WoW-Convert Gets to His First FFXIV Credits Scene

[@compscijedi]

So, about that first credits roll: That is the holder of "Longest Credit Sequence in a Video Game" according to Guinness. If you watch the noclip documentary on the making of ARR, it goes into the details a bit, but EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER with an active subscription at the end of 1.0 when they took the servers offline to prepare for ARR has their name in the credits, as the game would not have existed without their support. And the game prior to the ARR patch content is referred to as "2.0", the patch content as "2.x", and each expansion following will have a (shorter) credits sequence at the end of the .0 content and the .55 content right before the next expansion content. As for what's coming up: emotional rollercoasters, amazing storytelling, and the best MMO experience I've had in more than a decade. Story elements that seem strange or not worth the time now will blossom into things you care deeply about. Enjoy the ride, and welcome to Eorzea

[@rivenoak]

"first credits roll" tsk tsk how spoilery.... ;) the real finisher event of ARR hits hard. but it was necessary to get _heavensward_ rolling....

[@AnonSeacat]

"Main scenario roulette" with unskippable cutscenes was basically SE's answer to how to keep people doing Prae/CM and not have the newbie experience get totally ruined. Yes, it takes a while, yes, there's a lot of unskippable cutscenes, but the rewards are huge, in terms of EXP and Tomestones. It's not a perfect solution by any stretch because it is still kind of a speed-run-athon and everyone blows through the content with ease nowadays, but it's workable and people still run it all these years later so I can't complain too much.

[@a.jherbert5436]

It's my leveling saving grace. I'm actually really thankful for it. Kinda actually gives me a break from the game so I can do other stuff on my 2nd monitor.

[@seekittycat]

I feel bad for the newbies though and always try to show them the way they're always so confused lol

[@destrega984]

I'd Like to add that they used to be skippable, and everyone except for 1 or 2 new people would just skip them. It would bug out the cutscenes because players would trigger the next cutscene before the first one finished. It made for a terrible new player experience, so they buffed to reward by a ton (to make up for all the extra time it takes) and made the cutscenes unskippable. The reason the content is a joke is the raid is tuned for people wearing at most item level 50 gear and it only downscales people to item level 130. It was never hard content, but you did actually get a much better first raid experience from the two intro raids back in 2.0

[@XenoVT]

Yeah prae was my experience with the toxic side, the amount of shit I got as a sprout cause I was abit upset that they skipped everything when I wanted to watch the story was really bad, I was basically laughed at and told too fuckin bad, deal with it it was oof, I had to ask my friends at the time if they would like to run it with me so I can watch all the cutscenes and experience it at least, and i’m glad they did, so to me, I love that you can’t skip it anymore, 1. cause great for turning off the brain and free time to meme, snacc, or scroll around online, 2. The petty satisfaction of knowing those toxic assholes were malding 😂

[@XenoVT]

@@seekittycat yeah especially the magitek key part, I mark it every run to the point that it’s routine and I do it in seconds now XD

[@savagehowler]

I love doing prea runs, you have the best convos during those cutscenes. Like how we should be getting paid for running couple therapy for Cid and Nero or how Gaius had practiced the elevator speech in his room before bed just incase he got chance to read it to us. xD

[@Amovetv]

Gaius 100% hypes himself up in the mirror before going out.

[@williamklett6660]

My favorite comment was my noting to people that this is what happens when writers and voice actors are paid by the word...

[@benjaminschroeder5465]

And given that Praetorium is ARR content, you get to hear Richard Epcar’s glorious performance every time

[@erockbaby3000]

It's at the point where I'm just like "Nero shut up and go vent to somebody else about how much you wanna hate/love Cid but leave us out of it. and Gaius did practice this speech

[@williamklett6660]

@@erockbaby3000 That awkward moment as the perfect couple begin to argue in public. Gaius, is simply showing off his his degree in Villain Monologuey lol

[@MagsonDare]

Hildibrand! Funniest quest line I've ever experienced in any game.

[@hoshiataru]

I'm really glad they let us have the Magitek Armor because of the next map! Magitek + Terra's Theme + slogging through the blizzards of Coerthas = 😗👌💖

[@drh5986]

What you just finished usually gets people interested but the end of the post patch quests is usually what hooks you. And going into Heavensward of course.

[@impkid204]

The MSQ roulette is what Castrum and The Praetorium fall into. Besides the tomestones ( think badges in wotlk ) it gives a stupid amount of exp for alt jobs. It's percentage based so no matter what level you are you get about 50% of a level. A lot of people do MSQ roulette for that reason. Easy exp for alts.

[@TheGerrok]

One run a day on an alt for 30-45 minutes, and you level up a job you're not too excited to otherwise play.

[@rivenoak]

@@TheGerrok also depends on the "hero in need" setting. tanks lvl up on warp speed there

[@drakedge2000]

The "MSQ Roulette" rewards 50% of a level 50 - 79 (likely also 89 once EW is out) so it's also MASSIVELY rewarding for people leveling alt jobs. Which is part of XIV's brilliance, in that it rewards veteran players to helping people through there. You also get TONS of the end game tomes, for gear if you are running it at max level.

