Extremes are Extreme – FFXIV



This is not a guide, this is a tribute. We have completed our first extreme Blind min ilvl and, like the geniuses we are, we picked Shinryuโ€™s Domain. Join us for the journey. Thank you to our awesome team.

0:00 โ€“ Shinryuโ€™s Domain
8:03 โ€“ The Extreme System
12:12 โ€“ The Fight/Mechanics
23:20 โ€“ Final Phase

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47 thoughts on “Extremes are Extreme – FFXIV”

  1. Out of all of the Stormblood ones, Tsukiyomi was the most difficult at level. Shinryu beats it in terms of cool transformative factor, but Tsukiyomi has some absolutely punishing mechanics that will still wipe a group of unsynced 90s if they don't respect it. Ravanna Ex was quite…. unexciting. Bismarck is not hard but also not really that fun. Emanation and Pool of Tribute both add a few new mechanics (and Susano's are fun!) but neither were particularly difficult to clear at level, not the way Shinryu or Tsukiyomi were.

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  2. Good run guys! Tanks swap dragon heads and more shinryu is your gateway to savage as it introduces mechanics that are already in savage. Goodluck on progging other ex i hope you get all the doggos! PROGGERS!

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  3. Pro tip for controller use: while holding down either of the triggers you can tap L1/LB to cycle through targets. What enemies it prioritizes depends both on your camera placement and the direction your character is facing so it takes some time to feel out the nuances of it, but it becomes like second nature once you've gotten it down.

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  4. I think one of the best features of FFXIV, to the quip about "So we'll delay Shadowbringers..". In other MMOs you would have to make that choice because if you continue to level/gear, the challenge is ruined.

    With the Sync/Unsync, Min iLvl, and Echo options, you can tailor difficultly of old content.

    So if I wanted to, right now, I could find some people and do ARR's Coils of Bahamut at min ilvl, no echo and have a blast getting my ass kicked, deapite my character being 90 and fully Endwalker gear (Not BiS, but geared as well as I can pre-Savage).

    Or I could sync/Echo it and still be challenged, but not have a terrible time of it.

    Or if I just need to farm a drop for an Orchestrion roll or Glamour, I can unsync and buzzsaw through it until I get my drop.

    That customization along with roulettes keeps old content so alive and accessible. If ya'll did decide to do some EX's first or if you went back to do them after, it will pretty much be the same challenge.

    Thats a level of content accessibility I dont think any MMO has matched to date.

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  5. Maybe a little guide on how to controller would be in order. I'll just go over the things that aren't immediately apparent.
    R2+ R1 or L1 is essentially tab targeting. You can swap targets quickly just like you would with tab or shift tab using this. Naturally, R1 cycles to the right, L1 cycles to the left.
    When I was playing controller, I set up my targeting system so that de-targeting and hitting the confirm button (whether that's X or A for you, whichever controller you're using…) would prioritize selecting NPCs over enemies. It's important for being able to quickly interact with things mid-combat, and I recommend this thoroughly.
    Pressing up and down on the d-pad without any other buttons will cycle through your party members. If you click a skill while they're highlighted, then after the skill you will automatically re-target the last thing you had selected. Can be nice for healers especially, but also for classes with one-off gifts like paladin, dragoon, etc. Clicking confirm will hard-target them and allow you to cast multiple skills on them like normal targeting.
    In the settings, you can set up a hotbar that uses both the R2 and L2 buttons at the same time. You can either set it so pressing them in a certain order gives you a unique hotbar, or set both orders to the same bar. It opens up a very convenient set of 8 more buttons.
    Pressing R1+a face button or d-pad will switch your hotbar. As a controller player I recommend setting up R1+Triangle(Y) as a normal hotbar, and R1+Circle(B) as an AoE version of the same hotbar. Just replace skills that normally are single target with their AoE analogues. Samurai is among the jobs this frees up the absolute most!
    There will be times where you will need to put away your weapon in combat, to make sure you are not moving or hitting (even autoattacking) anything. In the button configuration, I would make sure one of your R3 or L3 (clicking the stick) are set to Draw/Sheathe weapon and NOT lock-on.
    Anyway, those are my tips from someone who's cleared Ultimates on AST on controller! It's absolutely doable and fun to play on controller, and in a lot of ways I actually think controller is better than keyboard and mouse.

