5 Levels to Go... Heavensward

Hello all,

Quick question. I'm at level 45 and rapidly progressing towards 50. I haven't bought Heavensward yet though I have every intention of continuing to play to 60 and am loving the game.

My question though... should I wait until all quests are done before getting the expansion (my understanding is that there are a lot that I would have to do at level 50 capped)... or get the expansion so I can get a few levels before getting to HW.

I don't care about gaining levels early... really what I want is to fully experience both the lvl 50 stuff/story and lvl 51+ HW stuff. I'm not a power-leveler type. Anyway, right now I'm leaning towards just getting the expansion anyway, and get a few levels under my belt before getting to HW. Everywhere I read says once you hit 50 you have a loooong way to go, quest wise, before getting to HW, and that's fine... no rush.

Thanks,
Zoqor

It might depend on just how much of the level 50 stuff you want to do. Besides the MSQ, which you need to do, there is a ton of optional level 50 content as well.

I'm holding off on registering my copy of HW because I want to do all of it. While doing just the necessary parts with the higher level cap might give you a nice boost of an extra couple levels or so, I'm afraid that doing everything could take me all the way to 60 before even starting the HW content and that could be enough to spoil it.

Most people, however, prefer to unlock the expansion and get the advantage of a bit of extra leveling along the way. It means less grinding once reaching Ishgard that way.

Ah okay, thanks. Yeah, that is my thought too. I kind of want to do the level 50 stuff even if it means holding off on HW for awhile. I suppose I can buy it now but not install it. I have no thoughts of not getting it, but I want to make the level 50 bit last. If I get antsy, I'll just install!

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

It might depend on just how much of the level 50 stuff you want to do. Besides the MSQ, which you need to do, there is a ton of optional level 50 content as well.

I'm holding off on registering my copy of HW because I want to do all of it. While doing just the necessary parts with the higher level cap might give you a nice boost of an extra couple levels or so, I'm afraid that doing everything could take me all the way to 60 before even starting the HW content and that could be enough to spoil it.

Most people, however, prefer to unlock the expansion and get the advantage of a bit of extra leveling along the way. It means less grinding once reaching Ishgard that way.

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Unlikely to take you all the way to 60 unless you really grind it. Personally I just managed to reach level 53 before entering Ishgard, and I did just about all of the extra quests - except the optional dungeons/trials.

Yeap same here, I managed to get to 53 before I entered Ishgard, register it now, doesn't matter anyways.

And keep in mind, even if you did make it all the way to 60, every story dungeon is level synced, as are all the individual instances and trials. So you wouldnt actually have any extra powers over the people in the dungeon at the lower levels. Yeah, you could get better gear so your sync makes you stronger, but someone concerned about this could always purposefully not do that. Just a thought.

Yeah. It doesnt completely matter if you do or not. At most you will just get a couple of levels which isnt a huge deal in this case really since leveling your first character through heavensward isnt very problematic with the dungeon exp, the MSQ, and the side quests

These last 5 levels before 50 are going soooo slow :-( ... I'm just going to go ahead and purchase/register it. Just because, I'm playing after 50 anyway! Thanks all for the advice.

You should registre it before 50
Because you would lose all the msq exp which is huge

But yeah you're now going to enter ishgard so soon
You have tons of quest at lv 50

Fun fact you may have missed. Theres an optional level 44 dungeon you can unlock(and another at 47). Decent exp, though the dungeons arent everyones favorites. Eating food(any variety) gives you a small exp buff, and if you're in an FC then can provide another that stacks with it. At that range, the leveling roulette and guildhest roulette should add up to something like a level per day just in bonuses, not to mention extra exp for clearing a dungeon. Oh, and whenever you log off do it in a city or "sanctuary" so you can save up some bonus rested exp. Every little bit helps, right?

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Originally Posted by Frizze

Theres an optional level 44 dungeon you can unlock(and another at 47). Decent exp, though the dungeons arent everyones favorites.

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They offer some nice loot, too. (The level 44 one has the BiS chest pieces for levels 44-49, and they're pretty popular as glamour thereafter if you're into the scantily-clad look.)

I'm sure my question is going to display how ignorant I am...

Is there a prompt in the game that lets you know it is time to upgrade to Heavensward so you can continue your adventures?

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Originally Posted by Grant_Wilshire

I'm sure my question is going to display how ignorant I am...

Is there a prompt in the game that lets you know it is time to upgrade to Heavensward so you can continue your adventures?

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A direct prompt? Not exactly. If you havent registered HW yet, anything you do at level 50 will stop giving you exp - so thats a clue. But the quest series that takes you from the end of the original story into the beginning of the expansion includes a decently long series of level 50 quests. The closest you get to a straight prompt is at the end of the patch 2.55 quests(the last of those level 50 quests). At this point(keeping this as spoiler free as i can) you have proven your friendship to the people of ishgard, and if i remember right theres some dialogue from one of your allies about getting you entry into the town soon. If the expansion is already registered at this point, the next quest shows up immediately and you find yourself getting invited to the new lands(originally there were a few months between when the 2.55 quests were added and the expansion released, so if you did it at the time you did have to wait a bit). Today its generally advised to get the expansion shortly before you get your first level 50, that way you dont lose any exp(or get it earlier if you want to make an au ra character or see it on sale).

