The Legacy of Heavensward

Released on June 23, 2015 FFXIV: Heavensward was the first expansion for FF14. Let's relive the journey.
Twitch: / lynxkameli
Discord: / discord
Twitter: / lynxkameli
Patreon: / lynxkameli
Featuring footage from:
• FFXIV Heavensward: Que...
• FFXIV Heavensward Lore...
• Final Fantasy XIV: Hea...
• FFXIV Heavensward: Bis...
• FFXIV Ravana Extreme t...
• Final Fantasy XIV: Hea...
• Final Fantasy XIV - A3...
• FFXIV Heavensward: Mon...
• FFXIV King Thordan Ext...
• FFXIV Heavensward: A5S...
• A5S Clear (BLM PoV) | ...
• A6S Clear (BLM PoV) | ...
• [FFXIV Heavensward] A7...
• FFXIV Heavensward - A8...
• FFXIV heavensward - ni...
• FFXIV Heavensward A9S ...
• FFXIV Heavensward A10S...
• FFXIV Heavensward - A1...
• FFXIV: A12S World 2nd ...
• FFXIV OST Cruise Chase...
Music used:
• FFXIV OST Coerthas Wes...
• FFXIV OST Sea of Cloud...
• Video
• Video
• Video
• FFXIV OST Cruise Chase...
• FFXIV OST Zurvan Theme...

[@solitonmedic]

The fact people are going to enjoy this blind and for ABSOLUTELY free makes me so jealous.

[@yabiyabi]

trust me... it is NOT fun to have free trial.... I'd be SHOCKED to meet anyone who'd be on trial late ARR...

[@solitonmedic]

@@yabiyabi Well, FFXIV can be enjoyed as a single player adventure... unless that person wants to pursue glamour If so, good luck lol

[@yabiyabi]

@@solitonmedic lmao I think aside from story that'd be the one thing (and you cannot chat) yesterday I COMPLETELY forgot about trial and I saw a BUNCH of new players in Uldah Goldsmith guild, and I saw their gear and I happened to craft what they could use and need, and I sent them tell lets trade I got you some stuff, but I couldn't... and they were like bots...LOL I suddenly remembered...aah. I felt so bad hahaha

[@bbvcdfvv2753]

@@yabiyabi I actually beat Heavensward on trial, then I bought the game lol

[@yabiyabi]

@@bbvcdfvv2753 I hope you continue to enjoy the story... it will get so incredibly good, even when it doesn't feel like it, trust me

[@Hedge_Knight_Gaming]

"Alexander Midas, this tier is often regarded as the best raid tier ever released, every single boss in Midas was a breath of fresh air and a testament to just how creative the raid design team could be. Faust came back, and this time there were two of them!" ...Well played, sir. Well played.

[@suitrBJ]

Heavenward holds up so well for its personable and introspective story for me. I've not felt since in ff14 that characters legitimately cared for my character beyond what Wol could do for them but haucherfaunt and edmond made it feel like Wol had a family. As well one of the videos by ethys both made me question what is the Wol as well contextualise my understanding of my character. Everything about Alexander fights for me evoke 'fun.' Though the story line I felt outside of the fights were a little flat. Watching robots combine hearing brute justice play and exponential entropy are still some of my favourite moments in ff14 fights. As well as the dark knight quest line which I think is still hands down the best in the game (I don't anyone would argue with that).

[@Zayindjejfj]

@@MiaTyrnfae EXCUSE ME. ZENOS IS OUR FRIEND. Zenos thic booty gang gang

[@suitrBJ]

@Sam Ahboltin I really like red mage quest line only did in last month. But it felt like the true ala mhigan rep. Monk just didn't quite provide the same for me despite its revelations.

[@cailee9820]

Found your channel due to all the "FFXIV community has a big problem" drama and now am really enjoying your videos. You got a sub from me so hopefully that's a silver lining.

[@thegamer101n]

As a newcomer, I remember the countless times veteran players kept telling me how amazing HW is, I expected the story to be amazing but I didn't expect the massive improvement in everything else. ACRF dungeon is one of the most amazing dungeons to go through, the music the area design really kept you engaged. I can't get over how amazing it was to fight brute justice and having him dive kick your ass But nidhogg, the build up to him was absolutely amazing, with each phase amping up the challenge and music, it was such an amazing goodbye to story.

[@ze0r05]

There was also Sophia who introduced what seemed to be the most difficult mechanic for pugs ever released... ...basic math.

[@BlazeIgnitus]

Construct 8 is another boss, albeit from Stormblood, that takes advantage of that weakness

[@dolphinboi-playmonsterranc9668]

@@BlazeIgnitus It's hard when you have a time limit, stress is a good difficulty spike.

