It is time to yap about Arcadion Light-Heavyweight Savage! Is it a good raid tier? Is it a bad one? Is it too easy?
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0:00 Intro
1:07 Black Cat
8:12 Honey B. Lovely
13:41 Brute Bomber
19:03 Wicked Thunder
25:13 Is The Tier Too Easy?
30:51 Additional Thoughts
#ffxiv #dawntrail #ff14
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I really liked this tier for how mechanics focused it is. I just finished through PF and even with the easier damage reqs the average player struggled.
That high pitched whine that happens during center/outerstage is fucking horrible and should be removed.
"And if your physical ranged DPS stay awake?" C'mon, they're not that bad!
The scoundrel!
I found this tier pretty fun, but I think it was missing a few things. The tank mechanics like you said are quite lacking, they feel trivial and non-existent a lot of the time. Having to move the boss again sometimes is good, but so many tankbusters are just so boring. People rightfully give fights like Uwu flack for how power creeped they are nowadays, but doing it recently, you can really see how much more the tank has to do and figure out compared to some of these tankbusters that feel straight out of normal mode. Like for M3s, yeah, it’s cool that it hits like 8 times, but the tbs are so far apart that you can just kitchen sink it every time if all else fails, so it barely matters.
Another thing I miss is Add phases. They don’t need to be in every fight, but at least 1 fight having one would be appreciated. I had high hopes since Valigarmanda had the first case of an add being targetable at the same time as a boss since Memoria Miseria EX. But unfortunately, this tier does not break the recent trend of savages having no adds whatsoever, and that’s a bit of a shame.
I forgot how much fun having to work for uptime is though, so having reasonable hitboxes again is a major improvement. Toning down the body checks is nice as well, it gets exhausting if every mistake just kills everyone constantly. I think they should have tuned the dps check up, not down to compensate though, because having 2 dps deaths and 2 damage downs, and still clearing in pf with 6 seconds to spare is a bit too lenient for a final fight I think.
Overall, despite it’s flaws, I still think this was probably the most fun tier since promise, there isn’t a single fight I would outright say I dislike, and provided they can fix the flaws going forward, I think I’m pretty happy with the fight design, albeit it could stand to be a bit more creative.
As someone who's been clearing every tier in PUGs for like 6 years, I genuinely hate difficult DPS checks. PF damage is abysmal even when there aren't deaths, and I feel like other people being shit at damage is ruining my experience through no tangible fault of my own. I understand that some amount of DPS check should exist, but I have the most fun when I don't suffer for other people being bad at hitting buttons. If there was some sort of Faust dummy you had to solo clear before you could even enter the floor just to make sure you could at least theroetically do enough damage to be useful, then maybe I'd agree that strict damage checks should make a comeback. It's honestly so frustrating to cycle PF after PF looking for the one group of people who actually hit buttons correctly, though.
For reference, I cleared this tier week 2, and we got the kill on M4S at the exact moment the enrage cast finished. Only 3 deaths, non-standard comp of VPR, PCT, NIN, RDM. After a 12 hour continuous session. To me, this did feel incredibly earned. But then hearing you and others talk about the DPS check not existing, I suddenly feel bitter that I suffered this because the people I played with were actually just bad at their jobs. Sure we would have cleared a lot sooner without the 3 deaths, but then you talk about groups with 10+ deaths still clearing easily and that kind of shifts it back into feeling like shit again.
Turn 2 was my favorite fight from the tier actually, it has a nice rhythm to it, especially the mitigation part at the end. But pf rly has issues with the fight, either Dmg check wise or heart buff wise, which can be a bit frustrating on reclears
About Dmg checks in general, I think they are rly fine for the current skill set of pf players, had multiple enrages on turn 2 and a few in 3, didn’t clear 4 in a PF environment yet, but I assume enrages will be happening again. So I personally think regarding PF the checks are how they should be probably.
But had no issues at all with dps in static. But I mean it’s a static so things are supposed to be easier x)
Listen…….. It's so much fun design-wise. I'll take "too easy but fun" over "I can't do this anymore it makes no sense". Could it be adjusted? Yes, indeed. But I'll take the fun as long as they're giving it out. ❤
I’m one of the 950 🥳🥳 pf wasn’t that bad had a great first week
the odd thing i take away from dawntrail dungeons/trials/raids is dungeons/trials are harder and ex/savage is easier.
I think the problems with wicked thunder's second phase come from a weird adjustment mid design, it feels like an over correction of the critiques that p8s and especially p12s got, there probably was a version of wicked thunder with a checkpoint early in development because of how significant the transofrmation is and how the second phase's mechanics are so different from phase 1, but p12s p2 being a slog of already solved puzzle mechanics if you weren't blind progging it, that especially had to be toned back if they're near the end of a 13 minute fight, this isn't ultimate after all. BUT I feel like the fight does benefit from being one cohesive fight,a nd I think the filler mechanics are there to cover space of some puzzle mechanics that got stripped out to fit the timeline of a shortened single fight.
To win your love I'll do just anything
While the tier has its weaknesses I have found myself enjoying each turn a LOT. Despite the issues, the tier is just fun
“And if your ranged DPS can stay awake.”
