A Realm Reborn was secretly FFXIV at its peak and I'm not joking. Like no, it was not the actual "best" expansion, but the sort of aura of wonder and discovery and community present was unlike anything in the entire game ever since, and honestly in most of MMOs since. It was a time when everything was a little harder, and a little clunkier, and a little less convenient. It was a time when the base Eorzea zones felt like a vast, beautiful world; when a glamour prism was a valuable object; when a rotation involved six buffs and thirty timers to juggle. Its story - especially the far overhated 2.x storylines - demanded patience, but rewarded the player with so much worldbuilding and personality and little explorations of the softer moments between people.

FFXIV after ARR became a better game, but it would never again have that sort of purity of vision. Every expansion since ARR has been FFXIV making itself a little more fun to play at the cost of shaving away a little bit of its soul, one streamlined mechanic and simplified dungeon at a time.