Level 50 quest from AAR to Heavensward is just too much.

[Niwashi]

We have been saying that string of MSQs could use some streamlining for years now, their "fix" seems to have been the ARR story skip.

Well, streamlining that section of the story would essentially be the same thing as skipping it, except that it would force everyone to miss it rather than just those who want to.

The problem with the pacing in that stretch of quests isn't that there's too much fluff (which could potentially be streamlined away). It's that there's no fluff at all. Every* quest is densely packed with essential story and world building details. It's great if you're alternating that with still doing other activities to vary the pace a bit. But if, like so many players now, you're trying to bulldoze your way straight through all those quests in a row, it's quite a slog, simply because it's a lot of story to take in in such a short time frame.



* Nearly every quest, anyway. All but one, so far as I've seen. I'd heard so many requests for that stretch to be shortened, that I've been going through it looking specifically for places that could be shortened. I'm on the 68th of those 100 quests, and so far there's only been one that could maybe be cut out or shortened without major damage to the storyline. (Ok, and there's been one other whose necessity is more about pacing than story. It's a simple kill quest included where it breaks up what would otherwise be dialogue after dialogue after dialogue after dialogue.) And while it's true that I haven't finished all those patch quests yet, with the excitement of the story rising towards its climax, I really doubt there's going to be any more streamline-able content in the remaining third than there's been in the first two thirds.

[Krotoan]

I can appreciate that they added content but damn I still have 61 quest to go and I’m about at the point of just running through it without reading what’s going on.

This... isn't a horrible idea. There's story in there but if you're starting to flag on engagement it's better to power through it than kill your momentum. Keep in mind that what you're going through was what they had to add on to keep people engaged patch to patch before they had a "formula" for expansions. It'll feel sometimes like a bedtime story that just keeps getting more and more elaborate just to keep you concentrating on the fantasy world and not the real life situation you're in.

If you truly feel like you want to move on I'd skip through it and catchup with a synopsis online rather than spending money for a skip pot. It's still a few hours of skipping dialogue and teleporting but it's not going to ruin the "better" expansions if you slow down again when you start to see a certain someone in purple.

[MistakeNot]

It’s not that it’s not decent content it’s just that there is a ton of it to go through just to get to the expansion. I can appreciate that they added content but damn I still have 61 quest to go and I’m about at the point of just running through it without reading what’s going on.

Just saying....or complaining I guess.

What makes those quests different for you compared to all the quests you had to go through to get to level 50?
Is it just that they are all at level 50? Or why else the hurry to get through them?

[MistakeNot]

A friend of mine started playing a few months back, was enjoying the game and was hoping to be a Dark Knight...but it was such a long, slow process that he lost motivation. He hit level 50, finished ARR 2.0 and was super excited to unlock Dark Knight...and I had to tell him, sorry you have about 6 patches of story still to get through.

That does not sound like a problem with ARR or the MSQ as such, but rather a problem with the fact that the HW jobs (DRK, MCH, AST) are all locked behind access to Ishgard - which is indeed a problem, but luckily one they have not repeated with the jobs added later on.

[Dogempire]

I think of it this way, the more xp you get from the level 50 quests, the less level grinding you have to do when you hit Heavensward.

Nothing annoys me more than having to go up 1 more level to continue the MSQ.

[Hazmick]

I never noticed the ARR - HW 'slog' when I was playing through it myself, but a few newer players I've met have mentioned struggling with it.

I think part of the problem is the perceived need to reach 'end game' ASAP, and this section of the game is often seen as 'just' side quests. Perhaps if SE do a little streamlining on their side and we do a little perception shift on our side we can find a comfy middle ground.

[WellFooled]

I’m in agreement that the ARR quests need to be trimmed down, but I don’t think we should use outliers as basis for the claim.

Then we're in agreement. While I included anecdotal evidence from my own free company in my comment, the basis of my position is the daunting 200 hours requirement. It doesn't really matter if someone has the time to go through those 200 hours fairly quickly or not. Motivation is required and its hard to be motivated when it playing the MSQ like a full time job would still take a month and a half. On top of that, the first week and a half will be comparatively boring.

That does not sound like a problem with ARR or the MSQ as such, but rather a problem with the fact that the HW jobs (DRK, MCH, AST) are all locked behind access to Ishgard - which is indeed a problem, but luckily one they have not repeated with the jobs added later on.

I am happy they learned from their mistake in HW and having a job locked behind the MSQ was a problem for my friend, but I don't think it was his main problem. He was still enjoying the job he was using. In his case it wouldn't have been so bad if the ARR story was as engaging as what follows. Instead of going, "Ok, I'll unlock Dark Knight in another 30 hours, that's ok. I can't wait to see what happens next in the story anyway" it was "Wait, I'll only unlock Dark Knight after another 30 hours of THIS?! I can't take another 30 hours of running to the Waking Sands or fetching Cheese..."

[Avidria]

What makes those quests different for you compared to all the quests you had to go through to get to level 50?
Is it just that they are all at level 50? Or why else the hurry to get through them?

I can speak for when I hit those quests...

Heavensward had literally just came out when I was leveling to 50, and when I got stuck doing level 50 quests for three solid days I was pretty unhappy. I wanted to get into the new expansion, and imo most of those level 50 patch quests were painfully boring.

I honestly couldn't tell you what happened for most of those quests. I vaguely remember the 'important' plot points, but for so much of it I remember just thinking 'ugh, when is this going to get interesting again? How close to the end am I??'

I didn't even really start paying attention to until fairly close to the end, when things took that very sudden turn from slow and boring to whoa WTH just happened.

I mean a lot of the ARR quests felt a little filler-y or just frankly not memorable (and having to go back to the waking sands every five minutes was seriously irritating after a while) but that huge block of quests between ARR and HW is the worst offender by far.

[snarkomatic]

What makes those quests different for you compared to all the quests you had to go through to get to level 50?
Is it just that they are all at level 50? Or why else the hurry to get through them?

For me, it was the fact that all other progress came to a grinding halt. My white mage (an alt from posting character) had her lilies waiting, but I could not unlock the gauge or use the skills until I hit HW. But I kept gaining skills. I was progressing her class, but was locked out of class quests and class progression. I believe she was ~lvl57 before I looked up how much was left, checked the ARR skip price, and used it so I could get on into HW. It seemed ridiculous to be getting so far ahead of myself, being so unable to access the WHM "heal gimmick" and so on.

It is a pretty hard wall to smack into when you're coming up so quickly beforehand. Leveling in this game is easy, the MSQ and daily roulettes will get you there at a good pace to follow the story and stay just about in sync with relevancy ... until suddenly, ARR, and you can't move on or go anywhere new or learn anything new until you eat the 200-hour lore dump that could easily have had some stuff condensed into exposition screens rather than ... Gosh, they're not really even fetch quests, they're more like .. fetch-another-cutscene quests. Some of them are even "go here, nope nothing here go back to quest giver, who tells you to go back there again" ... That is terrible writing obviously built for original intent of keeping players occupied with a time sink, when half of the travel time could have been avoided by extra exposition or the NPC coming along with you or any other anything.

[Deceptus]

You're attempting to do months / years worth of content in a few days. What did you expect?

Can some be trimmed? Yes. Is the story important to the overall story? YES.