Quote Originally Posted by Elkanah View Post
All of FFXIV's 24man raids are not part of the story. They're mostly just extra stuff for additional gear upgrades, as well as dropping a token at the end of each raid to allow you to upgrade your tome gear (during that patch). But generally not part of the story at all. Neither do the 8 man raids. Though (some) require you to complete X-Raid to be able to access the MSQ in ShB post 5.2 (or 5.3?), but otherwise-- mostly just side story/quest stuff and extra gear options to play around with (or glamour for fun)
The crystal tower raids are part of the story now. They became mandatory a few patches ago.

I know because I had to painfully do WoD.