Raid quest-line starting points?

[EzekielBook]

Is there a handy list of quests that lead to opening the raids for each expansion?

In ARR, at least one Raid is tied to the MSQ. But I played through Heavensward, and didn't unlock any, strictly following that. Now I'm in Stormblood, and I've got the Delta raid, and am working on the others, but there's also a completely different storyline I could follow - which I'm told is nothing but lore, and can put it off.

I have no Heavensward Raids for that reason, although I *think* the Towards the Firmament quest will get me there. I'm saving that for an alt job.

Anyway, because only the ARR raids get boring, I'd like to get more done, but I'm just not sure where to start the lines to open them.

Help?

[Kirika-]

https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Content_Unlock covers just about everything

[Jeeqbit]

In each expansion, there is a series of 3 alliance raids (24 people). There is also a series of 3 sets of 4 raids (8 person), for a total of 12.

In ARR, these are Crystal Tower and Coils.
In HW, these are the Mhachi and Alexander.
In SB, these are Ivalice and Omega.
In SHB, these are Nier and Eden.
In EW, there is only currently the 8-person raids from Pandaemonium.

The Firmament has nothing to do with raids and is actually all about crafting and gathering.

[Iscah]

I have no Heavensward Raids for that reason, although I *think* the Towards the Firmament quest will get me there. I'm saving that for an alt job.

The Firmament is essentially an epilogue to Heavensward, with a number of "nice" story quests and a focus on crafter/gatherer content.

However, even if was raid content, it's not worthwhile putting it off to level another job. They don't give much EXP and the quests tend to just give gil as rewards. Though if you've only got one job altogether I recommend picking up a second one anyway.

Anyway. The key thing for finding raids on your own is to look around the major cities for "blue" sidequests that will unlock something.

Some of the raid and trial series are worth doing as you go along because they involve MSQ characters or provide details that help you understand later events.

ARR: In addition to the Crystal Tower and primal trials you had to do, the Binding Coil adds character development for Alisaie and was one of the recommended things to play pre-Endwalker.

Heavensward:

The Alexander raids (starting in Idyllshire) are stand-alone but provide some background for a thing that happens much later on.

The Warring Triad trial series (starting near Fortemps Manor) ties into a few things, none of them critically but I would still recommend them to be done sooner rather than later.

The Shadow of Mhach alliance raids (Ishgard airship landing) seem to be disconnected from anything besides a few level 50 optional dungeons, although there is a small possibility that one of the villains has future significance. For now there's no need to do it.

Stormblood:

Omega is recommended, but you're already on that one.

The Four Lords trial series will come up along the path of the MSQ. It is optional for now but they do seem to like having certain characters from it turn up randomly in seasonal quests (twice so far).

Ivalice alliance raids (starting in Kugane) are also very optional for now. The only somewhat useful thing for MSQ relevance is that it unlocks the level 80 Bozja storyline and the first part of that involves Cid's backstory, but that's not critical either.

Later expansions:

I won't go into detail as you're not there yet, but Eden (unlocked in the main city) is basically an MSQ offshoot, the trials series again comes up in the path of the MSQ and is currently non-critical, and the NieR alliance raids are not connected to anything.

Pandaemonium seems to be filling in the details of something we don't currently understand, and the alliance raids (yet unreleased) probably will be too. We have no idea what the trials will entail yet.

[EzekielBook]

Thanks folks. Part of the reason for asking isn't for raid rewards so much (although upgrading equipment with Tomestones is nice), but more to just have a better assortment to choose from when I start running Daily Roulettes when I change jobs. One of the things that kept me from leveling my RDM was going through the ARR dungeons over and over again.

[Jeeqbit]

Oh, well if you are looking for more dungeons to do there are a lot and they are unlocked all over the place. About half of the dungeons in the game are optional unlocks that a lot of people skip past because they skip sidequests. Most of the unlock quests begin in city states or tomestone exchanges such as Mor Dhona, Idyllshire or Rhalgr's Reach. You should find these in the content unlock link though.