Story goes hard, but build up for Shadowbringers was almost out of nowhere. And yes, we knew who the cat person was, most popular theory at a time.
Orbonne Monastery, my favorite alliance and one of the most favorite instances in this game!
Eureka is finished, Baldesion Arsenal released! Blue Mage debut! Long live, you funny clown. Mahjong is added!
World visit was a huge deal.

Interesting MSQ, great raids (again I attempt blind progs), our personal island for our flower sniffing competition.
First Variant and criterion dungeons. Cool first time but almost zero replay-ability.
QoL things like recast timer with big numbers, compact view combos for jobs and etc.

Cool MSQ buildup, Nier ended... kinda meh, still good fights. Werlyt is good. Zadnor and fixes in Bozja areas are great. Final Feast Seasons. Small tweaks. Not a lot to say since I was mostly siting in Bozja areas.

Interesting Werlyt storyline, not so interesting Eden storyline. Start of Bozja storyline, now only with trial.
Good things for crafters, oversimplification of fishers, but now with ocean fishing. Return of the Diadem, now exclusive for gatherers. Dick measuring contests in Ishgard.
Umbrellas and parasols!

Great ending of big saga. Engaging almost at every moment. Great and memorable zones, characters, cutscenes, best solo duty in the game.
The death of dynamic monk. Rest in peace, my dear prince, my muscle memory wont forget you. A lot of jobs suffered the fate of being too simple (tanks and healers ) or too nothing (SMR). Remove Belts, NOW!
Final Feasts and exclusive mounts/gear.
No more HQ items for gatherers. Spearfishing now fun. Empyreum and my new home with a great view. Great map for teleporting inside cities. Viera Male 4 Voice never forget. Also never forget about 3,5 hours waiting to play.

Werlyt with great trial, Eden with great fights and bad story. Delubrum Reginae is cool and punishing. Blue mages rise up. I also picked up them and they are fun!
Reworked gatherer's collectibles. Eye-squeezing Classic theme was introduced for HUD. Roles in Need are displayed in DF.

Really cool MSQ sequences and fights, great Tataru quest, good Euphrosyne alliance.
Eureka Orthos is very cruel, but fun.
Damage now indicating what type of damage it is, finally.
New PVP map, now with portals and money.

MSQ (aka Trial quests) ended, small build up for new expansion. Alliance ended pretty... OK. New Variant and Criterion, this time with decent rewards!
Good reward from island and market manipulation. Hildibrand story is decent, but the Trial is one of the most boring ones in the game.
PVP QoL things, now i can see which dragoon used Ult. But can barely play it since almost no one plays CC on Chaos.
Fucking Fall Guys collab, I can't believe it's real, i love it. Kinda repetitive, but easy rewards.
Doing a lot of cleanup and farming some achievements, almost finished with every Gold Saucer ones, Verminion and Mahjong are the only major ones left. Collected all EX Triple Triad cards.

Great first tier Alliance, cool MSQ buildup. Omega quests are cute. Tataru quests are cute. Hildibrand has funny cutscenes.
Dragonsong's Reprise made people lose their marbles.
PVP 3.0, the death of Feasts. Crystal Conflict now fun and great (until you learn about win traders in high ranks.) Also GARO return.
Crafter and Fisher QoL.
Adventure plates and portraits. Cool idea, junky execution. You can try shop items in bed (personal chambers). Data Center Travel implemented!

Omega ended with a banger, Four Lords Trials continue with banger firebird, Shifting Altars has a banger music, leap of Faith is a banger minigame, bards can now bang with more instruments. And a lot of QoL tweaks.

Story peaked here. 11/10
Werlyt storyline with gundam fanservice, YORHA storyline with 2B fanservice. Rework of ARR quests. AND FLYING IN ARR ZONES! FREE TRIAL TO HEAVENSWARD HOLY SHIT!!!
Faux Hollows and Unreal trials are great idea. Bozja with it's instance area was very fun! FATEs, CE and Duels there were great! CLL is one of my most favorite instances.

