It’s interesting to me how often Final Fantasy XIV patches are inconsistent when it comes to what makes them interesting. This is perhaps not the strangest thing in the world in the abstract, but one of the things that has long been held up (even by me) as a strength of the game as a whole is the fact that its patches are consistent. You generally have a pretty clear picture of what you’re going to get in each patch. So I’m intrigued by how sometimes the most interesting part of a patch is its content, sometimes it’s story, and sometimes it’s both in equal measure.
What we have of patch 7.1 is compelling mostly from a story standpoint, at least right now, but I always give at least a week between the patch launch and sharing more potentially spoileriffic story thoughts, so content is what we’re talking about first. And while that is perhaps not the most engaging side of this patch, it is still worth talking about. How are things shaping up right now with our first new dungeon and alliance raid of the expansion?
Far afield
While it would be wrong to say that the first new dungeon of an expansion’s patch cycle tells you exactly what to expect for the entire expansion, I think there are generally conclusions to be drawn from them. And this particular dungeon has a pretty straightforward conclusion, which is that it seems clear the designers are experimenting with new approaches and how far they can stretch dungeon mechanics as a whole.
The first fight experiments with the sort of mechanics that can be stacked and responded to in a single field, the second very proudly asks players to engage in a short-term minigame to avoid dying, and the third radically reshapes the arena midway through the fight. I don’t know that I necessarily think that all three fights entirely work, but all three are definitely trying new ideas, something that has definitely been an ongoing element of the expansion’s dungeons in general. If we’ve had a pretty set list of mechanics up through Endwalker, the goal is to see how the bosses can be pushed into new territory.
So what parts don’t totally work? Well, the Temporary Misdirection maze midway through the second boss is the sort of thing you’re either going to be all right with or you’re going to really hate, but it’s made a bit worse because it is decidedly a period of dead time in terms of actually doing damage. (Some jobs are really hurt by dead time.) And it’s way too easy for players to yeet themselves into the central hole on the last boss fight when using a gap closer. I don’t know that there’s an easy fix to that, but considering how brutal the check to run away in the middle is for melee, I think it feels just a hair overtuned there.
Also the trash in this particular instance is at peak “annoying boredom” in implementation. It’s not dangerous, several enemies hate grouping nicely for attacks, and there are just enough AoE markers to get tedious in melee.
Having said all of that, it’s still a solid enough instance, and I’m willing to cut it some more space because the parts that don’t totally work are parts that don’t totally work in the service of trying new ideas. That counts for bonus points in my book.
Rhapsodic combat
In contrast to the dungeon, I basically have one mechanical complaint about this particular series of fights: The last boss has a series of slash AoEs that are hard to read and are easy to miss. It’s just a small amount of damage plus a DoT if you get hit, so it’s very survivable, but it’s obnoxious all the same.
Other than that, though, I feel like this entire sequence is nearly perfectly handled. It’s clear that lessons were learned and internalized from Myths of the Realm (itself a very solid alliance raid series) and each of the bosses here feels both true to their forms from Final Fantasy XI as well as being fun fights in their own right. The third boss in particular feels like a standout because it captures the feel of this particular boss fight from the original game while also being a very unique and enjoyable fight all the same.
It’s also fun that the fights are very clearly working overtime to give not a sequential story feel but instead feel like a tour of FFXI‘s memorable moments, from Dynamis-Jeuno to hunting NMs to progressing story missions in Sky and so forth. The tells almost all felt very comprehensible after the first couple of rounds, and I never felt like the fights were being unfair even as they were happy to hit the raid with new approaches.
I’m now sadder than ever that we don’t have any explorer mode for alliance raids because the place looks and feels gorgeous and it definitely hits all the notes that it needs for being a fun raid series. If the next two tiers can live up to this one, I will be wildly impressed; these are some good, solid fights with a clear drive and focus.
Balancing act
I’ve mentioned before that it seems as if Pictomancer has been spared more balance reckoning than it needs, but these balance changes in general feel… odd. Not wrong, just odd. Dark Knight and Gunbreaker both won out hard on a whole; Dragoon feels like it got an overall potency equivalence while reducing the spam during Life of the Dragon, which is a good thing, and Ninja can finally move during Ten Chi Jin which… I don’t like at all.
Don’t get me wrong, from a balance standpoint it sucked that you could get screwed out of one of your major damage sequences as Ninja just because you had to move. But it was also a crucial part of your feel as a melee caster. Removing that restriction is a valid balance choice but still bothers me personally.
On a whole, it feels like adjustments are aimed at making the more support-oriented DPS come closer in line with others while making tanks feel a little more responsive (Dark Missionary and Heart of Light now provide some universal mitigation, which is a nice change). They’re not exceptional changes, but it does have some obvious potential impact as we move into the expansion’s first Ultimate fight and the upcoming Chaotic fight against the Cloud of Darkness. Time will tell how much any of that matters.
I still don’t feel like everything has totally been brought in line just yet, though; those tank changes are nice but tanks were all working reasonably well beforehand. And Samurai just keeps getting tweaks, doesn’t it?
Feedback is welcome in the comments down below or via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com as usual. Next week, we’re going to be talking about the story side of things, which is… decidedly weird this time around! Not bad, but just weird. Well, one part is kind of bad, but it’s off on the side and we’ll talk about it next week. I promise.
The Nymian civilization hosted an immense amount of knowledge and learning, but so much of it has been lost to the people of Eorzea. That doesn’t stop Eliot Lefebvre from scrutinizing Final Fantasy XIV each week in Wisdom of Nym, hosting guides, discussion, and opinions without so much as a trace of rancor.