[@kadian299]

Me, happily reminiscing: Ah yes, Heavensward, the best expansion to date for ff. I remember the music, the feels, the raids, the.... Lynx: “ARF.” Me: “I’m glad it’s over.”

[@coreybuffum3195]

I still leave if I get arf in 50/60/70 roulette. Damn that grind man.

[@kadian299]

Corey Buffum I haven’t gotten it in a year or so, fingers crossed.

[@coreybuffum3195]

@@kadian299 Damn, I am jealous lol.

[@Pikachu-qr4yb]

Corey Buffum what’s arf

[@coreybuffum3195]

@@Pikachu-qr4yb Aetherochemical Research Facility

[@Zayindjejfj]

The weeping city of Mhach was really cool. You can actually see Ozma from the beginning if you look at the top of the pyramid.

[@thesparrow1116]

Yo this video is sick! Would love to see this become a mini series covering Stormblood and Shadowbringers!

[@obikim11]

We lost our love interest, an edgy husbando, and a kupo loving waifu.

[@matthewpaek1184]

Hey that's the Weeping City run you mentioned a couple videos ago! It's awesome seeing I made the cut for a Lynx video :^)

[@NamesLynx]

You made it!

[@theericg4997]

Thanks for releasing this super awesome video! I found it, along with yourself, completely by accident on the way to work and it absolutely made my morning, so thank you for that. My heart has always been in Heavensward from the day it released until the moment it ended. I've actually got a few things I could add since I remember them while watching! On A3S, an additional large issue with Living Liquid was the ramp in difficulty. From relatively standard to all of a sudden mechanically demanding and much tighter on the checks. It was certainly a wake up call for many, many raiders of the time. It definitely helped myself improve as a player. This was partly our own fault, complaining that the jobs were too slow [Heavensward saw APM dramatically increase compared to ARR] and the raids were too easy. We got a lot more then we bargained for haha! On Diadem 2.0, the weapon's existence, while problematic in sidestepping the long standing philosophy of raid weapon == best weapon, was less of a concern then the weapon breaking the item level scale itself. Though only a 5 item level jump, it offered 15 item levels of increased weapon power, thus undermining the scale the entire game's verticality was built upon. It became a fundamental matter from there, if you are going to break your own scale, why have one in the first place? Again, really enjoyed this. Thanks for helping me relive all of the awesome memories I had back then. And how much I enjoyed the direction my main job, Dragoon. In a way that's never been as fun for me since. And how creative all of fight design was, especially Midas. That tier even became the first to give us materia on our gear, I can't imagine going back to not having it at all! I really miss Alexander, even though I thought I never would. And I even miss my RNG positionals, despite being so opposed to them the entire expansion. From the story, to the insane ability stacking, from the challenge. It was fucking AWESOME.

[@ReinaKou]

"And people got, SLAPped with Gordias" I see you Lynx, good timing.

[@cup_noodl]

One thing regarding Ozma i think people who played XIV but not other FF games may not know - he was actually superboss in FFIX known for adapting to your party comp and being able to 1shot party members and healing back to full within 1 turn because of the fact that ignored player turns, pretty insane encounter. I actually saw(and was amongst those people) many voices of dissapointment that it was introduced as third boss rather than the last of the Wiping City, glad he got his retribution in BA.

[@Zayindjejfj]

To be fair, the void ark raids were basically FF9 themed, with all the undead imagery. So them putting Ozma was more of a fan service as opposed to a proper homage in terms of difficulty. Ozma in BA does make up for it.

[@sirforcer]

HW was also the rise some major 3rd party tools still used to this day. FFLogs wasn't really a thing before Gordias (it technically existed in final coil, and WoWLogs were there for ages, but it gained widespread popularity in Gordias) Discord was also originally made by FFXIV players as a tool for their FC, and it also was just getting its foothold in HW. They even had built in commands to search XIVDB and GamerEscape wiki from early on, which were still in Discord till 2019 when XIVDB shut down. Discord had a place in the XIV community well before it spread to the rest of the internet. I still remember trying to PUG Bismark on release and having to join random Mumble or Teamspeak servers, and my raid teams were even using Skype up until partway through Midas.

[@Reitsuna]

Thoroughly enjoyed the vid, bud. Really interested in your opinions on SB and ShB content, so now I’m hoping you’ll do a video on Stormblood and eventually Shadowbringers!

[@chriso6745]

Dude nice video keep up the good work. Commentary was spot on.. and yes best xpac for sure. Really enjoyed this

[@Theihe]

Oh wow seems like theres content from this expansion that I've actually missed out on! Thanks Lynx!

