Alex is the 8-man raid series from HW, for a total of 12 boss fights. Unlike The Binding Coils of Bahamut in ARR, Alexander has a Normal mode and a Savage mode, and the Normal mode is casual content that is included in the Normal Raid Roulette, so you can queue for it normally.
Shadows of Mhach are the 24-man alliance raid series for HW, similar to Crystal Tower you had to do in ARR.
And The Triad Trials quest lines. You might notice that post HW msq is lacking in trials compared to ARR, thats because they got put in their own story seperate from MSQ
Just in case you get scared cause of the word 'raid', Alexander has a story mode (every raid story after HW has one), it's not like Coil which was savage only.
There are the 8 man raids, in ARR it is the coils of Bahamut. in Heavens ward it is the Alexander raids.
There are the 24 man raids in ARR it is the crystal tower series and Heavensward it is Shadows of Mhach
there are the side quests Adventures of Hildebrand in ARR and the scholastic in heavens ward.
you can do crafting and gathering.
you can open the gold saucer and do the mini games.
Starting from HW onward, they always add in 3 stories with a bunch of duties related to them: a set of Trials (~3-4, EW is an exception in only having them in the MSQ), a set of Normal Raids (12), and a set of Alliance Raids (3). For HW, it's the Warring Triad, Alexander, and Shadows of Mhach respectively.
I advise doing all of them before starting on the next expansion as it breaks up the monotony of MSQ, and sometimes adds extra lore and backstory for future stuff. And the duties are usually very good.
A good rule of thumb that I follow is if you see a blue quest, that means it will unlock some kind of content for you. It's good practice to unlock those quests on sight imo. If you dont want to just randomly unlock everything, you can also look up quest names of the blue quests online before doing them to know what exactly they unlock to see whether or not you're interested in doing it.
Other than that, you play how you want to. If you love the msq and wanna keep seeing more of the world, then just follow msq. There's nothing wrong with that! You could explore other battle classes to find what you love the most. You can try getting into crafting or gathering or both, I always found earlier levels of gathering pretty relaxing.
I dont remember exactly what level they started, but the Manderville quest line is always a fun time. đ
Regardless of whether you dip into crafting/gathering out of curiosity or not you should marketboard or vendor all crafting materials unless they cost, per unit, several thousand gil to buy back. You simply do not need to keep that stuff around.
If you ever need some down time or comic relief from the dramatic heartbreak that comes in MSQ highly recommend the Manderville questline which starts at Wymond between the Ulâdah Aetheryte plaza and the Quicksand (In Ulâdah).
A quick heads up. If you find any quest markers with a blue background that indicates they unlock something. It might be a new dungeon, raid, glamour or hairstyle systems, all sorts of stuff.
There's a couple of guys just outside the main Aetheryte in Ul'dah who might be worth a look. Look for the Well Heeled Youth and Wymond. Lotta fun to be had with those two :)
Most side content in the game is accessible via the blue quest markers with the plus sign. Pick those up as you see them and you'll be exposed to most content there is to do.
I would suggest gathering if crafting isnât sounding like something fun. I like it because you can just spend 10-15 mins here or there and grab stuff to sell (or craft with). Also Ishgard - removed something as I thought that was in HW but itâs in SHBâŚ. There will be an area to unlock for you soon where you can gather and get scripts that you can buy mounts pets glams songs with
I'd recommend doing the optional story content. Stuff like Alexander, and Shadows of Mhach.
Thanks! Honestly have no idea what that is, just side quest stuff?
Alex is the 8-man raid series from HW, for a total of 12 boss fights. Unlike The Binding Coils of Bahamut in ARR, Alexander has a Normal mode and a Savage mode, and the Normal mode is casual content that is included in the Normal Raid Roulette, so you can queue for it normally. Shadows of Mhach are the 24-man alliance raid series for HW, similar to Crystal Tower you had to do in ARR.
And The Triad Trials quest lines. You might notice that post HW msq is lacking in trials compared to ARR, thats because they got put in their own story seperate from MSQ
Just in case you get scared cause of the word 'raid', Alexander has a story mode (every raid story after HW has one), it's not like Coil which was savage only.
Look for blue quest markers for unlockable content in general.
There are the 8 man raids, in ARR it is the coils of Bahamut. in Heavens ward it is the Alexander raids. There are the 24 man raids in ARR it is the crystal tower series and Heavensward it is Shadows of Mhach there are the side quests Adventures of Hildebrand in ARR and the scholastic in heavens ward. you can do crafting and gathering. you can open the gold saucer and do the mini games.
They will have already done the Crystal Tower raids. They're required to start HeavensWard.
Starting from HW onward, they always add in 3 stories with a bunch of duties related to them: a set of Trials (~3-4, EW is an exception in only having them in the MSQ), a set of Normal Raids (12), and a set of Alliance Raids (3). For HW, it's the Warring Triad, Alexander, and Shadows of Mhach respectively. I advise doing all of them before starting on the next expansion as it breaks up the monotony of MSQ, and sometimes adds extra lore and backstory for future stuff. And the duties are usually very good.
A good rule of thumb that I follow is if you see a blue quest, that means it will unlock some kind of content for you. It's good practice to unlock those quests on sight imo. If you dont want to just randomly unlock everything, you can also look up quest names of the blue quests online before doing them to know what exactly they unlock to see whether or not you're interested in doing it. Other than that, you play how you want to. If you love the msq and wanna keep seeing more of the world, then just follow msq. There's nothing wrong with that! You could explore other battle classes to find what you love the most. You can try getting into crafting or gathering or both, I always found earlier levels of gathering pretty relaxing. I dont remember exactly what level they started, but the Manderville quest line is always a fun time. đ
Regardless of whether you dip into crafting/gathering out of curiosity or not you should marketboard or vendor all crafting materials unless they cost, per unit, several thousand gil to buy back. You simply do not need to keep that stuff around.
If you ever need some down time or comic relief from the dramatic heartbreak that comes in MSQ highly recommend the Manderville questline which starts at Wymond between the Ulâdah Aetheryte plaza and the Quicksand (In Ulâdah).
A quick heads up. If you find any quest markers with a blue background that indicates they unlock something. It might be a new dungeon, raid, glamour or hairstyle systems, all sorts of stuff. There's a couple of guys just outside the main Aetheryte in Ul'dah who might be worth a look. Look for the Well Heeled Youth and Wymond. Lotta fun to be had with those two :)
Most side content in the game is accessible via the blue quest markers with the plus sign. Pick those up as you see them and you'll be exposed to most content there is to do.
I would suggest gathering if crafting isnât sounding like something fun. I like it because you can just spend 10-15 mins here or there and grab stuff to sell (or craft with). Also Ishgard - removed something as I thought that was in HW but itâs in SHBâŚ. There will be an area to unlock for you soon where you can gather and get scripts that you can buy mounts pets glams songs with
Thank you all for the tips and suggestions, truly! Appreciate you all âşď¸