We all talk about those high end contents that separate raiders with casual players.
But we tend to lump all of those together while actually they still have a lot of difference for each difficulty level.
From extreme to savage, from savage to ultimate the difference is very clear from a lot of aspects.
But what actually makes savage harder than extreme and ultimate harder than savage? In this video we will break down how the fight’s characteristic itself differentiate each difficulty in FFXIV’s high end content
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What about unreal
Whenever someone asks me the difficulty scaling of endgame content in FFXIV I generally refer to my trusty rule of thumb in:
Exteme: Most of the party can die but you can still clear with enough rezzes and playing safe most of the time
Savage: Half the party dies then the other half is soon to follow, usually not recoverable due to damage check at the end of the fight depending when they died
Ultimate: If one person dies it's more often than not a wipe, if someone messes up a mechanic it's a wipe, if you stand somewhere you aren't supposed to be it's a wipe, if you aren't dealing good damage it's a wipe, if you don't mitigate damage correctly, you guessed it, it's a wipe
A question I've been asking for a while
When you say 5-10 deaths in an 'on content' ultimate are you referring to literal on-content (i.e. before the next patch comes out) or just ultimates that are current in the expansion?
Because I find it hard to believe many groups could clear TOP or even DSR with more than 5 deaths before the next patch came out. You should also consider that in TOP Dark Knights often die twice on purpose during the LB spam because it's a damage gain, so that's gonna skew your stats significantly.
DSR was definitely more recoverable than TOP though I think newbies are gonna find it hard to recover from any deaths in an on-patch ultimate. You did mention body checks though, so I suppose you've somewhat covered that concept.
7 other goobers make the difference.
Here's the difference with these three.
They're all unfun to do.
Wait, that sameness.
In 20+ years of playing MMO's of all kinds, I have never played one with a more unfun and pointless endgame scene than ff14. Like, holy crap it is so unfulfilling and drab.
I've come to know it as it's basically PVP using monsters as a proxy, and just how many people it takes to kill everyone else reduces as difficulty increases.
Extremes: A fairly difficult challenge that most people can clear with enough tries. Half the party can die and you can still recover from that if the damage is above average. It's a good introduction to the harder difficulty the game has to offer.
Savage: It is expected you carry your own weight even though 2 out of the 4 encounters are designed in a way that people can carry you via callouts. 2 deaths max per group or you won't meet the dps check for the encounter.
Ultimates: It is expected you play the best way you can. Ultimate is a long dance of mechanics that must be solved flawlessly, there is no room for errors or wipes since every single error made by one individual, cost the encounter. Also Ultimates are the kind of content 90% of the people haven't clear legitimately because of cheats. Anyone can say anything or shove the "legends" title down your throat but it is not legitimate.
I'd be interested to hear about where you think Criterion Savage fits in the picture. ive always described it as "Savage level mechanics with an harder-than-Ultimate consistency check (since literally one death is a wipe in a 20+ min dungeon unless that death is on the final mechanic of the final boss)
I think the important point will be the speed of solving mechanics and their complexity. We don’t want to put it on the same table TOP Dynamis delta and M1S Mouser
when UCOB released I told myself i'll never do an ultimate.
fast forward to Endwalker and the savage static I joined did the 1st tier, then we did some prep on UwU but we ultimately decided on doing DSR on launch, (a lot of unfortunate circumstances later) and it took me a year to clear it with a buddy from that static in PF, since we were barely going into DSR and more into savage again, with splitting our times between the 2 wasn't a good idea. (doubly so when we saw every mechanic in DSR P7 already)
later on me and that buddy also formed a casual ultimate static and started with UwU, I cleared DSR first, then UwU (kinda reverse order in that sense, at the time hardest to the easiest)
But it felt like my gameplay got so much better after beating DSR, Savage is still a challenge, but it feels so much easier and chill after doing DSR. (currently cleared UCOB, UWU, TEA and DSR, TOP will likely be at the end of this expac and FRU will be progged on launch again)
I had a co tank in my most recent savage static who wanted to dip his feet into ultimate and I recommended UWU, it's also on Light and there the ultimate prog community is surprisingly chill for generally being the "top tier players" and generally should be toxic.