[@runegriffin]

I love the enthusiasm you bring in your recollections of this expansion. Its great to reminisce about this stuff. One suggestion for improvements: have someone look at your script before recording. There are more than a handful of moments where I had to correct a mistaken label. (i.e. Aetherochemical Research FACILTY, not Factory. And Haircut Lady has a name. Calofisteri). Also have to say I love little moments like when you struggled with "skip Soar", left in your sigh and black screen, and then picked up. That kind of stuff makes this style of content more enjoyable. Keep up the good work.

[@alanhegewisch4486]

I love the style as well. Honestly, Haircut Lady made me laugh and I immediately know who he was referring to.

[@DrYeol]

Maps, potd, shatter (pvp) and feast (pvp) were also introduced in Heavensward. This expansion introduced a lot of content to the game.

[@ps3GAMER969]

I love ShB for everything that it did, but it couldn't replicate the types of content Heavensward gave us and the level of complexity that went into improving every job. Big props on the video dude - It is excellent.

[@one_eyeddd473]

Literally just reached heavensward 5min ago so hyped my fc is growing were getting into the content its clicking. APPLY FOR SONS OF SIN! We are learning the fights from the ground up together! Great vid bud

[@shadowthehedgehog181]

@16:10 - @16:13 Bruh, after all the years I've seen this trailer, I just NOW realized the Dragoon DIDN'T jump on Cruise Chaser and was about to eat the laser blaster

[@JemuzuDatsWho]

LOVE this vid! I started playing the game right when HW launched and I have such great memories of it :) Thanks for reminding me of good times mate

[@NamesLynx]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@LordPlagus777]

Solid vid, one of best. This is actually a video that doesn't just show stuff off and read off news, it's really informative and gives perspective. Especially someone with a mindset of the same that I feel is extremely credible. I don't Savage raid at all, but I can still enjoy your stuff and understand what you're getting at. It's why you're my favorite FFXIV content creator. I wonder if you'll do one for Stormblood. Looking forward to it.

[@alanhegewisch4486]

Great video, I hope you make more videos like this in the future. I enjoy all your videos, but seeing the experience of a raider with fresh content is so...contagiously exciting. I get now why you ignore the story and go straight for the raids, it sounds like so much fun!

[@niconowakowski]

I'd love for you to do a similiar video with Stormblood; recapping on what content we had, what was good about it, what was bad about it. This really refreshed my memory on all the stuff we had in HW

[@alanhegewisch4486]

I was just thinking that! I was not around for the release of HW or SB, so it's very enlightening. I only cared about the story for the Alexander raids but now I want to revisit them just for the mechanics. When you're so far behind in content, you want to do it ASAP to get to the "good stuff", but once that content was the good stuff and shouldn't be overlooked.

[@Goujiki]

This kid is wrong about HW. Job complexity was limited to SCH and DRK. Everything else was homogenization due to cross class skills being non-negotiable. Accuracy just forced remelds every boss fight, there was nothing "complex" about that stat. The amount of useless bloat abilities were plentiful and pointless for just how extremely situational some of them were. The games combat was never any different than it ever has been. Its always been the same pace, the game has a 3 second server tick, nothing is going to be faster than that mechanics wise. Praise about HW combat is pure nostalgia goggles, which is funny because it's not even that old an expac. Social media and content creators just accelerate their nostalgia and the HW story fanboys just jump on board.

[@alanhegewisch4486]

@@Goujiki Yeah, you're in the wrong thread. We're enjoying the content.

[@alpsi285]

Awesome video man, hopefully this will be a series and you'll do SB soon and ShB sometime down the road

[@CivilChev]

Hearing that the final tier of Alexander was the easiest actually pisses me off. I was denied 11s and 12s because my static "didn't want to go through that hell again." The only hard part about these fights is learning the mechanics, and after the first week there's usually multiple guides that tell you exactly how the fight goes. The hard part is done for you, it's all about getting down the muscle memory, and to clean up the fight. Since returning to the game I have found a much better static and I can't wait to fully experience raiding once more.

[@PlusOne2Crit]

Midas is the easiest imo. Still damn good, but eh.

[@nycto5335]

I didn't play on release but Heavensward had the best feel to me. Hearing bits of the theme and other songs immediately brings up the feel and atmosphere of the whole expansion. Also Dark Knight.

[@josepadron335]

gotta remember with 3.4 cross world party finder was introduced and cooldowns now reset upon wiping

[@PowerfulSkeleton]

I'm a little disappointed you didn't mention any of the 3 classes introduced in HW, and how they fit into the existing class tiers at the time. If you're going to do an SB vid next, might I request you talk about SAM and RDM and how they were seen at release?

