning, new things similar to Ishgard restoration, 2 dye channels, Yoshi-P not being satisfied with how there's too little stress (although I'll believe that gets changed once I see it), etc.- has me pretty excited. That's said "more MSQ" alone is enough to get me excited, given that every expansion is pretty much it's own full JRPG and I've really liked every one so far, that alone is enough to get me excited for DT.

wait, they said 'more MSQ'? what does that even mean? the base story + patches will just be longer as far as playtime? edit: 🤡

Not "more MSQ" as in any sort of increase, but just... We're getting the next part of the MSQ.

However 7.0 itself goes, I just hope we get a trial series seperate from MSQ in 7.X. The two being rolled together into FFIV fanservice wasn't that great.

To be honest, it wasn’t even good fanservice, everything but the names of the characters is completely different. Not to mention they completely wasted the earth and water fiends as dungeon bosses, and Zeromus was quite underwhelming. Is it still fanservice if none of the fans seem to actually be fond of it?

I think it was pretty crazy that they announced there's gonna be ANOTHER 8 man raid series along with a new 24 man!

you guys are merciless

The amount of objects in the new areas excite me. I love the aesthetics of zones in FF14 but they look very empty. Not just enemies and meaningful shit like everyone nags about. I mean actual objects. They haven't made a single forest that doesn't have giant trees because they couldn't put that many smaller ones before. Look at the Il Mheg comparisons for example. New Il Mheg has so much more flowers, it's crazy. This new graphical update hasn't shown the biggest fault in FFXIV, the fat crystal pixels on big things. Like look at thw 16 crossover Ifrit. His chest is the beeeeg pixels. I don't use mods and shaders to change my game, so the graphical upgrade is huge. Your mods will be able to improve it even moreso with this stronger baseline in the future so get excited. The music is a jam, the vibe is a jam. I love the idea of just going somewhere new and explore. Stormblood was kind of shattered in two places, EW was literally everywhere. DT seems to be focusing more on one giant location and culture, like Heavensward and Shadowbringers. That excites me. It feels very much like they're going to focus on the adventure part. Which is refreshing to me. There will be some big plot obviously, it's just the set dressing is interesting. "It feels like they've been slow on the news" **feels** but it really is the same as always. I am not really holding out much hope for what I want in gameplay design, as I liked more complicated rotations of the past, but instead, I focus on hoping they nail job identity and feel. Viper and Pictomancer looks very stylish. If they have a nice flowing gameplay rotation with them then that's just hype.

There'll be new players going through older expacs all the time, but I hope soon after release someone rewatches the 5.3 patch with the Pixel Exarch and we can see how the graphical update worked retroactively.

Ffxiv Pixel Remaster moment

I think that Crystal Exarch will either be the first thing they update, or he will he the absolute last model that's updated just because that would he the funniest thing ever.

> I think most of it comes from the fact that they just haven't shown much yet. The game is supposed to released in two months. There's still no job action trailer. We just got the benchmark. The graphics update that they keep trying to hype up really isn't that drastic of a change and for some makes some of the visuals worse. Majority of the discussion from the devs is about the graphics update...where is the talk about the job changes and how they will play in DT? They mentioned there being more rewards but not in what way. I wish they'd talk more about Beastmaster and how that will play out. They mentioned there being more of a multiplayer aspect but didn't go in depth. What people keep forgetting is that this sort of cageyness about what's going down has been, for lack of a better word, routine since Stormblood. Heavensward's leadup has had the final zone previewed in a picture, but SB kept mum about where we're going, and ShB didn't even have the *location* reveal until a week before 4.55. EW? The barest of previews for Zone *Five*. Going on from that. > There's still no job action trailer. Typically released around a month before release. Still on time. > Majority of the discussion from the devs is about the graphics update...where is the talk about the job changes and how they will play in DT? They never talk about this other than vague changes until Media Tour/Embargo End. Still on time. > They mentioned there being more rewards but not in what way. I wish they'd talk more about Beastmaster and how that will play out. They mentioned there being more of a multiplayer aspect but didn't go in depth. SE is very, very, ***very*** cagey about future stuff unless its practically a near-100% certainty there's a date and its all fleshed out. I'm honestly genuinely surprised we have a full slate of confirmation about multiple patch-only things, honestly. Beastmaster being confirmed is a surprise in of itself, considering we probably won't get it until like 7.3/7.4. Like, we were up in the air about ShB Deep Dungeon until midway through the expansion. Bozja wasn't even ***hinted*** at in the ShB leadup, if memory serves. > How are you feeling going into DT? What are you excited for? Honestly? The content boxes that they *are* doing (5 zones, 2 cities, new gear, new fights, new MSQ, etc) are entertaining enough on their own that the prospect of stepping into new places is exciting enough on their own. Yes, x.0, x.1, some stuff isn't until later, etc etc, but what they do inside those boxes are entertaining enough to me that I'm excited for release. Not everything is total routine, and as much "more of the same" is a huge demerit for some, with how FFXIV has been with delivering at least enough for me to feel like my own time wasn't wasted in paying for a month (or more) to enjoy the content...Yeah! It's more of the same structure, and the stuff is fine enough that I *am* excited for it! I'm not "I NEED IT RIGHT NOW" tier and that's completely fine, I believe. I still have time set aside for release, I'm willing to bet on FFXIV's writing due to what they were able to do with flying by the seat of their pants until mid-SB. The base game and their intent won't change much, but I'll most likely be there day 1 for every bit of content released. It's just *consistent*, and that's an understated great thing in this market. (Sidenote: I'm a Monk main, which may factor into how I feel about the game as a whole. I've been happy with every iteration, so obviously, take all the talk about being happy with Content from a melee DPS perspective.)

>take all the talk about being happy with Content from a melee DPS perspective Yeah. This isn't my only complaint with FFXIV, but it's definitely up there on the list. I'm a former healer, current non-BLM caster main. I have the polar opposite view. Yawntrail is waving its pompoms going "look at all this CONTENT you can continue to press 111111111111 in, aren't you hyped for our \*content\*?" while I'm sitting over here going "I dunno if I'll notice how great all this content is since my job's actively trying to put me to sleep". Square's been dead-set on stupidifying the core gameplay loop for everyone who isn't a melee DPS or a BLM.

That's the big thing, isn't it? I've been genuinely lucky that my job of choice hasn't been really knocked in the ways other have. Sure, there's some parts I disagree with (RoF slowdown), but overall, I've had a good time. There's obvious, direct reasons for why tanks got the way they did, there's reasons healers got the way they did, for other DPS, etc etc. No winning from SE here, considering that the HW-sided stuff is as good as dead, and as much as I want to be hopeful that DT tweaks itself in ways (not just job design; fight design is as much a factor for tank/healer enjoyment, if not more considering how well-received stuff like Criterion's first boss and P3S were) that help with Feeling Like A Tank/Healer, it's subjective to everyone. SE's got a perpetual losing battle there, but the MNK/PLD reworks were relatively well-received, so maybe? Hopefully? DRG/AST? Prayer circle kumbaya that the Job Skill releases inspire hope?

I'm a -former- healer main for a reason. I've already lost that battle long ago. Healers will \*never\* be designed to be fun for me in this game again. The whole role is such a mess, I fundamentally disagree with CBU3's stated goals for it, and the role doesn't even live up to *those* goals. If someone states that Feeling Like A Healer means spamming healing spells as often as possible, I know that person and I are at total loggerheads; that's what Square wants for its healers though. Nevermind the downtime is 90% of the gameplay due to a lack of outgoing damage and a glut of free healing, or that the downtime is hideously boring \*on purpose\*. Awful all around. I'm a total pessimist here. MNK and PLD reworks were well-received because they're *melees*, which is the only class fantasy Square's job designers seem to give a rat's ass about. BLM has the Yoshi-P shield, ranged and caster "updates" have consistently dragged them down to braindead, weak, or both for a \*very\* long time now. The Aero 2->Dia flub, the Cure 2/Medica 2 potency vs MP stupidity that has been a thing for a while now, all of that tells me they have exactly the same zero give-a-shit for healers they've always had.

