A few month in the past, I wrote about my ideas on Ultimate 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 could have been not noted 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 Greatest-in-Slot gear, a number of new mounts, and some of the spectacular hairstyles within the sport – all wrapped up in participating 24-player content material that forces you to interact with fight in ways in which you will not discover most anyplace else within the sport.
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Let’s again up a step; what makes Chaotic so fascinating is twofold. One, exterior of Discipline 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 normally have solely ever had 2 sources for Greatest 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 signifies that normally there’s some type of compromises gamers must make, when some hypothetical gear with totally different sub-stats can be barely higher for BiS. Due to weekly lock-out and caps for what number of restricted tomestones you will get every week, this additionally signifies 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 exterior of raids.
In Endwalker, we had further high-end content material added exterior of Savage Raids, however Criterion Savage did not actually supply any further gear that may be related to gamers for BiS; the rewards themselves had 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 challenge twofold; along with extra rewards similar 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 gives a better and extra constant method 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 can be sufficient purpose for people to wish to run the content material. The truth that there’s a number of cosmetics connected as nicely is simply icing on the cake; the brand new coiffure is extremely 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 general, that has some fascinating mechanics that basically forces gamers to follow situational consciousness in methods you would not in any other case see exterior of Savage issue raids, and even Final. That is each a blessing and a curse, although; whereas most of my expertise with the raid was by a full 24-man static, Occasion Finder has been unusually poisonous this go round; even more-so than ordinary. When a number of the struggle has comfortable body-checks, I suppose it is sensible that gamers would possibly get angsty about any little mistake.
To be extra particular; a number of the mechanics that make the struggle so fascinating for 24-player content material additionally makes it particularly tough with out a premade group. Whether or not it is “PvP tiles” within the central enviornment which requires each participant to be cognizant of each their very own tile’s invisible countdown timer they’re going to have to refresh in addition to your different social gathering members, leaving the lane open for visitors for gamers from different Alliance’s when mandatory, and extra – or the tight dance that gamers need to follow 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 manner, Occasion Finder’s grousing could be largely chalked as much as rising pains, I might wager. Whereas it is nonetheless very true that XIV needs to be retooling its patch cycle to deliver newer content material an growth brings earlier into the patch cycle, for Chaotic I might guess that it being new content material meant that many alternative gamers had totally different concepts for what it could be. Now that everyone knows what to anticipate, I might think about that later fights utilizing the identical framework might be a a lot much less messy affair. The experiment has undoubtedly been a significant success!
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That does depart 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 test, frankly, and Occasion Finder is completely struggling for teams now that Chaotic is round. Why would I personally wish to assist a bunch clear any of the fights of the tier, after I do not stand to realize 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 resolution, to place it mildly.
Regardless – raiders had been already feasting in Dawntrail, and that continues to be true. Whereas the general state of XIV is in a bizarre area, raiding sickos like myself are as glad as could be. Maybe in a couple of months time the remainder of the sport’s content material can catch as much as the social gathering; Dawntrail’s greatest instances are but forward of it, and for the second I am fairly having fun with my time with it. Now if solely Occasion Finder might cease filtering me on FRU…