[@jphourcheu]

Heavensward encouraged me to see what’s a MMO. If only I knew it sooner, since I joined at the end of stormblood, I would be able to experience these tools and design, and the excitement of heavensward like everyone else. I can see these tools and designs continue to pioneer the stormblood and take a leap in shadownbringer.

[@GlacierFox523]

I must say Ravana is my favorite primal to fight and I love the weapons. I love the music in Alexander with the raiding it just casually as the esthetics of going inside the giant primal and love the rails that take you all around Alexander.

[@WeskersPlayhouse]

Apart from being easier, Creator was the first tier where cool downs would reset automatically between pulls, making progression go faster than previous tiers. Don't think he mentioned that.

[@omgitslos1843]

If we could get an expansion with all these best parts of ShB and HW...man, that would be something. Excellent video! I didn't raid as much as I do now back in HW but Alexander was even so good from an outside view.

[@asmurffromthewest7900]

So many great memories! That feeling of nostalgia! Great Vid Lynx! Keep up the great work ! Greetings Kimahri :)

[@highlycaffeinated998]

Weeping City was not only one of my favorite raids, I still use the Yafaemi set as my healer glam. I still think it had some of the best looking gear sets for all the rolls.

[@FenixPlateado]

I still think Brute justice is my favorite fight in FFXIV ever. Hasn't been topped, god it was such a joy, the music will forever be etched into my brain and I'm ok with that.

[@Holyduck777]

It's funny, with the godly amount of references in Coerthas, I like to think it was a final goodbye to 1.0.

[@MrNK1411]

I joined the game at the end of Stormblood, so I never knew how Heavensward is like. Good documentary

[@NamesLynx]

Thanks friend

[@RyuNoZero]

I think this is the best Video about Heavensward, yeah.. my Raid got squashed by the Oppressor (we beat Faust), later I farmed it for Relic Light but it's also Cool that Heavensward will added to the free trial ^^

[@crustyandcruel]

I was pissed you weren't a simp for the story at first, but the level of quality and thoughtfulness you're bringing to the community is laudable dude.

[@dannywol5170]

Why be pissed if someone doesn't enjoy something you enjoy?

[@michaelkpate]

I unlocked all the Alexander raids months ago but had never gotten past Void Ark until this weekend - Weeping City was definitely a challenging raid compared to the Crystal Tower and Ivalice examples.

[@rympha3581]

Have you done Dun Scaith yet? I thought Weeping city was a cake walk compared to Dun Scaith. But God was it awesome. I'm actually sad that Lynx didn't have anything to say about Dun Scaith since I thought it was amazing content. Challenging and Epic.

[@michaelkpate]

@@rympha3581 I did. I got Weeping City unlocked Saturday Night - ran it as a Dancer so I could just DPS the first time. Sunday Afternoon I unlocked Dun Scaith and felt brave enough to heal it as Astrologian. It was definitely challenging as well but we didn't have a complete wipe like we did in Weeping City on Ozma IIRC.

[@rympha3581]

@@michaelkpate I had the opposite experience. We wiped 5 or 6 times on Dun Scaith and breezed through Weeping City. It was so bad in Dun Scaith that we essentially replaced an entire alliance plus some at Scathatch from people dropping out.

[@adventureanglingpnw1821]

I just moved from PS4 to PC and it's hard getting used to mouse and keyboard. Took a break after 2 years after I finished HW and Stormblood. Started shadowbringers yesterday. Ah the memories of grinding through the main game to get to hw. I miss my fc house, it's been sold off cause I was gone for 2 years and all my friends I made online no longer play :( it's lonely having no friends when you come back.

[@Symphiney]

I still run ARF today for the tomes. I love the Heavensward relic weapons and my goal is to get all of them some day. I have 7 right now, grinding machinist next!

[@zavi3rz]

I came into this game at Stormblood, thus I didn't have the honour to experience Heavensward at its peak. Personally I still think Shadowbringer is the best expansion, however your video gave me new perspective of Heavensward, and I do agree it is the most creative and iterative of all expansions. It's not as polished as Shadowbringers, but it does leave behind so many legacies that exists until this day and I have a newfound respect to it. Thank you for this great video!

[@mikas131]

You kinda left out the fact that Midas didn’t do much to fix the damage caused by Gordias. Stuff like the bugs, “between second and final coil”, A6S being the wall that broke statics. I agree that HW was the most creative expansion in terms of fights but part of that is because it wasn’t following after the most creative expansion in terms of fights. The tether cutting mechanic in E6S has me hopeful that they will become more experimental now that the foundation is well and truly established.

[@BlazeIgnitus]

Gubal Library HM ended up edging out ARF in terms of efficiency for getting tomestones versus time spent in the dungeon. And then I think Sohm Al HM ended up edging that out at the end.

