FFXIV Ultimate Reacts - 02/12

[@badca52]

Something I haven't heard anybody bring up, regarding viewership for the race, is the US Thanksgiving was the same week. I wanted to watch but I was with family all week and really couldn't tune in until it was already over.

[@KLGChaos]

Yeah, the holiday would skew metrics quite a bit in the US.

[@shadowhawx]

12:34: Starts here

[@tessa8484]

I don't mind it being short. Feels like most of the WoW races are spent watching guilds farm items on heroic rather than actually fighting the bosses but I can see how if you're trying to do a big production it would be deflating for a race to end after a couple of days.

[@alex7107]

The craziest part about this race to me and probably I won’t ever get over is Lucrezia lost WF over a 50/50 flip on the last possible place to wipe to before enrage on their 7% wipe.

[@aureliabackup7313]

the way to make the race last longer than 3 days is increase te damage you get from gear and then add some mandatory heroic splits

[@tetrahedron_in_space]

I didn’t start raiding in FFXIV until Endwalker, despite starting in Stormblood. I had a ton of fun doing the 3 EW savage tiers, but most of my friends who had raided prior to EW got burned out and didn’t do the 3rd tier of Pandaemonium. Most of them didn’t come back until Dawntrail. EW raiding, from what I’ve gathered from streamers & veterans who stuck through the content, was a real trial by fire for FFXIV raiding. You either liked the content / difficulty, or you didn’t. You can make arguments toward either side as to whether one is healthier for the game or not. I’m in the “EW raiding overall hurt FFXIV” camp, myself; look no further than the reception to TOP, as that piece of content was a huge point of contention for people to burn out. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the 3rd tier of EW had such a low clear rate conveniently after TOP. There are conflicting reasons as to why the first Arcadion savage tier was cleared so quickly. One part is definitely the buffs they gave most jobs before it dropped; Yoshi P straight up said they over-corrected to bring closer to par with Pictomancer, but more importantly, they said they were totally fine with that. And I ultimately agree, it would have sucked to have jobs nerfed right before a raid tier; I think them buffing the jobs was ultimately in the best interest of the health of the game. The other reason many believe this first DT savage tier was cleared so quickly was that it was not nearly as mechanically difficult as ANY of the EW tiers. Having done all 4, I can (anecdotally) confirm this. Perhaps the only curveballs this tier was 1) Alarm Pheromones 1 in Honey Bee Lovely savage being entirely random, and 2) Wicked Thunder having no checkpoint for phase 2, which made progging her only real mechanics (Midnight & Sunrise) a bit more difficult since you had to re-do close to 10ish minutes of the fight to see both. I also think that the reduced difficulty of this tier versus EW’s comparison in the Asphodelos tier was ultimately good for the game; I cannot imagine how disastrous this tier would have been if it was ramped up from EW AND we got nerfs before it dropped. And for FRU, despite the significantly shorter prog time versus DSR and TOP, much of the opinion I’ve gathered via The Balance, reddit, and streamers who have cleared it is that it’s a great ultimate, even if it’s not a step up in difficulty. Mr Happy is even confident that if you are a good enough raider with no ultimate experience, he believes this could be a candidate for many people’s first ultimate. I think that’s a good thing for the playerbase. As to where difficulty goes from here, I am waiting with bated breath about the next Arcadion tier. Will SE course-correct back toward EW-level difficulty? Will we get a re-do of the disastrous P8S nerf in Abyssos because the testers are so good now? These are the things that are important for the player base right now.

[@aradow18]

As someone that was watching a little of the live event at the end for RWF FRU, it did visablly bring down the mood when it was thought that Grind (the team that was band) was announced to have cleared first at the time. You could see it in the faces of some of the guys. They kept pushing, but even the casters had a little bit of an energy drop off. It was very late EU time so that is also an obvious blow, but it was a bit sad that it deflated folks. Everyone did great and it was top production as always by everyone! Still very enjoyable to watch when I could catch it and I would greatly enjoy watching in the future in whatever form it takes!

[@tetrahedron_in_space]

I have cleared 4 tiers now, all of Endwalker and the current Dawntrail savage, no ultimates yet. That being said, despite spending 3+ hours a day playing the game over the last nearly 4 years, I have little to no interest in watching the RWF for ultimates. I tuned into this one because my wife was watching it and I watched with her throughout the prog, but I think there are a lot of savage raiders that just don’t care about the race.

[@benoitrousseau4137]

Yeah. I play with pretty good players and I don't know anyone who cares about RWF in FFXIV or even talks about it, including those who cleared ultimates. Personally if it weren't for the inevitable cheat memes (because of course winner cheated lmao) I wouldn't even know it's over. In addition, my wife says Frosty is condescending, which... doesn't improve my opinion of this entire non-event since he's the host.

[@Levinsbun]

Why care about the race at all if the winners cheat every time.

[@strawberrydialectics]

i care but its not always convenient to sit and watch twitch for that length of time. it always amazes me that there are people able to sit in a streamers chat everyday throughout their msq journey for expample. how ?

[@strawberrydialectics]

@@benoitrousseau4137 bit of an anectdote as several of my fc mates do ultis and are always hyped about the race. however, theres also a chance that anyone who plans to do a new ultimate may not want to be spoiled by watching the race, so its understandable that they dont watch

[@ragnorak5095]

SE probably thinks official Sponsor maybe be risky and don't want to deal with headache. There are ways to hide some add-ons that are beneficial/cheating, I don't think SE want to Sponsors/congrats a winner who a day later turns out to be the biggest cheater in RWF. RWF players are on another level, boss tuning for them to last 6/7 days would mean 99% have no chance unless boss mechanics/HP nerf happen.

[@Urbish]

I think a lot of people need to come to terms with the fact that FFXIV is not as big a deal as they think. It's not 2021 anymore with artificial levels of hype and the game doesn't have as much lasting cultural relevance as something like WoW. That's not a problem per se, I'm fine with a smaller and more close knit community, but people should adjust their expectations for viewership and scale of events accordingly.

[@playlist233]

I think the Ultimates not tuned for he top 5 players resulting in shorter races is a detriment to the scene and Yoship needs to tune it high then nerf it like WoW

[@siyrean]

an easy thing to make it easier that doesn't involve nerfing is to put out the bis gear two weeks after the race starts. people not competing can them have a better shot at harder damage checks

[@manbearpigsereal]

grind cleared first and any serious player recognises it. the only people who don't are casuals who won't even touch anything above extremes.

[@Wariyaka]

Sorry kid. No serious player recognise Grind's clear. Only total looser scrubs who also need these ad-ons to clear stuff don't understand that.

[@NabsterHax]

Nope. Addon clears are void. This narrative that "serious players" are somehow cool with cheating needs to fucking die. It doesn't matter how many people use them. Any "serious player" knows you don't need them to clear. If you disagree you may, in fact, be a confused casual out of your depth.

[@Levinsbun]

Now let's see them do it without any add ons lol

[@GreatSakuya]

To add to this. By SE's own statement on 3rd party tools. ANY type of 3rd party tools/addons are prohibited from the game. That includes the use of ACT. So by SE's own admission. Any of the teams who recorded their logs also cheated. Not just GRIND. So calling their clear as void while also ignoring the fact that most teams were also using addons is disingenuous to the conversation.

[@Saiion]

Comments like this are just inherently ignorant. Yes they technically cleared first, not gonna deny that, however it was done using methods that are illegal, it doesn't matter if "casuals" or anyone else for that matter recognizes something done illegally or not. If a race or competition of any kind is won by using illegal methods that competitor is disqualified period. Stop trying to normalize cheating and labeling anyone who disagrees as "casuals"