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  6. I remember doing Shinryu as my last Extreme in SB, which was when I started playing. Even with end of expansion BiS it was still hard to get people who could farm it efficiently. But since I got lucky and got the mount in 7 kills, I put all my farming time into helping friends and PFs.
    Can't wait to see Suzaku EX, my first and still favorite SB trial.

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  7. Gee, i wonder why THIS was the particular ending song ๐Ÿ˜‰ I was there when you heard this song and commented on liking it. But to answer the questions: Yes, Shinryu is one of the best extremes. Not all are so great, but many are absolute amazing. You're a bit spoiled by having such an amazing one first. And yes, certain savages like Exdeath are VERY special. you'll see why. in general, its 4, 8, and 12th normal raid that gives soemthing special (ARR is an exception, in that case, its just the hardest)

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  8. You guys picked one of the top tier EX trials to do and I am so glad you enjoyed it. It's an amazing fight and really is so much fun.

    The places I would suggest to go after this:
    Other EX trials – Tsukuyomi is good for what you're currently at, as well as the 4 lords EX versions when you eventually do them. If you want to go back and do some then Thordan and Nidhogg EX are must see content.
    Savage – Exdeath Savage and Kefka Savage are both incredible fights. I'm sure your community will have plenty of suggestions on how to do it so listen to them and I believe you'll enjoy them.
    Ultimate – After you do Thordan EX and Nidhogg EX you should just watch a video on Dragonsong's Reprise Ultimate. Just so that you can see what happens when they take these EX fights that you will have already known and done, and then break the dial entirely and make it as brutally hard as they can.

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  9. Congratulations on the clear!!! As far as healer things go, if you pop second wind and bloodbath on melee classes you can restore a noticeable amount of health. Useful for healing dooms and helping your healers

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  10. Welcome to the evil part. Just as a heads-up: One of the optional trials quest series of Heavensward (AKA the Warring Triad questline) saw an Extreme fight that was, at that point, waaaay too hard compared to other extremes, and that's the point where they decided to tone down Extremes. Shinryuu EX has some similarities to that fight, though I shall not spoil them as I don't think I've seen you guys doing the Warring Triad questline yet and I think you'll enjoy it better blind. It's also a big story dump surrounding several topics that will come up again in both MSQ and sidequests (several sidequests in fact). Speaking of which, when is that on the menu?

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  11. I think one of the best parts of the fight is the fact that after the tail slams in after the ad phase and you start to cross the tail the musical shift into the full-blown storm blood theme is a predetermined synced moment

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  12. I am all for delaying Shadowbringers for doing Extremes! SH is great and playing that non-stop would be great, so imo its better to do a good chunk of the side content before starting that. I'd say start with the ARR Trials first then go to your personal favorites. ARR Trials are more manageable and super fun but you may not be able to appreciate them as well if you're jumping from the HW or SB trials down to them

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  13. As someone who has used controller since day 1 on a melee dps: yes, the buttons do make the combos feel super natural and yes, targeting is a tiny weakness, but you do get used to it and figure out your own work arounds to it.

    Loving your reactions and love for the content and can't wait for the next 2 xpacs!

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  14. IIRC you want to switch targeting to "cone" and "ignore depth" and "target nearest" and put that as a macro on clicking the right stick, that's what I do and it has served me well

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  15. DPad + a is my preferred way for changing targets on controller. Up down goes through the party list and right left goes through the enemy list. Pressing a will lock on to a target

    If you press a will not going through the list it will lock onto a certain target depending on how your target settings are.

    I donโ€™t know if anyone In your group told you but you can expand your cross hot bar twice to get another 32ish slots on one hotbar

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  16. Now i'm going to beg you, please do savage, even if you dont want to learn 12 fights of an entire tier, please at least do omega 4 8 and 12, i beg of you

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  17. The Extreme fights are generally categorized as either "Title (Extreme)" or "The Minstrel's Ballad: Title", and the Minstrel's Ballad trial Extremes are considered to generally be a step above the others, in most, if not all, aspects. Transformation, mechanics, difficulty, etc. Shinryu was also the first X.0 Final Trial EX after they had settled into their general idea for encounter design, and they did it incredibly well. Looking forward to more content!