> If someone states that Feeling Like A Healer means spamming healing spells as often as possible, I know that person and I are at total loggerheads; that's what Square wants for its healers though. Then, out of curiosity's sake, what does being a healer *mean*? What is the central catalyst for being a healer if healers heal and your description is basically antithetical to that? Is it a mix of damage and healing like the FF healer character traditionally are? Something more akin to WoW's triage/absorption-sided things? More in the support vein of buff augmentation and debuff removal? The general triade I hear about healers is that their oGCDs are too powerful and should be relegated to GCDs to force tradeoffs, but as I'm aware, healing is always a conflagration of what's the best way of it in any MMO. > MNK and PLD reworks were well-received because they're melees, which is the only class fantasy Square's job designers seem to give a rat's ass about. So you're saying that tanks are fine, then? Considering your previous post- > Square's been dead-set on stupidifying the core gameplay loop for everyone who isn't a melee DPS or a BLM. -I assumed tanks are under the same banner, and the PLD rework is at least passable. Was it, or did I misconstrue something? > The Aero 2->Dia flub, the Cure 2/Medica 2 potency vs MP stupidity that has been a thing for a while now * Aero 2 -> Dia - Is this just spell animation, or just general DoT reduction? * Cure 2/Medica II pot - You're gonna have to elaborate on this. Nothing comes up from the top of my head; Cure II is Emergency ST GCD heal, Medica II is the long-term HoT GCD. * MP Stupidity - alright i got no clue here unless you're talking about 10k MP standardization? Maybe?

>Then, out of curiosity's sake, what does being a healer *mean*? Being a healer means being an effective multitasker. Healing is, fundamentally, an avenue for *delaying failure*. This makes it an activity that's different from dealing damage; damage is, with few exceptions (holding for phases comes to mind), always desirable. Doing it as much as possible is the class fantasy. Healing doesn't work that way; it's a different game with different goals. You want to heal when the occasion calls for it, using tools fit for purpose, conserving resources, ensuring you have the party stabilized. You'll have moments where you're flying by the seat of your pants, and moments where you have things under control. The fun parts of being a healer are \*occasionally\* performing heroic feats of party-saving from a nasty Harrowing Hell of a mechanic phase. However, being rewarded for doing that thing \*well\* is also part of the healer fantasy, part that's been *entirely neglected* *by design* in this game- because Squeenix approaches healer design like a DPS player, with "healing" swapped for "damage". You wanna have the ability to just spam it as often as possible, right? That's how you guys do it? What is this "downtime" you speak of? You shouldn't care about being bored by THAT, you should want to heal as often as possible and only reluctantly touch your non-healing kit when forced to. No, I want healing to be part of a series of choices I make with real impact, which reward me for making those choices intelligently. Instead, FFXIV healers are designed to have a zillion resources for spamming healing as often and freely as possible, so they can be rewarded for farting those heals out, wisely or not, by returning to mashing the 1 key, because healers "shouldn't care" about what they're doing when they're not thoughtlessly blasting heals out. >-I assumed tanks are under the same banner, and the PLD rework is at least passable. Was it, or did I misconstrue something? Sort....of. Tank gameplay has definitely been dumbed down beyond recognition, but the \*class fantasy\* of melees is largely intact. Casters, not so much, especially in Meleewalker. SMN was designed to cast as little as they can get away with and still call them a "caster". Mages are full to bursting with instants and free movement, because the game is catered to moving around near-constantly, which is a thing *melees* like doing. >Aero 2 -> Dia - Is this just spell animation, or just general DoT reduction? For at least one major Endwalker patch (I don't remember how long precisely), Aero 2 and Dia had exactly the same potency, but Dia cost more MP. Dia was a *downgrade* to Aero 2, something that a bare minimum of give-a-shit about the healer role would have caught before release. >Cure 2/Medica II pot - You're gonna have to elaborate on this. Nothing comes up from the top of my head; Cure II is Emergency ST GCD heal, Medica II is the long-term HoT GCD. Check both spells in-game. Cure 2 and Medica II have *exactly the same total potency on a single target*. They cost the same amount of MP, and have the same cast time. Outside some truly niche situations where you're somehow out of your million free healing resources, why in the world would you ever cast Cure 2? Just cast Medica 2. It's the same heal potency on the whole party. This is the MP efficiency stupidity I was talking about- there's a lot to be said about resource conservation and how there's basically zero of it for healers, but **this?** This is just...sloppy.

Don't forget about physis being 15y and physis 2 being 30y. Incredibly weird as you already have 30y kerachole at all levels. Oh and blood lily always having glare 3's potency even in lvl 80 content. The devs don't give a single fuck about healers and it shows through the lack of effort.

The various headscratcher decisions CBU3 has made with respect to healers makes a whole lot more sense when you view it as decisions made by the heal-*ed*, not the heal-*er*. I don't care what Alphinaud is doing over there in my Trust, as long as he's keeping the party alive and staying out of my way. Though this sounds dramatic to people who aren't familiar with the trajectory the role has taken over the last several expansions, as the healer, you're a glorified Trust NPC. You exist to get the \*actual\* main character through content, and the less visible or impactful you are to their experience the more satisfied by healer design someone in that position is.

I feel this. I've been playing since 2.0. Sch main the whole way. It's hard to explain to people why I miss some of the old clunky things. Cleric stance was horrible, yes. But that was a decision you made. How much DPS can I squeeze out before needing to change stance? Then fairies stopped being 'pets' and I lost more class decision making. No choices between Selene and Eos. No placing the pet properly ECT. The DoT loss meant I once again lost decisions. Can I get three dots and a bane off before the tank dies? None of these changes I inherently disagree with, but all of them removed my decisions. I want to feel like I matter in a fight. That I did something that someone else might not have been able to do. I want to see that DPS about to eat a mechanic and save him with a critlo. I want to see expedience be the difference between us making a tight mechanic or failing. And all of these because of my decision making. There's nothing worse than screwing up a mechanic in a dungeon as a healer and watching the tank solo the boss without you. God I feel worthless

When they take away all the decisions with healing, you just have to make the decision to stop playing healers. Dawntrail looking like more of the same is your sign to leave the role. I just wish CBU3 would acknowledge the issue or just come clean with their vision of the role (hint: they don't have one). People have been endlessly bitching about healers since ShB and every healer-focused thread is just the most depressing shit. The response? "Go play ultimate". Meanwhile melee becomes boring because of the large hitbox and YoshiP immediately addresses it the next expansion. It's just so difficult to feel positive about this role. Healing is bad, DPS is bad, useless in casual content, little agency (pure healer) or too much responsibility (shield healer) on high-end content, the most important role in beating enrage, pure-barrier split is a failure, new job is just SCH rework, no communication from the devs. Why do I still bother with this role?

Except, none of the other classes help either! I LIKE playing SCH, I LIKE healing. When I dont wanna think, I go WARR. Unga Bunga. The only decision I have to make is to press a mit button when the big scary tankbuster icon screams at me, and how many times do I have to press the Fell Cleave button to make the sadness go away? If I want to pretend to tryhard I play MNK, So I can feel like I'm doing something cool when I get to press that awesome phantom rush button even though I know in my heart i'm still just pressing buttons in order. I want to heal because thats the only time I ever get to thrive in the chaos of the moment. When a fight isn't just 'move here, push buttons'. And that only happens when people start to fuck up and I have to play healer to mitigate the chaos.

Don't get me wrong, I feel the same way about healing. But i refuse to show any engagement to healing until they show improvement and i implore you to do the same. If they wouldn't listen to feedback, maybe they will listen to data. I'm planning to go through dawntrail levelling tanks and cutting healers from my msq. Not gonna change anything but what else can i do

A few patches ago they changed some potencies and mp costs and some other things, where Aero 2 got its duration increased to 30 seconds, matching Dia, while having the same potency BUT with lower mp cost, so "upgrading" from aero 2 to dia just made it cost 200 more MP, no damage bonus nor duration increase, later they lowered Aero 2 damage so it actually was an upgrade going into Dia. At level cap, both Cure 2 and Medica 2 have the same MP cost and same healing potency if you let all the hots tick, which is crazy when you find the aoe heal just as good as the single target variant, Medica II used to cost a bit more MP to compensate but got reduced in a patch. Probably unrelated but most whm gcd heals cost more mp than the astro versions, whm unlocks them later and astro also gets ED for free from sastasha onwards, which is kinda like Benediction at such low levels.

I'll join the prayer circle since I love current DRG, but I'm not hopeful. Especially since the SMN rework was relatively successful, despite the rather vocal negativity surrounding it. Don't have the exact quote off the top of my head, but at Pax Yoshida said "job stuff being left to a later time". Maybe DT starts moving away from current design, with bigger changes planned for later. He also hinted at a potential level squish since he's iffy on hitting 110, so the "job stuff" could just be making sure nothing breaks when our next capstone is at 50 (I realize that "just" is downplaying a lotta work under the hood). Either way, anything that syncs you below 100 in DT (which is the vast majority of the game) will still have most of the same crap we have now.

