So... what now?

I'll try to make this as short and straight-forward as I can:

I just finished the 5.3 MSQ, which means just 2 more to go before I'm done with the story until Endwalker. Question is... what should I focus on once I do? I'm a little lost, and not because of a lack of options but rather an overabundance of them. I want to do everything, and obviously I won't have time to get it all done before the expansion is upon us and I embark on another emotional roller-coaster. And so I turn to you, veterans of the forums, and your infinite wisdom.

One thing is for certain, I'll keep doing my daily roulettes for Tomestones and hopefully buy a few 520 gear pieces before Shadowbringers bows its reverence, but then what? I kinda what to level a gathering job (Got my eyes set on Botanist) and a Crafting job (Carpenter sounds like a lot of fun!). I'd like the means to earn some Gil and buy myself an apartment in Ishguard when the time comes, and crafting/gathering sounds like a good way to do that.

I also want to level a tank (I hear Warrior is the easiest to play for my newbie self) and a caster DPS (Summoner, maybe, since it's already at 50?) to complete the two associated questlines in the Crystarium and unlock the elusive 5th questline I keep hearing about. This, of course, would be quite the undertaking and I'm not sure there's enough time left x.x

I currently have both MCH and WHM at 80, planning on maining MCH but keeping up to date with WHM for roulettes (faster queues, plus as much as I like DPS, I love healing). I bought a full Exarchic set for my dps and have been buying 490 pieces with my tomestones for the WHM. Is that sufficient to go into endwalker? or must I invest the gils in a 2nd Exarchic set, least my healer class be rendered useless?

Should I focus on unlocking all the optional dungeons, trials n stuff? I unlocked the Ruby weapon trial but it looked extra complicated in the guide I watched so I haven't dared queue up for it. Should I? Is there a point? What about the alliance raid? (don't even know what it is to be honest)... Are relic weapons still a thing? Should I try to do my MCH one or is that stuff for the more hardcore raiders?

I tried looking up guides n stuff but they all tell me I absolutely need to do about a million things I clearly won't have time to complete before it's too late.

HALP!

Normal mode raids and trials are meant to be done blind and doing those was advised by the devs themselves due to several tying into Endwalker in various ways.

Honestly, this is a decision only you can make. "What now?" you ask? What now indeed. The world is your oyster. Do whatever you want. Your forum join date indicates that you've been around awhile. I'd imagine you know the drill.

The Nier alliance raids drop coins that you can upgrade your Cryptlurker gear; ilvl 520, so getting those out of the way is recommended plus once you're done with the raid story, you can do a weekly quest afterward tied to the raid storyline to eventually get "Witness to the Dark Apocalypse". If you haven't done Eden, I recommend you do that as well.

Also, if you want to get into Bozja and get your relic for any class, I would also recommend getting that out of the way as well. With EW getting closer, there is no guarantee that Bozja will remain populated after it is no longer current.

If there are optional dungeons you haven't done, get those out of the way too as well as do the Sorrows of Werlyt (The Ruby Weapon stuff); the lead writer for EW recommends to do that as it does tie into lore that may be important later on.

What I'm personally doing right now is getting as many jobs and classes geared up as well as focusing on any relic weapons I can squeeze in, might even do some mount farming. Over all, it's pretty much what you want to focus on before EW.

If you're focused on the storyline, head into the Eden raid series and finish up the MSQ. That's really it. The MSQ is, well, the MSQ and the Eden series ties really well into sort of putting a nice cap on the story of ShB.

For storyline focused stuff on the side you can look into the extra 5.0 dungeons if you have time. You can also look into the Sorrow of Werlyt series as it fills in some perspectives from the Garlean side of things. This is all good, story focused stuff but is more supplemental content than "You need to do this now!" stuff.

If you find yourself with a lot of extra time you can consider going into Bozja and at least getting through the story there. It's more just background content with some nice lore and a decent story of it's own. It does have a bit of a deadline on it as it requires at least a small group of active people to actually complete it but, again, it's more side content and less "You need to do it!"

