So will we have to beat the A4s to do A5 savage?

[ShiloEET]

I'm wondering now that there are two versions of the raids I'm wondering if we will have to beat A4s to do A5s or if beating normal mode will unlock it?

[Colorful]

As of yet we don't know, but Yoshida did make it quite clear on his stance of gating content behind older content. He said he no longer wanted to gate newer trials behind older ones due to a variety of reasons, and one of them would likely be the lack of players doing it. I'd expect you'd have to do A1-A8 Normal, and then have access to A5S+, but as I said, we don't know.

[Saccharin]

It's [A3] probably going to get nerfed anyway due to low completion.

[ServerCollaps]

It's [A3] probably going to get nerfed anyway due to low completion.

then they have to nerf a4 also, since its WAY harder if you handle nisi etc

[KarstenS]

If changes are coming, I only expect easing up DPS races. Mechanics will be untouched.

[Velthice]

It's extremely unlikely. Unlike the ultimate ballad and binding coils, you don't need to complete alexander savage to progress a quest line. It (and thordan ex) are more like second coil savage, where merely unlocking the ability to do the content completes the quest. There's nothing but the achievement that they could gate it behind, and I'm not even sure if it's possible to gate quests that way, seeing the way achievement items are handed out by Jonathas (completely without quests).

[Khanscott]

Considering S-E already retconnned an island for the other hand to sit on, I assume we wont need 1-4 Savage cleared for the next phase. Though keep stuff like the gobwalker mount and item drop as is.

[Sunako]

T5 and T9 was locked because it was important part of story. Since we have normal mode for story now, there is no point of locking savage as well.

[Kewitt]

A4S may gate A5S but not A5.

You will likely need a4 before A5. Just not A4S
There are a lot of people that can get A4 done who aren't interest / don't have the skills for A1S-A4S but will love to play A5.

[FoxyAreku]

I doubt it. With the new model, it makes a lot more sense to just require the normal version of A5 to A8 to be cleared.