Looking Back at Heavensward Launch – FFXIV Patch 3.0 Retrospective



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24 thoughts on “Looking Back at Heavensward Launch – FFXIV Patch 3.0 Retrospective”

  1. What a weird design decision to have MCH and BRD casting animation NOT be them looking like they’re aiming at their target. It’s a strange gripe but it still bothers me to this day whenever im reminded of it.

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  2. You keep repeating that "Heavensward almost killed FFXIV again" but I've yet to see any proof of that. If we look at steamcharts the playercount seems to drop to pre-expansion numbers only a bit before 3.1 releases and the game certainly wasn't dead pre-expansion. Of course steamcharts show only a slice of the bigger picture, and I certainly am not denying the issues Heavensward had at release, but I absolutely disagree about the game almost dying back then. It might have felt that way if a lot of your friends stopped playing, but so far I've never heard anyone else claim that except you.

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  3. I still remember the bad taste in my mouth from the heavansward endgame raids as a Machinist main from the start of the expansion I was kicked off statics or never allowed to join just because how bad people thought the job was.

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  4. Really appreciate these. Joined mid SHB, so, no idea how HW was received at launch. Of course, the MSQ of HW remains at the top of the list though.. the characters, etc. so compelling. Thank you Mr Happy! great video!

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  5. Dude, I remember the hype like it was yesterday—I’ve been a loyal subscriber since a week after 2.0 launched. Even though everyone pretty much knew that Ishgard would be the focus of the 1st expac, the reveal had us all in tears. And once we got to play, we knew that we had something special. I still have my HW banner that came w the preorder, as well as my original PS3 launch disc.

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  6. Not only were several Aether Currents hidden in sidequests but some of them were several quests deep in a chain of quests so you wouldn't know to do a certain quest because the reward wasn't there. Plus the Moogle quests really ruined a lot of peoples opinions on the fluffballs. Piss off, kupo!

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  7. As much as I like HW, I think a lot of its story is remembered with rose tinted glasses. There was a lot of filler before the good parts of the story started. ShB had better moments and pacing.

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  8. This was the expansion in which I started my tradition of immediately picking up one of the new jobs and leveling it to the previous cap so I can do the MSQ with it. HW was peak DRK for me. It felt good to play. Simple as that. It’s gone downhill since then.

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  9. Ah yes, HW. I had been to a fair few expansions myself in older MMO's but for the majority of my FC it was their first expansion for an MMO so it was really quite exciting seeing them explore what a new expansion could bring. Heading into the Sea of Clouds with a few of them right out of the gate, killing FATE upon FATE, working through the start of the story then IMMEDIATELY getting sidetracked to search for the aether currents and wondering why the hell a lot of them were on floating islands leagues above where we were standing (not knowing the zone was effectively split in two at that point)…

    Then moving onto the Western Highlands and tracking down all the aether currents there, as well as doing the first dungeon – Dusk Vigil. The aether currents back then were also a LOT harder to find before they put them in easier-to-reach places, as well as not knowing which side quest chains had aether currents at the end of them due to no unique quest markers (and yes, the END of a quest chain – you had to work through an entire chain to see if it contained an aether current or not. Not that that was a bad thing; the stories were great).

    Then moving onto the Forelands and trying to tackle that giant bloody turtle of a FATE at level 53-odd; sending wave after wave of bodies at it and FINALLY bringing it down just before it timed out (the same happened to me in Stormblood when the S rank of the Azim Steppe spawned on the first day and we sent wave after wave of bodies at THAT for hours on end to bring it down).

    Heavensward was just a magical time; the community was different back then so, if you returned to it with a classic server, you just wouldn't capture that magic. The atmosphere was a circumstance of that time. Also, I still hold out very faint hope we'll get Corsair or Chemist at some point (as they revealed DRK then said there was a healer class and a gun class left to reveal, so people thought that the healer class would use a gun and be Chemist, or that the DPS would be Corsair due to the Corsair icon in the Coral Tower in Limsa).

    I also didn't mind the casting time BRD/MCH; then again, I've enjoyed all the iterations of the ranged physical Jobs (except the most recent BRD iteration as they've just completely removed DOT's from doing much of anything for anyone. We really need a DOT-centric Job again).

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  10. After listening all the stories, I'm glad I wasn't there for Heavensward. I wish I started at the beginning of Stormblood though, came in at the tail end of it and I quite liked the content. I still think Shadowbringers told its story the best, felt unique and different. Heavensward felt like a typical story with dragons and I mean you can't go wrong with dragons., everybody loves dragons lol. I did like the zones in HW however, their music and ambience were very nice but I didn't like the dungeons that much, maybe 2 I thought were cool. Didn't care for the raids at all but I liked the alliance raids and trials alot. Dunscaithe still one of my favourites. Overall, HW feels like an "okay" expac with a good story which is only thing ppl seem to remember it for.

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  11. I stuck through it but a friend of mine quit Bard with this change and never went back.

    I still put Heavensward's story in the middle. I think ShB and EW have higher highs. And HW still had issues. The 2.55 cliffhanger was resolved terribly, imo.

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  12. Ahhh, Neverreap. Non-Caster mains could never understand the pure hatred I have for you. Just about to refresh Enochian? Nope, tornado! Wanna cast? Too bad, pick up 15 totems. Ugh

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  13. Faust… Was a nightmare, I still remembers being called an idiot just for sugesting that healers should also dps. I left raiding forever after that, no more statics.

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