Shildan

Game optimization issues causing stuttering, huge fps drops in raid. Class balance is just really bad. Still no changes to bdk. Having gutted our abiltites in an effort to improve our survivability. Setting gameplay aside, it’s just a shame that the Alliance continues to be ignored. Now, for the second time, the Horde has received night elves, including the same animations plus a copied nature theme, after they already copied the Highborne lore to the Horde through the Nightborne. So now there are basically night elves in the Horde twice. On top of that, there are dwarves from TWW and before that in Dragonflight there were female humans via the Dracthyrs visage form, again, all now available to the Horde. The only Horde model the Alliance has received so far are wannabe blood elves/void elves, who, as the only Legion race, still haven’t gotten new hairstyles or proper customization in general, nor do they have something like the Nightborne’s massive city with a VIP area exclusively for the Horde. Silvermoon, by the way, also has another Horde VIP area where Alliance players get one-shot and that after the Alliance had to make Dalaran, Gilneas, Telogrus, and the sad excuse for Teldrassil neutral… It would be nice if the Alliance could finally get all their destroyed zones and cities back btw... What annoys me the most, though, is the situation with the races. How is it that one side gets three races from the other faction, while the other only gets one? Especially after the devs already trolled the Alliance during BFA with things like Mechagnomes and Kul Tirans. When will the Alliance finally get something players have been asking for forever? Like a proper reskin for high elves similar to what they did to nightborne back then, especially when the Horde has now effectively gotten night elves twice? Or a new group of Vulpera, which were originally mostly requested by Alliance players, like someone here already mentioned, but of course still ended up Horde-only? But knowing the devs, we’ll probably just get playable Amani trolls, again something the Horde wants, while the blue side keeps getting ignored… Well, at least a few points for housing, but otherwise the expansion isn’t really worth it, especially since the story is disappointing again. Particularly because they insisted on bringing back their edgy queen.

I'm sorry... but Dawntrail just doesn't feel like Final Fantasy 14 again. There is just so much questionable stuff and annoying characters in the msq... I just can't... I hope the next expansion will be better again.

Overall a very solid expansion, however, in many places it feels as though important story elements were skipped, and at times things were rushed to bring the narrative to a conclusion. This was especially noticeable in everything involving the Garleans, and particularly with Zenos, where it seemed like they hurried toward an epic finale instead of building it up properly. A shame, there was definitely more they could have done there. Still, as I said, a cool expansion.

Similar to ARR, this expansion is drawn out by extensive world-building and can feel a bit slow at times. However, characters like Zenos made sure for the first time that you face a real challenge as the Warrior of Light, whereas every previous opponent and unfortunately most that followed tended to be portrayed as little more than trivial obstacles. Zenos, however, is and remains our mirror, and since this is where he first appears, I still look back on Stormblood fondly.

While ARR started off a bit slow and only became exciting toward the end when more of the Garleans appeared, Heavensward remains one of the strongest expansions of Final Fantasy XIV to this day. Characters like Haurchefant, Aymeric, Estinien, and several others were simply fantastically written. The story also doesn’t shy away from major, impactful events. Simply fantastic.