Forced to Raid?

[Evergrey]

Afaik you don't have to complete them before Endwalker.
It's just a recommendation as they have stories within that will tie in with Endwalker.

[CaptainLagbeard]

It was suggested by the lead writer that they be completed "To understand the story"... I don't think they specifically stated it'd be necessary to participate.

It didn't use to be required for quite some time, after digging around the Lodestone for past updates I managed to find this again. https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...7a304e8584f88a


Also, while there is nothing stopping them from making more things requiring to be done for the MSQ, they won't do it without good reason. The Crystal Tower raids story is pretty essential setup for the story of Shadowbringers, and the story pretty much directly assumes that you have done those raids and the quests around them.

[Illmaeran]

The anxiety of having to complete all these raids is just mentally exhausting.

I understand this 200%. I haven't done any actual "raiding" since Vanilla WoW days due to the levels of anxiety it gives me. Needless to say I didn't do any raiding except with full FC parties past Binding Coil up to the present day. That being said, the older raids; Binding Coil, Syrcus Tower, Crystal Tower, World of Darkness are very easy compared to ShB Trial content. I've had significant loss of reflexes due to medical treatment and have to use my mouse to click many abilities rather than use keybinds and am still able to make it through the ARR raids. I died a few times when re-learning the mechanics but since they're old daily Roulette things now I've never had any sort of negative pushback.

I was also able to make it through the Ivalice raids to unlock Bozja as well as the portions of Alexander that come up on the Roulette with little to no problems too. I'll encourage you to give them a try. I haven't given Omega a go yet but I'm going to guess it's pretty chill as well.

If you don't want to do the content in-game, there's always YouTube for the cutscenes.

[Krotoan]

It didn't use to be required for quite some time, after digging around the Lodestone for past updates I managed to find this again. https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...7a304e8584f88a


Also, while there is nothing stopping them from making more things requiring to be done for the MSQ, they won't do it without good reason. The Crystal Tower raids story is pretty essential setup for the story of Shadowbringers, and the story pretty much directly assumes that you have done those raids and the quests around them.

I'm aware of when that happened and as you found there is a very specific announcement saying they are going to be MSQ required. So since we've gotten no such specific announcement I'm relatively sure the comment about her encouraging us to do the raids wasn't a warning that we will have to do them. So far as we've been told it'll just flesh out the story.

[nebby00]

As other people have said, the other raids in FFXIV are not mandatory outside of the Crystal Tower raids. However, if you want to do the long grinds like the shiny, cool relic weapons, or have a more comprehensive grasp of the story going into Endwalker; then yes, you're going to have to do the raids. In all honesty, the raids aren't too hard and the ARR ones are the easiest out of all of them. Plus, I'd personally recommend unlocking and completing all of the raids due to getting some variety for the Alliance Roulette that can award you tombstones and gil daily.

[KitKatnip]

Thank you all for your replies. I really appreciate it. I realize that not everyone feels the same way about raiding and it helps to hear that these older content raids can be run at the lowest difficulty via duty finder. I have a mood disorder so sometimes I ruminate on things and end up turning molehills into mountains. I think I will check out the unlocking for some of these and see how it goes from there.

[Tonkra]

I keep seeing posts and discussions about content you must complete before Endwalker. One of these being the raids. I'm not a raider. I didn't even want to do the Syrcus tower series and it annoyed me that I had to do it. I'm not particularly fond of the forced dungeons to get through the MSQ either but dungeons are short and fun so that's ok.

Do we actually have to complete the raids (that have thus far been optional) for Endwalker or is this just one of those recommended so you get the story (which I could get from watching Youtube vidoes) kind of thing?

The anxiety of having to complete all these raids is just mentally exhausting.

Are you originally from WoW or why do you have this kind of opinion? Whats so terrible about raiding?

[Saraide]

I keep seeing posts and discussions about content you must complete before Endwalker. One of these being the raids. I'm not a raider. I didn't even want to do the Syrcus tower series and it annoyed me that I had to do it. I'm not particularly fond of the forced dungeons to get through the MSQ either but dungeons are short and fun so that's ok.

Do we actually have to complete the raids (that have thus far been optional) for Endwalker or is this just one of those recommended so you get the story (which I could get from watching Youtube vidoes) kind of thing?

The anxiety of having to complete all these raids is just mentally exhausting.

You're afraid over literally nothing. The story is in normal raids and those are just not difficult and that's by design specifically so people like you can get the raid story. If you've made it through shadowbringers, you've encountered story trials more difficult than normal mode alex and omega raids. Alex, Omega and Eden raids can be comfortably done through duty finder. Binding coils is a bit different but it can just be unsync'd now. Just ask around for someone to carry you through if you cant do it yourself.

[KitKatnip]

Are you originally from WoW or why do you have this kind of opinion? Whats so terrible about raiding?

I've played WoW in the past (WotLK through Cata) and did not care for raiding there. I've also played a lot of other MMOs over the years as well including GW1 and GW2, Rift, Aion, ESO, The Secret World, EverQuest and probably a bunch more I've forgotten.

Raiding just stresses me out because it's so time consuming and there are a lot of people involved.

[Vahlnir]

I've played WoW in the past (WotLK through Cata) and did not care for raiding there. I've also played a lot of other MMOs over the years as well including GW1 and GW2, Rift, Aion, ESO, The Secret World, EverQuest and probably a bunch more I've forgotten.

Raiding just stresses me out because it's so time consuming and there are a lot of people involved.

In FF XIV, 24 man "raids" are raids in name only. They are basically just bigger dungeons. I wouldn't really call them time consuming either. There's nothing to be concerned about. Seriously.