Ranking Every Stormblood MSQ Dungeon | FFXIV

[@rabid_si]

For anyone else struggling with Number XXIV's elemental mechanic, he calls out two of the three elements when he transforms the towers (e.g. "My cup runneth over with ice and fire!"). You need to stand in the circle of the element he DIDN'T call to damage him.

[@Cyberspark939]

Also, he gains a buff that's the negative image of the elemental buff you gain from the ring you need to stand in.

[@IKMcGwee]

As of 6.4 they changed him, now he just uses different elements in order now. Actually rather boring now too.

[@dalgona4819]

@@IKMcGwee No wonder I found this unfamiliar, man I wish I got to see that

[@WillTheDragon]

So fun lore fact about Skalla is all those mobs and bosses there were once people related to the Mad King. When he started to become Mad he began to trust no one, not even his own family. So he had them all transfigured into horrible monsters and thrown down here for eternity to protect his treasure. This also explains the whole turning into ghosts during that one part of the dungeon.

[@lizmichaels8994]

Upvoting. And more info for Kyle and Garret: if you stop and look at the mobs in the treasure halls when you kill them some of them say things like "free at last" or somesuch. Basically there is or was an old guy NPC you could talk to about Skalla who told the tale of the Mad King, gave some background on him turning people into monster and the howls you could hear from the castle etc. Missing that flavor/lore for the ghosts and ghouls in the treasure hall does make it more "??? why this?" Also I believe the final boss is either the Mad King's cousin or some other close advisor or relative specifically made into that demon creature to guard his trove.

[@gundampharmacist7348]

I would like to offer a defense of Bardam’s Mettle and the second boss specifically. I LOVE this thing because it’s the first time many players, especially people who don’t do side or optional content and run straight into MSQ will encounter a lot of the mechanics that’ll become a staple of Stormblood, and one of the first times the standard markers we’ve come to know and love are used. It’s actively trying to teach you how to do mechanics, and for once, no amount of gear score or over leveled cheese will allow you to skip it. Yes, it’s not action packed, but what it does is equally important - it teaches players in a relatively safe environment how to deal with the bread and butter, because the game isn’t going to get any easier from here.

[@WoWRefugee]

And I enjoyed the theme of Bardam's Mettle: it is the test for all in Azem Steppe, it's like your Rite of Passage. Boss 1 is your test of strength. Boss 2 is your test of mind. Boss 3 is you tame the Roc and prove your worth and earn your mount. It is very thematic in that sense and you're right, the 2nd Boss is an actual test of your mind... do you remember mechanics and the tells... you can't be carried, your gear doesn't matter... you just have to use your brain. I thought Boss 2 was genius in that regard.

[@mikloskoszegi]

As someone relatively new to the game and MMOs, i can 100% agree to it. To this day i adore Bardam's Mettle and i always get happy when i get it in roulette with sprouts.

[@lmollea]

That second boss is fun! It's great because it's _different_! A great design idea!

[@pyrrhos8175]

From someone who recently started as well, I've noticed this Dungeon and Thornmarch (which I guess was reworked sometime earlier this year) both get a lot of ire while also holding that role of teaching players a sheer slew of mechanics you don't see on trash mobs: meteors, gazes, LoS, enemy buffs, overlapping AoEs, towers. It's not everything but it's many of the commonplace

[@tsbulmer]

The second boss is *why* I love Bardam's Mettle so much.

[@rotafortunae]

16:04 The term for distance based markers are normally called proximity markers.

[@Bakuplayer13]

Sometimes called "Flares" too

[@ChakatSilverstreak]

@@Bakuplayer13 I thought "Flares" were the ones where a player was marked with three arrows and they have to get away from the party before it resolves?

[@beefkat5370]

@@ChakatSilverstreak sorta the same thing. Distance from the mark (player or ground based) determines how much damage you take.

[@Bakuplayer13]

@@ChakatSilverstreak Oh you right! My bad. Still a proximity mechanic, but not ground based, but with a player as epicenter. I'm dumb, thanks for correcting!

[@andothersuchnonsense2685]

Accurate nomenclature is overrated. I prefer "Dorito" to "Triangle Stack Marker", for example.

[@FloraAnneFauna]

the second doma castle came up i immediately started jamming also the distance based explosion is called a proximity marker

[@DatDirtyDog]

Petition to rename proximity marker to; radient gradient

[@ExileTwilight]

I've always struggled with what to call those when warning people in Fun Scaith.. It seems so obvious in hindsight

[@Boyzby]

And if it's attached to a person with the big spikey triangle, it's a Flare.

[@EntityXIII]

Good on you for saying "proximity marker" when you did. =)

[@EntityXIII]

Well, no, from what I recall the only reason "meteors" is used in Sohm Al is because of the meteor/comet markers that appear over people's heads, not for the proximity aspect that follows, which appeared in the og Ultima Weapon fight. "Meteors" often refers to either those markers or the circular soaking marker on the floor we've seen in WoD, Chrysalis, and several fights since then, even when meteors are not involved like those floor circles in Amdapor City (Hard) or ST.

[@LeeSci]

Funnily enough, you note the opening instrument of the Doma Castle theme to sound foreign but I believe it’s a shamisen, which is a traditional Japanese string instrument. Doma is loosely based on Eastern cultures with Japan being a major source of inspiration.

[@ryanm.907]

I thought it might have been a koto, which is the national instrument of Japan, but after listening more closely, that woody strike sound is deffinitly a shamisen

[@flvx4693]

It actually kinda sound like a synthesizer shamisen though if you listen to it closely. It's like layered on top of the real shamisen sound.