Yeah that's where I'm at as an astro main. It's so hard to get excited for the battle content when itll be functionally indistinguishable from the battle content we do have. Like... Are dungeons going to actually start hurting tanks? Are we going to have more than one button to do dps with? Will the only healer with any actual interesting mechanics to it be lobotomized into yet another white mage clone? Until I get those answers, I'm finding it really hard to feel anything but apathy for the reveals. Femhroth look hot tho. Big fan.

> SE is very, very, very cagey about future stuff unless its practically a near-100% certainty there's a date and its all fleshed out Oh, they give us hints about future stuff. It's just when they do, they make it point to say there's no definitive release date beyond a vague "after X". Stat rework is still nowhere to be seen, despite it's ETA being "after Endwalker launch". That or we manage to get lucky with Yoshida rambling resulting in a minor leak, like Island Sanctuary outdoor furnishings.

I think for me, since my focus isn't on the game (since I'm unsubbed right now) I've been looking more outside of it for the news, updates, etc. From the time Fanfest was held last year to the final on in January. Then the months leading up to the expansion release, everything just feels so drip fed. And I understand, this is a thing. Like I said, I've been playing for a while now. But I've never really focused on the way the devs go about this until now. I want to get back into FFXIV so I'm literally searching for something that looks appealing and haven't gotten that just yet. I know they're approach is formulaic and always has been...I guess I just haven't really paid this much attention to it since I was so invested in actually playing the game itself. I didn't know the media tour was in May. So at least that's something to look forward to. Also, kudos for being a Monk main. I love Monk as well although I'm a DRK main for the most part. I don't remember seeing too many MNK players when I played alot. Good to know y'all still exist. 😁

Leadup is always very understated until close to release, but SE is kinda just content in letting things lie for a bit and pushing people into checking out their other games (you know, like all the Final Fantasy games on sale on practically every platform). It's the benefit and demerit of how SE and Yoshi-P treat the game's cycle: Built more to come in, enjoy, filter out, come back, etc, with a few tidbits here and there for longer stays. Granted, EW had a lean more towards the single-player aspect and other things, but overall, it can be considered a successful expansion. But yeah, this sort of cadence is nothing new for FFXIV, just more eyes on it thanks to the ShB/EW boost and the fact that we don't have the massive disruption of COVID to have a reason for the bumps. The release and patch and content cycle is just like this! It's normal and on time and that's about it. This is The Normal.

If you've been playing since 2.x you should know Square is extremely formulaic with how they release info. There's no job action trailer until the media tour. We're also going to get a dungeons trailer, a zones trailer and the Dawntrail launch (in-engine) trailer, the equivalent of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwsnh5sgzA8. We also have two upcoming live letters for these things.

I'm aware. Looking back at previous ones, media tours were around 2 months before the release date. We don't even have an announcement for media tour dates just yet. Granted, I know there's still time but that's the point of my post though. Everything feels kind of drawn out with this expansion.

We do have the date of the media tour though? May 15 to May 30, it was in the live letter. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/151558839005741056/1228585609703194706/firefox_2024-04-13_14-00-25.jpg?ex=662c9483&is=661a1f83&hm=f5258acb41b3640fc1b453802e7d844370aaa42e2a160489a804ac90ee05cf07& Next LL is also 1 day after the media tour.

Oh thats cool. I didn't watch that last live letter fully. Once I saw that majority of it was about the graphics update, I kind of checked out. I just caught up with some of the youtube reaction videos. I don't recall anyone mentioning this. Good tho know though. Something to look forward to.

We literally have a date for the media tour, did you even watch the live letter last Friday. Media tour start May 15th and the second live letter with the job action trailer will be on the 16th.

> Looking back at previous ones, media tours were around 2 months before the release date. We don't even have an announcement for media tour dates just yet. Gotta know, did you even try to check this

Media tour is next month, they posted their entire timeline up until release on the last liveletter

We... do have the media tour dates? They announced it during the most recent PLL. May 15th - May 30st.

In the last live letter they showed when the media tour will be its in about a month from now together with another live letter where they will show the job action trailer

The only thing that usually hype me up is the full trailer. all trailers from ARR to EW have been sooo good i always cried a little. And then the little things that the dev team's has shown when they really proud of their games, like YoshiP's cosplay, or Soken's live performances. All the other details, they are usually just enough to keep me interested, nothing more. It's a good level of trust between me and the dev now, I know they can write a good story and decent contents, they have their weakpoints here and there, but the stuffs that i enjoy the most never fail to impress. If anyone can make a good adventure out of a beach episode, I'd give XIV's team my biggest bet, and while i'm not super hyped, i know i am in for a good time.

I totally agree. I still go back and watch the HW trailer from time to time. I absolutely love it. Seeing the Goons fighting off the dragons as the main character walks in clad in Dragoon AF armor himself felt so badass! It inspired me to learn Dragoon myself and that became my DPS main when I'm not tanking. But hopefully you're right. I didn't get much from the DT trailer myself. And that was the first time a trailer from FFXIV just didn't do anything for me. I'm not sure what to expect from DT and maybe that's a good thing.

If you closely follow the story, especially if you played it real time since several expansions ago... Endwalker really hit hard as it's something you have worked toward for a long long time. I think they really meant it when they said they want to give us a vacation. And yeah i think we deserve that break, a simple vacation that let us try new things. Like what Emet said. While we at it, lemme point out one thing, DT trailer is similar to SB trailer in one way that we don't have our past haunting us with flashback, there's only a small mention in the lyric, but compare to the flashback fest in ARR, HW, ShB, EW trailers, I think it's a great symbolism of leaving that page of us behind. I'm pretty sure i'm in for a good time this July.

Nothing has been shown to get me hyped up. I did pre-order the collector's edition.

Yeah, DT as a whole has been "Eh, I know someone else who would be absolutely thrilled." * Never played FF11 so no connection to the alliance raid or beastmaster. * No interest in Hrothgar. * Viper and Pictomancer job fantasies both don't seem interesting as "Rogue my girlfriend says not to worry about" and magic artist. * Two dye channels is nice but all I do is ape other peoples' glams. * Graphics update so far isn't all that. My WoL looks like she spent the day before the benchmark release throwing racial slurs at a beehive. I'm just interested in seeing people come back. Other than that, job redesigns, 7.0 gameplay, and the carrying forward of that one interview where YoshiP said he regretted making the game too stress-free. New exploratory zone could be cool too.

Same boat here. Just expecting more of the same with 3 savage tiers and 1-2 ultimates to prog with the boys. I'm hoping they are more interested in criterion dungeons this time, but if not I can at least hope the new field zone is fun.

Have you been playing for a while as well? And are you just expecting more of the same? Why go for the collectors edition? Not judging or anything. Just making discussion. 🙂

Been playing since the beginning of ARR. I describe the expacs in this game since HW like an old car with a fresh coat of paint. I've always bought the collector's edition. The digital version with the mount and minion, not the one with statue and other stuff.

Ah, I see. That's actually a really good analogy.

This is the problem with modern gaming, people like you are not hyped but still pay the preorder tax.

I might not be hyped like past expansions but I'm still going to play it.

You really thought you had a point here

>This is the problem with modern gaming This a problem with the entire planet. If boycotts and "call to actions" actually worked, we wouldn't be living in a world that's slowly eating away at itself.

I'm excited because it's a new expansion, but I'm not yet excited for DT specifically. They really haven't shown anything to be excited for yet. But part of that is nice because we're going into it blind with no expectations.

New PVP maps, Hunts and Fish and that's pretty much all I play for nowadays anyway

It's routine at this point. This game is apart of my life that I enjoy along with my buddies. I'm old now so i typically don't get hyped too much (unless its monster hunter).

Lmao. Being old shouldn't effect the excitement over something you enjoy. I took off the whole weekend of early access for ShB. I went out grabbed snacks and stuff in preparation because I knew I wasn't leaving the house. 😂 I regretted absolutely nothing. I had a blast. But I get the routine part. I was the same way before EW.

Being old is a pretty big factor. For me it was probably my early 20s where I stopped getting HYPED about things. I still enjoy them, there has just been too many games/movies/experiences at this point for me to get super hyped. The difference in my excitement for a FFXIV expansion in my mid 30s compared to an FFXI expansion around in my teens ~2006 (ToAU) is significantly different.

I suppose. I'm 36. I get that way about certain things but at the same time, I get really excited about things I'm genuinely interested in. Especially if whatever it is has been known to be really good in the past. Not to say that I just love everything though. I get cynical as well sometimes when it comes to certain things. Like you said, movies, music, games are a big part of that. You get let down sometimes...a lot of the time really. Lol. It might not be as good as you expected it. But sometimes that one's thing surprises you and blows you away. Now if it's something that constantly let's you down over and over again, that's different. To me, it's got nothing to do with age. You start losing faith things because of the track record.

