Games Happy

A few month in the past, I wrote about my ideas on Remaining Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail patch 7.1, and concluded that whereas it has been a wonderful patch for raiders, that maybe gamers that are not eager to deal with these challenges might have been overlooked within the chilly. That also rings true, however for raiding sickos like myself, patch 7.15’s new Chaotic Alliance Raid is a really welcome change of tempo, with appropriately spec’d rewards. New Finest-in-Slot gear, a number of new mounts, and one of the crucial spectacular hairstyles within the sport – all wrapped up in partaking 24-player content material that forces you to have interaction with fight in ways in which you will not discover most wherever else within the sport.

Let’s again up a step; what makes Chaotic so attention-grabbing is twofold. One, outdoors of Subject Exploration actions like Eureka or Bozja, we’ve not had mid-core to high-end content material with greater than 8-players earlier than. Equally, up till now on-content we often have solely ever had 2 sources for Finest in Slot (BiS) gear; Savage Raid drops, or Augmented tomestone gear. Whereas that has and can proceed to be greater than sufficient for on-content Final raids, it implies that often there’s some kind of compromises gamers should make, when some hypothetical gear with completely different sub-stats could be barely higher for BiS. Due to weekly lock-out and caps for what number of restricted tomestones you may get per week, this additionally implies that the grind to get BiS could be particularly annoying, relying on how rapidly you have cleared the raid tier, whether or not you are in a static that decides who will get loot when, and the way a lot you have interaction with the sport outdoors of raids.

In Endwalker, we had extra high-end content material added outdoors of Savage Raids, however Criterion Savage did not actually supply any extra gear that may be related to gamers for BiS; the rewards themselves have been insufficient, and out of doors of gamers trying to try them for the love of the sport, the content material rapidly was deserted. Chaotic solves that subject twofold; along with extra rewards equivalent to mounts, a coiffure, and a minion – it additionally provides in a brand new armor set that may change BiS for some gearslots. Even for gear that is not BiS, it presents a neater and extra constant solution to get present iLVL cap gear, which might nonetheless be greater than sufficient to start out tackling FRU – the newest Final raid.

Frankly, the gear alone could be sufficient cause for folk to wish to run the content material. The truth that there’s a number of cosmetics hooked up as effectively is simply icing on the cake; the brand new coiffure is very fascinating, and has been going for round 20 million gil on the marketboard – greater than the worth of a medium housing plot! It helps that whereas the content material is tough – maybe two tough for it to be so simply accessible, frankly – it is simply an interesting struggle total, that has some fascinating mechanics that basically forces gamers to apply situational consciousness in methods you would not in any other case see outdoors of Savage problem raids, and even Final. That is each a blessing and a curse, although; whereas most of my expertise with the raid was by way of a full 24-man static, Celebration Finder has been unusually poisonous this go round; even more-so than normal. When a number of the struggle has gentle body-checks, I suppose it is sensible that gamers may get angsty about any little mistake.

To be extra particular; a number of the mechanics that make the struggle so attention-grabbing for 24-player content material additionally makes it particularly tough and not using a premade group. Whether or not it is “PvP tiles” within the central area which requires each participant to be cognizant of each their very own tile’s invisible countdown timer they’re going to must refresh in addition to your different occasion members, leaving the lane open for visitors for gamers from different Alliance’s when crucial, and extra – or the tight dance that gamers need to apply on the outer platforms. It is the kind of Alliance Raid design I hope that ordinary Alliance Raids can crib from on a much less taxing scale. 

Put that method, Celebration Finder’s grousing could be principally chalked as much as rising pains, I might wager. Whereas it is nonetheless very true that XIV must be retooling its patch cycle to convey newer content material an enlargement brings earlier into the patch cycle, for Chaotic I might guess that it being new content material meant that many alternative gamers had completely different concepts for what it may be. Now that everyone knows what to anticipate, I might think about that later fights utilizing the identical framework will probably be a a lot much less messy affair. The experiment has undoubtedly been a serious success!

That does go away a couple of lingering questions, after all. Now that there is an alternate supply of on-content ilvl cap gear, it begs the query why Savage continues to be on a weekly lockout, a patch and a half previous when it was launched. Anybody that is nonetheless struggling to clear Savage doubtless is not due to not assembly the DPS verify, frankly, and Celebration Finder is completely struggling for teams now that Chaotic is round. Why would I personally wish to assist a gaggle clear any of the fights of the tier, after I do not stand to achieve any gear from it, and after I might in any other case be utilizing that point in (Chaotic) Cloud of Darkness or FRU? It is a baffling choice, to place it mildly.

Regardless – raiders have been already feasting in Dawntrail, and that continues to be true. Whereas the general state of XIV is in a bizarre house, raiding sickos like myself are as completely happy as could be. Maybe in a couple of months time the remainder of the sport’s content material can catch as much as the occasion; Dawntrail’s finest instances are but forward of it, and for the second I am fairly having fun with my time with it. Now if solely Celebration Finder might cease filtering me on FRU…