spiritmuse: Honestly a lot of people really undersell ARR. It may not be as standout a story as some of the expansions, but it is still a very solid zero-to-hero narrative, that does a very good job of introducing you the world and its mythology and its major players.

trollnoble6445: ARR still has double the MSQ missions than any of the expansions. It makes getting through all the story feel like forever.

RedSoulVnT: I started playing before the ARR revamp, and I loved every moment of it. It was a great introduction to the world, and seeing my character going from just a regular adventure, to a true hero.

tlmaslar: Look at this gentle happy boy who doesn’t know the fear and feels yet…. :}

ImmaPandaRawr: You are in for a treat! I didn’t mind ARR like others but the storytelling definitely gets more intense with each expansion. You might end up missing the relaxed atmosphere of ARR

tenjenk: Honestly the "ARR grind" isnt close to what Vanilla WoW or any other MMOs starting gameplay section was like

JustinK0: its grindy the same way that any expansion is grindy, ive done the entire game multiple times, people just like to complain and over exaggerate

gelidgenteel: you ARE in for a treat, this game is insane

TalkingSoup: THAT'S the mentality you need, and the same mentality i had. i really enjoyed ARR because of the slow burn and the slow build toward really interesting things, and now i'm at the end of stormblood and like....goddamn. you really needed ARR to be that slow burn, because if things had escalated too quickly then future expansions wouldn't have that punch.

josefinh3365: Yes, you are. The story only gets better, ShB and Endwalker are simply epic.

Slight downtime in first half of Dawntrail, but it picks up again, 7.2 was really good too, it's going a good direction!

Aukyn1992: And the cherry on top? Doing ARR without the thought of "let's get through this slug so we can get to the good part asap" makes it even better and even more bearable!

taku-ruki: i love how i stopped playing the game a few weeks ago and i just keep seeing this guy pop up still and slowly progress trough the game every few days. its a nice "oh letsgo he still going" thing i am looking forwards now.

bamcki991: My honest tip is to actually try to take in ARR. If you're beginning to become bored, find other stuff to do like start doing some crafters and gatherers or go to the gold saucer.

There is so many things you can do besides the main quests, but it is 100% worth going though ARR. Skipping ARR will mostly spoil the excitement and fun of the rest of the expansions.

Besides, treat ARR as like an episodic series rather than a fully fleshed story, because it basically is. Start of with a problem, figure out how to fix that problem, succeed, and then you return to the waking sands as a hero.

BrysinSelim: You absolutely are! It DOES get a bit grindy from the beginning of titan till right after Garuda, but you’ll see why it picks up afterwards. Every expansion has its “Can we please get going?!” moment, so I wouldn’t worry too much!

dalgona4819: Honestly! I only had like a few moments that I legitimately find a slog in ARR. But once I got past them it's been a hell of a ride, and somehow parts of ARR still remain relevant in the future scenarios so the payoff is there.

Marke522: You are indeed in for a treat.

naotachaika9599: If you can make it past "Wine and Cheese"...

Then yeah, you're definitely in for a treat.

dazzlemasseur: Hot take : i miss using touch of death and the marauder dot as a monk.

a-a-ron9027: if a person likes ARR, they'll LOVE the rest of the game

drake713: Yeah we got aetheryte tickets to the vesper bay which was probably the best. Theh they also remade the msq dungeons ot 4 person instances, and deleted an entire 8 man trial so you won't even know who the guy with 2 shields are now

martinsmith9371: Mate ignore arr haters I loved it

KitKattXIV: I genuinely think ots bad people talk so low of ARR. When i syarted the game i dodnt know anyone in the community, the ARR quests hadn't been streamlined yet and yet i still thoroughly enjoyed learning about the lore and building foundations with characters and only found out later that some people have negative views on it. Ill admit, the fetch quests after a certain pount in ARR seems a bit odd especially when there's no real story meaning to them but after ARR all the fetch stuff tends to have a solid reason behind it and is prepping for the next plot point

PapaLantern: I skipped everything my first playthrough, it still took 2 months to 80 my first character and that was the max at the time. I have now been playing for about 2 years and I only have 5 jobs at 100. I'll have 5 more jobs at 100 in about 2 months. I like to get them all to 90 and then grind those last 10 levels for each.

mahakimukano4536: I liked it but it doesn't even come close to what you get in the following expansions.

UnavoidableFate: The grind is after the end of ARR in the post-ARR content. You're not there yet,

PKFl4sh: Honestly? The only "bad" part for me was all that garbage with the company of heroes or whatever and the whole wine and cheese thing.

Apr 23 2025

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