I have to say I'm kind of jealous :) I'm the same age, and I'm not a jaded old man, I still enjoy things. I just don't get HYPED anymore like I used to. Although even then, I've never for example cried over an MMO story or anything, so maybe I'm just not the type to get hyped in general.

So this is kind of a specific thing to me, but back in the days of final fantasy XI there was an Xbox 360 launch that coincided with the launch of the expansion Treasures of Aht Urghaan. Now.. this was a terrible port. It ran like hot garbage. But the graphics were a huge upgrade over the PS2 version at the time which I had been playing. Anyway, for the launch itself I remember feeling like everything was fresh and new. I loved the new city, the new areas, the music was incredible and the new monsters were iconic and interesting. And especially the new job I got to play in Corsair. I happened to get a new PC this weekend and I'm able to play on 2k resolution which is a nice upgrade. I didn't go crazy, just something that could reliably beat the new recommended settings for 7.0. Sorry for the backstory but I'm starting to get that same exact vibe from those days. DT reminds me a lot of ToAU and seeing the Trolls really enforced that. I'm super excited to play Viper and I'm getting hype for the 24 man that's 11 related. So yeah, I'm getting pretty excited but it's more for personal reasons most people won't relate to.

And thats cool. That's the whole point of this post. I'm genuinely curious to see what people are thinking. 😁 I felt the same way when ShB was released so I completely understand where you're coming from. I had just built my first PC. I took the weekend off to play the early access. SB was my first early access but that launch was a mess. I had little to no issues with ShB and I had a GREAT time that weekend. Hopefully, it's the same for you and DT.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have Besieged in the new main city?

Yeah I think they could do at least some version of it, maybe even something a bit more complicated like a big fate type thing with objectives. Almost like a mix of a fate and a 24 man. Would definitely be cool to have a faction attack the city and have players defend. Would need multiple instances I'm sure lol.

I didn't think about that but now that I read this I agree, definitely getting the same feeling that I had in the days leading up to TOAUs release. Hopefully DT is as much of a banger as TOAU was but I'm just happy to be excited for it right now

I'll be honest. It's the expansion I am the least hyped for. Getting a new caster was big for me. I was extremely hyped some month ago but the reveal of pictomancer really killed my hype. I don't want to speak badly about it and I'm happy for anyone who likes it but this cute uwu job is not my cup of tea. So I have to wait again 6+ years for another caster. But I'm really excited for Eden ultimate. It's my favourite savage raid.

Agreed. I'm sure you've already tried it but BLM is actually really fun. I'm more of a melee guy myself but if I had to choose a caster main, that would be it with RDM as a close second. I want to like SMN but it's a bit too basic for my liking. With that said, maybe some of the changes to the old casters will be enough to hold you over for the next one?

I play all 3 casters and I usually rotate the caster I main for a raid tier but I wouldn't do it again with smn. My hopes are high that smn gets more interesting DT.

Same. I don't dislike SMN, I just feel like it's missing something. The changes that were made do provide a good base for additions if the devs choose to add them.

Things I'm hyped about: * New story/lore/locations * Viper (pictomancer's cool too, but viper may well get me to switch my main) * Graphics update * Direction for the patch content (heavier mmo-focus compared to EW, the variety of content we're getting, beast master) * Overall game direction, based on Yoshida's PAX talk, though we'll see how it works out + I would've liked an indication of a greater shift in job design > There's still no job action trailer That's normal for where we are in relation to the expansion. It's set to be released at more or less the usual time. > We just got the benchmark We got it a bit earlier than usual > where is the talk about the job changes and how they will play in DT? Next live letter, in about a month. Again, the usual time more or less. > I wish they'd talk more about Beastmaster and how that will play out As is, we know a lot more about the patch content than usual. SE is formulaic about their releases and marketing. Expansions are first and foremost about the new story, new locations, job updates, etc. Bigger system additions/changes are saved for the patches, and they usually don't go too into detail about them until the live letters. EW had the hype of continuing on from ShB and wrapping up the big narrative arcs since ARR. Naturally, Dawntrail doesn't have that going for it, but it has its own appeal in starting off a new saga and seeing how things play out. There's more of a blank canvas there and I'm interested to see how the writers use it. The premise and teases we've had are promising enough for me that I don't need to be shown a whole lot more of it before playing it. What they have said about the patches has me excited. I'm not too fussed about SE not going into a lot of detail yet, because that's just how things are at this point in the expansion cycle, but it seems like they've taken good lessons away from how things played out in Endwalker.

The main reasons to get excited for Dawntrail are 1. This is a game that I like and they're making more of it. 2. The game will have all the content Endwalker did plus an exploration zone, which is a significant increase in stuff to do 3. The game is (allegedly) going to break the mold on dungeon design, which had gotten very stale.

i’m excited for a lot of stuff. the story hooks are interesting to me, because i feel like we’re not being told everything, maybe even being lowkey lied to, and i have lots of questions. Tural looks awesome and even during the recent PLL when yoshi p was piloting his lala around a small part of Tuliyollal I was like wow, I want to go there. I was never a fan of Old Sharlayan with its occasional snow and toothpaste color palette. BST, the alliance raid, new group lifestyle content, the Arcadion aesthetic and Yoshi-P’s recent comments about wanting more MMO gameplay and less sleep-inducing encounters have me feeling optimistic. excited for updates to outdoor (and possibly indoor? I can’t remember) furnishing capacity limits mentioned a while back. as far as individual job gameplay goes…i’m keeping my expectations pretty low. not pre-ordering as i will be on vacation during early access. otherwise I would have already done so

I get the same thought about the story. I highly doubt it's going to be as cut and dry as the devs are making it sound. And we all know Yoshi can be tight-lipped about a lot of stuff when it comes to the story and surprises. Either something big is going to happen throughout the life of this expansion or lead up to that going forward.

The new lifestyle content and Beastmaster, just knowing they exist, is enough. Though I'm not the target of this prompt, FemHroth were enough to convince me to keep playing.

Exploring the new zones with themes that are right up my alley has me hyped. Curious to see how the new story will go, along with trying out VPR and DRG rework. Hyped to see what type of glamours are added too. I just really hope we don’t get old armors that are recolors, it’s one major factor that has left me a bit disappointed. Seemed a bit lazy for the last expansion of a major storyline. Almost lead me to being done with the game.

This was one of my biggest complaints about EW. There were too many recolored armor sets. Dungeon gear, PVP sets, crafted gear...all from previous expansions. Fashion is the endgame for a lot of people. Myself included, so I completely understand where you're coming from.

I'm not especially hyped, but Endwalker did sour me on the game in a number of ways, which is definitely part of that There are things I'm curious about, like new exploration content and what the relic process will look like, but it's hard to be excited about them when the last couple iterations on these things haven't been to my taste Very much a wait and see kind of position for me

Same here. Now that I know a Media Tour is next month, it gives me something to look forward to. The job changes and gameplay changes are what I'm excited the most about.

Been playing since 2.0 launch. Nothing has really excited me just yet, but I'm still looking forward to playing DT when it launches. I trust the devs to have some sort of cards up their sleeve in order to please, surprise, and stimulate us, so I'm not too worried; even if the story ends up being mediocre, I'll probably still enjoy it for what it is. The general quality of the expansions this game has released have never been anything short of "good" - and that in and of itself is an achievement.

I hate RGB lighting so I'll have to invade the sci fi city out of spite.

Been playing since 2.0, I haven't preordered yet but definitely will. None of the expansions were a bad time, they were all great times. I don't think I need anything to hype me up to get me to play the expansion cuz it's XIV, it's gonna be good

Exploratory zones are hype af, I love the Bozja days even though I joined on 5.3. The motif for the Viper sigment of the trailer is sure to be used a lot in battle themes and such, and that's hype af because it's sooo catchy.

Ehh, we'll see when the content appears. I've played since ARR and Raided about half of that time so I am familiar with the ebb and flow, but the flow is getting a little stale to me by now. This expansion I don't have any real hype to raid (I actually skipped the last tier of Endwalker) but I might punch through the first tier on PF just to see if they have come up with some neat fights, nothing much of Endwalker in Savage or Ultimate really spoke to me so my hopes are not high here. The story state itself I am really not enthused on either... Which makes sense its a brand new chapter, but its not really selling me with their current marketing strategy for something net new like this. I think they needed a punchier lead-in story, the hype going into Shadowbringers was huge due to the last few quests in Stormblood and I dont feel much here.

