Games Happy

It is at all times a bit awkward for me to jot down concerning the Ultimate Fantasy XIV raid scene; on one hand, it isn’t like many of us that even play Ultimate Fantasy XIV in video games media do savage raids on content material, not to mention Final Raids. A part of me wonders how a lot the playerbase as an entire even cares concerning the state of the sport’s raid scene. I even stated as a lot once I lined 7.1’s new (Chaotic) Cloud of Darkness raid just a few months again – with the present state of Dawntrail because it stands, it seems like its solely the gamers that interact with mid-tier and high-end raiding which are feeling nice about Dawntrail’s slate of content material in the meanwhile. A minimum of for now, anyway.

With the upcoming launch of patch 7.2, it looks like issues are about to vary, and I am keen to guess by the point Shade’s Triangle launches the general tune about Dawntrail will start to shift throughout the broader playerbase. It seems like so far as battle content material goes, it seems like Ultimate Fantasy XIV is on the best path – and regardless of my very own qualms with sure points of Futures Rewritten (Final), it was in all probability the primary actual step main the way in which. 

When you’re not into Ultimate Fantasy XIV raiding, chances are high you do not perceive what denotes the distinction between a Regular Raid, a Savage Raid, an Alliance Raid, and an Final Raid. The current addition of Chaotic Alliance Raids in all probability do not assist issues a lot, both. In XIV, endgame content material revolves round high-end 8-player – Full Occasion – content material. Every enlargement will over the course of its patch cycle obtain 3 “tiers” of regular raids, every with 4 fights every. Whereas the “Regular” issue of those fights are balanced across the informal participant, upon completion of a Regular Raid tier gamers unlock a totally elective “Savage” issue model of those fights. Whereas Alliance Raids are geared for informal gamers, and Chaotic Alliance Raids supply one other means to get stronger gear, they’re merely a facet dish in comparison with the principle attraction in terms of endgame content material in Ultimate Fantasy XIV.

Savage Raids are what drives the gear treadmill for reaching best-in-slot gear throughout every even-numbered patch. They’re additionally normally balanced to be the toughest at the beginning of a raid tier’s launch, with weekly tomestone gear and drops from earlier fights within the tier making every try on the fights simpler and simpler with each weekly lockout. That is, for all intents and functions, the “endgame” loop for Ultimate Fantasy XIV; gamers group up both on Occasion Finder or with a “static” group of seven different gamers to deal with every raid tier, week by week. Some hardcore gamers go for clearing the tier on week 1, when the fights would be the hardest; others will merely try to get their clears in by the point the subsequent raid tier drops, when the gear rewards from the tier are not related for present content material.

Final Raids are a tier of issue even past Savage Raids. To start with, so as to even try an Final Raid upon its launch, you need to have cleared the Savage Raid tier from the earlier patch. Secondly, the fights are explicitly balanced round BiS gear from the earlier tier. In contrast to most different content material within the sport, it is anticipated that gamers have the very best gear outfitted, along with present high-quality meals buffs and potions to buff their dps throughout a gaggle’s aligned 2-minute burst home windows. If you do not know the best way to play your job, chances are high you would not even be capable of unlock an Final Raid on launch. Even when on the off likelihood you probably did, it is totally anticipated that you already know what you are doing. Particularly on social gathering finder, for those who be a part of a gaggle with out a critical intent to fulfill a listed group’s prog level, you are more likely to find yourself on a number of participant’s blacklists.

In contrast to with Savage Raids, there’s primarily no loot benefit to clearing a combat. Clearing an Final Raid, particularly on-patch, is merely a matter of satisfaction; gamers do it for the love of the sport, dumping probably a whole bunch of hours over the course of a number of months into getting a transparent. Gamers clearng an Final Raid on launch do it as a result of they explicitly love raiding in Ultimate Fantasy XIV, and wish the sport to supply a problem that forces them to interact with their total toolkit, coordinating with 7 different gamers in a method that even Savage Raids cannot supply. For sure Final Raids are a supply of main ardour for the XIV raid scene, and issues can get private moderately shortly when the world first raid race will get concerned. 

Final week, I cleared the newest Final Raid within the sport, Futures Rewritten (Final). FRU, for brief. Whereas this was my first time truly clearing a combat on content material, it’s miles from my first rodeo with Final Raiding. I *nearly* cleared Dragonsong’s Reprise on-patch, and I acquired about midway by means of The Omega Protocol earlier than calling it quits. Even when FRU was my first correct clear, I am positive anybody would agree that I’ve had sufficient expertise with Final Raiding to provide some impressions of the combat as an entire, and the way it might examine to fights we have seen prior to now. If it delivers on what Final Raiders need, if it was the best combat for the playerbase as it’s proper now, and if there’s something particularly raiders might hope the subsequent Final Raid may carry to the desk.

