Having to slog through lvl 50 quests is tedious

[Iscah]

The HW story actually starts as early as in 2.3 - when we start looking for "Lady Iceheart"

By that logic, the Heavensward story actually starts right back in the Coerthas story arc (Lv35-40ish), which introduces some important characters and the general 'idea' of Ishgard and its problems.

And then there's the dragoon quests. If you are not yet at Heavensward and intend to play dragoon at some point, this is a good time to do that questline. The Lv30-50 dragoon quests are an early introduction to a character who is involved in the Heavensward MSQ, so if you do it later it will be "out of sequence" as if the Heavensward story hasn't happened yet.

[savageink]

By that logic, the Heavensward story actually starts right back in the Coerthas story arc (Lv35-40ish), which introduces some important characters and the general 'idea' of Ishgard and its problems.

And then there's the dragoon quests. If you are not yet at Heavensward and intend to play dragoon at some point, this is a good time to do that questline. The Lv30-50 dragoon quests are an early introduction to a character who is involved in the Heavensward MSQ, so if you do it later it will be "out of sequence" as if that story hasn't happened yet.

Goons don't read...

[MistakeNot]

By that logic, the Heavensward story actually starts right back in the Coerthas story arc (Lv35-40ish), which introduces some important characters and the general 'idea' of Ishgard and its problems.

Depends on how one defines the story I suppose. The lv35-40 Coerthas quests do set the scene for the later HW story, but are not part of it as I see it.
I consider the HW story to be "The Ending of the Dragonsong War", and that story starts with us looking for Lady Iceheart and ends with The Final Steps of Faith.

And then there's the dragoon quests. If you are not yet at Heavensward and intend to play dragoon at some point, this is a good time to do that questline. The Lv30-50 dragoon quests are an early introduction to a character who is involved in the Heavensward MSQ, so if you do it later it will be "out of sequence" as if the Heavensward story hasn't happened yet.

Heh. I am currently taking an alt through the 2.x quests - an alt with Dragoon as her main class for precisely this reason, and because I hear several dialogues in HW are slightly different if you have done the DRG quests already.