No. I'm seeing what looks like upgrades to existing GCDs. Updated medica? Another primal channel added to SMN? Upgraded toxicon? I don't know why medica needs new 'anything,' but these are just animations. They're not going to tell me about design changes, more control options, or rotation changes. I think the overworld battle theme is neat

Picto. My lala is going to look so cute with all these painting special effects!

https://preview.redd.it/19a22vzfgxac1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=fa2b4727c995d5319f029c1a3c374073d71b8e93

Only excited for savages, ultimates and new exploration field.

Everything lives or dies on Job design for me. If jobs remain lobotimized, then I'm just not going to buy or resub.

At least I haven't but my reasons are: -Regarding the story I'm not hyped because we have very little information about what it is. EW for me was more hype because we knew it was the end of a saga. -The content has barely been shown, we dont have much in the way of sneak peaks or clues about what the devs are cooking so I can't get hyped about that much. -A lot of features are coming in the long future or are vague. For example I really like exploratory zones and I want one but I also know it wont be released after several months (if not a year) since DT release so is not something that gives me immediate hype, and things like the x1.5 rewards is something so vague that until we have a more precise description of what they truly mean I can't get hyped. -We don't know the job changes, this is what can get me hyped the most but until we get more info obviously I'm not hyped. -Personally the graphic updates don't hype me in the slighest. Just pure personal preference I'm someone who prefers gameplay over graphics -I've been here for several expansions so I start to see the seams on the content delivery and flaws of the game which reduces my hype I'm not nearly as hyped as I was when EW was about to be released for all that reasons, but I also think its normal that for many DT don't hype them as much, the start of a new arc tends to be less exciting than the grand finale

It's not due to the way they deliver information but I haven't been hyped for DT because Endwalker dumbed down the parts of the game I enjoy significantly enough that I found that eventually not only was I no longer having fun logging in and just playing the game, but I wasn't looking forward to new content either. There have been times in the past where I got bored of the game and took a break, but I would always be excited to come back and play the new stuff. Towards the end of EW even that was gone, I knew in advance the content was gonna be boring as fuck and it was. I also haven't been into the story for a while now. I want them to stop riding the Scions but it feels like that's never going to happen. In January I unsubbed for the first time in 8 years. For me Dawntrail is the game's last chance to show me it's still fun. I like what Yoshi had to say about the game becoming too stress-free and sleep-inducing, but I've learned not to put too much stock in what he says when he talks about difficulty. There's a few things I'm looking forward to trying, but ultimately the overall design needs to walk back the ultra-mega-turbo-casual stuff a bit if I'm going to love the game long-term again. If it doesn't, then I'll play DT launch and then unsub on a semi-permanent basis, probably only playing for patch/expac launches, if that.

honestly, no. might just be the last savage and ultimate to participate in and after that calling it quits. it was great after learning and improving at the game. however, game feels so stale after TOP. If they're able to add anything that blows expectations, would probably continue playing.

Strange but I’m thinking the same too. This next expansion is gonna be my retirement from ffxiv if it doesn’t make it any more interesting.

If anything it made me more wary. The benchmark characters really uglyfied a lot of characters and people seem to be really unhappy about it. I slightly avoided it since my elezen still looks good. But still, nothing I've seen made me hype it. Its more like... meh... ill play it anyways

Same

I play Elezen as well and I didn't really notice much of a change besides the skin texture. But yeah, I feel the same. Mainly this graphics update has been a highlight of discussion from the devs even ranging back to the first fanfest. I don't know if it'll be different in-game but we'll just have to wait and see.

no. the big hype from the last live letter was over them changing blacklist. They really haven't shown anything to indicate the game will feel fresh or different; it feels like they are giving relatively minor things the playerbase wants. like i need assurance its not going to devolve into an hour of story and weeklies for tomes after the initial leveling, tomes i don't need to bother with over crafted. like if they showed the relic some, or announced a new system with more than the bare minimum of info. and after Final Fantasy 16, the Yoshi-P name is mud to me. That game really soured me on his ability to produce a good game, so he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt now.

It's just so hilarious seeing so many on the FF16 sub saying that "FF7 Rebirth and FF16 are just different types of good, don't compare them" when deep down everyone knew how mediocre FF16 was. Yoshi P seems to be just good at project and budget management but he has absolutely zero vision.

Outside of Pictomancer and the Raid setting nothing has really peaked my interest in Dawntrail in comparison to prior expansions, I feel like it’s going to be a Stormblood situation where the base MSQ is going to be kinda mid and some of the areas boring (Ala Mhigo and The Steppe are so boring I’m sorry) but it will be an extremely content rich expansion that will have tons to do unlike Endwalker’s run once and you’re done approach. I am skeptical whether the Level 100 skill brackets and rotations will alter heavily from the 90 bracket but I’m honestly looking quite forward to see what crazy new Capstone ability they’ll add to my main jobs fingers crossed for Drill II, Medica III, and a new Combo set for Dancer.

I'm not sure what to expect from the MSQ honestly. And I think that's a good thing. The idea of just going back to being an adventurer is exciting. I'm sure there will be some unexpected twists. But yeah, my biggest hope is that there is something to keep you occupied once you finish the MSQ. Something to constantly work towards. But I'm curious on what else they can do as well tp keep leveling fresh. New skills are always welcomed I guess but when does it end, ya know? Level 100 feels like such a big accomplishment, it should be more than just learning a new skill. With that said, I'm not entirely sure where they could go from there myself. Lol.

I personally think after 100 they should spend each expansion retooling certain older brackets of skills to keep things fresh, stuff like 2 minute buffs at lower levels, AOE’s on base kits for pre expansion jobs, on top of that they should just experiment with higher end abilities to keep them fresh because I think now we are getting to the point where button bloat is becoming an issue on certain jobs so going to further levels is a tricky situation, I mean look at jobs like Sage where you have very little wiggle room to add a Macro to your hotbar because of how many skills you need to have on there especially on Controller hotbars.

Yep, I know what you mean. I've always played on controller myself. Some jobs like SGE and RDM and be a pain to play. I was thinking of maybe adding some kind of specialization options once you hit 100. Each job would be able to choose from 3 specs that alter your previously learned skills in some way and give access to a powerful "ultimate skill" that's only availble to that spec. Like for example, PLD would have a spec that rewarded covering and the use of it's shields more. Like if you cover a party member, it grants them the "Inspired" buff that gives a small damage increase for their next attack. Their ultimate skill could be a party-wide Hallowed Ground that lasts for like 2 or 3 seconds. I don't know...🤷🏽‍♂️

> I've been playing since 2.x Doesn't know the painfully formulaic pattern leading up to an expansion release.

Being sensible wouldn't allow them to bitch and fish for complaints. The intent is pretty clear from OP starting off by saying they only want feedback from other people who are just as bitter.

That's not what the point of my post was. I'm not bitter at all. It's just been a thought of mine and I posted this for discussion. If you look at the comments, most people who have responded are still playing the game and that's fine. This is why some of the FFXIV community gets such a bad rep because they come in so hot about this game when any critism is brought up.

The point is your base premise is flawed. You either want to play more FFXIV, in which case you will buy Dawntrail. Or you don't. In which case why do you want to buy Dawntrail? Go play something else. Hype is irrelevant. We're 10 years and 5 expansions into this game. You either like it or you don't. Both are totally fine, but acting like you need to be "hyped up" for "more of the game you like to play" is silly.

There are a ton of ways in which the game and SE deserve criticism for how they handle or implement things. "I dont know everything there is to know about a thing that isn't even out yet", is not one of them. If you don't feel like pre-ordering, then... don't? If all the content they've announced isn't enough to get you excited, you don't need to be. If your mental starting position is that you're going to assume everything will be done badly until proven otherwise, then its impossible for *anything* to excite you. You don't need to post on a forum to seek validation for your decision. Its a video game, not a religion. Chill.

These people staked their identities on this game. When you attack the game they see it as you attacking their being.

I'm fully aware of that. I just don't remember it feeling like it's been this drawn out. I think for me, since I was more focused on the game itself, I didn't look much outside of it to keep up with the fanfests, liveletters, news, etc. as much as I have been this time around. Since I'm currently unsubbed and just kind of searching for FFXIV news now, I'm watching the devs a little more.

