I FINALLY did it

[Lazuli]

Took my ninja through all of the cancerous 2.x patch quests in ARR and got to heavensward, it only took me about 3 weeks of being bored to shit. Eventually I started skipping all dialogue and cutscenes to save time on my days off.

Easily the worst questing experience I think I've had in an MMO. It is such a shame too because the game is great, but by god the questing is atrocious just talk to a guy teleport somewhere else and talk to another guy and I repeated that like 5000 times no joke.

Man they really need to fix that because it makes the game look BAD when it's not. Now I will enjoy HSward and start my journey towards stormblood.. wish me luck I hope the questing gets much better.

I am guessing it will since I will not be faced with 250 MSQ back to back once I catch up to recent patches. I am just glad to be getting exp again outside of dailies.

A random question too does anyone know what you can get a NIN gcd to? I am currently 2.0 gcd which feels good but could be faster, I am hoping with enough skill speed in end game is possible to get like 1.5 ?Or is skill speed just not a good enough stat to warrant it and instead stack crit/direct hit etc?

I can't believe it takes a whole day to do maint and its my last day off rip..

[icausewipes]

ARR is tough and I skipped thru every cs around level 40ish(?). This thread might help since its been awhile since I went thru HW MSQ.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...length_post30/

[Florena]

Some parts of ARR, including those patches, could really use a pass over to trim the fat.

[Samuraijake]

the ARR shit is painful... the heavensward is good

look at it this way...

--going to the store to buy condoms..

---driving home after buying the condoms..

---opening the box of condoms and putting it on...

Thats all work right there ^^^^^

but you know what comes after that though right?

[Onikaroshi]

Some parts of ARR, including those patches, could really use a pass over to trim the fat.

It's something that they're looking at, but it's not just a simple as cutting out quests, they have to do it in a way that keeps the story coherent.

[Eldar45]

I played ARR when it came out several years ago, and having to do all of that questing is the reason why I haven't picked up the expansions.

They shouldn't force you to do old quest lines.

[shade076]

the ARR shit is painful... the heavensward is good

look at it this way...

--going to the store to buy condoms..

---driving home after buying the condoms..

---opening the box of condoms and putting it on...

Thats all work right there ^^^^^

but you know what comes after that though right?

massive latex allergy?

[Eleccybubb]

I played ARR when it came out several years ago, and having to do all of that questing is the reason why I haven't picked up the expansions.

They shouldn't force you to do old quest lines.

That's why you can buy a story skip to start Stormblood. £18.50 for that and £18.50 for a boost to 60 which is still cheaper in total than a 110 boost in WoW....

Otherwise the game is a story focused game. Simple as that. However I 100% agree the amount of tedious fetch/breadcrumb story quests in ARR needs fixing.

[Fabled]

It's a chore for sure. Recently did it on my original character, but then had a few friends want me to roll a character on EU..said sure why not, couldn't be that bad. Boy was I wrong. Shoulda just bought the skip and boost, but I said fuck it. Took a few days of off and on playing but I finally got to HW. ..now I just wanna play my Dark Knight

[Beastiel]

grats, I also just hit the previous level cap about a day after Heavensward came out. Absolute, complete, seemingly endless nightmare. Also got to that point where i gave up and just started skipping dialogue.

[Super Kami Dende]

I powered through it all 6 weeks. watched/read everything. I enjoyed it the first time, I think i'd end myself if I had to do it again though.

[Kes]

I remember getting about halfway through the 'max level' stuff as whm and then leveling up the ninja job just to feel like I was breaking up the monotony a little bit. Definitely worth the cost to skip.

[Wrecktangle]

That's why you can buy a story skip to start Stormblood. £18.50 for that and £18.50 for a boost to 60 which is still cheaper in total than a 110 boost in WoW....

Otherwise the game is a story focused game. Simple as that. However I 100% agree the amount of tedious fetch/breadcrumb story quests in ARR needs fixing.

To be fair, WoW also gives one away with an expansion purchase and also allows the entire game through Legion to be played for a sub (altho i think up to Legion is technically free). They also allow you to test most specs out for free at a high level as well to see if you like the core concept.

Also - while HW was great, I do remember the Moogles being another pain point.

[Katchii]

To be fair, WoW also gives one away with an expansion purchase and also allows the entire game through Legion to be played for free. They also allow you to test most specs out for free at a high level as well to see if you like the core concept.

