Raiding is becoming less and less optional

[Dawn_FF14]

If this is just about the CT raids, as a relative new player who'd done the level 50 quests and the CT story line, I hope SE is not making CT required in AAR. Making it required in ShB to continue MSQ is fine, in my opinion.

The 100-ish 2.0+ quests are already dreadful enough to plow through. Even SE is considering trimming them, I don't see much would be removed, because they are needed to help understand the stories that follow. CT is such a nice story, and I would hate to see it being rushed through.

Moreover, I'm not sure the heavily nerfed CT raid is a good introduction of alliance raids to a new player. I read about the fights before I did them, but ended up very confused because many mechanics didn't happen due to the high DPS, and I was chasing this large group people most of the time, not knowing where I'm going and what is happening.

[Stepjam]

We don't know at what point CT will be mandatory, whether during ARR or pre-shB.
With the ARR reworking, I assume the former

[Averax]

We don't know at what point CT will be mandatory, whether during ARR or pre-shB.
With the ARR reworking, I assume the former

Assuming they're opting for cohesion, it'll probably take place after the 1-50 MSQ and before the patch content.

[RVallant]

Assuming they're opting for cohesion, it'll probably take place after the 1-50 MSQ and before the patch content.

I hope they stagger it in-between the other MSQ's, but I only say that cos it's pretty fun reading the dialogue referencing recent story events if you do them in order of patch release. (At least, I think the dialogue changes depending on where you are in the MSQ anyway...)

[MrThinker]

Assuming they're opting for cohesion, it'll probably take place after the 1-50 MSQ and before the patch content.

I think the recent digest for the Last Live Letter actually answers this to a degree. For new Players going through the story, once they finish the quests in 2.55, they will get a notification to complete the Crystal Tower story if they have not already. It was not specified if players would be blocked from entering Heavensward, or that block would be in place for only 5.3 quests, but with the way it is worded I believe it is in fact the latter.

Before you begin the Patch 5.3 main scenario quests, you’ll need to have completed the Crystal Tower quest series and “My Little Chocobo” quest. With the Crystal Tower series’ relevance to the main scenario, we decided to make it a requirement.

Players will be notified of these progression requirements at certain points during the main scenario. For instance, if you recently started FFXIV and are progressing through A Realm Reborn, a popup asking you to complete the Crystal Tower quests will be displayed before you begin the Heavensward main scenario.

[Iscah]

I think the recent digest for the Last Live Letter actually answers this to a degree. For new Players going through the story, once they finish the quests in 2.55, they will get a notification to complete the Crystal Tower story if they have not already. It was not specified if players would be blocked from entering Heavensward, or that block would be in place for only 5.3 quests, but with the way it is worded I believe it is in fact the latter.

If that's the case then I suspect the updated 2.X quests might highlight the start of the quest line, a bit like more recently they've made a point of things like the Four Lords and Sorrow of Werlyt quests within MSQ. It could be as simple as "that man over there is giving you odd looks; maybe he wants to talk to you."

[Payotz]

There's literally nothing difficult in 24 mans.
You have 6 healers in the whole raid, 3 tanks, and 15 dps.
With how popular RDM is, there's bound to be one or two RDMs in there in addition to 6 healers.
That's SEVEN rezes

You basically can literally just watch Netflix and press Glare every 5 seconds like the rest of the people who do them and you can complete them.
You just have to follow the crowd to figure out where the safe spot is.

Run it, give it a try and you'll see that some Dungeons are a lot more punishing than 24 mans, and some of those Dungeons are required to progress MSQ. Non-Savage/Ultimate content is designed to be able to be completed with the minimum effort possible.

[MikkoAkure]

There's literally nothing difficult in 24 mans.
You have 6 healers in the whole raid, 3 tanks, and 15 dps.
With how popular RDM is, there's bound to be one or two RDMs in there in addition to 6 healers.
That's SEVEN rezes

You basically can literally just watch Netflix and press Glare every 5 seconds like the rest of the people who do them and you can complete them.
You just have to follow the crowd to figure out where the safe spot is.

Run it, give it a try and you'll see that some Dungeons are a lot more punishing than 24 mans, and some of those Dungeons are required to progress MSQ. Non-Savage/Ultimate content is designed to be able to be completed with the minimum effort possible.

Verraise is level 64 and you can't use it in level-capped ARR and HW content. But despite that, it won't really be necessary and CT can be completed without paying much attention to mechanics (except pads) and wiping 1/4 of the raid anyway.

[Hazama999]

To be honest, I have no problem with the 24-man raids being obligatory to proceed with the MSQ. Their level of difficulty is such that anyone going through [insert MSQ trial here] should be able to complete it with little issue. Hell, for as much as I like 24-mans being their own stories, I'd be down for them to be made with the MSQ in mind. That is to say, not as "side-content."

[Vulcann]

i wonder how some of these raiders would feel if an activity that they didn't enjoy was forced in order to do the MSQ. "in order to complete 5.4 you must have 3 crafters and 2 gather classes raised to max level"

but its easy so its not a big deal amirite?