There are also the Nier raids but they really do exist as nearly a completely separate slice of content altogether. Plus, if you're okay with braving a possible long cue time later, you can always just hold off on them as there's extremely little chance that they'll connect to anything in the future (and if for some reason they do, bunches of other people will be pushing through them at that time too so you can just tag along in that rush).

As far as gearing is concerned, don't worry about it. As long as you have one class decently geared (and it sounds like you do), you'll be getting gear as good as or better than that from quest rewards and dungeon drops within a few hours of starting on Endwalker. Just make sure the main class you want to start the EndWalker MSQ with is capable and you're fine.

So, yeah, other than the MSQ and Eden, the only thing you really might want to put a rush on is the Bozja content since that will actually require other players to do (and most of those other players still doing the content will move on very quickly once EW drops).

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Originally Posted by Lexis

I currently have both MCH and WHM at 80, planning on maining MCH but keeping up to date with WHM for roulettes (faster queues, plus as much as I like DPS, I love healing). I bought a full Exarchic set for my dps and have been buying 490 pieces with my tomestones for the WHM. Is that sufficient to go into endwalker? or must I invest the gils in a 2nd Exarchic set, least my healer class be rendered useless?

Should I focus on unlocking all the optional dungeons, trials n stuff? I unlocked the Ruby weapon trial but it looked extra complicated in the guide I watched so I haven't dared queue up for it. Should I? Is there a point? What about the alliance raid? (don't even know what it is to be honest)... Are relic weapons still a thing? Should I try to do my MCH one or is that stuff for the more hardcore raiders?

I tried looking up guides n stuff but they all tell me I absolutely need to do about a million things I clearly won't have time to complete before it's too late.

HALP!

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I would not worry about optional side content - at least not as a necessity. The main things I suggest, based on your interests and as general necessities, are this:

• Inventory. Clean out your armory, and general inventory, and really all forms of inventory. You don't want to go into an expac and then have to stop at some point because you ran out of space and need to clean up.
• In line with the above, make sure your gear for each job you will be playing is sorted out and ready go. You'll replace it, of course, but good gear still gives you a good start into the expansion.
• If you plan on leveling the new jobs, prepare level 70 (Augmented Scaeven) gear set for each.
• Might seem obvious but - do finish the MSQ, don't get sidetracked with other stuff on that.
• As others have mentioned, the current alliance raids will help you upgrade your gear. 490 is enough if you buy gear from NPCs are Endwalker's release but I'd personally shoot for 520 if you can. 530 would be "excellently prepared."
• If you have an abundance of time or just need a side project, you can pursue a relic weapon. They're good and some of them look cool. HOWEVER, you will replace your weapon in the expac quickly enough that 5 extra ilvls won't help much. If you get an upgraded Cryptlurker weapon, that is more than enough.

Annnnd... that's it, believe it or not.

You don't need to do that much. Gear, inventory, and MSQ are the bare essentials. to be well prepared. Everything else, you can do because you want to or for more minor reasons.

Good luck!

Edit: Oh, one more thing.
As a healer, when a new expac releases, you'll be dealing with a surfeit of tanks in crappy gear. So, even moreso, if you can compensate by having the best gear you can get, it can help a lot.

Thank you everyone for your answers! You've given lots to think about and a much clearer path for me to take beyond: 'confused screaming'. Much appreciated!

And on a side note: I played FFXIV briefly in 2014, a few months worth, and then quit, only to recently come back about 3 months or so ago. So I've technically been playing since ARR but the gap between then and now is so monumental, I'm pretty much just another fresh-faced newbie learning their way.

Thank you again! <3

Try out a new class. If you're gonna try sage/reaper, be sure to buy a level 70 ilvl 400 gear set for them in Rhalgar's Reach
Were you interested in clearing PotD/HoH?
Any glamours you want to work for?
Any achievements you really want?
Anything you'd like to prepare for 6.0? Your current gear level, Item space, potions, food, FC rank 3 actions/squadron manual for 15% EXP bonus, ect
Any side content that you haven't done yet?


But focus on what you know you'll be doing in the long run first, and when you have that checked off, then move to the next thing~

You have a lot of options. A metaphorical buffet of options!

