Questions Towards the end of the game and before Heavensward

[Dogempire]

I have a few questions at the moment.

1. What level is the next major fight after Garuda? I don't want the name because spoilers, just the level.
2. I'm level 45 at the moment and just beat Garuda, what's a good way to level? At the moment I'm a scholar.
3. How long do you think it would take to get to whatever level I need for the next major fight?

[Naria]

1) The next trial fight is at 50.
2) Quests (there are some sidequests at the waking sands), dungeons, Northern Thanalan FATE grinding.
3) Depends on how you level but 5-7 hours, I'd think. I'm not really sure be because I massively out leveled on my alt because of roulettes.

[Anova]

1. lv.50.

2. There's essentially a 100% xp boost from monster kills, so dungeon roulettes are an extremely fast way to level pre-50. You will essentially need 1 or 2 dungeons per level. You can also do story quests and side quests as you go. FATEs aren't a bad way to go either, but North Thanalan is probably a little empty atm, so the xp from chain bonuses won't really work. If you can get a full party of 8 or even 6, go for it.

3. It depends how much bonus xp you get from the challenge log, dailies, and rested. Assuming you're playing nonstop though, I'd estimate 7 hours. This was prior to the 50% xp boost for pre-50 and the challenge logs though, so it should be much faster for you.

[Vandril]

2. There's essentially a 100% xp boost from monster kills, so dungeon roulettes are an extremely fast way to level pre-50. You will essentially need 1 or 2 dungeons per level. You can also do story quests and side quests as you go. FATEs aren't a bad way to go either, but North Thanalan is probably a little empty atm, so the xp from chain bonuses won't really work. If you can get a full party of 8 or even 6, go for it.

I think you're talking about the armory bonus. I believe the OP is leveling his highest level class, so this won't apply.

[Dogempire]

I finished the main story an hour or so ago.

I'm really irritated, I couldn't actually enjoy the final 2 dungeons because people wanted to use the main story roulette for speedruns, so I had to pretty much choose to either skip out on the cutscenes or skip out on the boss fights, and I honestpy feel like all the time I spent getting to level 50 was wasted because some people couldn't wait 20 more minutes for 5 times the tomes from a normal run.

The entire ordeal irritated me to the point where I just decided I would skip ALL the cutscenes. I mean sheesh, I paid $60 for this game, I want to at least enjoy the last dungeons.

[Avorniel]

I finished the main story an hour or so ago.

I'm really irritated, I couldn't actually enjoy the final 2 dungeons because people wanted to use the main story roulette for speedruns, so I had to pretty much choose to either skip out on the cutscenes or skip out on the boss fights, and I honestpy feel like all the time I spent getting to level 50 was wasted because some people couldn't wait 20 more minutes for 5 times the tomes from a normal run.

The entire ordeal irritated me to the point where I just decided I would skip ALL the cutscenes. I mean sheesh, I paid $60 for this game, I want to at least enjoy the last dungeons.

I had the same issue when the game was launched the last 3 major story runs most just wanted to blast through it and anyone who wanted to watch the cutscenes were left behind.

Not sure if you know or not but I was told by someone in my fc you can view all the cutscenes from your inn room which wasn't ideal as it wasn't part of the dungeon experience but least I could watch them at my own pace.

[Belhi]

I finished the main story an hour or so ago.

I'm really irritated, I couldn't actually enjoy the final 2 dungeons because people wanted to use the main story roulette for speedruns, so I had to pretty much choose to either skip out on the cutscenes or skip out on the boss fights, and I honestpy feel like all the time I spent getting to level 50 was wasted because some people couldn't wait 20 more minutes for 5 times the tomes from a normal run.

The entire ordeal irritated me to the point where I just decided I would skip ALL the cutscenes. I mean sheesh, I paid $60 for this game, I want to at least enjoy the last dungeons.

I sympathise whith you and it is a common complaint. It was a poor design choice the SE had putting so many cutscenes mid dungeon and they handle it a lot better since then.

As stated by others you can watch any cutscene you have seen in game in the Journal in the Inn. This way you can go back an review what you missed or rewatch stuff. Its not really the same but Its hard to avoid.

Its a pain but fortunately its not one that repeats again at all in the game and the story will go from strength to strength moving on and into HW.

Also, I don't know if you realise it but by lvling a SCH you have also levelled SMN. Since both come from the Arcanist both level at the same time. It means you have a potential dps class available and already levelled.

[Dogempire]

I've already unlocked both branches of arcanost sk yes I'm aware.

Later tonight I'll probably host a PF for the last two dungeons.

[Vandril]

Later tonight I'll probably host a PF for the last two dungeons.

That would probably be your best bet if you want to experience them as intended.

SE has long admitted that having all those long cutscenes in the middle of dungeons was a mistake and they've since never done it again. They just haven't gone back to change those two dungeons, and probably never will. But at least you'll not have to worry about it in the future.

[Niwashi]

Later tonight I'll probably host a PF for the last two dungeons.

That would probably be your best bet if you want to experience them as intended.

It certainly improves your chances, though unfortunately, it doesn't guarantee them. When I first ran Praetorium, I listed it in PF with the "no cutscene skipping" option as well as saying in the comment it's for a full story run. I then asked in /shout for people to join me, again saying it was was for a full story with cutscenes run so that I (and anyone else who wanted) could see the whole thing. Once we finally got a group together, we discussed in party chat that it was my (and one other player's) first time and we wanted to see everything.

And of the other 7 players in the group besides myself, the number who either watched or waited for the first cutscene: 0

I came out of the scene alone in a room filled with non-solo-able mobs with no idea where the exit from the room is (since the others had just raced past everything to the exit, leaving all the mobs behind for me to face by myself). As I was typing the message asking everyone where they were, they finished off the first boss without me, so the portal to their last location came up at the entrance, which was the only way I could continue with the run — by skipping past the first section entirely. Even that put me well behind where the rest of the group was, since they'd taken off running while I was porting to their previous location. The whole run consisted mainly of chasing after them, just trying to keep them (or at least the pack of mobs chasing after them) in sight often enough that I could figure out which direction they were going.

And when I asked why they hadn't waited, everyone acted surprised. It apparently hadn't occurred to any of them that anyone might not want to speedrun. I really have no idea what they thought all that discussion before the run and the settings in the PF were about, since nobody seemed to think that no cutscene skipping meant no cutscene skipping or that wanting to see the dungeon meant wanting to see the dungeon.

The only consideration towards having new players in that run was that they did finally wait before the final boss fight for everyone to get there. So I did get to take part in at least the first part of the final boss fight (the only piece I actually got to do out of the whole run). I never got to see the final part of the final boss fight, though, since that one has a cutscene in the middle and again, they didn't wait for it.

I was so pissed off about how that run destroyed the climax of a story I'd been on for so long, I nearly quit the game entirely. As it is, six months later I've still never worked up the fortitude to try again, so I still don't know how the ARR story ends. (My Castrum run was also spoiled by speedrunning, but I'd done that through DF, so it was kind of expected. It was Praetorium, where I'd set up a PF run explicitly to avoid speedrunning, that it bothered me so much. I've repeated Castrum a few times since, but never Praetorium. Nor have I continued with the next part of the story.)


p.s. Sorry that turned into such a long rant. Guess I'm still not over it. Hope you got more luck with it than I did, Dogempire.