[@Sarbiter]

Haven’t played this in forever but your videos got me feeling those feels again, keep up the great work, you got yourself a sub 😎

[@gizmobuddy805]

Dude, bard being a casting class. Totally messed me up in my primary job. The songs used to be so much more powerful as group buffs, and sooooooo much more frustrating/satisfying on the rotation.

[@PlusOne2Crit]

"Thordan - Everyone's favourite trial". Man the subjectivity in most of your statements is heavy.

[@BlazeIgnitus]

If there's one thing I don't really miss about Heavensward, it was how pigeon-holed Paladin was for the entirety of the expansion. I'm a paladin main, and have been since I picked it up in ARR. Paladin was just... that other tank. The one no one really wanted in their party makeup because it just lagged so far behind the other two. Shields could only block physical damage, and so many fights were mostly if not entirely magical damage that taking it over DRK was just a mistake. It had the lowest damage output both in terms of burst and for sustained damage. WAR was just a beast as far as damage, it was essentially like having a fifth DPS in the party. Thordan was an attempt to make fights more mechanics-based and involve more physical damage from bosses/raids, but it didn't help paladin as much as it could have. What made PLD start to feel better was when VIT also contributed to damage, which gave PLD a way to catch up... theoretically. Of course, it also boosted WAR and DRK's damage so the gap didn't really close that much. It's why, while I adored and still adore HW, Stormblood felt better in other ways, especially for paladins. It's why I ended up picking up DRG for when I did raiding, because at least then I could actually be a part of raids, since WAR and DRK weren't really my thing.

[@burtwonk]

I just started ARR and this got me pumped! I guess I won’t be able to do all of these raids but that’s okay

[@HenriqueRJchiki]

Weeping city was my first AR, I remember we wiping like 8 times before everyone slowly left the group hahahaha

[@1demcrispylinks880]

Your vids are about to get me back in ffxiv

[@nezunskyfire292]

I do agree that it was good to see the same folks LFG in Idle-shire, but being on a small and/or dying server made getting into groups much harder. Famfrit was really smol and the player base was dwindling near the tail-end of the expansion. Was kind of annoying to get into groups for raid/primal content, so when Cross-world Party Finder was added I was able to find myself a static and do some Soul of the Creator savage and cleared all Ex-Primals. I think if server populations were more averaged out, I would have been less keen on the introduction of CPF. This was during the time where Greg/Aether was the server/center to be on, and felt really bad to be have chosen the 'wrong' data center to do end-game content. I still think HW is the best expansion to date, and that SotC was the best raid tier (mostly because it was my first actual raiding experience for current content). Overall, I really liked your video and I'm thankful for it in allowing me to relive some of my favorite memories with this game. Looking forward to seeing more content, Lynx!

[@SuperRamos619]

HW was great. The game gained so much ground in just about every front, even if it had some stumbles on the way like Diadem. I believe the issue with diadem is that the devs didnt know much about player habits. The content was created for players to make their own goals, but all of FFXIV up till then had been very directed, so when people got to diadem, it was more confusing and open ended, and then everything just boiled down to dino island.

[@Kazgrel]

Ah, yes, Diadem 2.0, where I got a DRG weapon from the first time I cleared the EM, replete with a massive pile of accuracy, followed by crit and det. Put me way over the accuracy cap back then. Of course, SB hits, and accuracy is converted to direct hit, thus making that DRG weapon I had obtained BiS by leaps and bounds (no pun intended) Savage raid weapon should always be BiS, followed by relics (since those only reach raid weapon ilvl months after)...never left purely to an RNG shitshow like Diadem. Fortunately, SE seemed to learn from that mistake.

[@VGPorage]

I never really saw it as a big deal since SB was right around the corner so next you do any new high end content everything has been replaced by better lv. 70 gear anyway.

[@Rylai_xiv]

I think stormblood is the best simply due to the introduction of ultimate raids. This content is the only thing that has kept me subbed to the game for 3 years straight.

[@RyanHarris77]

I started playing in late SB so I didn’t get to experience this content when it was new. However, my static is progging TEA 2-3 nights per week and it’s been amazing getting to experience some of the best parts of the raid series at level 80. The Alexander raid series, and HW in general produced some of very nice looking gear too.

[@kazuo3564]

Heavensward was the expansion that lead me to fear Moogles. PTSD from questing in The Churning Mists

[@XelaShade]

Heavensward was Legendary, my first expansion in 14 and raiding in general. I kinda missed my Gunmage and Power Surge combo from machinist and dragoon :') good times (oh and who could forget the 20% balance card)

[@reika542]

HW will forever be my favorite expansion, A3S on the gordias savage raid will always give me PTSD (thanks devs for bringing him back in TEA XD)

[@dustincieslik5397]

Feels like you doing preach gaming legacy series but for FFXIV :) keep it up my guy

[@NamesLynx]

Preach is a huge inspiration for my content :D

[@smitemil]

Having done all of base ShB I can say that ShB is a great game, but HW is definitely my favorite FFXIV content still. I remember being in ARR jail just dying to get to Elf Wife City.

