★★★★★ (Vanilla)
★★☆☆☆ (Heavensward)
★★☆☆☆ (Stormblood)
★★★☆☆ (Shadowbringers)
FF14 is among the best games ever made. Its first xpac is an insulting, lazy, step backwards, and is on par with the rest of the early access garbage released on Steam nowadays, the 2nd xpac is even worse.

Vanilla was handled with care. Things were always being improved, fixed, and content added. That all stopped an update or two before Heavensward, however, and there hasn't been a good update in years.

Lacking Content: Vanilla vs Heavensward
- Endgame Dungeons: 19 vs 3
- 8man Raids: 17 vs 0
- 24man Raids: 3 vs 0
- Endgame Trials: 7 vs 2
- Total Endgame Content: 46 vs 5
This wouldn't be so much of a problem, if they maintained value of the original content, but they effectively deleted it from existence, only to replace it with practically zero content. Good luck finding a party to collect vanity gear from Labyrinth of the Ancients, most people probably don't even unlock it anymore, then again, you could probably solo that 24man raid at this point.

The xpac primarily added 3 redundant classes, and deleted 100s of hours of content, without fixing any of the core problems with the game. It also changed the quick & mobile ranged classes into non-mobile cast-time mage-equivalents. The original classes offered great variety in playstyle, aside from Monk and Dragoon being similar. The xpac classes, on the other hand, are simple reskins of existing classes; Mech is an inferior Bard, Astro is an inferior White Mage, and Dark Knight is a squishier Paladin with opposite vanity. How were any of these worthwhile additions to the game?

Things that were good once upon a time:
+ Eos
+ Echo
+ Fates
+ Music
+ /cpose
+ Writing
+ Minions
+ Idle cam
+ Graphics
+ Retainers
+ Duty finder
+ Community
+ Player notes
+ Auto auto-loot
+ Quest inventory
+ Commendations
+ Veteran rewards
+ Customize HUD
+ Catgirls and Lalas
+ Character creation
+ Dungeons structure
+ Boss loot in chests
+ Cat ears on helmets
+ Graphic performance
+ Emotes and stances
+ Player/Guild housing
+ First and Last names
+ Aethernets (fast travel)
+ Dodge enemy telegraphs
+ Labyrinth of the Ancients
+ Weddings and teleport rings
+ Character looks at your target
+ Dynamic day/night and weather
+ Loot rolls locked on unique items
+ Combo classes to unlock new ones
+ Do everything on a single character
+ Main game progression is story driven
+ Inventory management, equipment armories
+ Zones have different music for day and night
+ 100s of unique pieces of armor to dye and glamour
+ Chocobo as a mount and levelable combat sidekick
+ Updates every 3 months (though lately they've been weak)
+ Huge amounts of legit playtime, even more grindable playtime
+ No bugs, cheaters, or hackers (aside those pesky gold farmers)
+ Dungeon cutscenes (though they can cause people to get locked out of bosses)
+ Level alternate classes with a variety of options; dungeons, fates, leves, sidequests
+ Can't fall off most things, and fall damage doesn't kill you when you can, unless in combat
+ Most micro-transactions are past year holiday event items. Which you got for free if playing at the time.