My journey starts here. Was interested in story and missed gameplay from WoW, so I gave it a try. Now I'm 5000 hours deep and dead set to make it my last MMO experience. Doing Nidhogg and Weeping City of Mhach in its prime was so cool. I still have high impression from Dragonsong war's end and Ozma fight. Deep Dungeon was a different breed of content back there. Quarrymill was always full of people.
I also should mention old Diadem content: half-combat, half-gatherer's instance zone. Almost like Eureka and Bozja, but with limited time Field Operations (ala FATEs).

Omega is great as fanservice, Fashion report is a great minigame, gameplay at it's peak with a balance between flavor and efficiency, Eureka introduction!
Subaquatic Voyages are added, and three years later they are my income machines. Maximum number of items per slot now 999, huge!
Glamour dressers were added! with 10 slots and 200 item capacity.

Breathtaking story! More cinema! Bunny girls and Bara-cats! TP has been removed! So long, you dreadful thing.
I'm back at blind Extremes and even full blind Savage tier clear. I loved and hated it.
Almost every class reworked to fit in two meta game, with a lot of flavor removed from jobs. Sad to see. At least my monk has greased lighting and positionals.

First patch to keep up with everyone during MSQ and Alexander Raids. My first current Extreme and even Savage experience. My first exposure to the Hildibrand himself. Squadrons, so I have my personal nuggets I can dress up. Khloe and her fucking books arrived. Updated Idyllshire. Dueling in Wolven's Den area. And also my first interest in a mess that FFXIV's PvP 1.0 was: Bards dominating every soul with DoTs, every melee DPS being inferior to almost every other job... ah, I miss that junk.
Countdown was introduced, but a lot of people still used macros for it.

A lot less personal experience for this expansion since i wasn't playing too often. I really liked music in most of the locations and dungeons. Story was good, but not a "wow" one like in Heavensward. Though it was funny to be a participant in Raubahn (Extreme) And Pipin (Savage). Poor servers.
Hunting for houses in Shirogane was also an experience.
My first blind prog Extremes, not even on my main (monk), AST was my favorite healer before card rework. A bit of Savage too, though we weren't good.
Rip Parry attribute, rip Accuracy, we hated both of you. Hello, Direct Hit and Tenacity. Also a lot of QoL things for raiders.
PVP 2.0, now with it's own actions and Ultimate Attacks (personal LB). Healers meta is on the rise.
A lot of stuff for gatherer's: collectables and spearfishing.

Nice Pandemonium final quests, every job gets 30-yalm radius on beneficial effects, Blue Mage update, New Variant and Criterion.
PVP UI improvements, New ocean fishing route, Job can be displayed with name in chat, color coded too. Furnishing glamours for your island.

Dun Scaith was a terror among impatient and forgetful ones. Zurvan was my first Ex clear.
You can join Frontlines as Freelancer to play as random Grand Company, so if you are Maelstorm and you are tired of winning - you can try that! Also GARO event with cool armor and mounts.
Party Finder now can connect you with players from other Worlds in same Data center! It was hard to find some parties to clear old duties in PF.
Hotbars configurations were a great change.
Picked up fishing, very relaxing experience. And finished Anima weapon.

Nothing big, except first Ivalice raid and Shinryu Ex fight. Some QoL tweaks.
First patch when you could retrieve materia. More HUD customization. Ultimate fights introduction, good to see.
Bards can perform music, Rival wings is full of people because it just launched. Soon that will change...

I'm finally interested in MSQ plotlines again, Ridorana Lighthouse checked every player, what a prime number is, Heaven-on-High is a less tedious PotD. Hello, Monster Hunter collab.
Doman Enclave is added so you could finally clear your inventory for profit. PVP now has daily rotation map, so people actually play Seal Rock.

"My friends and a lot of people join FFXIV just for Nier Automata content" update. And blind Hades kill. Ultimate TEA having the best trailers.
New Game+ for story nerds. Good Gold Saucer minigame: The Slice is Right. A lot of crafters and gatherers QoL things. First steps of Ishgardian restoration.
Battle High now visible and important in PVP. Also new map, loved and hated.