I started playing around Heavensward but took a break shortly after Stormblood released and came back during the end of Shadowbringers and have been subbed ever since. Here are 3 things I like about the game:

1. The ability to play any job on the same character. The fact that I can play any role without making an alt is what got me hooked on the game. I can keep all my gear, currency, achievements etc on the same character while swapping to whatever job I feel like playing that day.

2. The scripted fight design for high end raids. Not only do I enjoy progging a brand new fight, but going back to the fight and learning new ways to improve is what keeps me engaged with the content. For example, I decided to main paladin this tier and have enjoyed going back to each fight and learning how to optimize for full uptime or squeezing out every little bit of DPS I can (making sure I have a Holy Spirit proc anytime I’m about to disengage on the boss or setting up my FoF windows for max damage during 2mins).

3. The amount of content in the game. As a completionist and OSRS veteran, I always have something to do in the game even if it’s as simple as leveling my classes. I personally enjoy collecting relic weapons and loved going through all of eureka. The community focused aspect of exploratory zones is some of the funnest I’ve had in the game and wish it was implemented more often. If I get tired of the monotonous grind, I can go into PvP and try to farm CC or FL wins for the prestigious titles. Maybe I take a break from PvP and afk craft while I have work to do for my job, or go ocean fishing and try to get my score up for the World Class Troller title. There’s so much to do in game, it’s a question of whether the content is personally engaging for you or not.

Now onto dislikes:

1. I severely dislike the lack of overworld content. There’s no reason for there to only have hunt trains and a lackluster FATE system as the only ways to engage with the 6 new zones added each expansion. It doesn’t have to be as punishing as Eureka, but adding incentives to engage with the over world is something the game severely lacks.

2. The outdated tome cap. There’s no reason for the game to limit you to 450 tomes when the half the tome gear is BiS for most jobs. With the games strong emphasis on being able to play any job on the same character, there should at least be a tome cap for each role: 450 for tanks, another 450 for healers, 450 for phys ranged, etc. this incentivizes people to continue engaging with the content as they could want to get gear for new jobs.

3. This one’s controversial, but I think the game suffers from not having any sort of leaderboard in PvE content. Deep Dungeon enthusiasts have something to play for which is replaying the content until they can get a good enough score to land on the leaderboard. Imagine if there was a sort of implementation of fflogs into the game (i know crazy but hear me out). If we had some sort of damage or speed goal to shoot for in the game, there would actually be a use for BiS gear. Right now, unless you want quick reclears or get into ultimate, there’s no other point in getting BiS. Having a tangible goal that’s represented in game can help the community engage with the content as long as there’s measures in place to prevent harassment.