"MSQ relevance" aside, cleaning the maps of side quest isn't as daunting as it seems. There's a lot of funny and good story in there. The Great Serpent of Ronka arc should not be skipped.
Thank you for this! A lot of people say they'll go back to clear out those side quests when leveling an alt job ... and don't. And they're really not that useful on their own because they give about 25% of the XP and MSQ will give. They can be really helpful if you just need a few small taps to get leveled for the next dungeon, especially when you are trying to level multiple jobs via the MSQ. But whether you're in an area for the first time or coming back there are several reasons to at least click on the quest giver. Perhaps the main one is that particularly starting with HW, many side quests give gear as rewards. Or they give emotes or minions. I love how you feature quests that fill in important lore (without saying too much about it). Most zones have one side quest that turns into a 4-5 quest series that adds some character to the people and/or their cultures in that zone ... and many are required as unlocks for Tribal quests as well. There is one HW questline you did not mention here tho that is essential for lore freaks like me. It's the Scholasticate questline (and it's tangentially related to Hildebrand as well in a serious way). If you're not familiar with it you should check it out. One other reason to do these side quests, particularly with the normal raids: they change details in your story -- I think even in the MSQ in a few places, but I may be remembering wrong. There are NPCs you only meet in side quests that play critical roles in the lore of the game and if you never meet them, then you not only lose dialogue options you get a different cutscene. If I didn't skip side quests on alts I never would have known this. They're only very minor, almost photobomb-like appearances ... but you can't have those NPCs appear if you've never met them in the first place.
I've been enjoying the side quests in Dawntrail (and parts of Endwalker) a lot recently, since I decided to give Viper a try when my Paladin got overleveled. Back in the early days (circa 2013-2014), though, I grinded through a lot of the ARR side quests and the memories of them are basically lost to time. I can't even remember if they were enjoyable.
I very much agree with your opening statement, just today I encountered a poor sprout who had more or less completed the msq, put the poor guy was completely clueless didn't even know basic stuff like tomestones, and the only had 20 hours left on his sprout. He didn't know about mounts, extremes, and he had forgotten about raids. And here's me who is approaching 3000 hours and I'm still in heavensward. Everybody in the novice network felt sorry for the guy. He was completely lost
Oh yeah, you can miss out on a lot of great content if you do nothing but msq. I remember I didn't get any tome gear through most of ARR because I had no idea it existed. So I can relate to that guy a little bit
For a minute I thought he was going to completely skip over Binding Coils of Bahamut. I get not doing them right at level 50 since you'd have to build your own group for them and not a lot of people are interested. However, I'd say if you have a buddy at endgame that's willing to carry you through an unscyned run, do them as close to Completing ARR as you can. There's a lot of context that people just don't realize is there and I feel most people would have an easier time piecing it together while ARR's story is still fresh in their mind.
The Ivalice alliance raids in Stormblood are definitely relevant to the Endwalker raids. Also, the third Variant dungeon in Endwalker is very relevant in Dawntrail.
1) you can't change jobs until you are level 10 You can't travel between nations until level 17-20. Lancer is in Gridania and rogue is in Limsa. 2) Every early job has it's challenges, I prefer to begin in Limsa on Arcanist which will split into Scholar and Summoner at level 30 but what experience you gain on one will apply to the other. From there on what job you choose becomes dependent on what is available at 60 i prefer to change to DNC and 70 i pick up sage. 3) do your job quests as you go, even from the beginning, there are skills that you can only get from them 4) if you use your MSQ for leveling the first job you can use the Side Quests to easily level the second job.
I would definately do the Hildy quests as they come up whilst leveling as they required if you want to do the Relic Weapons for Endwalker. If you do the whilst leveling, you then don't have to smash through them to unlock the relic weapon. Although with Dawntrail the weapons may become Glamour items towards the end of DT.
People spread a lot of misinformation about things they disliked about the story/world building/lore/flavor & have VERY strong opinions about plot hooks which are directly addressed in not only yellow quests but also stuff in dungeons people get rushed through, things on the map, & optional dialogue before and after quests. This is why it's objectively untrue that it's value-neutral to rush players through content, even if they're good at the mechanics & their role in combat - it's a narrative-based MMORPG, not a skinner box of raid content like WoW or Lost Ark. The meta for FFXIV has always been about knowledge of the story, world, & characters. No wonder people who only obsess over numbers are miserable. It's not their kind of game in the first place, the pacing is WAY too slow for their tastes, but they desperately want to force it into being a conveyor belt of raid content just like any other MMO & that's... weird.
I think you're mistaken & I disagree. I think these tips are sorely needed for folks confused/upset about details in the story that they just straight up skipped & didn't care about... until they suddenly do (COUGH COUGH endwalker + dawntrail COUGH COUGH)
@@meteorwalkerggIf you dont care enough and start skipping things youre playing the wrong game. Hes right none of this has anything to do with enjoying the msq more.
"MSQ relevance" aside, cleaning the maps of side quest isn't as daunting as it seems. There's a lot of funny and good story in there. The Great Serpent of Ronka arc should not be skipped.
Thank you for this!