Things that actually need fixing:
- RNG Fate Grinding
- Still no addon support
- Weekly caps, go away
- Unsync shouldn't exist
- Macros dont show tooltips
- Can't ride mounts in towns
- Only 2 dungeons per 3 months
- Overhead chat bubbles needed
- Can't use Chocopals in dungeons
- Voice acting/casting is quite poor
- Voiced text boxes don't auto advance
- Can't tell which debuffs are dispellable
- Level syncing shouldn't disable abilities
- GC Squads; disappointing and irrelevant
- FC Airships; disappointing and irrelevant
- Can't sort company chests, or name tabs
- Guild member names aren't a custom color
- Can move before a cast bar finishes casting
- Awful quest fanfare (music), that often spams
- Gold Spammers, so very many gold spammers
- No new housing zone added for the xpac zones
- Need better storage/management for vanity gear
- Which scenes are voiced seem to be selected at random
- Spell casting doesn't cancel when a target dies, or revives
- iLvl syncing should cap dungeons to the iLvl dropped within
- Bard songs shouldn't drop DPS or cost MP, and need a regen song
- Bosses can be killed too fast, causing them to insta-wipe the party
- Bosses without telegraphs and/or ones that can perma 1shot people
- 2.5 second GCD, instead of 1 second like every other MMO ever made
- Macro system doesn't work with the 2.5 second GCD, only allowing full second delays
- Hidden 0.5 second GCD on "instant" abilities, some of which don't activate instantly either
- Dispells, like Esuna, only remove a single negative effect per cast and should be instacast
- Tank agro is 2x too low and gear dependant, lacking AoE, provoke is only good for tank swapping, and tank stances aren't unlocked until level 30 or 40 depending on class
- Dying servers, they added cross-realm party-finder to somewhat fix this, but shouldn't have multiple servers to begin with, at least not as many
- Personal housing. Should have kept houses for FCs, and expanded upon private rooms idea, if people weren't already satisfied with those. Neighborhoods are mostly abandoned now.
- AoE heals and most buffs only work on party members, and White Mage should have regen on Medica1
- Guild members can promote themselves above their own rank (massively exploitable bug)
- Pets should move back to an ordered position if knocked back, or just be immune to knockback to begin with, and auto follow if you move out of range, instead of de-summoning
- Choosing a job heavily restricts ability customization
- Something wrong with the telegraph system, presumably bad netcode, that requires you to be outside of a danger zone for nearly a second before it triggers, to be guarenteed safe. This has been improved upon since initial release, but needs more work still.
- Flying was poorly integrated. It only works in new zones, and you have to reach a dozen or so collectibles in each, on foot, before you can fly there. Flying should have been a default feature, on every map, and those collectibles should increase flight speed.
- The xpac also ruined the title screen and its music, offputting for new and old players alike
- Though not a game breaking issue, like the rest of these, it would be nice if you could cross-class glamour as a reward for reaching max level with other classes
- Disappointing Gold Saucer. Casino instead of a theme park. Chocobo racing is buggy and shallow. Triple Triad is utterly pointless.

* Start as an Archer, don't bother with the sidequests.