[@Ladywizard]

and it's ALWAYS on the moogle events

[@Tsuna_SoulSilver]

Congrats on getting past Preatorium. If you both have a time definitely try to get though the Coils of Bahamut Raid. It's not mandatory for the MSQ but for lore and experience wise it's worth the detour, especially before Heavensward.

[@WillKazeOh]

The forced cutscene thing has another reason, outside of what was pointed out: back in the day, you COULD skip cutscenes and progress much faster... but new players not skipping, even when they were not needed to clear a section, would end a cutscene, ready to take on a boss... only for the boss, and the next 3 mob pulls, to be already cleared. A few seconds later, the next boss cutscene would be triggered by the veterans, so the sprouts would watch the cutscene without having the time to move from the starting point, and you can see how this would snowball into every boss being cleared while sprouts were basically just watching a movie with no inputs.

[@continuallyblessed44]

Yeah my first time through I got yelled at for not skipping lol. People were like “go to your inn room and watch the cinematics”

[@Thalarion]

just, make them single player and scale down the bosses?

[@WillKazeOh]

@@Thalarion That would be like Overwatch forcing people to queue for speicifc roles and not change roles as the game goes: dodging the problem instead of fixing it. They did what they had to to keep the game as an actual mmo instead of becoming a single player jrpg.

[@Thalarion]

@@WillKazeOh Overwatch did that tho? Also, if the 'raid' is already 90% cutscene what's it matter if you go in by yourself like a regular MSQ solo quest, having the other people there doesn't change anything, most of the time i do praetorium specificly (this is what im talking about, other raids/dungeons seem fine) I barely even hit the boss anyways, i honsetly don't know the boss mechanics and ive run it 20+ times

[@sorleytarrys8501]

@@Thalarion It's ok as it is. You just need to do it once and everyone else who are with you at that point are fully aware about the Cut Scenes. The MSQ Roulette only contains these 2 "Raids" and they aren't listed in any other Roulettes beide the Mentors. So you don't end up in Praetorium accidentally.

[@DameonStarflame]

There a certain bit of irony about running into this channel late last night and then going through the archive and hitting this episode talking about having things on in the background while running Praet... while this becomes my thing in the background while running New!Praet (which still has enough going on that something in the background is needed when you're running it dozens of times for those shady little puffballs and their tomes). Glad you guys are having fun in Eorzea!

[@coldrunfinalfantasy5545]

Beating "2.0" is probably how I think of this first part of ARR, before the patch content. Same for future expansions - for instance, the best way for someone to say they beat the Heavensward initial pre-patch story is probably to say that they beat 3.0.

[@Weltallgaia]

Back when they didn't force people, you would be still on the first or second cutscene and the rest of the group would be killing the final boss already. So the solution was, force everyone to watch it so it doesn't ruin the new player experience, but also here is like 90% of a level of exp.

[@951Bigjosh]

This was the main reason they did it. New people running it for the first time would not even get to experience any of the boss fights in Prae if they watched the CS. It was messed up. lol

[@yankokassinof6710]

this is actually so cool

[@Advon]

For something a little different: In Western Thanalan there's a sidequest called "The Greatest Story Never Told". This sidequest is unusual in that it has no map markers, no journal instructions telling you exactly where to go, just riddles and hints that have you travelling all over Eorzea solving puzzles.

[@Theheadless1858]

The Coils of Bahamut Raid. It will require you to do the "Hard" modes for the three primals you have already fought (there are Extreme optional versions that are a moderate challenge at level with no echo if you want harder content but the Hard Modes will not be difficult at all). The MSQ should direct you to Urianger to do the Hard Modes, but after you do all 3 of them he has another quest that is not mandatory that starts you off on the Coils of Bahamut path. This is the ending to FFXIV 1.0 (the failed version) that bridges what happened between Bahamut escaping his moon prison and destroying the world (shown as the opening of ARR) and the world as we see it now. The roar you heard at the end of the final 2.0 CS is Bahamut so it makes sense you go there as soon as the MSQ leads you to Urianger (though you can skip it and do it at the end of 2.55 right before Heavensward). This was one of two stories that are not MSQ but that the lead writer for Shadowbringers and Endwalker heavily suggested you try and get done if you haven't yet and would like to have a deeper understanding of the lore. It is very likely the Dragons will play a huge role in the post-Hydealyn and Zodiark Saga so make a mental note whenever you see dragons and the story of their origins. Also, though not cannon there is an Ultimate fight (Ultimate is the highest difficulty in the game, apparently the difficulty equivalent to WOW mythic raids but I cannot confirm as I have only completed Mythic Guldan in WOW and I have never attempted any Ultimate level fight in FFXIV) where you will face a ridiculously difficult version of Ultima empowered by all three primals that you can in your head substitute for the Ultima fight you see here. There is another non-cannon Ultima Weapon fight that is optional called Minstrel's Ballad: Ultima's Bane. This is a version of the fiery portion of the fight (no primals) based on a Minstrel's interpretation of the fight and the Minstrel's embellishment results in a more difficult and mechanic-heavy encounter. At level with no echo this fight is also somewhat challenging especially if you do not know what you are doing.

