A little help please with patch 5.3

[SmokenBoreas]

I have just returned to ffxiv and got the patchs completed up to 5.2. I was waiting for the 5.3 patch to get back into the game. Day of release I logged in and found out I needed the crystal tower raid. Which I don\\'t have done. Wasn\\'t really a raid person. But now I cannot move forward with the patch. I have been looking through party finders and duty finder for the raid. But nothing. So what are people in my position supposed to do. Please fix the problem. Make a dungeon that replaces the story for that raid. Plus others would like a new dungeon anyways.

[Espritduo]

You should just be able to queue up directly for it without any issues in duty finder. The alliance raids were always pretty quick to get into, and with 5.3 requiring the Crystal Tower, it's faster than ever to queue up. If you don't see it on your list then you have to go to Mor Dhona and start the storyline quest for it.

And it isn't a raid as you understand it. It's just a 24-man dungeon, no different than any 4-man except there's 24 people. Overgearing has made it pretty laughable easy nowadays and everything is basically a striking dummy now. Honestly they need to rename these 24-mans because it seems like it is really giving a lot of newcomers used to the idea of "raids" being high-level difficult coordinated things the wrong idea about what the content actually is in FFXIV. One has to wonder how many thousands of players have never done them just because they see the word RAID and instantly nope out? How many players will then nope out of the MSQ, or the enitire game now that it is required?

[Stepjam]

Even though it has "Raid" in the name, it's nothing to worry about. It's pure duty finder tier. If you did tier 1 of the Nier raid yet, it's in the same catagory.

Which means that you won't find people running it in party finder, just queue up for duty finder. Since it's patch week, queue times may be a bit slow, but on the other hand, with new players and others like you who skipped it initially, you should be able to get a party eventually.

[Frizze]

So if you physically havent unlocked the series yet, it starts with the quest "Legacy of Allag" in Mor Dhona. Alliance raids are in the duty finder menu under raids(the same icon as dungeons, but with the orange/red color). The crystal tower series is very old content, but its still content that gets run a ton so you wont need to use party finder to get it done. Just hit the que once you finish the unlock. The CT raids in particular are short ques because a lot of(lazy) players use them to level up alt classes. The first two raids youre likely to only see a couple of mechanics for the entire raid because of how over-geared everyone is. The third one is a little better, but it still shouldnt be a problem. The whole series(quests ques and raids) should only take an hour or two to get through.

[SmokenBoreas]

First i would like to say thank you for your info regarding this problem i have. I know its not what some would call a raid. its very old content. i have still not been able to complete it. big problems is when i can play. very short on time when i can play. so duty finder times are so bad they make me want to uninstall the game. not sure if anything can be done. be nice if they made a work around for it. but thanks everyone for info on it

[Rasler_Heios]

I played the raid series when it is already old content. Back then it was already fast to complete it, and it will be even faster now to complete the raid. Forming the party though is the issue. Queue directly into the raid and have all languages up.

[Frizze]

First i would like to say thank you for your info regarding this problem i have. I know its not what some would call a raid. its very old content. i have still not been able to complete it. big problems is when i can play. very short on time when i can play. so duty finder times are so bad they make me want to uninstall the game. not sure if anything can be done. be nice if they made a work around for it. but thanks everyone for info on it

There are a couple work-arounds, but that might not make a difference for you. You dont specify what you mean by "very short time when i can play". If we look at the first CT raid, it takes about 18 minutes to complete once you start. On a healer class during prime time hours, your que would be less then 5 minutes(a little longer for dps, a little more then that for tanks) giving you a total of less then 25 minutes required to get the whole thing done(30 if you want to estimate high). If most days you can only log on for 15 minutes, this small commitment will still be a problem. If your play time is predictable(i can play from 12 to 1245 every friday and saturday), you could set up a group in advance so that when you log on everyone is already there and you just join and hit play. Removing the que time gets the run to reliably under 20 mins(20 mins in LotA is enough time to wipe once or twice and still finish). If your time is predictable and you have higher level friends you could set up an un-synced party to take you through. With unsync, the instance is probly clearable in 10-12 mins(this is an estimate, as ive never actually tried). The problem is you need 12+ players to unsync the first raid(you can try the 2nd and 3rd with less, but mechanics require 12 for the first one). Forming an unsynced LotA run would take awhile, so this would need to be set up in advance(probly by some higher level friends) to get you in and out in time.

The workaround for unpredictable play times without a lot of higher level friends who can be called on is a story skip potion. Paying to skip this content hurdle... isnt ideal. Beyond those ideas, i dont have anything aside from taking a break from the game and coming back when you have more time to actually play. But again, this is all based on not knowing exactly how much(or little) playtime you have. There are some people who would say playing an hour a day(as in one straight hour then logging out for the day) is very short, and i would tell them just to que up as soon as they got online and they could finish this over the weekend. If you literally have 10-20 mins now and then, instances will always be a problem.