The main scenario quest actually gets to a point where it won't let you pick up the next one with the in-game reason being that you haven't registered Heavensward. So, yes, there's a prompt, but yes, it's best to register it ASAP anyway.

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Originally Posted by EveK

The main scenario quest actually gets to a point where it won't let you pick up the next one with the in-game reason being that you haven't registered Heavensward. So, yes, there's a prompt, but yes, it's best to register it ASAP anyway.

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Im not sure about this. I know that you get to a point where you cant take the next quest, but if you got to that point without registering the expansion does the next quest show as existing and locked or just not show it? Ive got a friend that has the expansion, but hasnt made it through all the quests yet. He really likes crafting, so LTW was actually his first level 50 class. He finished the ARR quests for LTW and got his Pinga, but afterwords the guildmaster wasnt offering him the start of the HW crafting line yet. And i dont mean the quest was there and he couldnt take it, i mean it wasnt showing any quest at all. So it seems possible to me that it might just not show the quest unless you had the expansion.

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Originally Posted by Frizze

I know that you get to a point where you cant take the next quest, but if you got to that point without registering the expansion does the next quest show as existing and locked or just not show it?

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Either way could be considered an indicator that it's time to get/register the expansion. If the next quest is there but red/unavailable with the given reason being that it requires the HW expansion, then that's of course a much more obvious indicator. But if it simply doesn't show up at all, then you know it's time for the expansion when you reach a point where you complete a MSQ and there isn't anther one there to follow it. Up until then it's a continuous chain with another quest always available whenever you finish the one before it.

Thank you for the responses!

So there are two different phenomena you're describing here. The main quest itself would appear as present but locked, requiring the expansion to be active on the account and installed on the client. The crafting quest example would presumably not appear at all because it has some Heavensward portion of the main quest as a prerequisite. Quests without met prerequisite quests simply don't appear at all.

Like i said, i just wasnt sure about it. The HW pre-req for that crafting quest is literally just being able to get into Ishgard(so expack registered and questline up to the right point) - the quest has you talk to someone at the crozier and you offer to help them more later.

Back on topic... really, if you know you want to continue the story and explore ishgard theres no reason at all to wait on the expack purchase. All you get early is the ability to make/fantasia an au ra character, but it doesnt add any cost to the subscription so if you know you'll get it later you dont have to wait at all. If you want to feel like you're getting something immediate for the purchase, then do it at about the time you get that first level 50 and what youre getting immediately is the increased level cap.

Hi all. The good news is that I hit 50! The bad news is that my trial time is about out. Any attempt to actually subscribe to the game has resulted in odd 601 errors. Evidently there is a veritable book of issues going back 3 years regarding this.

So, it looks like HW isn't in my cards after all :-( ... I did get to 50 though and it was fun playing before SE decided they didn't want my money. (BTW my CC is perfectly fine, I live in the same country as it, and my bank info. is correct).

Amazes me that such a high quality game won't let me give them money. The only workaround I would have would be crysta/paypal, and that's not going to happen.

Anyway, I made it to 50. It was fun, I wish I could continue that fun but it sounds like game over for me and time to move on. Thanks again for your advice and good luck in this game!

Ah, the bad old 601 error. Sadly the 601/401 error codes cover a multitude of sins with no one particular cause and thus, no one easy solution. However, the 601 error specifically, is often (but not always) caused not by a payment problem but rather how you're accessing the Mogstation/SE Account Management System to register your payment method - namely, if you're using a browser that has an 'antiscript' feature on it to stop malicious scripts running secretly in the background on websites (these are usually used to run things both good and bad from popup ads to videos to even installing malware and viruses), it will block a benign security script that the Mogstation uses to check your credit card/debit card is genuine and not stolen - thus if it can't run this script the Mogstation throws a tantrum and says Error 601.

I had this same issue when SE first initiated credit card billing back in 1.0, and sure enough, the NoScript addon for Firefox was blocking this hidden security script on the Mogstation from running. After disabling NoScript for that page, my credit card details were successfully entered and registered, and I've never had a billing issue since. I know this is rather convoluted but hopefully you can fix this annoying problem and get into the game fully - so try using a different internet browser or seeing if security addons in the browser are active and blocking it, and if so either disable it completely or 'whitelist' the script or website - it's called 'GCSGlobalCollect' or something if I remember right. :)

Yep, I got heavensward on launch day, and I was around 30. Back then the level 50 duns and quests gave no exp, so I had to grind a lot to reach some HW content.
My friends got the game in October, and registered HW when they reached 50 because they didn't want to waste any exp. They got to 53 or so. And still had to do grind a bit in the way to 60 :)

im getting the 401 error code, 3rd day in a row, after trying to change servers.