[@Tioko]

Ah, Minstrel’s Ballad… One of the most memorable experiences in the game for me. Because I stumbled into it right after completing the ARR MSQ. Still in my white-and-red White Mage class gear, not even the Ironworks set. Moreover, I didn’t really know at the time that you’re supposed to zoom out all the way in fights, so it was just a barrage of lasers an explosions from everywhere all the time! We wiped three times, but then we beat it. I remember feeling really bad that I sucked so much and died all the time, but I didn’t know that I was actually doing Extreme-level content and survived that as a sprout fresh out of the MSQ. And… That fight actually dropped the Ultima Band of Healing. Which I keep in my inventory to this day and glam it over any ring I wear on my right hand, as a memento of the experience. The other ring is a memento for a certain character in post-ARR patches, and I always wear the Allagan earrings I got in the Coils (no deep reason for that, I just really like them, but it is kinda symbolic as well now that I think about it).

[@Tioko]

Welp, as of patch 6.0, they changed the model of that ring from red-with-white to green-colored. No longer fits me at all… So instead, in honor of Endwalker being the final chapter of the saga, I have a ring with a white star for Hydaelin and a ring with a purple star for Zodiark :)

[@firedrake110]

I think part of the reason I immediately started enjoying these videos is the opening jingle reminds me HEAVILY of Phantasy Star Online...

[@Amovetv]

Oh jeez. Hadn't considered that but you're not wrong. My college roommate would play every night and he had a helluva sound system in his room so I could always hear it when he'd boot it up.

[@Maria_Erias]

I'm coming back to this now, as you guys are getting ready to push on into the end of 5.0, and it's amazing seeing how far you've come. I would absolutely love to see you two do a retrospective, looking back over your journey, once you finish Endwalker. Here's to a great year of memories, and here's to hopefully many more years to come! ♥

[@dune469]

-Coils Of Bahamut (do it with friends) -Crystal tower ( game wont let you move on to heavenward but it's better to do it early) -Dungeon Sequels ( all of the ARR dungeons but with new layout, new bosses, new mechanics)

[@frobeusns6404]

Such devastation.... Was not my intention

[@Amovetv]

I loved that line.

[@Celis.C]

Just came here from your August video. The change in attitude towards the game is remarkable xD

[@ColorMeOblong]

To answer Garrett's question about what you call Pre-credits A Realm Reborn and Post-Credits is that the base of an expansion is referred by it's number, 2.0, 3.0 etc. And it's patch content is number-x, 2.X, 3.X etc

[@amarlian8268]

We also call it ARR and Post-ARR, then HW and Post HW, and so on.

[@Amovetv]

Love learning this type of terminology. Thanks for the info.

[@williamklett6660]

@@Amovetv You will see many content creators having videos listed as a 2.3, 5.3, or 6.0 reactions (well 6.0 content is coming soon)

[@maik5201]

doing praetorium after ending stormblood adds a lot more flavor at least to me about hardest content I like that the story is not blocked behind hard content. You have your endgame experience doing the extremes versions

[@ReddeSpectre]

It's definitely too many cutscenes, but every last one of them is important. Congrats on making it through.

[@Disastra]

Found your show a couple of weeks ago and I've really been enjoying your FFXIV coverage. These have been some great discussions and I look forward to more in the future! Can't wait to see what you think of the *real* ending to A Realm Reborn (at the end of the patch quests)

[@Amovetv]

Thanks! Been a super rewarding experience slowly getting aclimated for FF14 alongside commenters on these videos. The community is really stoked on this game and so many players just want to share info and help newbies enjoy their time.

[@terenceng5177]

The story will kick into high gear once you finished the post ARR patches (which is widely considered the make or breakpoint for newer players). You will also notice a drastically decrease in the number of fetch quests. If there are any, they are mostly there to introduce you to new area, NPC or Aether currents, which I think is very smart. Pre Stormblood dungeons are generally very easy because everyone are way over-geared. Perhaps the new stat squeeze will change that but I can’t see how that will make older dungeon challenging. Don’t underestimate the amount of setup and plot points that have been introduced to you at this point. A lot of characters that you think were irrelevant or “one off” will come back and surprise you.

[@frobeusns6404]

As another comment said, Doing the Bahamut raid series before you start Heavenward is essential. The story is very important there. Make sure you're leveling your Grand Company too

[@PokeBattlerJaze]

3:00 Item Level, while your spells might be gone, the raw boost to stats you get even when scaled down HEAVILY trumps a lot of older content, it's one of the reasons they are doing the stat squish in Endwalker, also, MSQ content tends to not be all that difficult, the challenge comes from the optional stuff. 5:30 That is literally point for point what used to happen. People would run it for farming tomestones and people who were new to the story LITERALLY didn't get to do the dungeon itself because by the time the first cutscene ended, the group who was speedrunning would have beaten the next boss and thus, triggered the next cutscene, keeping them in cutscenes the entire time. That was my own personal first experience doing it, didn't hit a single mob, just cutscene watched for 30 minutes. 9:45 Again, the difficulty is the optional stuff, like legitimately, even to this day, people still have trouble doing the ARR raids (We call them Coils) synced or otherwise. 15:00 Ohhhhh, if you like the story elements going on in ARR, just you wait, it literally only skyrockets from here. 23:00 Housekeeping, I always suggest doing any and all blue exclamation quests as those lead to optional content such as trials in their hardest forms and raids which give more side story content stuff.