I think the main difference is simply that the mechanics are generally more fast fire paced in ultimates than savage, more so in older ultimates, in DSR for example you got plenty of breathing room between phases.
P3 transition for example gives you 10 orso seconds to breath before nidstinien appears and even then, another 10-15 orso seconds before anything starts to happen.
the p3 into p4 transition is easily 30 seconds long, so you got some time to clear your head, take a breather, a quick sip of your drink and then go again. (ToP is different where it's just rapid fire mechanics constantly till the p5 to p6 transition)
the mechanics in general are not that much more difficult than savage mechanics imo, for example in DSR P2, you got the 1st trio mechanic, once you know the tell and can quickly read it, it's 100% consistent. (watch the color that doesn't have a dragoon, since we use the markers with color coded)
then the 2nd part is 3 defamation (get the fuck away from everyone) followed by 3 non defamations (and a stack to boot) and 2 tank tethers, then 6 towers, once you learn your role in those mechanics it's pretty easy.
the difficulity is generally runtime of the fight (since 18-21 minutes per pull can be draining and having to constantly think can be taxing, that's why people generally recommend drumming it into your muscle memory so it becomes 2nd nature to you and the fast firing pace of mechanics.
I really wish SE would rebalance older ultimates, since it's a shame that UCOB, UWU and TEA are so devoid of dps checks now that it's just sad, sure the mechanics are still mostly there, but in some cases you can outright skip mechanics, like in TEA P1, if you really want to, you can skip literally 70% of that phase, straight up kill Living Liquid while the jagged dolls are out, ultimates (old and new) is content that last for expansions, UCOB is now 7 years old and it's still being done by the community, not just people who cleared it, but even new ultimate raiders, give it the respect it deserves.
Dodge dodge dodge. Spam dps rotation, role doesnt matter. Repeat.
the shitters can make lame excuses for why they can’t push glowing buttons
I feel like there's one aspect that wasn't covered: unavoidable damage, and consequentially mit/heal checks.
Using min ilvl for these (and this is mostly based on my own experience, not any hard numbers):
In extreme, undermitigating raidwide damage isn't likely to kill anyone, and heal checks are sparse outside of the occasional "raidwide but spicy" (example: Endsinger telomania, hades quadrastrike) or some multi-hit stacks. Tankbusters usually don't require much CDs. Of course, there are exceptions; pretty sure I remember min-ish ilvl valigarmanda actually being pretty spicy in terms of outgoing damage.
Starting in savage, undermitigating raidwides usually means deaths. Heal checks tend to be more common, sometimes as their own individual mechanic (fusefield, rotten heart), sometimes baked into another mechanic (Act 4). Especially for 4th floors, you definitely want to plan mit and heal cooldowns. Someone missing a mit, however, is usually not a wipe. Tankbusters need even more CDs or the tank dies. Depending on the fight boss auto attacks also start warranting mitigation, especially extended sections (mouser 1, alarm phero 1). Tank invulns gain value as a planned mit to save CDs.
Ultimates: same as savage, undermitigating a raidwide is ggs, however the frequency and intensity of raidwide damage tends to be much higher; even party finder starts following mit plans rather than just yoloing it. Unless it's uwu. Missing a single mit – ESPECIALLY in DSR/TOP final phase – usually means death unless it's feint/addle on their opposite favored damage type (and sometimes even then). Tankbusters almost invariably require either an invuln or kitchen sink/near kitchen sink mit. Tanks may start needing outside help to survive tankbusters if not invulning, especially if they need mit for autos, which of course hit damn hard in ults. Similarly, DPS/heals may start requiring single target mits – on top of raidwide mits and shields – on them to survive some particularly hefty instances of raidwide damage (DSR kyle transition).