Level 50 quest from AAR to Heavensward is just too much.

[Niwashi]

MSQ and daily roulettes will get you there at a good pace to follow the story and stay just about in sync with relevancy ... until suddenly, ARR, and you can't move on or go anywhere new or learn anything new until you eat the 200-hour lore dump

I agree that the issue people have with that section is being blocked there from other advancement, and with it being a massive lore dump (which is actually why it would be so hard to condense it any further -- it's so dense already), but it's nothing like 200 hours for those 100 mostly short quests.

(Someone did bring up a 200 hour estimate earlier, but that was for the entire MSQ from level one up to Shadowbringers. For that, I'm sure it's somewhere in the range of possibilities, with some people doing it much faster and others taking much longer.)

[snarkomatic]

I agree that the issue people have with that section is being blocked there from other advancement, and with it being a massive lore dump (which is actually why it would be so hard to condense it any further -- it's so dense already), but it's nothing like 200 hours for those 100 mostly short quests.

(Someone did bring up a 200 hour estimate earlier, but that was for the entire MSQ from level one up to Shadowbringers. For that, I'm sure it's somewhere in the range of possibilities, with some people doing it much faster and others taking much longer.)

Fair, but it feels like 200 hours. :b I work and have a kid, so I get usually only 3-4hrs a night to play (with huge amounts more on days off, but still) so it felt like I was crawling haha.

[Goji1639]

There's really no need for them to trim the story, just add an option to skip it entirely and start up the next expansion; once you're level appropriate. There are other ways to level a new character, and It would be a shame to lose or truncate content that they put a lot of work into, and that new players may want to experience in full.

[spf1200]

I think I'm the only person in the world that enjoyed those quests. They never seemed like a slog to me. Though maybe that's cause I did them in before heavensward came out

[SenorPatty]

There's a disconnect between the story pacing and the player's progression pacing now more than ever. I remember starting this game around 3.4 and the issue was my player in terms of gameplay had already hit cap for HW (I had bought the base game and expansion) because exp was practically everywhere. So now, I was thus lvl 60 smn, who was still slogging through the most disengaging parts of post-50 ARR ans basically managed to level up a drg to 50 just to not waste extra exp from the msq.

I feel like SE should throw a bone to people who buy the game and expansion by basically letting them play the joba tied to their respective expansion once they hit the cap level respective to that expansion. There wouldn't have any access to these job quests but at least, it would let them proceed to play the job they want while they continue the msq.

[Barta]

I raised this topic earlier, because plenty of my friends started playing FFXIV when Hrothgar released. Of the now forty that started playing, they all hit 50 and are slogging through that garbage.

It is garbage.

IDC what you say, that is my opinion.

When I came back for HW years ago and did it, it was garbage and took me months because it was boring and poorly designed.

It's still garbage, sad considering they've made three MMOs at this point. You'd think they would have learned.... Something?

And already at least five of my friends who started playing the game have quit. So you're losing new blood and subscriptions. Because of garbage.

But go off and tell me how they didn't deserve to play, how they should go play WoW (when most are coming from Everquest/FFXI/Second Life/Anarchy Online), or how they should just pay to skip the content. Essentially paying not to play. Those are some big brain takes. /s *eyeroll*

They certainly could NEVER condense all this garbage into a ten minute cutscene and stop wasting everyone's time and the game's damn potential. Neeeeever. How dare they EVER do something that isn't convoluted or completely ass backwards, that just isn't company policy.

[SamSmoot]

Start by deleting any quests where you travel to the other side of the world, talk to an NPC for 20 seconds, then travel right pack to where you started. Have the questgiver make a phone call instead

[Verlyn]

Start by deleting any quests where you travel to the other side of the world, talk to an NPC for 20 seconds, then travel right pack to where you started. Have the questgiver make a phone call instead

^^^
A good 60% of the questing process's frustration and tedium could be alleviated if the scions actually made use of their damn linkshell every so often.

[Barta]

^^^
A good 60% of the questing process's frustration and tedium could be alleviated if the scions actually made use of their damn linkshell every so often.

I feel like once an expansion they remember, "Oh fuck we have magic cellphones!" And then we go back to being their fucking messenger and errandboy.

Warrior of Light?

Courier of Light. 95% of the time. Then the Scions brush up against a Primal and are like,

"Ew, gross. Handle it."

[soulseeker78]

IMO they need to vastly increase the xp rewards from the some of MSQ, and remove the 3 hard-mode trials required to advance the MSQ near the end of the ARR patch content. They already did remove the guildhest requirement some time ago (thanks for that). Hopefully they may remove those other obstacles as well, especially with NG+ coming soon. As someone who just went through the ARR story again, nothing is more annoying than having a cutscene that builds tension towards a particular encounter, only to be greeted with a red quest indicator saying I need to get to the next level or complete some other piece of content to move on.