[@itsjezzer]

Recommended post-ARR stuff: 1. Unlock and do the optional 4-man dungeons (it'll add them to your Roulette, and you'll thank me when you get some variety in your leveling roulettes if you decide to level an alt job; plus they're just plain fun); 2. Check out Palace of the Dead (rogue-like procedural dungeon with its own storyline tied to one of the optional dungeons); 3. Coils of Bahamut (first ARR Raid series); 4. Extreme Trials

[@altairscauldron9776]

Congrats! just a few more stories until the real end of ARR. I'm excited to see the next video!

[@AnimatronicBadgerlord]

Oh my lord. Putting the ROTJ Ending Song overtop of the ARR Credits was a stroke of brilliance.

[@firedrake110]

On the topic of Castrum/Praetorium: the ilvl of the area intends you to be like, maybe 50-60? And that's BEFORE all the new abilities, passives, and potency bloat. You're now OVER double the intended ilvl, and every ability you have access to does roughly twice the potency it did upon release. You're literally doing between 4-8 times the damage you would have been outputting on release day

[@tophergerkey]

Yoshi-P has talked about the possibility of redoing Castrum Meridianum and Praetorium as single-player instances with NPC party members, so as to make it less of a steamroll so new players can have their epic chapter one conclusion. He's basically said they're changing them in *some* way eventually but the exact details aren't nailed down yet; they just know they don't like the current solution.

[@KKPanda]

It's been an absolute blast hearing your journey through this game I love! I'm looking forward to the continuing journey, for sure!

[@Amovetv]

Thanks! Glad you've been enjoying it. Certainly morphed the direction of our uploads as we went.

[@Fhyber]

Really optimally, just do every single blue quest you see, you'll want to eventually do them for a reason. As you'll find overwhelming support for already, do the Hildibrand quests now. It'll change your ideas on what an mmo can do.

[@Ebonmourn]

If the random encounters killed final fantasy for you.. the 'newer' ones have enemies shown on the field like mmos, 12 (more similar to old rpg combat with some simple programable logic you can set up to automate actions) and 15 (similar to action adventure style combat) while the 13 trilogy shows them on the field like mmo's but when you attack them or they attack you it then transitions into a battle like those random encounters of old. None of these are turn based either like the jrpgs of old.

[@udiar]

To add to this 16 that is in development and is being made by the ff14 team that made stuff like the dark knight story and I belive shadowbringers msq looks like it's going to have a devil may cry sort of gameplay. The battle designer actually worked for the devil may cry series.

[@carltonlee17]

Crystal tower is always a must to do after patch 2.0, ideally done between the post patches for the story to make sense chronically

[@rivenoak]

crystal tower is mandatory to finish ARR, you cannot progress at some point in the msq towards HW without a visit in all 3 wings of the raid.

[@Grig_Orig]

Coils of Bahamut. People don't usually queue for this in the Duty Finder, so either go with a bunch of friends or look in the Party Finder. There's a couple of ways to go about it as well: - running it unsynched and plow through the content just for the story beats; - running it synched for the challenge, since it's a step up in the difficulty from everything done previously.

[@giosarmiento2532]

I cant wait to see you guys discuss the real end of ARR, knowing how much you're getting into the story

[@DroopingFig]

I found the ARR patch content to be a bit slow but the payoff was absolutely worth it. Kyle had mentioned it in a previous episode but I do think the low key, semi-repetitive nature of the ARR patch content makes the bold and dramatic ending to it significantly more impactful and honestly one of the best video game moments I have ever experienced. In terms of what to do after the 2.0 content 1) Knock out Crystal Tower as soon as it unlocks with Revenants Toll, you have to do it for msq anyways, it's fun, epic in scale and a good story 2) Coils of Bahamut is not part of the msq, but has good scenery, fights and significant story that will matter both now and later. 3) Look into red mage and samurai. Both are very fun and well designed jobs. If you pick one or both of them up now, it's easy to swap between jobs and keep them all leveled to where you can split the abundant msq xp of the next expansion.