★★★★★ (Vanilla) ★★☆☆☆ (Heavensward) ★★☆☆☆ (Stormblood) ★★★☆☆ (Shadowbringers) [b]FF14[/b] is among the best games ever made. Its first xpac is an insulting, lazy, step backwards, and is on par with the rest of the early access garbage released on Steam nowadays, the 2nd xpac is even worse. Vanilla was handled with care. Things were always being improved, fixed, and content added. That all stopped an update or two before Heavensward, however, and there hasn't been a good update in years. [b]Lacking Content: [i]Vanilla vs Heavensward[/i][/b] - Endgame Dungeons: 19 vs 3 - 8man Raids: 17 vs 0 - 24man Raids: 3 vs 0 - Endgame Trials: 7 vs 2 - Total Endgame Content: 46 vs 5 This wouldn't be so much of a problem, if they maintained value of the original content, but they effectively deleted it from existence, only to replace it with practically zero content. Good luck finding a party to collect vanity gear from Labyrinth of the Ancients, most people probably don't even unlock it anymore, then again, you could probably solo that 24man raid at this point. The xpac primarily added 3 redundant classes, and deleted 100s of hours of content, without fixing any of the core problems with the game. It also changed the quick & mobile ranged classes into non-mobile cast-time mage-equivalents. The original classes offered great variety in playstyle, aside from Monk and Dragoon being similar. The xpac classes, on the other hand, are simple reskins of existing classes; Mech is an inferior Bard, Astro is an inferior White Mage, and Dark Knight is a squishier Paladin with opposite vanity. How were any of these worthwhile additions to the game? [b]Things that were good once upon a time:[/b] + Eos + Echo + Fates + Music + /cpose + Writing + Minions + Idle cam + Graphics + Retainers + Duty finder + Community + Player notes + Auto auto-loot + Quest inventory + Commendations + Veteran rewards + Customize HUD + Catgirls and Lalas + Character creation + Dungeons structure + Boss loot in chests + Cat ears on helmets + Graphic performance + Emotes and stances + Player/Guild housing + First and Last names + Aethernets (fast travel) + Dodge enemy telegraphs + Labyrinth of the Ancients + Weddings and teleport rings + Character looks at your target + Dynamic day/night and weather + Loot rolls locked on unique items + Combo classes to unlock new ones + Do everything on a single character + Main game progression is story driven + Inventory management, equipment armories + Zones have different music for day and night + 100s of unique pieces of armor to dye and glamour + Chocobo as a mount and levelable combat sidekick + Updates every 3 months (though lately they've been weak) + Huge amounts of legit playtime, even more grindable playtime + No bugs, cheaters, or hackers (aside those pesky gold farmers) + Dungeon cutscenes (though they can cause people to get locked out of bosses) + Level alternate classes with a variety of options; dungeons, fates, leves, sidequests + Can't fall off most things, and fall damage doesn't kill you when you can, unless in combat + Most micro-transactions are past year holiday event items. Which you got for free if playing at the time. [b]Things that actually need fixing:[/b] - RNG Fate Grinding - Still no addon support - Weekly caps, go away - Unsync shouldn't exist - Macros dont show tooltips - Can't ride mounts in towns - Only 2 dungeons per 3 months - Overhead chat bubbles needed - Can't use Chocopals in dungeons - Voice acting/casting is quite poor - Voiced text boxes don't auto advance - Can't tell which debuffs are dispellable - Level syncing shouldn't disable abilities - GC Squads; disappointing and irrelevant - FC Airships; disappointing and irrelevant - Can't sort company chests, or name tabs - Guild member names aren't a custom color - Can move before a cast bar finishes casting - Awful quest fanfare (music), that often spams - Gold Spammers, so very many gold spammers - No new housing zone added for the xpac zones - Need better storage/management for vanity gear - Which scenes are voiced seem to be selected at random - Spell casting doesn't cancel when a target dies, or revives - iLvl syncing should cap dungeons to the iLvl dropped within - Bard songs shouldn't drop DPS or cost MP, and need a regen song - Bosses can be killed [i]too[/i] fast, causing them to insta-wipe the party - Bosses without telegraphs and/or ones that can perma 1shot people - 2.5 second GCD, instead of 1 second like every other MMO ever made - Macro system doesn't work with the 2.5 second GCD, only allowing full second delays - Hidden 0.5 second GCD on "instant" abilities, some of which don't activate instantly either - Dispells, like Esuna, only remove a single negative effect per cast and should be instacast - Tank agro is 2x too low and gear dependant, lacking AoE, provoke is only good for tank swapping, and tank stances aren't unlocked until level 30 or 40 depending on class - Dying servers, they added cross-realm party-finder to somewhat fix this, but shouldn't have multiple servers to begin with, at least not as many - Personal housing. Should have kept houses for FCs, and expanded upon private rooms idea, if people weren't already satisfied with those. Neighborhoods are mostly abandoned now. - AoE heals and most buffs only work on party members, and White Mage should have regen on Medica1 - Guild members can promote themselves above their own rank (massively exploitable bug) - Pets should move back to an ordered position if knocked back, or just be immune to knockback to begin with, and auto follow if you move out of range, instead of de-summoning - Choosing a job heavily restricts ability customization - Something wrong with the telegraph system, presumably bad netcode, that requires you to be outside of a danger zone for nearly a second before it triggers, to be guarenteed safe. This has been improved upon since initial release, but needs more work still. - Flying was poorly integrated. It only works in new zones, and you have to reach a dozen or so collectibles in each, on foot, before you can fly there. Flying should have been a default feature, on every map, and those collectibles should increase flight speed. - The xpac also ruined the title screen and its music, offputting for new and old players alike - Though not a game breaking issue, like the rest of these, it would be nice if you could cross-class glamour as a reward for reaching max level with other classes - Disappointing Gold Saucer. Casino instead of a theme park. Chocobo racing is buggy and shallow. Triple Triad is utterly pointless. * Start as an Archer, don't bother with the sidequests.