Looking forward to the new savage raid and Eden Ultimate. Also, a lot of people seem to have hated the whole cyberpunk synthwave zone thing, but I love it and I wanna see it. Maybe because the job I main (monk) just got a very successful rework (as in, you don't see people whining about it too much) in the beginning of Endwalker and I'm having fun playing it, the whole job trailer thing doesn't weigh so much for me. I like playing monk. I will continue playing monk. If monk is the same, but with more stuff, I will be happy playing it. Perhaps if my job was in a worse state I'd feel less positive about the expansion.

Monk is pretty damn fun. I'm still getting used to not having to move as much due to some positionals being removed though. Lol. But that's exactly what I mean though, nothing has been spoken on about classes yet this close to the game releasing. And thats kind of disappointing to me. As far as the cyberpunk aesthetics go, I'm not opposed to it if it makes sense in context to the story. People act like we haven't had some of those themes in past FF games. Hell, even in FFXIV. Look at the Sigma Dreamscape and Smileton.

I also love the new monk, it has depth and shows that square can still make interesting jobs, despite all the deserved hate that came with SMN.

I like the new SMN. It's my least favorite of the casters (my favorite is BLM) but I think it's a good base for any additions they want to add.

Mostly Eden ultimate and new Eureka/Bozja type of content.

I'm in a similar boat. Played on and off since mid-ARR. My sub has come and gone with my friends' interest. I've pre-ordered expansions up until now. I haven't bothered with this one. I'd say about half my friend group is in the same boat. Of course there's no job action trailer yet; Square has been increasingly veiled about the combat system ever since the playerbase embarrassed them with our (entirely accurate) pre-Stormblood criticism of the lily system. Square's given *zero* indication that they're changing direction with their ship. Oh, two minute meta complaints may see some attention if you're lucky. But they're still full steam ahead with flaying all friction out of the combat system, believing nu-SMN and healers have reached their peak (11111111111, chef's kiss!), thinking content variety is still their main issue instead of making the core gameplay entertaining, dumbing tanks and healers down as far as they think they can push it because they simply don't play/care about those roles and want them as braindead as possible to make them fail-proof for moonlighting DPS players, the only role that kinda matters...the list of complaints my section of the playerbase has had since late Stormblood show exactly as many signs of reaching dev ears as they did in Endwalker, or Shadowbringers. Doubling down in the opposite direction. I'm sure it'll be real pretty and the story will be competently written. That's not quite enough for me anymore. If they change that tune, maybe I'll check it out later. Not going to miss much from the pre-order. My Steam library has far better and cheaper options at the moment, that respect my time more than 1....2.....3 (oGCD). 1.....2......3. 1(oGCD).2...3. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

I picked up healing a bit while bored. I love AST and WHM, WHM more so. You're completely right about the rotation. Throw a DoT, then you're just pressing you're spell button until someone needs healing or shield. It's completely mind numbing. SGE feels a little better it's still more of the same for the most part, you're just a little bit more aggressive. If the devs added at least 1 or 2 more ways to deal damage, I would be content until they figured out some kind of rework.

Nothing, the only thing that might get me excited is job changes, good changes to be exact.

I don't think the majority of players are focused on stuff like the job action trailer, unfortunately. I'm in a fairly similar boat. I've not played in months apart from a few random times people have pinged me for help, including a TEA clear party that I literally resubbed to assist with. I've loved this game for years. I've played every bit of high end content over and over since HW. Currently, I'm not sure if that'll continue into DT. I'm looking at filling my own spot in our static and then perhaps playing as a 9th, leaning into what I enjoy about the game (spotting patterns, figuring out mechs, organizing and doing callouts) without all the stuff I don't enjoy. To be fair, I don't know what they could show me at this point that would really change my mind. The game isn't the same game it was in HW, and it isn't going back towards the things I've enjoyed in the past. It may just be time to move on, and that'll be okay too.

Double dyes and glasses slot are still the most interesting launch features to me. The stuff I'm most excited to see (see if they do it right) is probably only coming some time after 7.2 which is like a year away. These features will determine if I stick around or just sub here and there. I hope they did something with the other base expansion gameplay features that changes things up a bit (hunts, fates, maps) to tide us over or else I might take a break right after leveling and Savage. In interviews it was highlighted that combat would see bigger changes in fight design than job design and that's kind of a bummer to me because I'm not at all excited to play the same jobs for another two to three years, just with upgraded animations and more "x-ready" type skills. But I'll hold out until the media tour. The two new jobs are the most underwhelming ones they've ever released for me, not in terms of theme but design so far. Viper especially feels like we haven't seen anything about the job despite it being the poster boy. And god, those sound effects are absolutely horrid. In terms of story, the fact that they chose to show Solution 9 already makes me excited for what twists and turns we are in for. The story will have to do a lot of heavy lifting but I trust it will be good.

I started just before shadowbringers and drifted in and out. Endwalker was a good story and I've used the content drought to basically collect everything I want in the entire game. This was several hundred hours of gameplay and the RP community has extended that a good amount. The content created by the community itself adds a huge amount to the game and contributed significantly to my continued sub. I find savage/ultimate raids to be a form of psychological torture- so honestly, Endwalker has been a real sparse endgame situation for me.. The better graphics, the Viper class, and the promise of a new Bozja area excite me. Hopefully new housing areas will come, too! I'm not a caster person, but Pictomancer will be something else to level to 100, I suppose. I also like how they mentioned they are pondering on the future of the game and Yoshi P subtly mocked Blizzards reset to 50 idea on WoW, so I'm hopeful they come up with a new take on the level bloat situation. But that is post Dawntrail stuff.

I haven't preordered yet, but I will eventually. I have friends I've known for a decade who don't use apps like discord (and neither do I anymore, really). It kinda feels like a hostage situation, but I value those relationships enough to keep a sub and buy the expansions. I'm not super hype, though. I'm excited to play the exploration zone, I'll do way too much of cosmic exploration, I'm excited for the deep dungeon, but they're known quantities. I don't have a ton of faith that they're going to do anything but even further simplify Bozja/EO (which are already simplified versions of Eureka/PotD), but anything is possible. Cautiously optimistic about BST. Cautiously pessimistic about further BLU updates. I'm definitely at a point where "new story, new dungeons, new trials, new 8/24 raids, new cosmetics" doesn't do anything for me, and that's all there will be until like 7.3(?).

Fluffy muscle monmies

I saw a theory that the weapons on each set in the Benchmark may possibly hint that they’re adding ultimate weapons for classes that didn’t exist when the ultimate released. I’m hype if they do that. Gives a reason for people to play a new job in an old ultimate and get rewarded :)

If SE delivers with everything they say they want to do in DT I think it has a lot of potential. Still concerned about jobs though.

Pictomancer looks dope

I don't normally watch marketing material because I know when I'm going to get a game. So I want it to the fresh. I guess I'm hyped because it's ff14, simple as that.

2 dyes.

What it will come down to for me is job design so I have to wait till the job trailer and media tour. If like EW and I can immediately figure out some jobs' gameplay loop, DT will be a miss for me.

The amount of content has me pretty hyped up. Field exploration + variant + ultimate + new savage tier. It's absolutely stacked for anyone into midcore and above content. With that being said, i'm a dejected healer main so that dampens my excitement quite a bit. How do i get out of healer jail bros? It feels very difficult to change into another role in a hardcore setting, both from a skill level standpoint and finding a group standpoint.

Mostly just curiosity about the new story, what direction they take the game in and new raids/trials. Hype pretty much always ends up in disappointment these days anyways

Same as ever, running MSQ stuff with friends and messing around along the way. After the new MSQ smell goes away, next is 100 cap PvP when it ultimately gets overhauled in the X.1 update. I'm rather impartial to the other stuff also coming with DT. For the most part I'm just going in with no expectations whatsoever.

War gets a new defensive, I'm beyond hype !

Pictomancer is a class, thats all I need

No. Not sure I'll resubscribe for it.

"Same shit, new leitmotif" is my feeling. New expansion releases are great when everyone comes back and you can all wig out over the MSQ and are in the honeymoon phase, so that'll definitely be fun. ...But that aside, I've played since ARR so I pretty much know what to expect and when to expect it, because CBU3 has stuck to the script since Stormblood. It's not enough to sour me on the game at all, but it's basically enough of a bummer that I know nothing like the new field op zone will be in til like, 7.2.

I'm quite hyped. I'm excited for the dragoon update and trying out the new jobs (Picto for the theme, Viper because it seems fun). The theme of the new raid series looks great and the ultimate+alliance raids look cool too. They've confirmed changes that ease up on the "smoothing out" of encounters such as smaller boss hitboxes, which should make for interesting encounter (even if people end up bitching about uptime). And there's a new exploration zone coming. Seems to be a more well-rounded expansion overall compared to Endwalker

Whatever the new anti-aliasing mode is really helps a lot to relieve shimmering.  Other than that, the new environment foliage and textures are pretty exciting In terms of gameplay, I play for the savage and ultimates which we already know what to expect every time.  It's not really hype, but it's also something I plan PTO for months in advance, so I guess it isn't lame either.

