Alex

[Dualblade]

Aren't those required to enter HW anyway?

They were but that wasn't added in till near the end of its life, the rest of the story you can do before it.

And I guess I never realised that since I did them back in 2.1 for the relic. Coulda sworn I was able to do the first part of CT without doing them though.

[Violyre]

Aren't those required to enter HW anyway?

Nope. They're not part of the MSQ.

[Remus]

Binding Coil didn't need anything but the main story up to 2.0 in order to do it. Same for CT raid if I'm right. So you should be fine.

And yes lore-wise Alexander is a Primal. Well, maybe an Eikon who knows currently at this point with wierd definitions and all that.

In order to enter binding coil you needed to have done the hard mode primals (Ifrit, Titan and Garuda). I'm not sure on CT though. I would say Primal because the NPC seem to call Alex a Primal so i guess he is a Primal?? All honesty if they make Bismarck EX and Ravana EX a requirement it wouldn't surprise me because in another topic a interview said it would be harder than both of them but easier than current coil well the normal mode.