1) Try a new job to level up. You mentioned tank and magic dps- With a lack of time, I’d go with Gunbreaker and Redmage (they have the highest starting level).
2) Get sucked into the fun that is Blue Mage. Takes a bit to get going…but it’s a lot of fun.
3) Look into some glamour fun, or other collections you can work on.
4) Try some side stories (older raids/trials like Binding Coil or Alexander)

You don't need to do anything other than the story, so it depends what interests you. Usually if people want to give themselves things to do they set themselves goals like collecting all mounts or relic weapons, leveling all jobs, doing all sidequests.

Fights are designed to introduce mechanics to you one at a time in a way that is usually obvious. Later in the fight they test if you figured them out by combining them. So guides are not supposed to be necessary, but are recommended for the challenging versions (Extreme)/(Unreal), (Savage) and (Ultimate) so that you don't waste other people's time who may have already progressed through some of the phases.

While it's up to you if you watch a guide for the story versions, you should be aware that guides do overcomplicate it. They will spend 5 minutes showing diagrams and slow-motion clips of a mechanic that lasts a split second and turns out to be really obvious when you actually do it. It can leave you really afraid of this mechanic. It's not the fault of the guide makers - it's on us for looking up a guide for trivial mechanics.

There are pros to looking up a guide for trivial mechanics, because very occasionally they do kill first timers a lot and although guides cause anxiety, they can also help with it.

For the story version of a trial or raid, it doesn't matter if you die. You could die 10 times and the healers, who are half asleep doing their rotation, will just res you 10 times, so don't worry about it.

Play FF3 pixel remaster. Much better than the 3d version and the remixes are rad.

I recommend the Alexander and Omega raids, if you haven't unlocked those yet. If they seem complicated from a guide, don't worry, they're a lot simpler in practice. This will also unlock the Normal Raid Roulette, and as a first-timer you'll get all those nice bonus tomes.

Personally I love crafting and gathering. I wanted to give a word of warning before you decide to dive into that rabbit hole tho. When they say it’s best to level all crafting classes together… they’re right. You’ll bump into needing crafted mats from other crafting classes all the time. While I really did not mind that (insert desperate wailing from flooded retainers), it can get a bit overwhelming if you have the idea of just leveling one for fun :D

This is the part where the game becomes very seasonal for some. You can either engage in the currency grind to deck your character our in gear, do normal raids, do savage raids, do ex trials, work on beast tribe dailies if you like them, etc...

Or you can peace out until EW. I usually do that a few weeks after a patch drops and i've done everything to death, personally.

The game is somewhat designed in a way that if you just decide to peace out for a while, you won't really have that much or any catching up to do when you return.

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Originally Posted by Lexis

Should I focus on unlocking all the optional dungeons, trials n stuff? I unlocked the Ruby weapon trial but it looked extra complicated in the guide I watched so I haven't dared queue up for it. Should I? Is there a point? What about the alliance raid? (don't even know what it is to be honest)... Are relic weapons still a thing? Should I try to do my MCH one or is that stuff for the more hardcore raiders?

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The optional dungeons can be fun, and add a lot more interest to the 50/60/70 roulette if you do that. Not a priority, but worth doing at some point.

Trials and raids are eight-man content. There's not a huge difference between them except the format of the quests and rewards, and some of the raids have a mini-dungeon before getting to the boss.

For the raids, as mentioned above, it's recommended to do the Alexander and Omega series (unlocked in Idyllshire and Rhalgr's Reach respectively) and the Eden series (starting at the Crystarium) continues Ryne's story and is also a good gear source for you at the moment, as it drops tokens you can exchange for gear. The third set of raids gives i510 gear, so not quite as strong as tome gear but easier to get.

For trials, and particularly since you're aiming to finish the role quest line for Shadowbringers, you should also do the level 60 Warring Triad storyline as that ultimately links up to something in the other story.

There's also the Binding Coil series which has been recommended to play before Endwalker, but it's a bit of an oddity because it's "savage level" gameplay without a more accessible story version, so don't just queue for it through the duty finder. It can be easily overpowered if you make use of the undersized (ie. unsynched) option with a couple of level 80 players.

