We have so much content in the game. So many good trials, raids, and so on. But one fight remains the best of the best. The best Trial to me, is Thordan’s Reign. Mechanically dense and frantic. You truly feel at a disadvantage.
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As a newer player who started during shadowbringers and who never got to do Thordan EX as current content, I was definitely looking forward to his unreal coming out. A lot of the raiders and community members weren't looking forward to it, but I've been loving every minute of it. So much more enjoyable and interesting and intense than any of the Boring Triad unreals IMO
2:38 You're not dealing with the average Final Fantasy trial, YOU'RE DEALING WITH A THORDAN UNREAL TRIAL
I took a long break from raiding in 6.4 after my static effectively disbanded, so when this unreal came out and people said it was actually pretty fun and easy, I was like “oh hey I do need some cash for DT”
I was blow away at how fun and perfectly paced this fight is. Mechanics are fun but not overall complex, there’s good downtime to break up DPS, and the music and visuals are amazing. This fight has literally got me back into raiding, which to someone who only even started FFXIV for the story, is damn fucking impressive.
Thinking Tidus is a bad protagonist is wrong but tolerable. "Xenoblade 1 has the worst protagonist of any game" is an opinion I simply cannot abide.
Have you played Trails of Cold Steel?
this is my top 10 trial and ex trial with EW ex6
WAIT FOR MECHANIC TO RESOLVE
I don't really play FF14 for realism. At no point are we actually fighting all 13 enemies at the same time (we would have 13 targets to pick, this never happens), nor do we even kill any of them in the middle of the fight and whittle down their numbers (the most we do is reduce their hp to 0.1%, and they retreat, but they still return to attack for the ultimate), so the only one we actually kill is Thordan, and I suppose the others' summon transformations are bound to him. I will admit, the Knights of the Round in og FF7 only attacked one at a time, too, in a single long "cutscene". Pedantics aside, I enjoy fights based on how engaging they are, and just from a pure gameplay perspective, Knights of the Round is still up there, but I personally like Sephirot and Nidhogg just a little more.
holy shit wesk, even if i'm wasn't a fan of FFXIV i'd love this video. your text is filled with such passion for the fight, I loved it so much. thank you
This duty ended up being the most memorable to me too, though funnily enough it was mostly by chance. When I was going through ARR and HW I was pretty much clueless about how high level content was handled, unaware even that extreme duties were supposed to be tackled as a group. With a lot of patience and probably a similar degree of luck, I was however still able to clear most ARR EXs all through DF, still having no idea that PF was a thing (I also had my current longest time to pop queue during this process, waiting stubbornly for over 3 hours at one point).
Eventually, after completing the 5.0-5.5 MSQ and most normal side content, I decided to try out Thordan EX. The queue time was pretty damn long as you might imagine, but eventually I got in. And it was tough. Way tougher than any of the EX Primals. Sure, those fights had punishing mechanics but nearly to the same degree as Thordan, and with a decent enough team the biggest worry usually ended up being wipe mechanics. On the other hand, Thordan had a lot of mechanics that could catch you out and kill you quite easily even just in phase 1 – and that's in a fight with several phases that can last upwards of 15 minutes total.
It quickly became clear that most of us were unfamiliar with the fight and so the two people who did know what they were doing essentially became improvised raid leaders, giving us explanations of each mechanic as we came across them and inevitably died to them. We were, however, still making progress. Eventually we reached phase 2, and then we started to reach phase 2 consistently, and then we made it past towers and to John Sacred Cross, then to the twins, and so on, eventually to the final phase with Thordan's return and the mandatory LB3.
I think we made it there twice, dying pretty quickly each time. The RL(s) had primed us for the healer down mechanic, but shit tended to go sideways pretty quickly after that. Eventually though, we were getting close to running out the duty timer and we still had pretty much a third of the fight left to learn. That didn't deter most of us though; we decided to add each other and party up again to take it on and clear it for real this time.
A couple people including one of the RLs ended up leaving – perfectly understandable given we had accidentally'd ourselves into an impromptu prog sesh – but one of the people in party offered to invite some of their friends who weren't as new to raiding as most of us. It was gonna be a while before they would arrive though, and so we ended up shooting the shit in the meantime. It was nice to have some time to chill before going back in, and it was my first (and still only) real moment of making friends in 14.
