Fresh level 50 with limited time

[Delily]

Hello all! I'm looking for some feedback, in fact I am not ure this is the right forums.

Anyways, I just hit 50 a few nights ago and beat the 2.0 main story line (credits and everything). As I am looking at the elder game, I am realizing I don't have the time or interest do gear grinding. I enjoy the social elements of the game, as well as the main quest line. Is there a place for a player who just wants to complete the main questline, do some of the lesser challenges, and then take a break to play some other games (coming back when new chapters are released) Or the elder game in FFXIV the type where your gear needs to stay current all the time?

[Ophie-Mio]

Even to do the relic quest (which is the first stepping stone to your lvl 50 job), you need to be geared to a certain extent. Ilevel requirements and all. Eventually as well the main storyline will have fights that require higher ilevels. You need to have the basic gear to do that. The basic gear can now be dropped from the expert dungeons, which also have a higher ilevel. Your gear needs to be reasonably current (and if you're a healer, you can get away with a bit) in order to progress to certain extends.

The hard mode dungeons do also sometimes drop higher ilevel gear like Darklight that can be used to get past ilevel restrictions. Same with Crystal Tower and Syrcus Tower. It's an MMO so you are expected to gear grind to a reasonable degree.

[Kyoskai]

You'll be fine, whatever base gear you need to do future content will be obtainable in simpler ways later.

[Eltaire]

As Kyosaki said, gear from content now will be made easier to obtain in future.
For instance, you can run Crystal Tower to get the gear set, and then Syrcus Tower for the gear set (as there is no longer a one item per week restriction). In addition, Syrcus Tower also drops Sands of Time and Oil of Time which is used to upgrade the iLevel of some of your equipment purchased with Tomes of Soldiery.

I am a pretty casual gamer myself, and am still able to tackle the content in my own time.

[Wysteria]

I'd suggest you to unlock Crystal Tower or Syrcus Tower since you'll get high enough ilv to do almost anything except for the coils raid
once you hit around ilv 90-100, you can just take a break and come back, since they won't need anything higher than that to do story quests

[Thowniii]

You don't deserve this game. You either play all of it, or play none of it. End of story.

[Estellios]

If you want to mostly worry about the storyline you should have no issues. Item level 90 gear has been around since launch and is still good enough to do the current storyline and not-binding-coil content with, and it's very quick and simple to get gear better than that in very little time.

Finish your relic weapon (preferrably Zenith it too) and run all of the dungeons at least once. The Roulettes they unlock will make your play sessions more time-efficient and you get a ton of bonus soldiery for first-clears of dungeons. This combined with the raids in the Crystal Tower storyline (Labyrinth of the Ancients and Syrcus Tower, currently) will have you more than geared up for casual content for the foreseeable future.

[Delily]

Great, thanks everyone! I like the ideas here, looks like I just need to plan out a little of what I want to do!

[TheTen]

The quest to unlock the Crystal Tower raids starts in Saint Coinach's, Mor Dhona. These two raids will net you everything you need to be geared up for anything but the hardest end game. As a healer, one run including queue times should take about an hour of your time. (Queue time depends on time of day and day of week of course.) It's technically the best use of your time, but won't net you a lot of income, and will get repetitive really fast.

For the sake of variety, also unlock at least all available dungeons (some of them unlock through the main storyline, others are unlocked from various places all over the map, check your map for lvl 50 quest icons) and run daily roulette for extra tomes and lots of gil. One dungeon run commonly takes around 30 minutes for healers, but may go up to 60 if the group is new or disorganised (or someone needs to go AFK). Unlocking all storyline primals and their hard modes if applicable and the Hildibrand questline will also give you Trial roulette, which is potentially the fastest (an overgeared group can finish a primal fight in ten minutes), but also has a higher chance of repeat wipes (some players have no patience for properly doing mechanics in roulette).

[Delily]

For the sake of variety, also unlock at least all available dungeons (some of them unlock through the main storyline, others are unlocked from various places all over the map, check your map for lvl 50 quest icons) and run daily roulette for extra tomes and lots of gil. Onedungeon run commonly takes around 30 minutes for healers, but may go up to 60 if the group is new or disorganised (or someone needs to go AFK). Unlocking all storyline primals and their hard modes if applicable and the Hildibrand questline will also give you Trial roulette, which is potentially the fastest (an overgeared group can finish a primal fight in ten minutes), but also has a higher chance of repeat wipes (some players have no patience for properly doing mechanics in roulette).

Thanks for the response! I've spent the past few nights unlocking HM dungeons, the Crystal Tower, Ifrit HM, and starting my relic weapon quest. My ilvl is incredibly low at this point, only 46, so I am assuming the best use of my limited timed would be the main questline and regular roulettes. The Hildebrand questline didn't cross my radar, but I know that unlocks some trials, so its look like I have something to work on while waiting for queues.