Alliance raids are the large-scale dungeons like the Crystal Tower series. The later ones don't seem like they'd be really relevant for Endwalker so there's no need to prioritise them.

Relic weapons are time-consuming and just for glamour at this point. Better to work on it slowly over time.

For levelling a caster you mentioned using summoner because you have it at level 50, but red mage also starts at 50 and I find it a lot of fun. Summoner is getting quite a redesign in Endwalker so now probably isn't a good time to be learning to play it.

Thank you again for all the replies! Sounds like most agree trying out dungeons, trials and raids would be time well spent and I think it may indeed be time to get over this fear/anxiety over trying new things that carried over from my time in WoW. I still get filled with dread when queueing for something I've not done before out of fear that I'll make mistakes and be showered in insults, something that has yet to happen here. Just yesterday I did SoS as part of the story and it took us an hour to clear it, yet at no point did anyone berate or point fingers, rather discussing and giving helpful tips.

I think a clean slate for Endwalker would be the best gift from me to me that I could make. And maybe I can work on some other jobs/gathering along the way if time permits, who knows!

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Originally Posted by nebby00

Also, if you want to get into Bozja and get your relic for any class, I would also recommend getting that out of the way as well. With EW getting closer, there is no guarantee that Bozja will remain populated after it is no longer current.

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Bozja itself will probably still be relatively populated for 71-80 leveling(though I'm hoping they add an Echo buff like they did in Eureka), the big bottleneck will be Delubrum.

You should experience the best 24man in the game by unlocking Dun Scaith!

Well firstly no need to buy gear, so long as you have got some tome gear to meet the min lvl req of the first dungeon you can get more gear from there in EW. Save your money. Trials etc are not going anywhere, but the writer suggested we do the Omega raids for the story as well as somethiinggg else.. I forget which :x
I would focus on doing the story related suggestions so that the endwalker story hits home as hard as it can! The other stuff is all optional and can wait. If you do want a shadowbringer relic that would be the only one to try and get done sooner than later as I expect that content will die for a bit when endwalker first hits since ykno, everyone will be busy with msq for a while!

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Originally Posted by Daralii

Bozja itself will probably still be relatively populated for 71-80 leveling(though I'm hoping they add an Echo buff like they did in Eureka), the big bottleneck will be Delubrum.

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Probably. To be honest, don't really like Bozja content to begin with, the only reason I'm still lingering near it now is just for relics; that and I still need a few resistance rank to cap off the story and be done with actually going into Delubrum (although I probably will have to do that still for certain steps). Either or, getting Bozja out of the way for now is probably the best thing to do before EW, especially since everyone who caught up on MSQ will be doing the Endwalker MSQ which it will be most likely very slow getting groups during that time period. Perhaps people might go back to Bozja later after the excitement dials down to finish up relics; but otherwise it pretty much won't be as active as it is now.

I kind of doubt they'll add an Echo buff to Bozja because the stuff that actually requires groups already has one.

Start saving up gil by completing Eureka and farming bunny fates. Get ready for an Endwalker shopping spree!

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Originally Posted by Drkdays

Start saving up gil by completing Eureka and farming bunny fates. Get ready for an Endwalker shopping spree!

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Eureka is a time sink. Not something I'd recommend to someone who is asking which side content should be experienced first.

To experience most of the quality content in this game, you only really need to do the MSQ, the Hildibrand storyline, the raid storylines (Alexander/Omega/Eden), Alliance raid (Void Ark/Ivalice), and the trial storylines (Warring Triad/Four Lords/Werlyt). Beyond that, you're looking at diminishing returns. To experience the job storylines or Bozja, you're going to have to do a lot of grinding, time that could have been spent completing a JRPG or a visual novel or doing something else which you might enjoy more than grinding for tidbits of story.

There are a lot of guides telling you to do a lot of stuff, so it might seem overwhelming, but really you don't really need to do everything. When I played WoW, I tried being a completionist, but I've since realized that it was a lot of time wasted for stuff that I didn't really enjoy or stuff that doesn't really matter. It's okay to finish the stuff you're interested in and then move on with your life. Don't get caught in the skinner box trap. I guess it might be doable if you're young and have unlimited free time.

