New Jobs Gated Behind Completion of 2.0 Story?

[Teryaani]

Should a new player have to complete the MSQ to get to the new MSQ chain in heavensward? Yes, absolutely.
Should they have to hit level 30 to open up the new jobs? Again, absolutely. That's the minimum for a new job.
Should completing the 2.55 MSQ be required to open the new jobs? ....

I understand gating the quest chain and content. If there was a valid story reason that they couldn't hand-wave around, I might be able to understand one of the jobs being gated, but not all of them. As has been said previously, there are still nearly three months to go and development isn't finalized yet, so I'm holding out hope that this isn't the last word on this.

[KisaiTenshi]

I'm not sure it's 80%.

Things you will not need to get to Ishgard;

• more than two classes and 1 job
• any DoH
• any DoL
• any Coil clears
• any CT/ST/WoD clears
• beast tribe dailies
• delivery moogle quests
• treasure maps
• hunt marks
• Hildebrand quests
• any side quests
• Housing
• FC membership
• seasonal events
• optional mounts, minions, or vanity gear in general
• anything in Gold Saucer
• Leves of any kind
• Atma/Animus/etc...
• spirit bonding for tier IV materia

I could be wrong, but I think all you actually *need* is the MSQ, HM primals, 1 Job + associated classes (at minimum level for the job) and can get by with gear purchased using tomes.

I'd estimate that you actually need to experience less than a quarter of what the game has to offer in order to see Ishgard.

But this ignores:
- Grinding to get to level 50 so you can start earning tomes to...
- Needing to get to ilevel 90 to do those quests.

A new player with no help can't do the first part in under a month, and can't do the second part in under a week. Especially if they pick DPS. On the other hand a new player who starts as a Tank can probably do everything in under a week if they spend 18 hours a day on it.

There is a bit of a bell curve between getting level 50 and being able to actually do any of the "hard" dungeons using only tomes gear. If you're a fresh 50 you likely don't have a level 50 main weapon, nor do you have any level 50 right-hand-side gear. The hard mode dungeons don't really have to be played to complete the storyline except for the one "expert dungeon roulette" - "Keeper of the Lake" which is level 90 (and rewards ilevel 100 gear.)

[Aeyis]

Yes, people are arguing that new players should have to play the whole of the main story, hours and hours and hours of main story, as a class they don't really want to play just so that they can actually play as the class they really want to play. Screw newbs, I had to do it (over the course of a year) so they should have to as well!

What class? They are adding classes in heavensward?

Snip

A new player can do all of that in a months time. Leveling a battle class takes little time. In fact you get a level per day just from the roulette bonusses/rested.

[StouterTaru]

A new player can do all of that in a months time. Leveling a battle class takes little time. In fact you get a level per day just from the roulette bonusses/rested.

By playing 6-8 hours a day... for a month... just to start on the content they bought the game to play; the stuff on the box.

[Verdan]

What class? They are adding classes in heavensward?

Ah, pedantry. A fine spice to terrible posts.

[Aeyis]

By playing 6-8 hours a day... for a month... just to start on the content they bought the game to play; the stuff on the box.

No, thats by playing only a small amount of time. 6-8 hours a day would get you to 50, in what, days?

I also have to ask again, why assume new players bought the game for just the Heavensward content? Why would the content before that be worthless to them?

[Teryaani]

No, thats by playing only a small amount of time. 6-8 hours a day would get you to 50, in what, days?

I also have to ask again, why assume new players bought the game for just the Heavensward content? Why would the content before that be worthless to them?

It shouldn't be. I'm not sure the crux of the argument against this is 'Should the players be unwilling to clear the story mode?' because, you're right, in order to get to the new zone and some of the new features they absolutely should be willing to.

Neither do I think leveling to 50 is all that onerous now that people have figured out the fastest ways to do it. My original leveling experience was all over the place, so I took a look at how long it took to level ROG/NIN and I did it in about a month...of playing that class maybe an hour or two a night on average. If you're able to commit a lot of time, it's less than two weeks (it certainly can be done in a week or less if you push). If not, it's still probably less than a month.

