Play Dawntrail without finishing Endwalker?

[Jeeqbit]

So you aren't going to play Dawntrail because you don't want to skip a few quick 6.x patch cutscenes and speedrun a few 12 minute dungeons and simple trials that won't kill you even if you get hit occasionally?

Despite the marketing saying it's the end of an arc, it is just that, the end of an arc. They are still using the same characters, lore and history in a way that is reliant on having done Endwalker.

Also, it wasn't unimaginative at all. Aligning everything that's happened with the lyrics of answers somehow. Coming up with a people that lived in a "perfect paradise" was very imaginative. Lesser souls being forced to use so much of their own aether to create beasts that it consumed their entire being, unlike the Ascians who had more aether. Labyrinthos, a place simulating nature was fascinating. The lore of Thavnair and Radz-at-Han having been run by a dragon for ages. The lore of Old Sharlayan. The unexpected twist to not make Zenos the main villain as the trailer indicated and make him have to go through a learning arc. Ultima Thule, sci-fi as it is, they made it feel like fantasy which is impressive. The slow reveal of Ultima Thule as the music slowly becomes more clear was also creative. The story about the dragons who became robots like the Omicron.

But it's an MMORPG and it has a formula. SE is constricted by this:
91 dungeon
93 dungeon, trial
95 dungeon
97 dungeon
99 dungeon, trial
100 dungeon, trial
2 expert dungeons

So even Dawntrail will be somewhat constricted by this formula that will make (and has already made) many events predictable. I already know the order we will progress through the zones and what level most things happen at.

[NorthernLadMSP]

I just skipped all the cutscenes. I have absolutely no idea what it was about LOL.

[Striker44]

I feel like I'm the only one who didn't mind the Zero questline. I had more difficulty slogging through the latest patch with Wuk Lamat than I did in the void.

You're definitely not the only one. Float around places like YT instead of here and you'll find a population dwarfing anything you see here that really enjoyed it. You just happen to be existing in a negative echo chamber by coming to these forums.

[Shialan]

How hard can it be to just fast click through the text and skip every cutscene that can be skipped?

[Alleluia]

Sounds like you'll probably want to skip through Dawntrail, too.

[Mostly_Raxus]

if you dont like endwalker you wont like the new one wrote by the same people, go play wow, you dont have to do a single quest in that game if you dont want to.

[TaleraRistain]

You've technically already finished Endwalker. That ended with 6.0. They didn't continue the story arc until the x.3 patch like they have in previous expansions. The post-EW quests are a contained story arc with the most recent patch giving the expansion hook. So you can skip cutscenes and hurry through text to get to the end of that, but what is your draw to Dawntrail? Do you like the story or is it just about wanting to be at the latest expansion?

[Alleluia]

You've technically already finished Endwalker. That ended with 6.0. They didn't continue the story arc until the x.3 patch like they have in previous expansions. The post-EW quests are a contained story arc with the most recent patch giving the expansion hook. So you can skip cutscenes and hurry through text to get to the end of that, but what is your draw to Dawntrail? Do you like the story or is it just about wanting to be at the latest expansion?

I mean, to be fair, the void stuff is likely not going to stay contained, either. It'll come back in a future xpac, if past experience is anything to go by.

[TaleraRistain]

I mean, to be fair, the void stuff is likely not going to stay contained, either. It'll come back in a future xpac, if past experience is anything to go by.

True but it's a self-contained story the way previous expansions were. Points from those came up later on, too.

[Communion]

I know. That's how I feel right now in-game. Dawntrail is a dead expansion to me.