I have to complete 100 quests to access Heavensward?

[Amiaze]

I see, I see. I probably came off as a jerk a little bit and apologize. I have very much enjoyed the story but found myself wanting to optionally continue it later so I can visit Ishgard and do some side quests. Good to hear that it may not take too awful long to play with my buddies. Much appreciation for the respectful input!

I'm glad you're enjoying the story and are getting caught up! It really is good. I got frustrated early on with all the pointless filler, especially pre-Garuda, and gave up for a while. Take your time and enjoy the game before you get meet the massive wall known as The Tomestone Lockout.

You're also much more likely to enjoy Heavensward's pacing and story if you suffered through the hours of filler in A Realm Reborn.

Well, except for the infamous

never ending Moogle Quests!

[Vandril]

Well, except for the infamous

never ending Moogle Quests!

Which are entirely skippable. :3

[Amiaze]

Which are entirely skippable. :3

Very true. I actually didn't finish them all for a long time, but I did need to do quite a bit of them to get some EXP. You can always just spam dungeons or hunt marks, though.

[Vandril]

Very true. I actually didn't finish them all for a long time, but I did need to do quite a bit of them to get some EXP. You can always just spam dungeons or hunt marks, though.

I didn't do a single side quest beyond the level 50 ones in Sea of Clouds while leveling my first class to 60. Nor did I do any dungeon more than once, or more than a FATE or two (literally one or two, to check the EXP amounts). I also did not have an EXP head start with the patch 2.0-2.55 story quests at level 50, as I was done with it all by HW. All I did was do all of my daily roulettes for their generous EXP bonuses, unlocked and did the daily HW hunts asap, and played through the main story.

Since then, level 50 dungeons have been made to grant EXP on mob kills (I think I read that, anyhow) and FATE EXP has been increased in HW substantially. Combined with the exp head start granted by the level 50 MSQ that new players can take advantage of, one could get to 60 without a hitch without doing a single side quest in HW.

[Kimbot]

I like FFXiV.

[Lemuel81]

I can understand people do not want to do the story, some people just like to race to the end and grind grind grind, or they want to race to catch up with friends. One of my favorite part of this game is its story, I think its amazing. People who want to skip story and quests, this is probably not the best MMO for them. The game revolves around the story

[rallyd]

I've been in the game for a couple weeks, and I'm kind of glad that you need to experience the story before being allowed to move on. Final Fantasy has always been about the story, so it's cool to see them sticking to their roots. I've been enjoying pretty much leveling through only the story quests with some random class quests/FATEs thrown in every now and then. Very close to getting Dragoon up and running!

[Gyson]

I see, I see. I probably came off as a jerk a little bit and apologize. I have very much enjoyed the story but found myself wanting to optionally continue it later so I can visit Ishgard and do some side quests. Good to hear that it may not take too awful long to play with my buddies. Much appreciation for the respectful input!

Rather than looking at it as a bunch of main storyline quests to progress through between level 50 and access to Ishgard, just pretend Ishgard content is level locked and you still have a bunch of leveling to do to access it. Because "level 50" is just a number, and in the end it's about progressing through the game, and the simple fact is you have not progressed far enough through this game to access the end of it. Whether it's 50 more levels or 50 more quests.. it's still time you're going to have to spend chewing through content to reach "the end".

Just so we're on the same page.. those stories you're in a hurry to rush through at level 50.. there's a ton more of them waiting for you between levels 51 to 60. When you finally do get access to Ishgard you're going to realize that the game hasn't changed at all beyond the fact that you now have access to a new zone, which is just more of what you've already been unlocking from the day you first started playing.

So, the short of it is this: if you've been enjoying the game between 1 and 49 - good news! You've got a lot more of it left ahead of you to keep enjoying! Don't be in such a rush to join everyone standing around AFK with nothing to do while they wait for the next update and the content that comes with it (i.e. more of that story you still fortunately have plenty of to enjoy).

[antonio6579]

Well has a returning player i had 2 characters level 50 ninja and dragoon. i finished up the main story line "ultimate weapon" thats what i thought.. and hey i followed the story pretty epic. then i proceeded to buy HW only to find i had to do exacly 100 quests to get to HW content.. but still, i was like well its goin to fill me in with the story at least its goin to be good too.. but after doing 10 quests in a row of gathering grass to make tea im now insta skipping anything and everything hoping to get to HW without unistalling first.

[Frizze]

Wow, serious necro-bump. Anyway, for a quick answer. The 7th astral era quests start a little slow, but i would still recommend paying attention and not just auto-skipping. They serve a few important purposes. First, they introduce some characters and concepts that are very important going forward(we're still dealing with the aftermath of those quests now as we get ready to go into the stormblood expansion more then 2 years later). Second, the quests are moving some important pieces around in the story. Third, theyre giving an isolationist nation in the midst of a thousand year war a reason to trust you and let you pass their Gate of Judgement. And fourth, theyre telling a great story. As i said, it starts slow but ive heard many people say that it was somewhere during the 2.3-2.55 stretch that the story finally grabbed them. The most casual of players can easily get through the stack in 2 weeks, and they can be done MUCH quicker then that(its something like 5-6 hours of content if you read/watch everything, 90-120 mins if you skip everything).