Brooooo 💀
i had a lot of enrage kills, because of not havin penta meld gear
It’s actually baffling that a large reason the dps check of this tier was bad was because square was too cowardly to nerf pct. Just nerf it instead of buffing everyone to its level and I think the dps check becomes a lot more challenging
The fights are still fun though. I definetely enjoy this tier more than p1-4
my answer to "i want dps checks be more challenging" is "do it in PF".
I was helping party with m3s and we saw enrage atleast 8 times before clear.
Not everyone spent 10 years mastering their rotation. U dont need to do your rotation correctly outside of savage anyway, so its not skill that week1 parties have. Its in good spot right now, also being able to ress is a great tool, because tis savage and people suppose to die in it, imagine using red mage main utility aka ress.
I liked the tier, M1S is fine, standard but fine. M2S and the chaotic bits are a change of pace. M3S is back to being standard but I like the theme and spectacle. M4S is forever tainted by the horrible prog I'm going through. It's the worst fight I've ever had to do, somehow. It's not hard it's just the fact I'm having the most miserable experience of my FF14 life right now. If I had to do a tier list it would be opposite of everyone else : liked every fight besides the last one.
Not a savage raider myself but aim to start this expac. I used to run hard mode raids in destiny years back however.
Gotta say the major factor that puts me off of ff14s savage and extreme is the dps checks. It feels like the way it's presented, you have to be nigh perfect in your rotation and maximise every stat by optimising buff windows. Maybe that's just people making it out to be harder than it is but, I have a full-time job, I don't have time to practice unique rotation plans for each fight and farm either gil or crafters to get the best food and potions for the fight to then spend 4 hours trying to get a clear.
I much prefer a fight to be lenient on damage checks and encourage unique parts of your kit, like RezMage, being used to full effect. A clear done with a red mage should feel different to a clear done with a black mage and not just because of the order you press your damage buttons.
They should be a test of your expanded class abilities (pooling rattling coil to minimise downtime), not a flowchart/optimisation fest, that the main barrier to completion is the time you have available to bash your head against either the fight or a target dummy.
It is interesting how different the top end raiding experience is compared to PF.
For PF the dps checks feel just right, M1S allowing multiple deaths but not complete zombie march, M2S clearable with 1 stack or couple of deaths and m3s requiring a nearly clean run even week2.
I would like to know how you wasn't burnt to a crisp at 30:00.
Overall I liked the tier, my first week 1, first time doing all fights completely blind.
However I do think its lacking in number of puzzles.
Im looking forward to FRU now.
The DPS check with BiS would make this a joke,
This was my first tier clearing all 4 bosses. I enjoyed all of them even if I am consigned to PF hell lol.
Regarding the DPS Check, the fact that M3S’ check was tighter was the strangest part of the checks for me. On all of my runs of m3 we had to see the bombardian special, but in m4, SQ was optional. The funniest thing that happened was that we almost 2 manned it (m4) and I could notice the percentage of HP getting chuncked with every one of my higher potency attacks like high jump.
In the moment, m4s felt rewarding to clear, but after thinking about the deaths and damage downs I was a little let down at how easy it was. My entire life of the dragon damage window was almost completely misaligned and that was a nonissue for our clear
On a similar note, I had no desire to learn the uptime sunrise sabbath strat because there is no reason too.
I don't mind having to work for uptime more this tier, but viper existing and being able to braindead uptime everything with uncoiled fury makes me super jealous lol. Barely scraped a week 2 clear for the tier yesterday and I think overall it was pretty good. Not the hugest fan of M3s since it has that 3rd fight syndrome of taking too long to get started, removing the first 3 minutes of the fight and having him begin with one drink would have made it more fun imo. I liked the other fights though, M4s is really fun and its nice not having a door boss again.
I think it’s good square doesn’t listen to the top 1% savage raiders like you. I found it plenty hard enough X.X
I’m happy that it’s easy for you but it’s hell in PF for semi-casuals like me.
I look forward to being able to solo this tier in 8.0 lmao
7:21 i disagree with this point purely of how trash gearing alternative jobs is, the game promotes swapping jobs but gearing them is so trash, it's all balanced around you gearing only one fully or partially if they happen share pieces.
"This tier doesn't make me cry and rage in frustration, therefore, it's shit"
10:32 actually in normal they are not random, they target player locations, it seems like chaos as in normal players move in a chaotic way. only the biggest ones are not targeting players, they spawn at cardinals/intercardinals basically moved as defamations in savage.
I know they don't want to nerf things but I think they should have just nerfed picto. Would have made the tier dps check more accurate. I doubt it would have made it tight or hard without the potency buffs but just a little less underwhelming.
As a melee I really did appreciate this tier. I did it on Samurai and boy have I never appreciated and worked around the 5yalm range of iaijustu ever so much before. It was so much fun looking for uptime.
30:02 How are you alive Rin. Raid tier was fun, my first week 1. Fights were fun overall but yea, they lack something (apart from the damage checks). The fact there are no mechanics could be because it's not a door boss