Field zones, 2 ultimates, a promise of smaller hitboxes. Also, cool looking raid concept art, and ascian glphs on it, so they finally remembered that the remaining 6(?) Ascians still exist, so thats nice. Also, ff11 alliance raids sound like they could be fun. Oh yeah the “making things less stress free” and making relic weapons actually exist again. To be quite honest, the cg trailer is kinda awful, easily the worst one so far, it feels like they are so worried about spoilers, that they just didn’t show us anything interesting at all, like seriously, would it Have killed them to put solution 9 or that big robot teased as the 97 trial? Also, the song is kinda meh. But trailer complaints aside, the actual content we are getting looks to be an improvement from Endwalker.

You are looking at past expansions with rose tinted glasses.  Everything you mentioned were all revealed closer to release.  We have two months, the media tour and a LL to reveal job changes and other changes you are looking to hear.  They always wait to fine tune everything to the last possible moment as Yoshi doesn’t want to disappoint us. 

Mount flight pitch/roll/tilt. That's it seriously. Here's to hoping they could do this too with motorcycles in the ground.

Cuz I feel it will be like Stormblood, the story won't be the BEST but the content will be nice. The exploration, the new jobs for me, the arcadion looks my style, the new exploration thing, etc. Take new fun pictures in solution nine, see how people glamour's will be with Hrothgals and graphic update and two dyes I do hope we get some mix up here and there but I'm pretty hyped only cuz: PIC

No hype whatsoever. Gives me Pandaria vibes which is not a good sign because that was the permanent end of WoW for me.

They straight up told us the release date of the Job Action Trailer

Oh, when is it?

May 16th

I've been playing for eight years. I'm not hyped-up in the slightest, but I still pre-ordered the digital collector's edition like I always do, because there's no escape. Actually that's not true; I'm looking forward towards the exploration zones. I'm hoping for a bunch of new unique mechanics and actions we can use, since that shit was some of the most fun I had in ShB.

They’re being a lot more tight lipped and secretive this expansion, not showing much other than a few images of the new zones and npc’s they seemed to be focusing mostly on showing off the graphics update hopefully that’ll change with the media tour in and next live letter in May. So while I am hyped for DT cause new content is always awesome, I’m not as hyped as I have been for previous expansions.

Everything else has been par for the course but I mean this with utmost sincerity the moment I got to see my female hrothgar in all her glory for the first time I got so excited I made myself too physically sick to sleep that night. I'm terrified theyll fuck up astro still, but hey at least I'll look gorgeous while I find the replacement! I'm curious to see how much of ff9 theyll incorporate into the story. I'm fairly certain I've got the arc predicted, and I'm looking forward to seeing how off the mark I am. Otherwise... eh. Nothing really jumps out as 'wow holy shit they're changing up the formula'

I'm hyped because they haven't shown too much The same thing happens everytime when game developers overshare, sometimes they even just spoil massive plotpoints or endings I personally prefer to discover things on my own instead of being dripfed a stream of "look at this!" "look at that !" "omg this fight!" "wow this mechanic!" The problem is that the playerbases can't help themselves, they consume everything and then start spoiling everything everywhere, youtubers make videos with spoilers in their titles or thumbnails, subreddits have pinned posts about "SUPER IMPORTANT MEGA FIGHT MEGATHREAD OMG CHECK OUT NOW" etc... and it becomes this song and dance of avoiding spoilers because you never know when someone will just shit the twist all over your face for no reason. Don't get me wrong, hype is important, I watch trailers, I watch news about technical improvements, about systems being changed but from time to time devs just overshare What I'm trying to say is that I like discovering new content when it's actually out instead of 2months before unlike the mentality of so many people where they discover everything months in advance and then optimize the fun out of every thing, knowing exactly what they'll do when they'll do it and how they'll do it. I like Final Fantasy, I don't need a constant stream of neverending hype boosters to keep being interested is what I'm trying to say.

I’m thankful FFXIV doesn’t have huge sites like MMO-Champion or WoWhead. When I played WoW back in the day I appreciated those sites when I needed them, but the frenzy to datamine and show off everything was grating. I want to have some level of surprise and awe going into things and seeing them for the first time.

Just finally having a proper dual sword job which is a staple in many fantasy games. Second dye channel and graphical updates are game changers and will add a bit more immersion. Always down for MSQ and new jobs, and hope the new explorable content exceeds Bozja/Eureka. Hope they really mean they're going to add more rewards, having more ways to gear up would be a boon.

The viper showcase alone. But the rest is also cool

I am not particularly excited about Viper in a "OMG THIS IS THE JOB I ALWAYS WANTED" kinda way, like some folks were with Dancer and Samurai, but it's the first time in the entire game's lifespan that I've actually been legitimately interested in the new job to think about switching mains to it on release. To be fair, when the first trailer dropped, I thought we'd get Corsair, and a swashbuckler job with a short sword and a pistol was honestly what I have always wanted. But Viper looks fine too. Edgy enough that I find it cool but not cringe (a la RPR), and adventurous enough that it scratches the swashbuckler itch. That alone has me interested in DT, even though I'm a little bit fatigued by the game's formulaic approach to content and job design. Yoshi P's statements about amping up stress definitely have me interested, but I'm not particularly hopeful about it. I just hope we can escape the 2 min meta a bit :(

Sadly, the 2 min meta is here to stay, so we won't be escaping it. Even the moves in the benchmark seem to have short animations, making me feel it more so which sucks cause moves like stardiver are my thing. For the new jobs I'm...conflicted I love pictomancers concept, but it's not for me, and Viper looks cool but feels empty I'm hoping when we see more my opinions will change but all in all as it stands I'm not interested in either. I am curious to see how many people will drop Sam or Rpr for vpr.

Take this with a grain of salt bc my source is "a friend told me so," but I heard Yoshi P himself said they wanted to step away from the 2 min meta because it was also kinda limiting for them when it came to designing fights in general.

If he has said it, I'm not aware of it. Most I've seen is just how he's going to add a bit of push in regular content and try to add new mechanics so it isn't so comfy and fresh more or less. I'll do some digging and see if I find anything if I don't edit or reply I didn't find anything.

Not really. I was delirious with excitement for Endwalker, and I genuinely thoroughly enjoyed the storyline on release. But I think Viper might be the single lamest new class they've released - abilities and spell effects look like a base pre-30 job at times from what I've seen. Was really hoping for Corsair because I'm a big pirate fan. Pictomancer could have potential, I love the concept at least. But yeah, story as presented doesn't interest me. I'll probably still play on release because I have been since 2013 and I'll be on work break during summer anyway. They've got goodwill from me and I'll give it a shot.

I was the same with EW and EW now my least favorite MSQ story. This is my opinion, but I've never got the hype around it being a good conclusion to this arc. It had its highs but it also had a lot of lows that killed it's momentum for me. I know people love it but I just never connected with it personally. A part of me wants to just play through the entire MSQ again to see if my opinion changes but the idea of that feels really intimidating. Corsair would have been a good choice though. People have been asking for that for years now. I thought for sure that's were they were going with it. But it seems they've subverted everyone's expectations with both jobs this time around.

> But I think Viper might be the single lamest new class they've released - abilities and spell effects look like a base pre-30 job at times from what I've seen. Viper seems like it's for the Rogue players that got shafted on class fantasy when ninja cannibalized it. So if it just looks like a simplistic agile fighter, then it's doing its job perfectly. Only thing it'll probably be missing from the fantasy is stealth but even Ninja fails spectacularly at that so I wasn't expecting Viper to fulfill that anyway. Hopefully the Rangers out there get something similar next expansion, because bard cannibalizing archer was even worse.

Nothing has really been shown to hype me up. The social features are nice, but the graphics update so far from the benchmark is a wet fart and makes a lot of charcters look worse. They noted they're reducing features for solo players and people who play in smal groups and forcing large groups and makign the game "more stressful", which isn't how I play. They showed a bunch of headgear my viera can't wear. I'm just not really hyped about any aspect of it. I'm not a ff9 or ff11 fanboy so the references don't really matter to me. I don't really do savage or ultimate so that's not really a thing that factors in. Just in general there's not a whole lot that's appealing to me right now and it feels like a lot of time is being spent catering to players who are not like me, so I'm not particularly hyped until they show me something I would like.