[@Zoeila]

havensward is also when my favorite healer was added. still main it to this day

[@VGPorage]

I could have seen why people would upset about the 280 weapons if they where released earlier but considering that they where released just months before SB I always just considered them as fun little novelty if you actually managed to get one.

[@baltemys6097]

Heavensward had so much jank shit we could do and everything wasn't as streamlined as it is now. i think that's what people miss most about it

[@ItachiKai]

Great video, keep it up!

[@sapientplays212]

I still can't believe Heavensward is now free-to-play.

[@Raizle777]

Right? Man are new players Lucky

[@ShadoCroc]

It's don't do understand what's so special about it? All MMO makes very old expansions free.

[@NoreoNC]

Most of my friends and I only ever got to play FFXIV because of the best free trial I have ever got. I'm about to get into Heavensward and I can already say that FF14 is my favourite mmo to date

[@Evnyofdeath]

"Set to be released in Shadowbringers" We actually don't know we're getting Ishgard housing this expansion. We're definitely building a housing ward in the Restoration, but we might not actually get it till next expansion

[@Zayindjejfj]

Yeah I think it's estimated to be a thing around 5.4 ish into 6.0.

[@greenapples4642]

Some great content. Keep it up!

[@MrJAYHAWKS123]

Wow this video was so enjoyable!! So nostalgic :)

[@NamesLynx]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@youiri65]

I still love the epic bgms of Heavensward.

[@Ucnslowdnce]

"The Weeping City of Mhach can still pose a challenge today.": No. Even with party and alliance members who don't know the raid well, I've never seen this raid pose a challenge any time I've been in there, though, there have been occasional wipes. That's not saying much about the raid being challenging though, since I still see occasional oopsie wipes happen randomly in Crystal Tower raids as well.

[@GENOSANDIEGO]

21:04 Ahhh that weapon you're talking about? I had one drop for me when I completed my first emergency mission. It was the PLD set. I had a few emergency missions after but some failed, and two more I completed, but no weapon dropped. It was only then when I learned that the weapon only drops for 1 random member in the entire group that ran the emergency mission. And then on my 4th emergency mission, the BLM weapon dropped. I had two of those weapons in a span of 4 completed emergency missions. I've heard some people have completed more than 9 without getting a single drop of it. I remember showing them to a friend of mine whose mains are both PLD and BLM and there's a sprinkle of saltiness there (but not much). Those weapons aren't exactly all that great though. The primary stats are indeed higher than relic and raid weapons, but the secondary stats are random, so unless you're really, really luck to not only get a weapon drop, but also have really good stats in there, your relic and raid weapons are still better, arguably. Today, I still keep those weapons in one of my retainers' storage. A reminder of a time when the most controversial weapon set in the game dropped for me twice.

[@Flashfreezingtime]

Hi Lynx, longtime lurker, first time commenter here. I'd like for you to expand on "questing experience", as you said you loved your questing experience in Azys Lla. I also remember you saying that you don't follow the story or lore, so I'm curious as to what your questing experience includes. I'm of the opinion that questing is all about story + kill mobs/get this/meet this person, so if I were to subtract story, it doesn't sound very appealing or enjoyable. Thanks, keep up the great work !

[@NamesLynx]

What I enjoy from questing is gaining new skills, exploring new zones, and working towards a boss / dungeon.

[@OmegaxStarr]

Great content man!

[@zedorian6547]

I respectfully disagree, I loved Bismarck and he is one of my best memories of Heavensward, whereas Ravana was the exact opposite for me, but that’s what makes the game great; everyone had such different experiences! Otherwise I adore this video to the highest regard!

[@VantaBlack216]

HWs legacy... SICKNESS MUST BE PURGED!!!

