Can't Access 3.0 until you complete 2.0-2.55

[Fleur]

I've been thinking about this topic a bit. As a returning player from 1.0, I have a boatload of main story quests to complete. I was going to do them at a leisurely pace, as I want to do some gathering and crafting. But I want to be able to pick up Astrologian as soon as possible, so I have decided to buckle down and get them done!

"Use the Duty Finder to enter [insert duty here]" is quickly becoming the bane of my FFXIV existence. I'll be going along my merry way and killing things and fetching things and BAM! There it is. I've got to be sure I have a good stretch of time set aside to be chained to my desk, and then wait about a half hour to start said duty. And I've just finished Brayflox, so that's what, only 20 more required duties to go? Ugh.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the occasional dungeon, but I do not enjoy so many of them being placed as roadblocks in the ginormous chain of quests that is the main story.

[silentwindfr]

in the story quest from 2.1-2.5 part 1, we do have soo far:
- mog hm trial
- leviathan hm trial
- ramuh hm trial
- shiva hm trial
- snowcloak
- and the keeper of the lake.

exept ramuh, the rest is often done by people, especially the trial, recently i have done it as dps for my nexus, at the main hours this trial had something like 30 sec to 1 minutes of wait time... this part are not the harder, actually all the fetch quest are more annoying than this part. since most of the time you get people over stuffed for do this sort of content.

[Kanemano]

New players will level in 2.0 areas. Relatively, it's "old" content to us, but to new players ALL of this will be new. There won't be a dearth of leveling players at launch either, considering we have 3 new jobs to level, all of which cover the holy trinity of Tank, Healer, and DPS.

From a developer standpoint, for an expansion that matches or exceeds the content size of ARR launch is easier to accomplish when you don't have to accommodate the initial leveling phase since they already established that with ARR. All resources can then be used in end-game content creation (ranging from casual/mid-core/hard-core raids).

It could be argued that it's boring to have to go through old content to level the 3 new jobs, so I wouldn't be surprised if they added a handful of new content for leveling (but nothing in the scope of 2.0). But who really enjoys grinding to 50 anyway? Nothing is really learned until you gain the entire toolset at level cap; rotations/skill priorities change for arguably all jobs by the end.

[Red_Wolf]

The Astral Era quests not giving XP is not a big issue, they unlock a lot of content the new player may want to try from dungeons and trials, raids or such in the future...just like every few levels of the MSQ has done from the offset with Umbral Era and expansion MSQ will do. Don't forget a few of the Astral Era quests also give Materia grade IV which can net a new player a lot of Gil which alone makes them worth doing.

You really think a brand new player won't get incredibly annoyed by having to do several hours of MSQ's for no xp?

It annoys me now. That'd be good xp for a secondary class.

[Fenral]

You really think a brand new player won't get incredibly annoyed by having to do several hours of MSQ's for no xp?

It annoys me now. That'd be good xp for a secondary class.

Those quests don't give EXP because 50 is the level cap. Once the cap raises, that will probably change.

[FallenArisen0990]

This makes sense because you have to finish the story to unlock end game content. FFXI worked differently because the stories weren't like and had no impact on what was available to you other than unlocking a new end game zone. I'm glad SE chose this route for XIV.

[Rhas]

My only concern here is as others players have voiced (****please listen SE!!!!!*****).....the dungeon/raid based content is going to become difficult to complete. Maybe not the dungeons since we'll have people leveling new jobs all the time, but CM/Prae/Westwide are really long queues on my server, which is quite busy, esp. if you are DPS. LOTRO ran into a similar issue since they also required players to complete previous story arches before entering into new content...but they resolved that by simplifying some of the "group" content to accomodate smaller groups and/or the solo player. That may be a good option for SE to look at going into the future.

Didn't Yoshi state in a live interview that they were looking into making it so you could enter dungeons with your *own* grand company NPC that level up as you go along?

Problem Solved.

[Rhas]

They've said before that they're looking into it. I wouldn't worry too much.

It's actually hilarious how the only people here "worried" about new players having to do the MS are players who have already done it, and not any of the actual new players. If I had to guess, what you guys really want is an easy skip to get your alts up to Alexander... Raiding is a privilege, not a right, and like all things in this game, it has to be earned. Sorry.

I have 3 characters at 2.50 right now and another 5 in between (covering various different jobs for lower level dungeons). I really only want my 3 'mains' at end game currently. Yes I have completed the *entire* (minus turn 9+) story 3 times already and loved every minute of it because that's what I personally like to do. My 3rd character just finished 2.50 2 days ago.

[Ultimatecalibur]

This is a general annoyance to me, but my biggest issue is:

The MSQ's from 2.1 to 2.55 don't offer any XP. So there is nothing the player is gaining until 3.0. Right now you're earning access to dungeons and new parts of the game. When 3.0 comes out most of that stuff will be old news and not worth it.

That will likely change when the Expansion hits. The current Endgame content and quests will likely be good sources of XP for levels 50 to 60, minimum expected ilevel for Heavensward is likely to be i90 to i100 and i130 gear is supposed to be viable level 60 endgame starting gear.