Games Happy

4 years in the past, in Might 2021, Zadnor was added to Remaining Fantasy XIV with the arrival of patch 5.55. This was the final time the sport noticed a brand new Area Operations or “Exploration Zone” content material – till now. Whereas Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers all obtained post-launch updates that included such zones to assist bolster what every growth provided on the endgame, Endwalker lacked such a zone. Ask any devoted XIV participant, they usually’ll all inform you an identical factor; that the sport actually suffered from the dearth of 1. To say that Occult Crescent has been hotly anticipated can be an understatement.

When you began enjoying Remaining Fantasy XIV within the final a number of years, there is a distinct probability that you do not know what a “Area Operation” is. Put merely, whereas XIV could be very clearly a “theme park” model MMORPG, Area Operations are instanced zones that provide a gameplay model nearer to a “sandbox” MMO, like Remaining Fantasy XI. Development is not tied to Merchandise Stage to the identical extent as the remainder of the sport; there is a separate leveling curve, gear development depends extra on incomes and augmenting gear with particular attributes within the particular Area Operation, and normally there’s an additional layer of actions unique to those zones. Whereas the unique model of Diadem is now thought-about the primary of its type of content material in XIV, Eureka and Bozja are what the present playerbase can be most conversant in.

For Occult Crescent, this manifests as Information Stage and Phantom Jobs. As of the time of this writing, by finishing Fates, CEs and defeating common mobs within the new zone will grant Information which might enhance your Information Stage; whereas Fates and CEs do not scale off of Information, common mobs do. In the beginning of the zone merely exploring the map to unlock the Aetheryte Shards and discover survey factors for the zone’s log is a harmful affair. Information Stage itself would not influence your stats, however relatively your scaling towards enemies – in case you’re the identical degree as an enemy, scaling would be the similar as within the common recreation. However in case you’re Information Stage 1 and go towards a Stage 10 enemy, you will be immediately killed with a single auto-attack.

By itself, this form of scaling makes Occult Crescent’s present map – the South Horn – really feel radically totally different from commonplace areas within the recreation. Exterior of A Realm Reborn zones, gamers have by no means actually needed to fear an excessive amount of about enemies in zones being vastly totally different energy ranges, and requiring further discretion whereas exploring. Even on the present endgame, gamers need to respect common mobs; in case you’re in a gaggle chain-pulling Stage 28 mobs, tanks and healers have to concentrate, as any mistake could be deadly. When you fall in battle and are not revived by one other participant, you will eat a penalty which might even de-level your character.

Now, on its face, most of that is similar to Bozja. There’s one key distinction, although; in Bozja, gamers may use the content material to degree their common jobs from 71 to 80. Occult Crescent requires gamers enter on a degree 100 job, and as a substitute past Information Stage gamers will likely be grinding out new Phantom Jobs unique to the Area Operation.

Upon beginning Occult Crescent, gamers are given a bunch of Phantom Jobs, which provide a variety of extra actions you possibly can make the most of, and helpful traits which might be helpful each within the zone itself in addition to the elective 48-player raid, the Forked Tower: Blood. A few of these skills are particularly fascinating – Oracle is a favourite of mine, with how gamers are given timed prompts to make use of their cooldowns, and in the event that they fail to activate any capacity throughout the quick timeframe they’re going to be drastically punished with a DoT that can kill you in 2 or 3 ticks, relying in your job. Past Thief’s Steal capacity providing gamers a higher foreign money payout from chain-pulling mobs, they will unlock doorways throughout the Forked Tower; Geomancer would not simply provide an particularly helpful buff for Tanks, but additionally can float gamers, permitting them to not solely dodge quake-based assaults (a few of that are widespread in sure CEs) but additionally enable dodging particular traps – as soon as once more – within the Forked Tower. In addition to the preliminary slate of jobs, gamers unlock extra both through random drops from particular CEs or by buying them with Silver or Gold foreign money dropped by Fates/CEs or chain-pulling mobs, respectively.

Now, I’ve to make one thing clear. I have not even tried the Forked Tower: Blood but. A part of that’s I wish to guarantee I’ve a full set of apparatus for the zone first, the opposite is I wish to have mastered 5 separate Phantom Jobs. Upon mastering a job, you achieve a everlasting buff to your harm output and therapeutic capabilities anyplace throughout the Occult Crescent, which is in fact very helpful over time. The primary motive I have not carried out so but is way easier, although; it feels fully infeasible to take action with out coordinating issues outdoors of the sport.

I will specify – when there are sufficient characters who can entry the Forked Tower inside an occasion, sometimes the South Horn’s climate will likely be bathed in pink, and the tower itself could be seen as a faint picture within the background of the North-East part of the map. Throughout this climate situation, Information Stage 20 gamers can go to the middle of the map to work together with a constructing and provide Ciphers. If 16 gamers provide one, the Forked Tower will activate and as much as 48 gamers will likely be teleported to the occasion, with those that have provided Ciphers prioritized if there are greater than 48 gamers who may deal with the Tower within the zone.

On paper, this is not an issue. The place the problems come up is with how quick the period of this climate sample is. If nearly all of gamers are in a prolonged CE when the climate spawns, there’s each probability that it’s going to have dissipated by the point gamers have accomplished it. Now, in a number of months most gamers could have achieved all they should with CEs, and as such will likely be chain-pulling mobs – an exercise that’s way more simply disbanded on a dime. Gamers cannot exit a CE till completion, whilst you can very simply abandon a series as soon as you have defeated any mobs you have pulled.

I totally intend to not less than have stepped foot within the Forked Tower earlier than Summer time Recreation Fest, however time is already operating out if I wish to expertise it with out having my hand-held by means of the entire endeavor. Whereas I used to be in a position to do the 24-player Chaotic Raid with a full group of buddies, wrangling double that quantity is an much more herculean activity. To make issues worst, since Occult Crescent cases are randomly assigned, making an attempt to get your entire occasion members into the occasion generally is a ache. This was the same challenge with Eureka, however not less than over time it has turn into simpler because the content material has misplaced recognition. Particularly proper now, you possibly can’t say the identical about Occult Crescent.

Whereas I’ve different points with Occult Crescent – making it such that many beforehand uncommon rewards from Eureka and Bozja could be readily present in random coffers within the South Horn was an enormous, huge mistake – effectively and actually moreover the teething points with Forked Tower, all of them really feel like nitpicks. I see and perceive the complaints that there is no actually informal model of the encounter for non-hardcore raiders to deal with, however what little I’ve heard in regards to the encounters in Forked Tower by means of the grapevine have me drastically excited to expertise it for myself within the close to future.

As somebody who drastically loved Bozja on-content, Occult Crescent is the form of grind I have been trying ahead to returning to for years. I’ve spent the final a number of nights in Discord VCs with buddies having a blast, and I foresee that persevering with within the months and years to return. It is nonetheless early days, however warts and all I am assured in calling Occult Crescent a convincing success, a lot to the chagrin of my rising backlog of 2025 recreation releases. A lot as I anticipated, patch 7.2 has began to convey out Dawntrail’s full potential, and I could not be happier.