[@DrummerLocnar]

one of the things players pass by in the ARR patches is the first 8-man raid series, The Binding Coil. It's a bit of work to unlock, but it gives you a lot of background info into the events of 1.0, particularly the end where Dalamud is dropped for the Calamity. To unlock, you'll need the following quests completed in order, starting in Waking Sands: "A Recurring Problem", "Ifrit Bleeds, We Can Kill It", "In for Garuda Awakening", "In a Titan Spot", then finally "Primal Awakening". When you actually get to queueing for Coils itself, just run through the raid Unsynced if time is a factor (these are hard fights when synced, requiring you to learn some pretty tough mechanics), this allows you to just see the story contained in the raids without struggling on hard bosses before you can continue. Unsynced can be enabled with the Duty Finder window, there's a gear-icon button in the far top left of the window.

[@Ravio.Helianthus]

Check out the 8-man Raids, 24-man Raids, and Hard trials. For the 8-man, have some max level friends help with that. They're very tough for newcomers. Their difficulty is comparable to future Raids' Savage mode(the hard mode). Do it for the story. Do note that this is the only 8-man that you need max level players to aid you. Future raids are good for first timers because there's now a Normal mode and Savage mode. 24-man raids are considered casual raids so just go in them and don't worry too much about it. The ARR one is required to progress MSQ at some point so this is actually mandatory. Another thing is the Hard Trials. The norm for Trials is that it's 8-man. The Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda ones you did in MSQ are easy 4-man mode. Try them on the Hard mode. If you want more challenge, do the Extreme mode. Extreme is the real hard mode for trials.

[@Dotterelly]

Btw, you can open the chat log during cutscenes so you can still chat to a party while stuck in scenes you've seen before.

[@CrowQuark]

A very interesting thing was back when 2.0 was new Final Fantasy 14 and the devs were awarded the world record for longest credit scene in a video game, Running at an astonishing 1 hour and 38 minutes mainly due to the Survivors of Meteor.

[@josiahneff719]

If you’re looking for non main story things to do now, first is probably the alliance raids, though you do have to do them now to finish arr. from there, I would look into coils and the extreme primals as some good endgame content. Coils also has lots of good story and lore that you may be interested in as well. Just keep in mind that you will need to use party finder for ex trials and coils, as no one queues for those fights directly in duty finder anymore.

[@LukeGarou]

Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium are still technically dungeons, according the the in-game log. The first raids that you have access to are The Binding Coils of Bahamut (which is not required for story progression, but recommended for lore stuff if it interests you) and The Crystal Tower (which is required for story progression). Bahamut is gonna be hard to queue for, since almost no one does it these days. But, if you have a group of 8 people that can do it, then go for it. Beyond that, I would say check out the Gold Saucer if you haven't already and also pick up the Hildibrand quests if you want a silly good time!

[@slipknotpurity00]

Loving your guys journey. As far as difficulty and challenge, once you start getting to MSQ dungeons and trials in Heavensward and beyond.. especially in Stormblood and Shadowbringers, you'll start seeing legitimately challenging stuff. Like you'll be sweating by then end of the run, in a good way. You'll have wipes even, but people are cool about it. FF14 is excellent at slowing easing you in and teaching you how to play with others, then it's not afraid to really push you later on and it's a great payoff.

[@Sawolf151]

You are in for a treat now! Quite the feast in the patches. Parties with a lot of wine, happiness and shake of hands.

[@Keira_Blackstone]

for suggested content- if you really like small character moments and fleshing out the world, I highly recommend the postmoogle quests. you even get a neat postman's hat and title at the end, and the mail moogles will recognize and respond to you :)

[@Bardic_Knowledge]

Looking at the scenes of this pre-Endwalker Praetorium as someone who started playing in the post-Endwalker version is interesting.

[@novasiri7809]

Ah.. good ol Prae. My FC like to run this together for our 'movie roulette' and it's how we learned that you can sync up Gaius' whole golden transformation with the Sailor moon transformation theme... Also giving Gaius Sean Connery's voice made things amazing. It's become a running joke that anytime we see Cid, we're like "Shid mah boy!" XD

[@robynstrong1189]

I jokingly call Praetorium Movie Night with Gaius. XD

[@bahamut416]

If you're looking for something to chill with that isn't MSQ - try the Weaponsmith of Legend questline. It's the ARR version of Shadowmourne, but unique to whatever class you do it with. Also, all the blue unlocks for extra dungeons and all that.

[@Arrek8585]

MSQ Roulette is a madhouse because it iLvl syncs to the max iLvl for 50 which is 150. When it was first made and ran most people at best had maybe iLvl 50-60 gear which is a massive difference to what you can expect now. Most dungeons, raids and trials after ARR end up with a level sync and a iLvl sync much more in line and not nearly so large a difference in minimum to maximum difference.

[@reginaldswann7445]

Castrum and Prea were EPIC experiences when the level cap was 50. I’m still glad people have to do it.

