Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail’s Futures Rewritten Ultimate Raid was what the raid scene needed, for now

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Discussing the raid scene in Final Fantasy XIV often feels a bit strange because not many gamers who write about games typically participate in savage raids or even Ultimate Raids within the game. It’s hard to gauge how much the overall playerbase values the state of the game’s raid content, as it seems that only those actively involved in mid-tier and high-level raiding are currently enjoying the new Dawntrail content. I expressed a similar sentiment when I reviewed the recent (Chaotic) Cloud of Darkness raid, noting that the current status of Dawntrail’s content offerings appears to be meeting with enthusiasm only among dedicated raiders for now, at least temporarily.

As patch 7.2 approaches, it appears that things are going to undergo a transformation, and I’m confident that by the time Shade’s Triangle debuts, the general sentiment about Dawntrail among players will start to evolve more broadly. It seems like Final Fantasy XIV is heading in the right direction when it comes to battle content, and while there are aspects of Futures Rewritten (Ultimate) that I’m not entirely pleased with, it likely marked the beginning of a significant change in the right direction.

If you don’t enjoy playing raids in Final Fantasy XIV, you might find it confusing to grasp the distinctions between Normal Raids, Savage Raids, Alliance Raids, and Ultimate Raids. Even the recent introduction of Chaotic Alliance Raids may not simplify things. In this game, endgame content largely centers on challenging 8-player content. With each expansion, there will be three sets of normal raids over its patch cycle, each containing four fights. The difficulty of these encounters is designed for casual players when completed; however, upon finishing a Normal Raid tier, players can unlock an optional “Savage” difficulty version. Alliance Raids cater to less experienced players, while Chaotic Alliance Raids provide additional opportunities for better gear, but they are secondary compared to the primary focus of endgame content in Final Fantasy XIV.

In Final Fantasy XIV, Savage Raids serve as the primary means of obtaining top-tier equipment during even-numbered patches. These raids are initially designed to be the most challenging at the start of a new raid tier, with progressively easier challenges provided by weekly tomestone gear and drops from earlier fights in the same tier. This cycle forms the core “endgame” experience for players, who either use Party Finder or form long-term groups called “static” to tackle each raid tier together, week by week. Some dedicated players aim to clear the entire tier on week 1, when the challenges are at their peak difficulty, while others focus on completing the raids before the next tier is released, as the rewards from the current tier become less important for the newer content.

Ultimate Raids are challenges that surpass the difficulty level of Savage Raids. To start, you need to have completed the Savage Raid tier from the previous update before attempting an Ultimate Raid when it launches. Moreover, these battles are designed with the best-in-slot (BiS) gear from the previous tier in mind. In contrast to other game content, it’s assumed that players use their top-tier equipment and consume high-quality food buffs and potions to maximize their DPS during a group’s synchronized 2-minute burst phases. If you don’t have a good understanding of your character’s role, it might be challenging or even impossible to participate in an Ultimate Raid upon release. Additionally, joining a group without the intention to meet the listed group’s progress point on party finder may get you on multiple players’ blacklists.

Unlike regular Savage Raids, there’s little benefit in terms of loot when you defeat an Ultimate Raid, which is more about honor and love for the game than material rewards. Players invest a significant amount of time, often hundreds of hours spread over several months, to achieve a clear, especially during a new patch release. Those who attempt an Ultimate Raid at launch are driven by their deep affection for raiding in Final Fantasy XIV, seeking a challenge that requires them to utilize all their skills and work closely with seven other players in ways even Savage Raids don’t provide. The competition involved in the world first raid race can quickly become intense and personal among the community dedicated to Ultimate Raids in Final Fantasy XIV.

In the recent past, I accomplished the latest challenge in the game titled Futures Rewritten Ultimate (FRU). For brevity, let’s refer to it as FRU. Although this was my inaugural clear of a fight within content, I have no shortage of experience when it comes to Ultimate Raiding. I came close to conquering Dragonsong’s Reprise on-patch, and made it halfway through The Omega Protocol before deciding to withdraw. Despite being a first-time clear for me, I believe my background in Ultimate Raiding would allow me to share valuable insights about the overall fight and how it compares to previous battles we’ve encountered. I will discuss whether it meets the expectations of Ultimate Raiders, if it was suitable for our current playerbase, and any elements raiders may anticipate from the upcoming Ultimate Raid.

