Why punish players who just want to play DoL DoH?

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Originally Posted by Swordphobic

I'm siding with OP on this, the attunement for heavensward is HUUUUUUUGE and will make most newbies abandon the game. At least the open areas and some of the dungeons should be available without those long long hours going back and forth to complete the main quest.

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Considering that the main story revolves around conflict, Square isn't going to let people skip everything.

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Originally Posted by Yuri_Hyuga

This' honestly... a really great point.
Up until now, you could experience all this game had to offer for DoH/DoL without ever having to complete MSQ or enter combat-content.

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You need a combat class to unlock not only the battle leves, but also the DoL and DoH leves.
You have to join a GC with a combat class to have access to the Supply & Delievery service of the GC as a extra exp source for DoH and DoL
You have to clear Stone Vigil to unlock the Ixal daily quests as a extra exp source for DoH

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Originally Posted by TitaniaZero

To be fair. Those that made their crafters/gathers in 1.0 were good to go. Back then you could craft/gather you way to 50. No questies, nothing. Sure it was more fun (imo) to do the combat classes but I know some that were thrilled with the idea that they could at lvl 1, craft/gather.

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That changed already with the instruction of the Grand Companies during 1.x
Needed a battle class at level 20 to join a GC and no Chocobo if you don't join a GC.
And DoH without a Chocobo was less fun than one with Chocobo (all the travels from Ul'dah to Blue Fog and back for the leves)

I wouldn't say the game is "combat-centric". I'd argue that it is "story-focused", which while similar, is a tiny bit different. You don't have to exist in Eorzea 100% of the as a DoW/DoM, playing fulltime as a DoL/DoH is viable and there is content for that. However, regardless of discipline, you are expected to play through the storyline because this is a "story-focused" game, which isn't a lot to ask given the ease of most of it. Just do 5-6 quests per day until the expansion drops. You will barely break a sweat.

I love the crafting,gathering, and other non combat aspects of this game. Im not asking them to cater to me (I already feel catered to plenty). Im just saying, as primarily a botanist, I would like to purchase the expansion and begin progressing my character in my main activity without jumping through 100+ hoops first.

Its not a knock on anyone else's play style. Im all for diversity in game play. I love the fact that walking around eorzea, i see many people enjoying the various aspects of the game. It makes the world feel more alive.

To me, its the equivalent of requiring you to have crafting class up to 4 star and a gathering class with lucis before being able to do dungeons. There is no reason besides storyline for forcing a certain type of gameplay on someone. If they want me to know the story, fine. Condense it to a handful of quests I can get done in an afternoon. But I'm trudging through this, doing dungeons I've already done before, having my skills limited, tons of fetch quests.

Honestly, starting this up yesterday, the majority of quests are quite uninspired, just a timesink. Its not 100+ quests of riveting storytelling that's for sure.

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Originally Posted by Foomerang

To me, its the equivalent of requiring you to have crafting class up to 4 star and a gathering class with lucis before being able to do dungeons. There is no reason besides storyline for forcing a certain type of gameplay on someone. If they want me to know the story, fine. Condense it to a handful of quests I can get done in an afternoon. But I'm trudging through this, doing dungeons I've already done before, having my skills limited, tons of fetch quests.

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That's a false equivalency though as HW access only requires you to complete the main story with i90. If you needed to get i130 gear from coil, pass ridiculous dps checks, level more than 1 crafter, then sure, it would be like getting a lucis. It's not though. There is a single unifying gameplay objective for all players, and that's completion of the mainstory. You need to get to atleast i90 to do that and As a crafter, you can avoid that gear grind by crafting that armor you need.

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Originally Posted by Illya

They uhm tried to make it possible to complete the story as a DoL/DoH in FFXIV 1.0. It was an unmitigated disaster. Having learned that lesson in 1.0, when they got to ARR they made the game like every other MMO ever made where story is completed by fighting as a combat class and crafting/gathering are side jobs.

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Yeah
The MSQ (not the 7th umbral story) was easy enough that even a fisher had no problem doing it ^^
You had the option to fight or to discuss it out with the enemy (playing parley)

Like other people have said, this isn't Harvest Moon or Rune Factory. It's a story/combat centric MMO; crafting is designed to be a secondary pursuit.

It's fine to enjoy it as your main focus, but you have to realize that you are not the audience the game is aimed at. It is and always will be designed with DoW/DoM in mind, because that is what the majority of the people who play are here for. It only makes sense that most of the gameplay will be focused around that.

I wouldn't be so quick to knock the quests being time sinks. Crafting and gathering are just as huge in time sinks and RNG is involved as well to make you waste even more of your time. Every crafting class quest always has you making several items, and then doing HQ items, and then melding materia, followed by melding a battle class materia which you have to get into battle for if you don't want to pay for them on the market. Heck, the majority of the items crafted are for battle classes anyway, so unless all you care about is making money and not spending it, crafting just for funsies isn't going to be very appealing to the majority and the game itself isn't going to be for them anyway.

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Originally Posted by Yuri_Hyuga

Up until now, you could experience all this game had to offer for DoH/DoL without ever having to complete MSQ or enter combat-content..

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Ehcatl Sealants. <drops mic>