I have to complete 100 quests to access Heavensward?

[Cherryblossoms]

Skip all the sides and just focus on main story. You might find the exp from the story is almost enough to keep you leveled. Im leveling a character on a second account and im 35, mostly just from story, class/job quests and hunting log. I would much rather have the story level me then a mindless grind to 50

[Mykll]

Your buddies should've warned you that you have to finish main story quests and reach lv 50 to access Heavensward before buying this game.

They could have also sent a friend code, helped to level up to at least level 25 quicker.

Also I don't understand why new players always want to just skip to lv 50 - 60 endgame contents without learning the basic mechanics and the classes of the game first.

Yeah, I'll never understand that in any game.

"I want to create a max level character and go right into endgame."

Does so.

After a month. "Man, nothing to do, this game is boring."

Reminds me if single player cheat codes.

"Man, this game is boring easy with no challenge."

[Raidenz]

@VentiMocha

Right, I'll tell that to all the players that blaze through content and won't allow me to enjoy the cut scenes in dungeons. It's a waste of their time to wait for me. I've already had to go to YouTube to finish those when really, I shouldn't have had to. After all, everyone is a die hard fan of the story, right? It would be pointless to have this argument over a single-player game, but seriously, I just want to enjoy playing with my friends. Isn't that **really** the point?

I refuse to skip any main story and so should you, but you can also watch all cut scenes via an inn room through the book thing. way better than youtube

[Sinaloa]

Why don't you want to play the "entire" game and story you paid for? ...

The same reason most people don´t want to be forced to watch Episode 1-3 in a Star Wars marathon but rather start with the interesting stuff? If you have enjoyed it - good for you. I do know 2 people who did follow the storyline and dozens who didn´t. I really wanted to like the story but after 5 minutes of npc´s telling each other who is more honered to work with whom in every arc I would have been happy to opt for a story skip.

[KleeneOnigiri]

Doing main story from 1-50 is way better than doing leves or fates all day long.
In other MMO's you also have to level up first. You can't just do endgame immediately.

Story wise, it's also funny to see how people treat you at the beginning and then at the end.

From an cute, little novice adventurer to a primal mass murderer

[RiversideGuy]

Funny, the "problem" I see being a new player is that MANY folks had a lot of time after hitting the old 50 cap to finish up the post 50 MSQ line. When HW dropped, they got right on the HW MSQ line and had multiple 125s from that line by the time they went 52, 53, 54. Having joined just after HW dropped, I'm still working on the MSQ line pre the HW part. No matter, I am really enjoying the line AND appreciate that it sure has kept me very decently geared (I got "recruited" into the game and got 3 120 pieces from my 10 silver chocobo feathers!). Got a lot of gear w/poetics, that may have gone faster if I had started on beast dailies sooner (the irony is I actually did start them because I wanted access to the raptor blue dye, but not much gear I now have do I want to dye!).

[ToniRomo]

I came back last weekend. I completed the main quest up to level 50 before, but none of the quests that were patched in. I managed to do 2.1 to the end of 2.5 in a few days. I was a bit annoyed when I first found out I had to do all of those quests, but as I started working through them I started to enjoy them. There is quite a bit of filler mixed in, but there is also an enjoyable story. The ending was really good and lots of the stuff you learn in the quests lead into the expansion. After finishing everything I realized I would be pretty lost in HW if I was able to skip all the content.

[Mweela]

It's unfortunate that you had a bad experience with running Castrum Meridanium and the Praetorium with speedrunning, but really, you should speak out and stay your ground.

Meep! I just experienced this last night running these two dungeons. I'm a new player and was getting way behind. Even skipping cutscenes, I couldn't keep up with the group as they were sprinting from encounter to encounter. It doesn't help that I got lost a few times! That place is big and scary as a Lalafell!

[RiversideGuy]

Someone on youtube has video's of running those 2 trials with all the cut scenes in. I did read the guides and watched the videos... I couldn't even FIND the canons, much less see anyone firing from them in Meridanium! Have done a bunch of raiding in the other MMO (was 8/13 in Hellfire until my gjuild's raid team went poof 4 weeks ago), so I know the deal... from the start to finish, I just tried to not stand in shizz, attack everything I could, and run like crazy following the "crowd." I DID tell them at the begining I was brand new to it and was NOT going to hang up for cut scenes... that got me a commendation!

[Nutz]

CM and Praetorium are very unique in that the devs seem to simultaneously want players to take their time and watch all of the long cut scenes, and want players to speed through and annihilate everything. They're the only early level 50 dungeons to not have an item level cap. They weren't very difficult at item level 55, so with nearly everyone at i135 (due to the new way level sync works) I imagine everything dies nearly instantly (I haven't personally run either in a long time).

As far as catching up with friends, at the very least the extra experience that you get from post 50 MSQs will help you to avoid the various 'exp gaps' that exist in Heavensward. Personally I went form 50-60 very slowly and took full advantage of my challenge log and participated in nearly every FATE I saw while still running into MSQs where I was underleveled and had to catch up.