A lot of people say they'll go back to clear out those side quests when leveling an alt job ... and don't. And they're really not that useful on their own because they give about 25% of the XP and MSQ will give. They can be really helpful if you just need a few small taps to get leveled for the next dungeon, especially when you are trying to level multiple jobs via the MSQ. But whether you're in an area for the first time or coming back there are several reasons to at least click on the quest giver. Perhaps the main one is that particularly starting with HW, many side quests give gear as rewards. Or they give emotes or minions.
I love how you feature quests that fill in important lore (without saying too much about it). Most zones have one side quest that turns into a 4-5 quest series that adds some character to the people and/or their cultures in that zone ... and many are required as unlocks for Tribal quests as well. There is one HW questline you did not mention here tho that is essential for lore freaks like me. It's the Scholasticate questline (and it's tangentially related to Hildebrand as well in a serious way). If you're not familiar with it you should check it out.
One other reason to do these side quests, particularly with the normal raids: they change details in your story -- I think even in the MSQ in a few places, but I may be remembering wrong. There are NPCs you only meet in side quests that play critical roles in the lore of the game and if you never meet them, then you not only lose dialogue options you get a different cutscene. If I didn't skip side quests on alts I never would have known this. They're only very minor, almost photobomb-like appearances ... but you can't have those NPCs appear if you've never met them in the first place.
I just clear all quests in a zone before moving on. Doesn’t take long and I like learning more about the folks and world I’m saving.
I've been enjoying the side quests in Dawntrail (and parts of Endwalker) a lot recently, since I decided to give Viper a try when my Paladin got overleveled.
Back in the early days (circa 2013-2014), though, I grinded through a lot of the ARR side quests and the memories of them are basically lost to time. I can't even remember if they were enjoyable.
Waiting so long to do the Coils of Bahamut feels really bad due to it being the first story that focuses on Alisaie.
I very much agree with your opening statement, just today I encountered a poor sprout who had more or less completed the msq, put the poor guy was completely clueless didn't even know basic stuff like tomestones, and the only had 20 hours left on his sprout.
He didn't know about mounts, extremes, and he had forgotten about raids.
And here's me who is approaching 3000 hours and I'm still in heavensward. Everybody in the novice network felt sorry for the guy. He was completely lost
Oh yeah, you can miss out on a lot of great content if you do nothing but msq.
I remember I didn't get any tome gear through most of ARR because I had no idea it existed. So I can relate to that guy a little bit
@@thisisnotargun he was really stressed that the NN was going away
For a minute I thought he was going to completely skip over Binding Coils of Bahamut. I get not doing them right at level 50 since you'd have to build your own group for them and not a lot of people are interested. However, I'd say if you have a buddy at endgame that's willing to carry you through an unscyned run, do them as close to Completing ARR as you can. There's a lot of context that people just don't realize is there and I feel most people would have an easier time piecing it together while ARR's story is still fresh in their mind.
Very true! If you have a buddy to carry you through it, it is totally worth doing at 50!
The Ivalice alliance raids in Stormblood are definitely relevant to the Endwalker raids.
Also, the third Variant dungeon in Endwalker is very relevant in Dawntrail.
1) you can't change jobs until you are level 10 You can't travel between nations until level 17-20. Lancer is in Gridania and rogue is in Limsa.
2) Every early job has it's challenges, I prefer to begin in Limsa on Arcanist which will split into Scholar and Summoner at level 30 but what experience you gain on one will apply to the other. From there on what job you choose becomes dependent on what is available at 60 i prefer to change to DNC and 70 i pick up sage.
3) do your job quests as you go, even from the beginning, there are skills that you can only get from them
4) if you use your MSQ for leveling the first job you can use the Side Quests to easily level the second job.
I just recently finished up ALL 2ndary quests in all expansions so that I have a clean map when Dawn Trail drops.
I would definately do the Hildy quests as they come up whilst leveling as they required if you want to do the Relic Weapons for Endwalker. If you do the whilst leveling, you then don't have to smash through them to unlock the relic weapon. Although with Dawntrail the weapons may become Glamour items towards the end of DT.
Basically do all the quests the developers bothered to implement NG+ for.
People spread a lot of misinformation about things they disliked about the story/world building/lore/flavor & have VERY strong opinions about plot hooks which are directly addressed in not only yellow quests but also stuff in dungeons people get rushed through, things on the map, & optional dialogue before and after quests.
This is why it's objectively untrue that it's value-neutral to rush players through content, even if they're good at the mechanics & their role in combat - it's a narrative-based MMORPG, not a skinner box of raid content like WoW or Lost Ark.
The meta for FFXIV has always been about knowledge of the story, world, & characters. No wonder people who only obsess over numbers are miserable. It's not their kind of game in the first place, the pacing is WAY too slow for their tastes, but they desperately want to force it into being a conveyor belt of raid content just like any other MMO & that's... weird.
tfw out of nowhere stormblood trials get a mention in dawntrail msq
yo the majority of tips has nothing to do with getting more out of the story dude ...
I think you're mistaken & I disagree. I think these tips are sorely needed for folks confused/upset about details in the story that they just straight up skipped & didn't care about... until they suddenly do (COUGH COUGH endwalker + dawntrail COUGH COUGH)
@@meteorwalkerggIf you dont care enough and start skipping things youre playing the wrong game. Hes right none of this has anything to do with enjoying the msq more.