[@Sev3nn20]

What is THIS?! ANOTHER GOOD VIDEO?!?!! HOW DARE YOU?!!?!! >:|

[@ChaosCloud96]

shadowbringgers is objectivley the best expansion for the game both in terms of stroy, lore and content design however, Hevansward is my most loved expansion. FF14 was my first MMO I had played since the ps4 launch and HW was my first expansion launch experience and it that alone was amazing also the lore, zones and story just hit every note I wanted them too. My mind tells me SHB is the best my heart says HW

[@Hanzo1]

Heavensward is the best expansion storywise. I think shadowbringers can come pretty close to it but only time will tell. p.s. fuck stormblood

[@zarovich]

Nice summary about Heavensward, maybe title should be summary of what it was heavensward. But about the Legacy of heavensward there isn't much. But there's an important legacy from heavensward: Difficulty balancing. I think that Square-Enix learnt how to balance difficulty for all needed levels of difficulty. If you see thx to Alexander, now we got The Creator, Omega and Eden in same terms of difficulty. Bringing so much people that want to raid but they don't have time to make progress on something like it was A8S. They moved it to Ultimate. So now they can give a content for ppl was capable to kill A8S, bringing a content for the people that just want to raid. Even... and even being one complain for me (bacause i think that it feels too easy compared with ARR trials or HW trials)... Extreme difficulty is balanced... as maybe a first step into raiding content. So now, for someone who is starting to play there's Extreme as first step. The you have Savage, when you nid at least a group that with better or worse players, at least they need to know how to play the game and requires an effort of constant work to kill them. And finally Ultimate like that place only for the best players in this game, or ppl who is whilling to make the effort of being working on an encounter for months to kill it and finally get that satisfactory reward after months of hard work. And i think that currently with levels of difficulty there's no complains. As I said in other comment about the things I should complain about this game. SE fails in removing good things. I mean, as a savage player, who enjoys this game just killing savage tier in between 2 or 4 months... In Heavensward and Stormblood I've enjoyed so so so much the experience of 150-200 floors of PotD and 70-100 floors of HoH, as a nice 4 player mid-challenging content. It was pretty good... and now pretends to be replaced by an evolution of Eureka. Eureka... that content I've refused to do, because for me... was something like Diadem 2. At least it seems that for Bozjan there's good new ideas, that may turn it in something far more attractive to play than Eureka was. But in my opinion they should keep Bozjan as Eureka replace with all these announced mechanichs and release a new Deep Dungeon or maybe a new 4-man content with a bit of challenge like it was these floors of Deep dungeon. I'm fine if they remove the unnecesary 1-150 floors of Deep dungeon... but add something aquivalent to those last floors. At least for now. I'm liking extreme trails of this expansion, even i found them fun to farm mounts. Call me crazy if you want. I like the savage tier, for its mechanichs (don't like the idea of "oh well lets add ARR primals but as The First versions).... bring another FF bosses pls (only change its skin and name, but with same mechanichs that are pretty good i think).

[@MaximumPowerfulXIV]

we still don't know if there is actual housing coming to ishgard

[@Karmageddon2KN]

And if there is, it's more likely 6.1+ content than it is Shadowbringers.

[@darkraimac]

I'm pretty sure that was litteraly one of the first things that was confirmed though

[@Karmageddon2KN]

@@darkraimac link? We're all pretty sure it's housing, but most people I know doubt we will see it until next expack. Seeing some confirmation would be interesting.

[@darkraimac]

@@Karmageddon2KN Looked for it, but couldn't find anything above speculation. I might have been remembering his original statement "You guys want to live in Ishgard right?" a little too much as a confirmation.

[@Karmageddon2KN]

@@darkraimac I agree with you that Ishgard housing is inevitable. They wouldn't have us build housing plots and then laugh at us for thinking it was going to be a housing area. But I think the hype train is going to keep running right up until the new expansion and help bring people on for it. Just from a business standpoint, that makes more sense than to put it out at the tail end of Shadowbringers. The only precedent we have to go by is Shirogane, which came out in 4.1, just after everyone got rolling on the expansion storyline.

[@purelyffxiv7657]

I'm excited to try it. I did a story skip to do shadowbringers. Just got to level 20 on my play through again. 5.3 is so exciting I hope more people come to try out the free content. 🥰🥰🥰

[@xeshirem]

I'm slowly working my way through Stormblood because I keep getting distracted by all our synced HW EX runs we keep deciding to do. Sophia min ilvl no echo remains my FAVORITE due to the payoff of elongated concentration, followed by no echo Nidhogg (min ilvl one day). Dun Scaith I duty roulette into for fun (and repeatable desynth I guess), and I don't feel bad because every single run I've gone into so far has had someone be new, so it's good they can get the clear. Forward and Back and then go forward and back is still iconic.

[@NamesLynx]

Sophia is my favorite primal of all time :)

[@aurumvale9908]

one and ONLY thing i didn't like about HW were those weird as f markers. dont get me wrong. i love me some new mechanics but some of those exist ONLY in HW and nowhere else which.