But eventually, the new folks arrived and we went back in. It took some time for us to get our mojo back, but soon enough we were making it to the final phase pretty consistently now and all we had to do was figure out how to deal with the clusterfuck of mechanics ourselves. I was playing black mage at the time so I was having an especially tough time managing movement, mana, enochian and not flubbing mechanics; I wouldn't be surprised if I were to learn I had the lowest dps in the party.
But, with all that said, we did eventually do it. We were all hype as hell and there was a lot of celebrating and thanking each other going around in chat. Some of us hung around in party for a while afterwards, but gradually people would leave to go their own separate ways. Sadly, I'm not great at maintaining friends made in games. Outside of a handful of DMs in the days following, I didnt talk with any of them again. But still, I'm thankful to everyone who joined – this is still my most memorable moment and my biggest personal achievement of playing the game. It was an insanely rewarding clear, and the feeling of clawing your way through the tidal wave of mechanics and making it to the other side is like nothing else I've felt in the game so far (not being a raider myself).
Thordan's Reign EX fucking rules ❤
As someone who finished the heavensward expansion last week….this fight was amazing. Overcoming that trial was fun, understandable and intense….I have yet to do the extreme…let alone I knew there was an unreal version. Thankyou for the insight into this fight. Your dialouge gave this fight way more depth and tension to it!!! Also….cried for haucherfant….loved that guy.
Same, this is my favorite trial, Heavensward MSQ fights and the Ultimate feel so epic and memorable
I just want you to know that I've shared your videos plenty with my boyfriend. He enjoys your content a great deal. I made a joke about how I always appreciate that you're always in cosplay in your videos.
He didn't know what I was talking about. And when I mentioned who you cosplay as, he didn't know who the guy was.
My relationship is now in shambles. Please send help
rip cape westwind
"…my opinions are uniquely…me. Sometimes harsh, especially on HW."
Me: was roasting the shit out of HW yesterday…
Thordan's Reign is also the exception to my roasting.
I last did Heavensward (and FF14) three or so years ago, and I remember almost nothing. Except this fight, which is etched into my skull. I can't wait to do it again.
Damn Shulk really just caught a stray l ike that
Wholeheartedly agree, the fight is just on another level thematically and atmospherically, along with the hype factor. Mechanically, it's cool because each knight has a specific mechanic, and KotR 1-5 puts them together in cool ways. There's other details that stick out to me, like the knights psyching up each other during the fight, and the names of some of the attacks in KotR 5 changing: (Pure of Heart becomes Pure of Soul, Conviction becomes Absolute Conviction). Even though they're tempered, they still retain their individual personalities and their sense of brotherhood. Overall I wish there was more done with the Heaven's Ward because I thought they were interesting villains, on top of having the coolest enemy design in the game. Thordan EX is also one of if not the only trials that has an entire new song made just for it, unless i'm forgetting.
I tend to not play ex trials much. Mostly because 14 is my "chill relaxation" game so the level of stress that tends to come from a fight of that intensity is not something I want to be doing. That said, as an uninvolved observer via youtube and twitch, I can certainly appreciate the level of skill and practice that goes into getting good enough to do these fights on an observational level.
Though, recently I have started to work my way through the older extremes, I doubt I'm ever going to reach the point that doing savages or unreals is something I want to do. But this does seem like a very cool challenge to have in the game.
cool video but why do you keep saying DRU instead of DSR bruh
My static just cleared this unreal last night, and boy was it a wonderful progression. Glad I got to play it since I wasn't around for it's original release. My favorite so far.
Putting the EX out of the way, this was an incredibly hype moment for me. During the cutscene beforehand I had a mate on voice call with me and I was like "wait… wait a bloody minute, how many of them are there?? Is this Knights of the Round? Did they make the final boss of Heavensward Knights of the bloody round, the most notorious summon for breaking FF7 in half???". Sure enough!
I was so so glad they gated the damage, because the party I was with on my first play absolutely curb stomped him, but I got to see a lot of the fight thanks to how they designed it.
I only started last year, so I'm glad we got Thordan Unreal. I love it.
nah xenoblade 1 and LAD are goated, unquestionably
This is the first current harder than normal fight I’ve tried and not given up on. I’ve done about three days of PF prog and I feel like I just need to get into a group with the dps to clear the enrage. Who knew raiding could be fun…
Shulk is the worst protagonist??? That's a take 🤣 I'm curious to hear more
The music is epic, I love the theme of the fight and I love how easy/accessible the fight is compared to the newer extremes while not being too boring