You’ve got seen the title of this text, so after all you already know the reply. Regardless of being a really flawed Final Raid, I am of the opinion that FRU was what the raid scene wanted proper now, with some necessary caveats I will go over later. The one-two punch of DSR and TOP each being essentially the most tough Final Raid at their launch was already burning gamers out, with TOP’s problem proving exhausting following the grueling Abyssos raid tier seeming like a breaking level for a lot of gamers. On content material it had the roughest DPS test of any Final; whereas Final Raids have historically had DPS checks, they’ve by no means been as strict as TOP’s had been upon launch, which mixed with sure phases of the combat operating headfirst into systemic points with Ultimate Fantasy XIV’s capability to maintain observe of participant buffs and debuffs. The mix of those oversights, a hefty DPS test and a very tough early half of the combat made TOP notorious for its issue, when DSR had already been acknowledged as the toughest combat the sport had ever seen.

Naturally, not each raider felt the identical method – however it was undoubtedly the best name for the well being of the raiding scene to dial again the problem with FRU. Beneath very best circumstances the DPS test is akin to DSR at launch (assuming you ignore the Pictomancer within the room), and mechanically there’s much less quick wipes for failing a mechanic; providing gamers an opportunity to higher perceive what may need gone unsuitable in a pull as an alternative of a mistake instantly filling the display with results, leaving gamers to rewind by means of recordings to run an post-mortem on their failed makes an attempt. Consequently, FRU is a way more nice combat to deal with over the course of development. It feels just like the combat needs you to clear it, whereas TOP challenged you to surmount it.

There’s room for each sorts of combat design to exist, even on the higher echelon of Final Raiding. As a companion to the earlier Savage Raid tier, FRU seems like the proper follow-up to what clearly was an try by the dev crew to get extra gamers fascinated by Savage Raiding, by providing a raid that pulls again the warmth from DSR and TOP – providing a greater on-ramp for gamers that may need to get into Final Raiding for themselves. Even when it seems like some points of the combat could also be an overcorrection, I would nonetheless classify FRU as a hit if that basically was what the crew was going for with it.

The principle points I’ve with the combat are the DPS test when paired with a Pictomancer, and what seems like a scarcity of mechanics that really stress Tank and Healer’s toolkits. So far as DPS is anxious, it is a tough drawback – a part of what makes Pictomancer so beloved is not simply its absurd DPS potential, however moderately what makes it damaged, and the way it rewards ability expression for gamers. Pictomancers tremendously profit from the downtime mechanics which are a mainstay of Ultimates, as they will prep their strongest skills with out instantly concentrating on a boss. As for assist courses, it’s extremely unusual for a boss to auto-attack Tanks outdoors of the ultimate part, and even after they do they pale compared to the injury that M4S’s auto-attacks dished out on week 1. Tankbusters do not hit arduous sufficient, and outdoors of particular social gathering comps it seems like gamers solely ever want to really mitigate a fraction of the injury that the boss places out past utilizing your tank invulnerability cooldowns.

So far as I see it, the straightforward resolution would additionally assist mitigate among the issues gamers have had with the relative stress-free nature of among the combat’s mechanics. In DSR, Section 3 was so powerful throughout prog as a result of it was a full uptime part, the place gamers needed to continually sustain their rotation whereas coping with one of many combat’s extra strict mechanics. Even with out shaving down Pictomancer’s id, if the subsequent combat was crammed with uptime phases, this may go an extended strategy to killing two birds with one stone; if assist courses have to fret about their therapeutic and mitigation actions whereas maintaining DPS throughout a mechanic, all of the sudden no matter any precise adjustments to wreck output Tanks and Healers alike will discover themselves feeling extra engaged with the combat as an entire. Pictomancer’s DPS evens out in FRU at Section 5, which by no small coincidence can also be full uptime. Even when it is perhaps a “band-aid” resolution for now, it could nonetheless make it far simpler for the dev crew to stability the DPS checks when the Pictomancer drawback would principally remedy itself with full uptime DPS checks.

It is anybody’s guess what the dev crew will attempt with the subsequent Final Raid, however the in style assumption is that the subsequent combat shall be themed round Shadowbringer’s stoy; if that is the case, then it would not take a genius to comprehend that the crew will need it to be a spotlight of Dawntrail’s patch cycle. Hopefully if that is the case it’s going to be the proper capstone to coincide with Inventive Studio 3 delivering on what the remainder of the playerbase needs, and never simply us raiders. Futures Rewritten was a nice and rewarding Final Raid, and I am prepared for the remainder of the playerbase to obtain among the similar consideration we have been receiving. Regardless of all of it, Dawntrail nonetheless has the potential to change into the very best Ultimate Fantasy XIV enlargement but.