Problem with Duty forced into Expansion Content...

[Ashkendor]

Heavens forbid an mmo make you play with other people

Right? It's like this was meant to be a multiplayer game or something.

when you have noboy in a DF you really think you have people in PF? you dreaming right ? all my primals without exception were done via DF is not a problem, IF people do them, when they came out there were no problem for those, because they actually were run by peple. Today they are NOT run by people not even in PF, at least when I am around.

So the *never PUG* is a mute point, when even your friends dont do them as it is no fun to run those old content...yeah that point

Yes. Absolutely. People are in PF for this content rather than DF, or are doing it with FC/LS.

That would be why the DF queues suck for it.

[Itseotle]

NOBODY ques for Ramuh, Leviathan etc and they are absolutely what you NEED to do in order to access the expansion

Yea... people do. Its called "Trial Roulette". I actually got Leviathan today for someones MSQ. Its also called Party Finder. People love your noobie bonus.

In fact.. I ALWAYS get Moogle Mog for my trial roulette for someones MSQ... its getting old.

[CrimsonThunder]

Make a PF shout that you need to clear the ARR primals and that you have bonus. The relic hunters will flock to you like a hot donut out the oven.

[Noshpan]

As someone has stated earlier there's a story reason behind it. Sadly, nobody cares about stories these days.

[Noxifer]

When me and my flatmate redid the 2.1-2.4 storylines very recently on a pair of alts (currently working on early 2.5), we didn't have to wait long at all O.o At the most, two minutes or so. Admittedly, this is probably because my alt is a tank, so when we're paired up, she (as dps) is benefiting from that. When we did Levi, I think we had five people who watched the opening cutscene (in other words, who were most likely new).
Also, we're probably on a world with higher population, which helps as well.

There are also "prime time" hours for when the most people are online. This is usually around 6pm-midnight, server time. Too far outside of that, and you'll have fewer people doing stuff, because they've already done it, or because they're busy with school/work or other irl business.

I agree that it's slightly annoying to have to do everything 2.X before getting to 3.0, especially since some parts of those patches tend to be very... "non-essential". Nowhere near as much as the Drybone sequence was back at level 20, or the whole bit around 30-32 in Costa, but it can still be very overwhelming. But once you get to the end of it, around 2.4-2.55, you'll understand why they decided to make people go through the story.

(Though to be honest, it's been very interesting to go through the 2.x story after seeing bits of the 3.x story, because the things they talk about in some of those cutscenes... When I did them the first time, I had to wait for months between each patch, so some things I saw two years ago. I barely remembered half of it. Revisiting it in fairly short succession gave me a lot more appreciation for SE's story building.)

[Niwashi]

20-30 minute queue times may not be ideal, but that or longer was pretty standard all along for DPS jobs. During 2.0 or 2.1 and on through the ARR patches, any dungeon or trial we got used to run at least 20-30 minutes of wait time before it started, and that's playing during peak hours. It could be significantly longer at other times of day. From what I've seen, the wait times have actually gotten quite a bit shorter for ARR queues since Heavensward came out. I'm not entirely certain why, but it seems they did. What used to be at least 20-30 minutes at a minimum has become typically 10-20 minutes. I've gotten into some level 50 trials in under 5 minutes, and that's on DPS jobs. It may be old content to a lot of the people playing it, but enough incentives are offered that they do still keep playing it.

As to completing the ARR story leading up to Heavensward before starting HW, I've heard it complained about a lot, but can't really see how it could be an issue to anyone with any interest at all in the story. The quests leading up to HW are telling part of the HW story, so you're essentially already on the expansion even before you get to the part that requires purchase of the expansion. Why be so eager to skip one part of the HW story just because you want to do a different part of the HW story?

[Spawnie]

i really dont see the problem with gated/locked content.. had a friend just start ff14 recently and hes already at HW content in just over 2 weeks and also agree with niwashi the queue times have been shortened drastically for more or less everything and i play as dps in everything no more then a 8-10min wait for anything ecept frontlines

[Whiteroom]

OMG! I have to progress in order to progress!

[FoxyAreku]

Trial Roulette exists and a majority of the player base do it daily. Queue times aren't that bad.

Be patient and wait. Maybe work on some crafting while you're waiting on queue, or level an alt with some levequests, or heck alt-tab and watch a movie, there's lots of stuff to do during a queue.

Alternatively: BE SOCIAL. Make a party finder ad or ask in your FC for people to queue with you. If you advertise a poetics bonus you'll fill pretty fast.

[Chichicha]

Still many of us playing Duty Roulette / Party Finder.

As DPS, Duty - always waiting around 15 - 25 mins
As Healer/ Tank - most of the waiting time is 5 mins.

This is normal. I'm sure you could progress your story fairly easy and fast. Because many experienced players q for Roulette bonuses, they do do Speed Run of most of them.
And you should appreciate them, because while you are watching your Cutscene, you are wasting 7/3 others players times waiting for you to finish.