In essence, this article’s title has given you a heads-up about its content. Even though I acknowledge that FRU was far from perfect as an Ultimate Raid, I still believe it was exactly what the raid community required at this moment, with some significant points to discuss later on. The double whammy of DSR and TOP being the most challenging Ultimate Raids when they were first released had left many players drained, with TOP’s challenge proving particularly grueling after the demanding Abyssos raid tier felt like a breaking point for several gamers. This content featured the toughest DPS requirement of any Ultimate Raid to date; while Ultimate Raids have typically included DPS checks, none have been as stringent as TOP’s upon release. To make matters worse, certain phases of the battle ran into systemic issues with Final Fantasy XIV’s inability to accurately track player buffs and debuffs. These oversights, coupled with a demanding early part of the fight, earned TOP a reputation for its difficulty, as DSR had already been recognized as the most challenging battle the game had ever presented.

In essence, not all raiders agreed with this decision, but reducing the challenge level with FRU was likely beneficial for the overall health of raiding. Ideally, the DPS check is similar to that at DSR’s release (excluding the Pictomancer), and there are fewer immediate wipes due to failure of a mechanic, providing players an opportunity to analyze their mistakes instead of having them overwhelmed by effects. This makes FRU a more enjoyable fight throughout progression as it seems more inviting to clear, contrasting with TOP which seemed like a hurdle to overcome.

In the elite realm of Ultimate Raiding, there’s space for both styles of battle design to thrive. Following the previous Savage Raid tier, Fractured Reality Universe (FRU) seems like an ideal continuation. It appears that the developers aimed to attract more players towards Savage Raiding by presenting a raid that lessens the intensity compared to DSR and TOP, offering a smoother transition for those eager to dive into Ultimate Raiding themselves.

Even though some elements of the fight may seem like an overcompensation, I believe FRU can be considered successful if that was indeed the team’s objective.

Here are my thoughts regarding the challenges I encounter in this battle:

1. The DPS issue when teamed with a Pictomancer is a concern, as it seems to overpower other characters due to its high potential damage and broken mechanics that reward skilled play. Pictomancers excel during downtime mechanics common in Ultimates, as they can prepare their strongest abilities without directly targeting the boss.

2. In terms of support classes, there appears to be a scarcity of mechanisms that adequately stress their toolkits. It’s rare for a boss to attack Tanks outside of the final phase, and even when it does, the damage is minimal compared to the initial week’s auto-attacks from M4S. Tankbusters lack sufficient power, and without specific party compositions, it feels like players only need to mitigate a small portion of the boss’s overall damage beyond using their tank invulnerability cooldowns.

From my perspective, an approach that addresses multiple issues could involve increasing the intensity of certain combat mechanics in future fights. For instance, in Dark Souls Remastered (DSR), Phase 3 was particularly challenging due to its continuous nature, requiring players to maintain their combat rotation while managing one of the fight’s strict mechanics.

If subsequent battles featured more phases where players need to juggle their healing, mitigation, and damage output simultaneously, it would likely enhance the overall engagement with the fight for both tanks and healers. This adjustment might not directly alter the damage output but could make the gameplay feel more dynamic without necessitating significant changes to the Pictomancer’s actual DPS in Future Remastered Upgrade (FRU).

While this solution may be a temporary fix, it would certainly ease the balancing efforts for the development team as the Pictomancer challenge would largely resolve itself with continuous DPS checks.

It’s unclear what direction the development team will take with the upcoming Ultimate Raid, but many players believe that the next battle might be centered around Shadowbringer’s storyline. If this is true, it’s not hard to imagine that they want this fight to shine during Dawntrail’s patch period. Here’s hoping it serves as a fitting finale, satisfying both Creative Studio 3’s goals and the expectations of all players, not just raiders. After the engaging and fulfilling experience of Futures Rewritten, I eagerly await other players experiencing similar attention. Regardless, Dawntrail still holds promise to surpass all previous Final Fantasy XIV expansions.

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2025-03-10 06:26