Also - while HW was great, I do remember the Moogles being another pain point.

To clarify, they allow you to play up through Legion for subscribing, so not entirely free, but I get what you're trying to say.

As someone who bought a level boost to experience the story again without having to worry about what level and gear my character had (boosted a paladin), and playing with no story skip, the story has FAR too much non-combat related stuff. The amount of time you can go between actually using an attack ability is staggering.

I enjoy it the first time as it's part of the whole experience and I do enjoy the story, after that though when I know what's going to happen, it's just too tedious. The slog through ARR patch quests was atrocious, but I soared through HW content, but am now having a tough time convincing myself to work through SB...I just got to Kugane and I know the next set of quests are just talk talk talk talk and then Ruby Sea, which is one my least favorite zones in any game...ever. The music is terrible and the story is boring AF IMO, with talking turtles with mouths that don't fucking move and they don't wear masks! WTF!?

In any case, as a one time advocate for "it's a story driven MMO, get over it" I am now quite understanding and sympathetic to those who don't enjoy it as much as I do and just want to do combat. I don't have a good solution, honestly, because I don't think the story should able to be completely skipped, not for the current expansion anyway, as it has a very methodical way of introducing mechanics, content and characters, but I'm not sure how you could streamline it without destroying a lot of the experience.

[Wrecktangle]

To clarify, they allow you to play up through Legion for subscribing, so not entirely free, but I get what you're trying to say.

As someone who bought a level boost to experience the story again without having to worry about what level and gear my character had (boosted a paladin), and playing with no story skip, the story has FAR too much non-combat related stuff. The amount of time you can go between actually using an attack ability is staggering.

I enjoy it the first time as it's part of the whole experience and I do enjoy the story, after that though when I know what's going to happen, it's just too tedious. The slog through ARR patch quests was atrocious, but I soared through HW content, but am now having a tough time convincing myself to work through SB...I just got to Kugane and I know the next set of quests are just talk talk talk talk and then Ruby Sea, which is one my least favorite zones in any game...ever. The music is terrible and the story is boring AF IMO, with talking turtles with mouths that don't fucking move and they don't wear masks! WTF!?

In any case, as a one time advocate for "it's a story driven MMO, get over it" I am now quite understanding and sympathetic to those who don't enjoy it as much as I do and just want to do combat. I don't have a good solution, honestly, because I don't think the story should able to be completely skipped, not for the current expansion anyway, as it has a very methodical way of introducing mechanics, content and characters, but I'm not sure how you could streamline it without destroying a lot of the experience.

Great catch on that, I'll edit that.

Regarding the dilemma for sure. It's a flat out loss either way you look at it:

1) Clean up old content to streamline approach? Tons of dev time
2) Make story skippable easily? Destroys a lot of charm the game has
3) Make it unskippable? Alienates new comers, and will become a larger more daunting wall, year over year.

all 3 options suck.

[Lazuli]

I guarantee a ton of people have given up on the game due to arr msq. I wouldn't know how to fix it but I mean the blatant bad design in talking to npc 1 and teleporting to npc 2 on repeat is pretty self explanatory. A lot of the time it makes you go right back to npc 1 again too. Like really who the fuck designs quests like that because it's not fun lol

[Eleccybubb]

I guarantee a ton of people have given up on the game due to arr msq. I wouldn't know how to fix it but I mean the blatant bad design in talking to npc 1 and teleporting to npc 2 on repeat is pretty self explanatory. A lot of the time it makes you go right back to npc 1 again too. Like really who the fuck designs quests like that because it's not fun lol

And your source for this guarantee?

[Katchii]

And your source for this guarantee?

I don't really think one is really needed. While, "a ton" might be a bit exaggerated, I'm 100% positive there are people who quit because of that specific quest slog, if not the overall quest design itself, because let's be honest, FFXIV is absolutely inundated with boring AF "fetch" quests. For people who don't care about or are not invested in the story, the quest design is a HUGE downer.

[Faroth]

I've done the ARR MSQ into HW three times now, no skip potions, and not skipping all the cut scenes, though I'm more selective on which ones I watched.

I actually like all the Doma stuff in ARR, though.

[Wrecktangle]

And your source for this guarantee?

While I personally don't think one is needed, and I have gobs of anecdotes to support that he's probably right, I wonder if there's some insight into this question in the census or bancho results.