The Problem with ARR Progression

[HyperiusUltima]

So, outside of the more glaring stuff like the "Pray Return to the Waking Sands" meme that Minfilia is, SE decided to include a wall only because Titan(Hard Mode) was required in the MSQ. However, this also forces you to unlock Ifrit and Garuda Hard Mode for absolutely no reason. Honestly, as much as I am ok with unlocking a single Hard Mode for story reasons, this absolutely is one of the worst ways to gate people given that the content is dead and just serves to clog up the story for a good while.

You have to kill Ifrit and Garuda Hard Mode first of all things too before even accessing Titan Hard Mode. As for the people saying "Sure, but we can just unsync it" those that do not know how to access the Novice Network or don't have an FC/Friends are going to have a higher chance of quitting the game outside of the Company of Champions quest chain at Lv 30-34 since Coerthas at least gets fun story-wise.

I would rather that you ignore the Hard Modes and have a forced Titan HM unlock at that time in the MSQ where you have to do Titan Hard Mode again in the case you already unlocked it(besides, you're Lv 60 by the time you have to do it at 3.4). It would smooth progression in ARR rather than have this hard brick wall of primal fights you're forced to do to progress after Dreams of Ice since back then you weren't forced to unlock the Hard Modes for Story.

[Vidu]

Since both of the HMs are in trials roulette and are extremly quick and easy now (I've seen Garuda die in about 2 minutes more often than I wished to, but hey, easy exp/tomes, I guess) I dont really see what the problem with those two duties is? Why would anyone quit the game about having to do two additional HMs, easy ones like Ifrit and Garuda even...

The only thing that isnt optimal is probably the timing within the storytelling, I'll give you that - unless I missremember Titan HM is required in the MSQ for the whole deal with Ga-Bu, right? So I could see why its a bummer to be hold up at that point and having to do two unrelated fights to continue your storyline, but the same could be (and has been) said about ilvls for certain story-duties (and we really dont want to do away with those, please). So I dont see why this would be a huge quitting-the-game-over deal.
It could probably be smoothed a bit, by making Garuda and Ifrit not a requirement for Titan HM or by simply having both quests (the orignal one and the Ga-Bu one) unlock the trial, but it really seems like more of a minor issue to me. But I'll admit I havent tried queueing for either of them directly lately...

[HyperiusUltima]

Since both of the HMs are in trials roulette and are extremly quick and easy now (I've seen Garuda die in about 2 minutes more often than I wished to, but hey, easy exp/tomes, I guess) I dont really see what the problem with those two duties is? Why would anyone quit the game about having to do two additional HMs, easy ones like Ifrit and Garuda even...

The only thing that isnt optimal is probably the timing within the storytelling, I'll give you that - unless I missremember Titan HM is required in the MSQ for the whole deal with Ga-Bu, right? So I could see why its a bummer to be hold up at that point and having to do two unrelated fights to continue your storyline, but the same could be (and has been) said about ilvls for certain story-duties (and we really dont want to do away with those, please). So I dont see why this would be a huge quitting-the-game-over deal.
It could probably be smoothed a bit, by making Garuda and Ifrit not a requirement for Titan HM or by simply having both quests (the orignal one and the Ga-Bu one) unlock the trial, but it really seems like more of a minor issue to me. But I'll admit I havent tried queueing for either of them directly lately...

I see your point about them being quick and easy, but to be honest I actually just recently went into Ifrit HM on my Alt and BOY. Peeps died to Nails because they thought you could just burn him when you sync down! XD

But yeah, the main selling point of this argument is that it disrupts the story flow greatly(even if it is an arbitrary nuisance that pops up later) since we're just coming back from knocking some sense into Ysayle/Saint Shiva and finishing up with meeting Moenbryda for the first time in our lives. As for the deal with Ga-Bu, yes. Titan HM was thrown into Heavensward 3.4 for that story about the kobold that threw a Baby Rage for all I know, but it just feels really redundant that it can kill a person's focus for story since it actually starts getting good around Dreams of Ice towards the end of ARR.

[Seraph522]

The issue has less to do with story and more to do with problems regarding the availability of the quest-giver for the Hard mode trial questline, namely, Minfilia. Initially, Ifrit HM, Garuda HM, and Titan HM weren't required for story completion and were optional instances, but 2.5 made them required in anticipation of Minifilia not being available for story reasons after completing 2.55. While they would eventually run into similar problems with Urianger and the EX versions of those trials, at that point Urianger was still going to be around after that point in the story, and they eventually went with the 'time bubble' explanation as to why Urianger is still hanging around to give out those quests even if he's not actually present per the MSQ. They haven't really made any changes to that requirement since then because there hasn't really been any need to, though it wouldn't surprise me if some of this was shifted around when they do the ARR streamlining in 5.3.

As for ease of completion, the hard mode trials are in the roulette, and while you can occasionally get the bad group that can't do mechanics, that happens in plenty of other instances as well. Most runs of them, in my experience, are quick and easy.

[JowyAtreides]

I dunno, I honestly can't remember this even being a problem during ARR times, Titan Ex on the other hand /shudder

I wouldn't consider the content to be dead due to roulettes, irrelevant yes, but it gets ran within a few minutes normally.

If it's a problem nowadays, hopefully it is one solved in the changes coming in 5.3ish

[RivinStormfang]

The only real problem with them is that the game doesn't tell you that you'll need to do them until you hit the point where they're required. If I had known that ahead of time back when I was working through the ARR MSQ, I would have spread those three out during downtimes in the story. Instead I had to do all three in a row, and it was annoying. Just find some way to encourage players to do them beforehand and it'd be fine.

[MistakeNot]

So, outside of the more glaring stuff like the "Pray Return to the Waking Sands" meme that Minfilia is, SE decided to include a wall only because Titan(Hard Mode) was required in the MSQ. However, this also forces you to unlock Ifrit and Garuda Hard Mode for absolutely no reason. Honestly, as much as I am ok with unlocking a single Hard Mode for story reasons, this absolutely is one of the worst ways to gate people given that the content is dead and just serves to clog up the story for a good while.

Eh. Hard mode Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda aren't very hard at all as long as people don't ignore the mechanics. Many of the "normal" trials are harder.
Besides you need to do all three of them to unlock the Coils of Bahamut raid, and to get your first relic weapon. I always make sure I have the quests synced so I can unlock Coils at the same time as I work on my relic weapon - and then they will be all done long before the MSQ requires them.
The second time you need to do Titan(Hard) is much later in the MSQ

[Reap00]

This post is just nit picking. There is nothing wrong with them adding those trials as requirements. They don't take long to queue for and are very easy. If you do manage to wipe big deal. Sometimes new players need to see a fight before they get it down. I bet you did your first time too.

[HyperiusUltima]

This post is just nit picking. There is nothing wrong with them adding those trials as requirements. They don't take long to queue for and are very easy. If you do manage to wipe big deal. Sometimes new players need to see a fight before they get it down. I bet you did your first time too.

You can say it's nit-picking about the trial lock, but it's at a realllly bad time in the ARR MSQ. Just finished with Dreams of Ice and you're locked away from doing the next MSQ tii' you do them.

[Novae]

I start playing 10 months ago, got 4.0 finished within the first month and I don't remember that. To be honest I don't even remember anything blocking or slowing my progression outside of tomes farming for gear AND, later on, the red chocobos of death to unlock Ivalice (which wasn't even MSQ).