[@rabid_si]

Castrum & Praetorium is essentially a legacy hurdle they didn't consider having to incentivise people to run when it was designed. They have never done anything near as lengthy or cutscene heavy (during the dungeon/raid) since, falling into a more sensible pattern of cutscenes into 4-man dungeon into cutscenes into 8-man trial. Their first fix to Castrum and Prae was the initial MSQ roulette which offered decent tomestones and XP but allowed skipping, which devolved into a terrible story climax for new players on their first run just watching a bunch of disconnected cutscenes sans context of the combat or feeling pressured to slip and keep up and watch them later. Not ideal. So what we get now is skips disabled and a bump in tomestones and XP to preserve that first time narrative experience. The faceroll nature is a combination of iLevel bloat, ability changes over the years as well as a conscious tuning towards very easy. You can still run both min iLevel with your own group if you want (pretty sure you can skip cutscenes outside of MSQ roulette). Recent comments from Yoshi-P and the devs have been that this may be the last we see of the current iteration of Castrum and Prae which leads many to believe they are going to change it up yet again, probably in a more significant way, either by retooling them as 4-mans or trials, and/or rolling them into the Trust system (essentially a kind of AI group system for running dungeon content in a later expansion) allowing them to give it a little more challenge and at your own pace.

[@Ajguy]

The post-patch stuff is fun. There's a few FedEx quests, but the raids that are part of the MSQ are very well done. But in my opinion, you just want to do what you have to do to get to Heavensward. I just finished Stormblood myself, but I still think about how good the entirety of Heavensward was.

[@emilegarcia2369]

I noticed than in Elemental DC, the party didn't skip the trash in Prae. Almost every time, we clear everything, and honestly, it didn't feel like it made the play time longer XD

[@uncleclaps44]

you can unlock the coils of bahamut raid and get the true ending of ARR, you can unlock a lot of the optional level 50 dungeons (you could just open them and put their quest in the background of the journal to do later or when your roulette pops for them), do the hard and extreme primal fights, start the alliance raids, start the zodiac weapon (for the transmog), take on palace of the dead and try to reach floor 200 for rare title Necromancer and perhaps win the black Pegasus in there too from sack drops, can take up playing with the crafting and gathering system and then come back to the story. lots you can do and do at your own pace and it can be something you come back too.

[@markup6394]

Thing with Praetorium: way back in anchient times we were able to skip them. But new players were kicked from groups if they didnt skip them. So now they are unskippable for everyone and everyone has to suffer through one way or another. I suppose it must have been really bad back then if SE had to take action in the first place. So yeah, you may think all those impatient douchbags for now being unable to skip at will :P Also, if Preatorium was any faster, rewards wouldnt be as big as they are today and veterans wouldnt bother to run them. The queues would run dry and nobody wants that either :( Anyway, what to do now? I'd say Crystal Tower and Coils. CT is a three part alliance raid (quite easy once you get the hang of it) and Coils is... hard. Coils is "savage mode" - back in ARR there was not story aka normal mode for raids - it was all savage. Both CT and Coils are super important for the MSQ later (CT is mandatory to get started with Shadowbringers). Other than that, unlock the hard dungeons as well as the hard and then extreme trials. Do that and you're all set :) As for MSQ itself... people say post-ARR a drag and depending on what kind of a player you are, it might be. But the quests are setting up a grand finale that will send you to Heavensward so all I can say is this: dont bear through it but take your time, pay attention and rest assured everything (!!) that happens will be wrapped up in the end and nothing is just filler content :)

[@Tioko]

Crystal Tower is mandatory in ARR now. I was forced to go do it right before the banquet, lol. It literally doesn’t let you progress otherwise.

[@celestemcduff]

Yeah, Crystal Tower alliance raids are mandatory before you can get to the Uldah banquet scenes - I was anxious about the mechanics and was planning to try them after I'd gotten a bit more into HW so my gear could compensate for any badness I had in damage, but nope! Literally locked out of talking to Minfilia until they were all done - and they weren't too bad, similar to Prae as a sprout since we're mostly just trying to keep up and the vets told us what to do when we had to.

[@markup6394]

@@celestemcduff Oh wow, didnt know it started so early o.O I though they would lock MSQ when you first got to Shadowbringers...

[@raphaelaldenmendoza8468]

You can try the extremes , before getting to heavensward make sure to do the coils of bahamut even it its just unsync for the story, pretty hard even if it is synced.

[@Someone-dv7hw]

The short one (less cutscenes) is actually the one were you have to know more stuff. Usually though, the other peeps will do it for you until you learn. It's only a problem if you as 1 tank are hearding 7 people who have no idea and don't click the searchlights or cannons, or if there is a new tank who pulls the 6/8 huge mecha... we wiped there once, dark times. But there is a lot of stuff where at least some people have to know what to do, or it takes much longer than it has to, whereas in the long one you only need to follow everybody and hit bosses.

[@Mysticgamer]

I would extra to have a cutscene showing a lallafell WoL dragging Thancred onto the Magiktech Armor.

[@kaltoren]

There's a HUGE jump in gear level from just dinging 50 to max gear for 50. The sync drops you to the maximum item level for 50, i130. Praetorium is tuned for item level 50. This is why it gets utterly destroyed at normal sync.

[@williamklett6660]

During cutscenes you can also press Enter to open chat and talk with the party as Gaius blah-blah-blahs on. Also in the credits don't miss that they listed the names of all the 1.0 players, I'm in there even though 1.0 drove me away and it took years t return. The post-credit quests will feel like a more classic 'slog' as you complete many quests that are all stories with little rewards, low xp, and coin. However, they flesh out the world, and involve you with it. You MORE than just meet the city leaders.