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Originally Posted by MoofiaBossVal

To experience the job storylines or Bozja, you're going to have to do a lot of grinding, time that could have been spent completing a JRPG or a visual novel or doing something else which you might enjoy more than grinding for tidbits of story.

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Agreed on Bozja (and Eureka), which take up large chunks of time and seem designed to make spending less that the full three-hour session seem wasteful of your resources once you've activated potions or whatever.

Levelling extra jobs is something you can work on slowly over time. One levelling roulette each day gets you there eventually, and only takes twenty minutes.

Plus, if you enjoy glamouring your characters, levelling different jobs gets you access to a whole new set of outfits.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Eureka is a time sink. Not something I'd recommend to someone who is asking which side content should be experienced first.

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Respectfully disagree. Eureka provides a whole lot more than most think. It's great for making gil, but also unique glamours, mounts, relic weapons (including several versions of each type), pets, bardings, special combat experiences including unique fates, logograms (like in bozja but a bit different) that let you step outside your normal class abilities, fun and interesting story with a scion you don't otherwise see much of, and more. Plus it's always stuffed with players from all your data center servers so it's not lonely content like bozja is starting to be.

I mean, it's all a time sink, but if he is looking for a place to start apart from end of shadowbringer content and wants to make gil, too, then it's Eureka.

Why is eureka and bozja considered not quality content? Both are a quality content, i enjoy both greatly, and i highly suggest all player to do that and you will find it quite challenging and it will unlock castrum raid, zadnor raid, delibrium reginae and arsenal in eureka which is very high quality content of raid, especially delibrium reginae savage, its very unique and require some planning and strategy among player which is very MMO like, and time sink doesnt always equal to low quality content if the payout and reward is good which both of them are good, the famed ozma and cerberus mount, relic weapon and elemental armor, this is only my opinion XD

Why is eureka and bozja considered not quality content? Both are a quality content, i enjoy both greatly, and i highly suggest all player to do that and you will find it quite challenging and it will unlock castrum raid, zadnor raid, delibrium reginae and arsenal in eureka which is very high quality content of raid, especially delibrium reginae savage, its very unique and require some planning and strategy among player which is very MMO like, and time sink doesnt always equal to low quality content if the payout and reward is good which both of them are good, the famed ozma and cerberus mount, relic weapon and elemental armor, this is only my opinion XD

I got my Cerberus pupper/s! Will any mount ever compare to that one? Seems unlikely.

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Originally Posted by Drkdays

I got my Cerberus pupper/s! Will any mount ever compare to that one? Seems unlikely.

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Ozma. I think it’s aesthetically greater. Just as hard to get to my understanding.
But congrats on your dog. That’s a heck of a feat

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Originally Posted by Drkdays

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Originally Posted by Ravor

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Both of you seem to be focused on the battle content in these places (and the rewards which are largely tradable outside of some specific glamours and mounts) and if we were in our usual "months between new content" state, then sure. But we're not.

We are one month away from Endwalker, the story finale that we have been told will benefit to some degree from being familiar with as many of the game's optional storylines as possible, with a shortlist of high priority storylines (Binding Coil and Omega, possibly also Alexander).

So getting through those stories should be the first focus, long before getting into the more self-contained storylines.

Therefore with that limited amount of time to spend, Bozja and especially Eureka simply give a poor ratio of time to plot. You will spend hours in there grinding FATEs for the same-or-less amount of plot you'd get out of a trial or raid series.

Gearing up isn't that important imo. If they follow the same formula as before, level 83 gear will be 530 and level 81 gear will be 520. Crafted level 80 gear will probably be 515 and you'll get some from the MSQ. Anything 500+ should be plenty for the expansion. An easy way to get it is to do Eden's Promise normal raids.

I would recommend just MSQ, all normal raids and alliance raids and an inventory cleanup. And if you want to make Gil in Endwalker there is a month to level up crafting and gathering classes.