finished a arrb but can't get 'before the dawn quest' where is it?

[Enkidoh]

Are you sure you have truly finished ARR's main story, specifically the patch stories? (ARR's original story continued beyond it with five successive patches, each one continuing on from the previous one, which 'Before the Dawn' is the final quest for the final patch scenario).

Check your journal under 'Completed quests' and 'Main Scenario' and 'A Realm Reborn/Heavensward', and if it lists the quest 'The Ultimate Weapon' as the last quest you have completed, then sadly you still have a fair way to go til you can get to Ishgard. If this is the case, go back to the Waking Sands at Vesper Bay and Minfilia should have a new main story quest for you.

[sf23]

looking in my completed journal.

Main Scenario (DONE) (even saw credits when I Finsihed this one )
Seventh Astral Era main Scenario quests (17/30)
Heavensword 0
Dragon song 0
post-dragon song 0

between replies here and googling I suspect I have to do all the seventh astral era main quests first? before I can get the 'before the dawn' quest.

But I want to call out this same bottle neck, 30 additional quests... is now blocking me getting my level 52 class spell quest.

[Rongway]

But I want to call out this same bottle neck, 30 additional quests... is now blocking me getting my level 52 class spell quest.

"blocking me getting my level [xx] class spell quest" isn't really a compelling argument since you can't do any syncked content where you would be able to use that action anyway. It's not usable in content until you reach HW, so it's fine for it to require that you are in HW content.

Now, the quest series from 2.0 completion until 2.55 completion, that should be streamlined for its own sake simply because it is at times a slog.

[Hasrat]

But I want to call out this same bottle neck, 30 additional quests... is now blocking me getting my level 52 class spell quest.

Just remember, even if you could get your skills, they won't be available in synced duties until you're in HW content.

It's all one linear story. Exp rewards have been boosted in a lot of it, because it's old content now, so yeah, you're going to out-level it unless you're spreading out over multiple jobs. But, since you've got to progress through the whole story anyway, it's not like it truly holds you back from anything.

[HaelseMikiro]

But I want to call out this same bottle neck, 30 additional quests... is now blocking me getting my level 52 class spell quest.

I feel you friend, I'm level 60 and the Scions still have a femroe member. Although I'm ready to do the Chrysalis so that should be remedied soon

[Iscah]

...

You do realize this topic has been posted by someone who hasn't gotten through the patch stories yet? Might want to edit that.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

I feel you friend, I'm level 60 and the Scions still have a femroe member. Although I'm ready to do the Chrysalis so that should be remedied soon

I still can't get over how

Noraxia was around longer than Moenbryda.

[Illmaeran]

But I want to call out this same bottle neck, 30 additional quests... is now blocking me getting my level 52 class spell quest.

I was level 58 on my alt by the time I got access to Heavensward. I'm now mostly through level 60 after doing ONLY the Main Story quests for the first two HW zones, and hunt logs + dungeons needed for GC promotions to unlock my squadron.

I was sitting on 1500+ Poetics at level 52 after buying all my lvl 50 gear with no way to access Rhalgr's Reach to get the level 60 stuff. I'm going to be going through 95% of the HW MSQ line in lvl 60 crafted gear, with no way to access my lvl 61+ class quests, maxed on tomestones, and likely hitting level 67 to 70 by the time I'm done with HW.

I feel your pain, but it is what it is. All those extra quests are from content patches post 2.0 that were doled out in small chunks and were a lot easier to handle at the time. At least they cut down the number of them significantly and streamlined the process.