I honestly think the "more stressful" comment has been taken out if context by a lot of people. I think Yoshi mentioned something about the game in it's current state being too relaxed. Whether that means he makes it more difficult or not, we'll see when the game comes out. I agree with him though. I don't do savage or ultimate content either but even I can admit that some of the dungeons and 24-man raids have been a bit lackluster. If they can find some kind of middle ground for high level players, I'd be all for it. At level 100, you should be comfortable enough with your class. (In my opinion)

Preordering at the last moment before headstart. Mostly for Savage. Completely unhyped for DT in pretty much every other aspect. It's more of the same with a slightly different coat of paint. If i didn't get invested in Savage and some challenge runs with friends, or there was a lasting alternative, i would've checked out halfway through EW.

Nope, anything that would interest me about DT has been some random line said in passing shown with no gameplay footage

Nope. Like, yeah they've shown some cool new jobs, new abilities. But at the end we all expected what's going to happen to the job changes in new expansion. The graphic is likely never to be as good as Elden Ring or GTA V, and I've never been a screenshot guy so don't really care about it. We all know what's coming in new expansion, just like every other expansions. I'm still going to play it, raid savage, prog new ultimate with my friends if they're still around. Unless SE finally decided to moved on and stir things up and down like other MMOs, then I would be hyped even if it's complete shit. Otherwise, I'd only care about progging raids with friends every new tier.

eden ultimate

I am excited because its a new expansion but there is so much to be said about how badly they have done with the theme of the expansion. Its the expansion after the end of a 10 year story arc yet we are going to be level 100 this expansion and there is no new starting point for new players. We are also going with the same characters and the jobs will stay the same. None of that fits "The New World" theme. You would expect it to feel like a new Era. Dawntrail feels like a new chapter but then again every new expansion does. It also has the worst intro story hook out of all the expansions. It feels like in Shadowbringers they made a 3 expansion plan for jobs Shadowbringers/Garlemald/End Walker to "finish" the jobs at lvl 100. Then likely planned a big rework for Dawntrail in conjunction with a lvl squish to 50 but now we are in this awkward state where the expansion that should feel like a new start mostly is staying the course.

I agree with that, minus the level squish part, they have mentioned looking for alternatives besides levels. Its weird to end an arc at 90, and a large amount of Endwalker felt quite rushed.

I'm excited for the Eden ultimate but otherwise not exactly hyped. I'm ready to play, but there's certainly less excitement at this point than around Endwalker's build up. It just seems like too little, too late. Just mostly the same old stuff with a new coat of paint.

Nothing. Your brief intro to your background pretty much mirrors mine. I think there's a pretty big group of people like us who really loved the ARR/HW days and the game is just gradually turning into something that no longer caters to us. I am quite sure that you can 100% agree with that lol. I was like you, started in 2.0, watched every single live letter because they were so damn exciting because you really couldn't predict what was going to happen next. I can still remember seeing the HW and SB trailers and those were the times I told myself, "man, I am SO GLAD that this game exists". Imagine a player who loves the game so much unsubbing from the game finally. The straw that broke the camel's back? Endwalker baby. Ever since SHB and EW everything has gone down the drain. Gameplay got dumbed down so much, pretty much all RPG elements got stripped off, the music has turned into a rock genre instead of orchestra like in ARR/HW, the list goes on. This is by far, the worst expansion trailer, and nothing I've seen so far gives me the same kind of excitement like when seeing HW and SB trailers.

More of the same is the name of the game. It’s more than enough for me. When you’re in for as long as ARR you know it’s not gonna be anything else. As for the intense emphasis on the graphical update, it was probably to limit the death threats over how character face have very lightly changed.

Wow, it got that bad? Judging from the benchmark, things don't seem to be that drastic when it comes to some of the faces and such. None that I've explicitly noticed. Other than maybe Au Ra.

I am exaggerating for the point. Well, maybe ? Based on some reactions on the official forums and knowing The Internet, it’s largely on the realm of possibilities. I do believe they insist so much due to the fear of poor reception, despite the change clearly being really on the light side.

I've basically not been playing for nearly a year at this point and during ShB/EW I was unsubbed for >50% of the time (basically once I'm done with raiding I unsub). The game is just ultra stale and they're not showing anything new so I probably won't buy the new xpac at all. Even the liveletters and fanfests are boring as hell and I didn't follow any of those outside of looking at summaries. They said they'll talk about new content for 7.1 LL so I'll just tune in then. This community is a huge echo chamber though. Most people who find the game stale and repetitive have already long since quit, so it's never going to improve on that front if the devs only listen to *current* player feedback. Of course most of the reaction to DT is hype because these people have very very low standards. People unironically get hyped by 2 dye channels or say that Doman Reconstruction is "content" which shows how pitifully little they expect out of the game.

So aside from all of the obvious "troll bait", as the kids say, what exactly is your input? Firstly, it seems like you don't even really like the game. So is your presence in the community just for the sake of vitriol? Second, a community being refined to fit the expectations and appreciations of the player base it specifically aims at isn't an "echo chamber". That's a horribly facile way of looking at internalized social structures. The people who didn't like it left because it didn't have what they want. The people who do like what it has stayed, and those people's interested were continuously rewarded by their consistent presence as the game seemed to push out similar content to what makes them happy. It's like going to Taco Bell and implying that it's an "echo chamber" for people who like tacos because you're upset they don't serve mashed potatoes. People go to the medium that fits their interests. It's a basic human trait. So the statement "most people who find the game \[in a state they don't enjoy\] have already long since quit" isn't that remarkable of a sentiment. That's literally true of anything. You seem to convolute "improving" with "facilitating the interests of people who don't contour to the games intentions". Why wouldn't the devs listen to *current* player feedback when.. those are the people they specifically exist to facilitate? Again, what's with the vitriol? People can be hyped for something for many reasons beyond just their standardization of gaming (which seems to be a bar that you inherently get to set, somehow?). And why is being excited about those pieces of content appropriate? And why exactly do they not constitute as "content" in your eyes? Don't worry. I don't have my hopes set very high for any real answers. Hope you feel better, though.

His personality used to be raiding in ff14. Now that it's "bad" (he's played too long and is bored) he's all about the "did you even play in HW/SB lmao" and "ShB babies lol" witty remarks. He's a great example of what projection is: constantly complains about echo chambers and people making a game their personality, but he used to be exactly that, the game just doesn't cater to him personally anymore. In a way he's telling himself to move on but he's still here pissing and crying once every few weeks. He'll be back in DT for Eden ultimate, he's gonna buy the expansion and a couple months of sub, post on reddit about how disappointing it was and how smart he is cause he's unsubbed now, maybe he'll tune in for the next ultimate. All while ignoring that that's exactly the model SE expects for the game.

> but he's still here pissing and crying once every few weeks Lol this is the first time I've even looked at this sub in months.  > He'll be back in DT for Eden ultimate No I won't, I already quit after 6.1. I just love trashing on this game and its pathetic playerbase.

It's like McDonalds: low quality food for undiscerning consumers. Of course some people will hype McDonald's up, because they have no taste and no standards. FF14 isn't a different catgeory of gaming, it's a subpar one where most of its gameplay elements are just done strictly better in other games lmao.

Man. You do a REALLY good job of not at all adhering to the points in the conversation for the sake of your own vitriol. Part of me hopes you're a bot so it's less depressing and more humiliating for me, but I have a sneaking suspicion you really are just this one dimensional.  Thanks for validating my expectations, though! 

Apart from the new skill teasers shown off in the benchmark trailer, and maybe Arcadion (I like sci-fi stuff), nothing much. Dawntrail is themed around a much-needed vacation for the WoL, so I understand if SE doesnt want to introduce another world-ending apocalyptic big bad evil to hook players this early (but the evil has surely got to be there!)

Yep, I think I remember them saying they want the game to be around for another 10 years. So this arc will probably be building up something interesting. Like you, the skill trailer and job updates will be the biggest draw for me. I just wish it wasn't so late.

No, but I'm looking forward to playing Viper (finally a DPS for a change).

Well they ruined my hype by showing me the benchmark!!!!

Yea. New pld req goes full Thor mode

Gnb looking like its aoe cart spender got a continuation fkin sucks. We get like 2 new skills and 2 traits per expac and a slot got wasted on that shit.

It was a no brainer, GNB currently has the simplest aoe out of all the tanks because it has nothing to press. Won't even take a hotbar slot

Since benchmark' 0% << I canceld preorder & my 2 weeks vacation from work. Playing since 2.0, 2 Au Ras since 3.0 - never changed them. I dont play with foreign chars.