[@everyonethinksyoureadeathm5773]

Heavensward had a lot of issues, looking back at it now it was a massive learning phase for the dev team. A lot of good ideas mixed in with the bad. The game was a savage fight on top of a savage fight. Just from entering the game you were met with constant crashing or disconnects. The good thing was there wasn't a MSQ quest where you'd be stuck at for the better part of 10 hours. Going forward Heavensward is also where the raid community almost up and died. Now lets preface this, this was coming off of Final Coil. The clearing of final coil were relatively high, mainly because getting to T13 wasn't as much of a slog but to do final coil you had to clear T5 and T9 still. This is where the discussion of how difficult the new tier comes into place. While most of the raiders were discussing who would be the 'boss' of the raid. A bunch of armchair raiders started complaining that T13 and final coil was FAR TOO EASY. That the Dev team needed to do a better job of making the content difficult for the expansion. Others also complained about the fact that they needed to do Coil in order just to get to the final fight. This was a big debate and the dev teams always looking at the louder voices agreed with a sub-set of a sub-set minority and Gordias was born. Now this is where the issues came, the Dev team wanted to slow down the progression raiders by forcing them to not clear all four fights. What they were going at it made no sense as you'd need just the HP to survive in A3 and you'd only get that either melding under ilvl white gear or having to wait until you've gotten upgrade accessory items from A2. It was a mess on roll out, you had server issues with the whole fight (perfect ping or you'd be dead), gearing issues (barely making ilvl checks) and you had stats. The reason the fights got tooled easier was in part due to poor roll out of Gordias in general. Then you had class issues, Pali was near useless in the majority of Alexander. Bard had issues with DoTs (I can still hear my Bard in my static crying about them), White Mage got the boot right after they buffed astro. Gordias was just bad from a roll out perspective. I know on the server I was on it took almost to the start of the new raid tier for A4 to be cleared. Most of it was from server issues if I remember correctly. Midas on the other hand went a lot smoother and Alexander the final tier was just a blast from music to fights. Its also been argued that Gordias difficulty should have been the final difficulty and Alexander should have been the start.

[@acheron16]

I feel bad that I started playing in HW yet had to stop right at the start of the expansion, only now returning to the game. Makes me feel like I lost something great, something that I can only look on through a seat on a tourist bus as I complete previously hard as balls content far more easily simply due to power creep.

[@Raven_Konaim]

The "Weeping" City lol. I dreaded it, but it was fun though!

[@dolphinboi-playmonsterranc9668]

When I first ever played an MMO, it was some game I can't even recall. It had bright, vivid, beautiful environments. I lost interest in MMOs after that game disappeared out of thin air. Me, 14 years old. Try the demo for XIV on my crappy beater laptop. WOW. Gridania is so pretty at night. Fast forward a few years because I couldn't pay the sub and completely forgot the game existed. My brother gets XIV 2.0-4.0. I picked up interest again, and I did have fun, but the vivid scenery I saw years ago is gone. Not really, but it feels... off. Then 5.0 drops. Lakeland is that beautiful landscape once more. Unfortunately I spent so much time there that everything blended together again. I struggle to find those "Wow" moments when I reach new areas. I didn't feel that way for HW or SB. Coerthas Western Highlands didn't just have a sense of verticality, it had the necessity of verticality. You either get all the flying requirements or you waste 15 minutes instead of 5. Is that a bad thing? Yes and no. Am I rambling? Yes. It's good to have flying be a task to get, but playing hot or cold with your aether compass is a chore.

[@shineko79]

I would argue that Castrum was run as much on a per capita basis as ARF was for tomes.

[@mrcool9090]

i feel like the raid tier going backwards in difficulty was because of feedback and stuff

[@SCDarkSoul]

It was. They talked about their design decisions as the expansion was going. After the terrible gear gating of Gordias, they mentioned shifting the difficulty in Midas from hard numbers to mechanics, leading to the "mechanic vomit" mentioned in the video. But too many mechanics was hard for people too, so then they lowered the difficulty again to Creator, and that was more or less the difficulty level for Savage they've settled on since then, with Ultimate stepping in as a higher difficulty level in Stormblood.

[@Tamipriest]

hmm why did you not talk about the other 2 demon raids ? the void ark and the last 24man raid that name i forgot with the first boss blowing people off the ship

[@NamesLynx]

I didn’t think they were as memorable as mhach. I skipped a lot of content that wasn’t immediately in my head when i hear the word heavensward

[@StregaKyto]

Gordias - ahhhh the day.... Living Liquid our static got it down - but we broke at A4S - living liquid broke our spirit - and A4S was sooooooo boring My static just beat A8S as BLU and it was a gauntlet.

[@Holyhairyareola]

Ozma was great, reminds me the times of me dying over and over in ff9 trying to figure out how to beat it.

[@enyaliosares4301]

Don’t forget how unbalanced bard, machinist and Astro were both at the start and the end of HW.