The question is, is there a valid reason to gate the new jobs behind the MSQ? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe for some and not all. I'm personally in the camp of, probably not for all.

[Lorielle]

Changes will probably happen. Still plenty of time for clarification. If it's gated through content(which makes sense really from a story perspective) then that's just how it is. No one is trying to be a jerk when it comes to this. From a logical stand point, I do not see how a brand spanking new adventurer(who gets dropped off in Grid/Uldah/Lominsa) can suddenly waltz into Ishgard where the new jobs are. How would you even incorporate that just to be 'fair' to the new people? MSQ does not take that long to get through. It really doesn't if you want to skip cutscenes. It may take long if the newcomer wants to enjoy the story(which by this point, Ishgard's jobs are irrelevant). Leveling one job to 50 does not take a ridiculous amount of time. At most two weeks. Perhaps less depending on how much effort you put into it. (It took less than 24 Hours to hit 50 when NIN was released)

[Viridiana]

So it's roughly the same if you magically have the level 50 gear waiting for you?

What's magical about it? Hit 50, you have i55 chest, i50 hat, gloves, pants, feet. That's about ilvl 19, ignoring weapon, belt, and jewelry. Weapon is probably 48 or so; belt is probably 39 or something because the game hates belts; jewelry is probably either all 38/39 or all 48/49. Even with the lowbie jewelry and belt, your average level is around 45. Replacing just the jewelry gets you around 50.

So, you do CM and Prae, which combined give you 240 Soldiery. You're now done with 2.0 story. Next is hard mode Primals. You already have the ilvl for Ifrit, easily. First time Ifrit puts you at 312 Soldiery. Do a few more goes for weapons and tomestones (or get tomestones from elsewhere, whatever's fastest). At 375, replace your lowest ilvl gear with Soldiery gear. This puts you into Garuda territory. Howling Eye Hard nets you another 72 Soldiery. Do a low level and a main scenario roulette to boost this to 312. Try to get a Garuda weapon, and replace your lowest ilvl jewelry at 375 again. This puts you around ilvl 59; 60 or higher if you have a primal weapon. That's enough for Titan and Moggle Mog and Leviathan. That's 252 Soldiery. Spend a night trying for the Leviathan weapon, and replace the lowest jewelry again at 375 (9 runs of Leviathan, or a couple of hunts if you want to do that). If you got the Levi weapon or detoured for the relic, you're now at ilvl 65. Ramuh is open for 90 Soldiery.

If you got the relic, you have about 150 Soldiery at this point, 15 if you didn't farm Leviathan at all. It's at this point that detouring to open up all the other dungeons starts sounding better, especially since you can gear up along the way. Or, you can buy gear. Or, you can hunt for gear. Or you can join EX primal parties. Or you can do about anything else for gear. Assuming you get no other gear from dungeons/primals/whatever, you need about 3 more pieces to unlock Snowcloak and Shiva. Another 3 pieces after that for Chrysalis and Steps of Faith. Snowcloak and Shiva combined will get you 230 Tomes, not counting whatever drops in Snowcloak. That's about a third of the way to Steps of Faith. Every day that you do low level and main scenario roulette, you get most of a piece.

You could, for example, do the two roulettes each day during the week and then work through the story on the weekend. Or do the roulettes any day that you run into an ilvl block. Of course, current crafted gear will likely be cheaper in 3.0. And all this assumes that current gear stays at current prices. If they do away with Soldiery and make Poetics the easy gear to get, that means even fewer pieces of gear to replace.

The current cost on Balmung to gear a PLD (minus weapon and shield) in all i90 crafted is 1.6 million straight off the MB. Except, of course, you won't need to pay that much because you'd be mixing it with Tome gear. And with the exception of weapon and shield, right now the slots that cost the fewest tomes cost the most gil. With about 3 tomestone purchases, you'd be below 1 million gil, assuming you couldn't stand to wait any more. And as usual, it's cheaper still if you can get an FC mate to craft it for cost of mats.

[PlumpyMcduff]

It's called an EXPANSION.

EXPANDS UPON.