[@tylerbaker2405]

Its also good leveling content. I took my 50 MNK in there the other day and came out as level 52

[@LadyFrostbite]

1:37 I've never seen someone combine both tome and tomb so eloquently xD

[@erockbaby3000]

I absolutely need them to do another one of these for the End of the ARR patches, cause between the coils, the crystal tower, and the party I know they'll be completely sold by the time they get to Ishgard

[@reshypoo9447]

It's interesting hearing Garrett's thoughts on Castrum & Praetoriem, and contrasting it to how they have since updated them.

[@dragonmanj]

Do the Hilabrand quests they are hilarious!

[@ForestOfSleep]

I remember my first time during prae, you could skip the cutscenes and I missed out on a lot of it because everyone was just bumrushing through it as quickly as possible. It's my understanding they changed it to make sure new players no longer have to deal with that because it is such a climactic point in the story.

[@nicoletodd275]

This is a daily duty , that has a good pay out even at max level, the duty finder / challenge log all have great rewards to the effort put in. It's what keeps the old content active for all the folks forced to play through it. Grand company things , once you get them rolling they give out scrolls on a weekly basis for xp boosts. It's easy to miss that little side bit of content. Also there are small quests for beast tribes to get various rewards from them ( different mounts ) . The first set should be unlocked now. The patch content of ARR has a pacing problem , but then gets better.

[@Renaxula]

Whenever my fc ques praetorium together, we spend the cutscenes joking around and making fun of it Edit: also, DO COILS OF BAHAMUT! This is the first proper raid series in ffxiv. You're also required to do the crystal tower alliance raids. Finally you can now also unlock the extreme trials where you can start collecting mounts

[@ferraris1006]

Do coils of bahamut 8 man raid, is 3 wings of 4 bosses each and a lot of story and cool cinematics :) maybe you would need to put a party finder for it.

[@FateFormedd]

Blue quests to do if you haven't (I don't know the names of them but... you have google) - Squadrons if you have been leveling your grand company, retainers, there's several dungeons that are skippable but will give you more roulette options if you would rather not get bored, do the aether current quests as you find them because the msq sort of runs you into them and it's easier to just do them at the time, there should be a few beastmen quests to unlock their factions to do dailies for, and I think that's more or less it for blues that you should do as you go, I would also suggest all the ones in Seventh Heaven if you have gotten there yet.

[@kamishawe1890]

One of the things you can do is go in with a pre-formed party with MINE settings and have ALOT of fun in both Castrum and Preatorium. MINE = min-I level, no echo.

[@joshbarrow4075]

Sacrificing a tank in Prae is a staple. We ALWAYS offer a Tank up to Yoshi P to appease him and bless the coming patch. Other then that, yeah....Prae is a slog. But we ALL do it.... repeatedly. Tips: talk in party chat, RUN, No Tank stance during running, Wait for the Ranged LB (use it or lose it), ppl will MEME the hells out of everything....bonus for hugging/doting Ultima Weapon

[@seekittycat]

Things that take time in FF is always story (or shiny weapons lol). Thing is ARR sets up ALL expansions. It's why they don't want you to skip things (though they usually let you anyways cause free choice). It's so easy to get lost if you skip too much (though they try to help you recall in the expansions). I can't wait for you guys to get to the real end of ARR and coils ☺️. Absolutely take your time and enjoy these 10 years of content it's all here!

[@greenarcangel]

You have to do the Hillsbrand quest, it start in Uldah

[@Spectacular_Insanity]

The Praetorium: 30-second fights, 30-minute cutscenes. XD

[@ramz12345]

“Such Devastation… This is not my intention”😂😂😂

[@Bongaboi151]

Ah yes, the new player experience. Man, you boys have come a long way since.

[@sleepysera]

I'm glad they did away with the massive in-duty cutscenes after ARR, but for the already existing two duties, I think this is the best solution they can do - make cutscenes mandatory so the newbies get to enjoy it at their own pace while veterans get very high rewards, making it worth running even with the notable time dump. I do wish they'd equalize cutscene duration for all languages though, because depending on game language, they end a lot faster or slower.

[@Cellybeans]

Do Coils of bahamut for sure! Sometime before getting much into Heavensward at least. If you can get a group to run synced minimum ilvl you'll get the full challenge of it akin to what it was like "back in the day", but if you just want to run through the story you can get a couple high level players to carry you and still have a good time. :D

[@impkid204]

Forgot to mention, you should do The Crystal Tower. It starts in Mor Dhona, the quest is called Legacy of Allag. Its required to do for Shadowbringers. It should be a blue quest. I forget if it unlocks right after 2.0 or if it unlocks in the post patches but it's something you should do before going into Heavensward. Strap in though its story heavy and its three 24 man raids called Alliance Raids. They're not hard but wipes can happen if they're a lot of sprouts. Don't be scared to do it blind. It's fun seeing what kills you. No one is going to get angry at a new player dying.