    Edit: Forgot to mention that ever since I saw one of your videos for FFXIV, I've binged them all, and I'm loving your reactions to the content. Can't wait to see the next video ๐Ÿ˜€

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  18. Another great video I really hope you'll post your trailer reaction to shadowbringers and I'll eagerly look forward to your first Shadow bringers video if you do go and try any savages I strongly recommend Delta skate for Savage as it was incredibly transformative

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  19. Shinryu is 100% a 'Diet-Savage' and a really good entry point. But yeah, echoing others, you hella jumped into the deep end with extremes, at least at the point you're at now..

    They only get crazier from here. Tsukiyomi extreme and another extreme later on which I can't say, are still some of my favorites. Due to sheer spectacle.

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  20. Hey, controller player here too ๐Ÿ™‚ Good to see you guys had fun! People probably already told you, but you can quickly swap targets with R2+L1 or L2+R1 (similar to tab targetting on keyboard), it helps a lot!

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  21. I beaten every single extreme in this game and this one is definetly on my top 3 as well as 5.3 Trial and Ex3 of Endwalker
    Hope you guys do the 5.3 Extreme and the Ex3 of Endwalker eventually ๐Ÿ™‚

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  22. Shinryu is definitely one of the most "transformative" Extremes visually, so don't get too disappointed if they're not all that epic. But there are definitely lots of Extreme & Savage fights where you don't really see their core mechanic on Normal and it's more than just "normal but add a couple extra things to do".

    I think if you want to get a good flavor for extremes without exhaustively doing everything, Susanoo is a good "easy" extreme and Tsukuyomi is a great "average" difficulty extreme. Neither is going to be as epic as Shinryu, but watching your performance I think Susano will feel like a cake walk and Tsukuyomi will be comforably clearable in an evening without needing to turn on Echo. I think Tsukuyomi EX is also just a really good training fight for endgame content & teaches you a lot of important fundamentals. Heavenward stuff isn't really as representative of modern endgame as everything from Stormblood on, so I wouldn't both rushing to go back to that stuff now unless you really want to.

    I also wouldn't worry too much about the "blind" part. Doing all normal mode content blind is the way to go, but running endgame content blind is a better activity once you have more experience with endgame content and have a wider library of FFXIV endgame mechanics to pattern match from. You don't necessarily need to watch a video or read a guide ahead of time (though that's the standard expectation for party finder) but don't feel like you're doing it wrong or being spoiled if your experienced party members explain certain mechanics or strategies. For example, in Tsukuyomi EX, there are a couple different mechanics that always target one tank, one healer, and one DPS. It'll probably be a better experience for you and the stream at your current skill level to just know that and focus on learning how to resolve the mechanic. Also, anywhere that the community would normally use ground markers, it's probably best to just hear what the community strat is and try to execute it. (Tsukuyomi waxing/waning moon phase is a good example of this).

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  23. I'm excited to see you two tackle the Savage raid tiers. People are so much more healthy about raiding in savages compared to games like wow, destiny. Most groups only run 1-2 days a week, 2 hours per day. Past that many hours many in FF have noted how skill falls off when you're butting your head against mechanics that haven't sunk in yet. And it is ROUGH learning the fights, but once the whole team knows them, it takes 10-15 minutes max to get through and get your coffers.

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  24. Remember, when you get a rez, you get a few second of invincibility, it's called "Transcendence" and it cancels when you use any action (except for basic movement). There are a few mechanics in the game where it will go through, but for the most part you want to wait for the heals then start pressing your buttons.

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  25. I would absolutely LOVE to see what you guys think about O3S and O4S. Those fights have a massive change from their normal versions.
    But I'm certainly glad that you guys enjoyed Shinryu EX. Good news is that once you get the rhythm of most fights, it gets easier each time through it.

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  26. Now that you guys have done shinryu, the next extreme you should try is Shadowbringers EX3. If you want a real savage experience while still going through the story, I think that's the best conpromise

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