Unlocking Content

[Ashkendor]

Yes they are about entertainment and that is doing the dungeons and gearing your character. I don't care about the lore of a dungeon or a boss I just want my loot or exp from it. That's how most mmo players are but of course there are those who do enjoy the lore so they have both elements to please everyone.

If you don't care about the lore and you just want your loot, you may have chosen the wrong game. Given that FFXIV is heavily story driven, I don't expect that the Coil lockout will go anywhere anytime soon. The same goes for the x primals. It doesn't make any sense for you to hit level 50 and suddenly have a veritable smorgasbord of raid encounters magically unlock themselves in Duty Finder. You have to face those fights one at a time, proving that you can best them before you're able to move on to the next challenge. Like I said before, put some effort toward clearing them. If you don't see a learning party for something, make one. Go make friends and kill things together with them!

[SirDiscoFrog]

It doesn't make any sense for you to hit level 50 and suddenly have a veritable smorgasbord of raid encounters magically unlock themselves in Duty Finder.

Adding onto this, it would also be VERY overwhelming for many. Where would one even start and for what reason? Gated content are also in a sense goals to move forward and progress, giving you a path to go on. Idk about your server but on mine people are still doing clear parties for older EXs and while there is the stigma of Duty Finder, some trials are able to be beaten in DF (Rahmu EX and Shiva EX from personal experience). It wont be instant and may take time, but contrary to popular belief that those who did content fresh out the gate had it easy, it took a decent amount of time for some of them as well. As you make these PF's people might start recognizing your name and may even start joining you quicker based off of doing previous parties with you.

Many raids/trials also use tweaked versions of other mechanics. You start learning Divebombs in T5 and it remains relevant even in Turn 13. Tank swap mechanics are pushed starting with Garuda EX and there is slight tweaks to it in many of the EXs that even trickle into Coils. It even goes as far as making 'Heal Swaps' for a few of the fights. Seeing and learning all this comes from experiencing the older content.

If you still are gunho about not wanting to do older content and just gear asap, get Poetics gears or Coil. This game has multiple ways of gearing to the highest ilvl possible even if you can't do the raids. And at least with Coil you only have T5 and T9 to do, and from what Ive noticed T9 is still quite popular. But removing the gates behind certain content would cause more harm than good.

[Dicejss]

If you don't care about the lore and you just want your loot, you may have chosen the wrong game

No I did not as an mmorpg has the gameplay that I am looking for so your statement that I should only be playing a mmorpg for the story really is moot. MMOs have and will forever be about the gameplay itself not about the story. Secondly I'm not trying to be selfish but you all are trying to burn me at the stake for stating my opinion on how the content is locked behind all these quests at end game. Clearly some of you need to take a chill pill and stop being so angry.

[SirDiscoFrog]

MMOs have and will forever be about the gameplay itself not about the story..

However that's the thing, FFXIV is different from many MMOs in that aspect, hence Ashkendor's comment. They are playing off of their main fans being players of their FF games and catering to that trying to make a story that is at least somewhat appealing and hiding in extras revealing more lore in the harder raid content. Yes gameplay of course will be important to them, but its not like the story is put on the backburner either.

In terms of the burning at the stake, you only have your sweeping generalizations to blame for that lol

EDIT:

Yes they might but considering how future patches will continue to add more content to clear that ladder of previous content you have to clear is just going to get higher and higher.

In Heavensward the only thing required from 2.## is finishing all of the Main Scenario, everything else you can access right off the bat once you enter in Ishgard. Alexander will be out weeks after the release so that's more time to complete older content, and now with their being an option to do duties un-level synced or with lesser people there more options to finish older content. However at that point the 2.## gear will only be helpful for leveling/glamor. 3.0 will have their own BiS gear which you can get without the previous trials. It doesn't need to be completed to stay up to date, gear wise or content wise besides having all the dungeons unlocked for Tomes.

[Ashkendor]

No I did not as an mmorpg has the gameplay that I am looking for so your statement that I should only be playing a mmorpg for the story really is moot. MMOs have and will forever be about the gameplay itself not about the story. Secondly I'm not trying to be selfish but you all are trying to burn me at the stake for stating my opinion on how the content is locked behind all these quests at end game. Clearly some of you need to take a chill pill and stop being so angry.

Disagreeing with you =/= burning you at the stake. Disagreeing with you =/= being angry. You made some pretty broad statements, and they've been refuted. That's all. In any case, even if you chose FFXIV for the gameplay you need to understand that it's a very story driven MMO, and "because lore" is a very real justification for a lot of things you may not like. If encounters are gated behind other encounters because lore, that's just the way it's gonna be.

Yes they might but considering how future patches will continue to add more content to clear that ladder of previous content you have to clear is just going to get higher and higher. My suggestion is they should fix it before it becomes a huge problem down the road. My reasoning for this is twofold, one is for returning players who have been gone and come back with having to clear previous stuff or two with new players they have to clear everything to get where current players are.I myself returned couple months ago and had to catch up on all the months of stuff I missed in patches. I have no problems with clearing content my issue is finding people that can and are willing to help so as I see it moving forward this can be a huge problem for many others as well.

You don't need to do Coil to do Alexander. That's already been announced. We don't know yet if you need to clear the current extreme mode primals to access Ravana EX. My guess is going to be no, since ours are currently split into two tiers (Garuda/Titan/Ifrit, Leviathan/Mog/Ramuh/Shiva) for the sake of greater accessibility. It seems more likely that the Heavensward primals will be separate from the ARR primals, and simply have it be optional content.

People always seem to come back to the old chestnut, "I have no problem clearing, but I can't find seven other people that can also do it." The fact is, you can find them. You simply have to look. Yes, you're going to have to expend effort getting to know people. It's an MMO. That's pretty much what it's all about. Ask your FC. Join linkshells. Go be social. Hell, shout in Mor Dhona. Jump into Party Finders for things you do know how to do. Get to know people, and ask if they can help you. Keep an eye out for Party Finders for the content you want to learn. Put up Party Finders of your own if you don't see any. Watch a guide while you wait for the party to fill. Shout in Mor Dhona some more. Keep at it till your party fills. People won't help you if they don't realize you exist, so go out there and proclaim it in every way you can think of. "HEY! I'm here and I'd really like to learn this! Who wants to learn with me?" Clears don't just fall into your lap! Go out there and get them.

[GenJoe]

If you don't care about the lore and you just want your loot, you may have chosen the wrong game

I know that's not directed at me, but I knew the moment I got out of Limsa and had my first combat that this was not the game for me..
I only stuck around because of friends though, still can't stand the combat.. Although it did get a tad bit better at lv 50 with more skills to use.

Crafting is where the game grasps my interest, that and having friends to play with, I do wish crafting wasn't gated behind MSQ, i.e. that I didn't need a level 60 combat class in order to do level 60 mastercrafts, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Been slowly grinding out MSQ to prepare and I sincerely hope I'm wrong in my assumption that I need to do MSQ to access the mastercraft recipes, because I have an alt builder of the realms that still needs to do MSQ