[@Blitzwaffen]

As of 5.3 Crystal Tower was made mandatory before you pass 2.3 . So all new players will go through it now.

[@impkid204]

@@Blitzwaffen Ah, that's good. I wasn't sure if they made Crystal Tower part of the MSQ now or not. Good to know.

[@ramz12345]

Welp. I must say… We got them bois! We got Garrett!! 😂😂😂

[@ramz12345]

Seriously though. I hope you are having a fun time playing FFXIV Garrett. Wait until you get to the patch before Heavensward. IT JUST GET BETTER! I wish you’ll have fun not only with the story that FFXIV offers but everything else (e.g. Glams, Raids, savage/Ultimate Raids, GoldenSaucer, even RP) :) See you in EndWalker in a few months!

[@srdragan317]

the side thing that u can do are Coil of bahamut and dungone hard mode and trail extreme

[@DictatorAtWill]

"They have already started improving visuals and it looks way better!" *laughs in Endwalker cutscenes*

[@firedrake110]

Oh, fun fact: Every mount flies. No more dumb ground/flying distinction, hop on that big ol' turtle and fly like Gamera XD

[@xKyreLx]

HILDEBRAND QUEST! but for more information on the realm reborn trailer story definitely coils of bahamut

[@Koibito247]

3:41 almost dying coz people skip ahead, I remember that so well when I played in EU servers. Since I've moved to JP however, the player base there generally frowns upon skipping through the portals and will kill all trash packs before proceeding. I find I dont mind it as much because things melt so quickly, and also no one gets left behind/dies

[@highbrow-stonebender]

speaking of hammy, campy, and awesome: Do something called "The Manderville Quests" and enjoy your bizarre adventure.

[@pmuean]

This. It is totally unnecessary but totally hilarious.

[@PedroNunez8]

Congratulations on clearing ARR! Many people complain about ARR, but many failed to understand that they rebuild the game from the ground up in about 2 years or less, sure it has some pacing issues and stuff, but it’s definitely not as bad as people make it out to be. Also, about the praetorium. They had to implement the no skip option for the dungeons because veterans used to blast through the whole thing, while new players were watching the cut scenes. So new players would miss out on the story because no more cut scenes would played after the dungeon was cleared by the veterans. This option was very hated by the veterans players at first, since we used the praetorium to quickly farm tomes and exp, but soon people stopped complaining and dealt with it, since we also wanted new players to experience the story that we ourselves love so much. We still blast through the whole thing easily tho 😅 That being said. I highly recommend that you guys play the coils of Bahamut. It’s not mandatory, but in my opinion, it gives a true “ending” to the story that lead to A realm reborn, and further expands the lore of the game. And you guys can also unlock the extreme version of the primal trials. Those are quite fun, and very challenging if done synch, and minimum item level, specially Titan (go ahead, and suffer sort of like we old timers did back in the days) As to what to expect going forward, the post ARR content is descent enough, it’s understandable that people find it annoying because they want to go straight to Hevenwards, but just take it easy and pay attention to the plot leading up to HW, and hate to sound like a meme, but you guys are not prepared for how the story and mood of the game changes once you set foot in Heavensward 😉 Wish you guys all the best, can’t wait to hear more about your experiences in the games.

[@TheFrantic5]

I cannot wait to hear your opinion on the Summoner rework. Between that and Sages clogging up the healing queues, I've been maining the job since the 5th.

[@Amovetv]

I was super confused and haven't really found a good guide that explains how it works at low levels. But I think I'm wrapping my brain around it.

[@thedragon133]

Do the Hildibrand questline. You will love it, trust me.

[@OseronPhaer]

I, too, remember my first run of... *reads scribbles on hands* ...Castrium Milk.

[@erinlonghurst4438]

Rather belatedly, Praetorium's end is referred to as "2.0 content" because the patch content is 2.1-onwards.

[@antonytomas1]

You guys remind me of Work To Game on KZbin. Hope you guys enjoy FF! Subbed 😊

[@matthewforde982]

Definitely do coils even if it’s just for story. Hildibrand Level 50 Dungeons especially Lost City of Amdapoor for Alliance Raid in Heavensward It is now MSQ but do Crystal Tower Alliance Raids Urth’s font trial and exs. Beast Tribe Quests you can get mounts Treasures and Tribulations for Treasure Maps The Hunt from Grand Company for Hunts and unique currency Ultima’s bane. Try and find party to do it at min ilvl All will help you gear up and get Poetics currency I’d say see a blue quest do it.

[@justsomeguy4422]

Imagine watching a movie and saying there’s too much acting.

[@VictouffeVideos]

So the story on the preatorium and castrum meridianum is pretty weird. You used to be able to skip cutscenes, but it meant that new players were not really able to watch them because the rest of the group were so fast that the dungeon was finished before you had time to watch the cutscenes. So they made the cutscene unskippable for everyone but then noone wanted to run those dungeons. So they gave a lot of rewards for doing them to incite players to queue for those 2 dungeons.