I've been playing this game since 2.2, though not consistently. I've reached endgame (and stayed there a while) three times I think: during ARR, StB, and ShB. Currently I'm halfway through Endwalker and man, I am overwhelmed with quality content. The worldbuilding and questing experience is incredible, and if I were to continue at my current pace, I won't reach current endgame for at least another year.
I like taking it slow and enjoying the art, worldbuilding, and writing. Here's the issue though: I also like doing high-end content sometimes. If I continue at my current slow pace to enjoy everything and take breaks, I may literally never reach endgame again, because the relevant high-end content is locked behind the MSQ questline which carries the entire narrative forward.
Now for my question: Is there any way to reconcile my desire to do high-end content without skipping the worldbuilding?
I've thought of a couple ways:
1) Do MSQ only until I reach endgame, then return to do all the side quests and exploration. This breaks the immersion and writing quite a bit though, since the side quests are often written within the context of the MSQ at that point.
2) Create a separate character on which I buy a story and level skip, solely for raiding/ex-trials. I'm a bit afraid of spoilers here, because as I understand it, you'll still need to do some story quests to unlock content?
3) Do older high-end content synced? This doesn't seem feasible to consistently find groups to do this seriously, especially since I don't play on a consistent basis myself.
Which do you recommend? Are there other options?
The story and worldbuilding in this game are seriously extensive and have the potential to take up a lot of hours if you take your time to enjoy it. My honest feedback would be that perhaps some form of high-end content shouldn't be locked behind this. I'm not necessarily asking for full-on horizontal progression, but I wonder if any other solution would be possible.
Continue reading...
I like taking it slow and enjoying the art, worldbuilding, and writing. Here's the issue though: I also like doing high-end content sometimes. If I continue at my current slow pace to enjoy everything and take breaks, I may literally never reach endgame again, because the relevant high-end content is locked behind the MSQ questline which carries the entire narrative forward.
Now for my question: Is there any way to reconcile my desire to do high-end content without skipping the worldbuilding?
I've thought of a couple ways:
1) Do MSQ only until I reach endgame, then return to do all the side quests and exploration. This breaks the immersion and writing quite a bit though, since the side quests are often written within the context of the MSQ at that point.
2) Create a separate character on which I buy a story and level skip, solely for raiding/ex-trials. I'm a bit afraid of spoilers here, because as I understand it, you'll still need to do some story quests to unlock content?
3) Do older high-end content synced? This doesn't seem feasible to consistently find groups to do this seriously, especially since I don't play on a consistent basis myself.
Which do you recommend? Are there other options?
The story and worldbuilding in this game are seriously extensive and have the potential to take up a lot of hours if you take your time to enjoy it. My honest feedback would be that perhaps some form of high-end content shouldn't be locked behind this. I'm not necessarily asking for full-on horizontal progression, but I wonder if any other solution would be possible.
Continue reading...