[@Flying-Maytree]

Flares are the three-white-triangle explosions that are centered on a player. I call the radiating circle an "impact marker"

[@brunohenriqueazevedoborges5490]

34:18 Have you guys noticed the theme of The Burn is a mellow version of the theme of Praetorium? It kinda works as a hint regarding Shadowhunter's identity.

[@DracoSuave]

Which itself is using the motifs from answers

[@airsheeps]

it also seems to tie in with Cid - his presence in Praetorium and this music's use in The Bozja Incident...

[@taldir5228]

I absolutely love Ghimlyt Dark. Fighting alongside npc friends and listening to the fight of Stormblood hopeful anthem versus Garlemald dark and gloomy music in 1 track was So epic

[@chaossquall]

Ghimlyt is my favorite dungeon of them all prior to end of base Shb. I loved fighting with my friends so much in that fight, with the theming was just impeccable.

[@specialnewb9821]

I like it because it closes out the middle and ushers in the beginning of the end of the main story.

[@LeafStranger]

For Doma Castle, the sound of your footsteps also changes depending on what you're walking on: carpet/rug, metal, or stone. So it's not just visual material differences, it's *sound* as well.

[@D0cSwiss]

That happens everywhere, and I think it's also affected by your footwear (metal sabatons sounding different to leather boots, for example).

[@LeafStranger]

@@D0cSwiss yep! It's another sign of care in design which is what they were commenting on.

[@DoktorWieg]

Special detail about the "Kelpie" fight in Drowned City of Skalla : originally, the calls for the draw in or push back were reversed. People thought it was a bug but since Kelpies are known to drown people through trickery, it was intended that the name of the moves are reversed so to confuse players since Kelpie effectively "lied" about what it was about to do. It was later patched to reverse the names sadly. I always thought it was a pretty cool idea to implement some lore through a mechanic like that.

[@ChakatSilverstreak]

Can't wait for the optional dungeons entry so we can get your thoughts on Shisui. And don't worry, this was the last time that 'leveling dungeons' would be optional; going forward, "optional" dungeons only happen when you finish the MSQ.

[@MrMiQT]

Even the level cap dungeons are all MSQ for the most part. Yeah there’s the ‘bonus 2’ at expansion drops but that’s all the optional there ever is now

[@TheIvoryDingo]

Yeah, I think that it may be best if they divide the Wall of Dungeons for Shadowbringers into "Base Expansion" and "Patch Content" due to how CB3 changed things.

[@tomcoleman8702]

Yes! Shisui is my personal favorite. :)

[@ashitakaharuo]

for some reason it never occured to me, that shisui is an optional dungeon, but you're right.

[@ChakatSilverstreak]

@@ashitakaharuo Probably because it's part of an Aether Current quest, like the Dusk Vigil in Heavensward.

[@Vfanatic1]

I am STUNNED Garret got through talking about the Twin fight in TGD without referencing the Imperial Guard from Star Wars BECAUSE THAT'S BASICALLY WHAT THEY ARE

[@dedicatedtomars3140]

The castrum is based off the magitech facility in FF6. The entire dungeon and the bosses are heavily influenced by it. Also You can get the Valerian sets from Castrum, which are all gear based off of Tactics Ogre, which is getting ported to to current gen consoles in 8 days from when I posted this!

[@aaronlefebre5060]

They even recently patched the game to specifically include the option to dye those sets for the promotional contest they're holding in honor of that game. Yeah, there was also some potency adjustments made for PvP and PvE, but them adding in all the Valerian and Xenobian gear dyes from Heavensward and Castrum Abania at the same time as announcing a screenshot contest that specifically calls for those very gear sets was the big thing that stuck out in my mind from this latest patch.

[@usoninja]

The FF6 tribute is mainly why I like this one so much.

[@bastienmayor6932]

Shisui of the Violet tides may be my favourite Stormblood dungeon, with Swallow's Compass being second. With Shisui having a nice looking set imo and the story being interesting, and Swallow's compass having a journey to the west kind of theme with another nice looking set really make the two stand out for me.

[@bransonchic678]

I loved the Swallow Compass too loved the Journey to the West references

[@Riplee86]

I have farmed Shisui so much for those armors. I'm using the healer, ranged, and magic set for glams.

[@Snowmanse]

I love all the details in the sirensong sea. One of my favorite decorations is the rack of hanging bags, and each bag has a spike going through it. The bags each have the blue ghostfire on them. I like to imagine that as everything was going to hell here, they started decapitating zombies to try to kill them. But the heads stayed alive, so they bagged them and spiked them. And going by the ghost fire on them, that didn't work either. You can see it in the background at 4:20 in the center of the screen.

[@rfygband]

The second boss in Bardam’s Mettle can be boring but honestly we need more mechanic checks like that in the game for people leveling. You know how many people are level 90, doing level 90 raids, and still run away from the group with a stack marker or never look away from an enemy with a big eye marker on it?

[@hounddog5]

One thing to remember about Gymlyt Dark is that it came out right before Shadowbringers, which introduced the Duty Support system. So to me it's less of an "evolution of Ala Mhigo" and more of a "precursor to duty support" although I super see how it sits right in the middle of the two.

[@ShiSeKin]

Awww i like the 2nd boss of bardam's mettle, good exploration of some rarer mechs if you just play msq

[@vortex594]

yeah, I always have a great time with it myself.

[@nspaulding07]

Seconded. I love being able to chill without my rotation and just run around like a headless 🐔. Might be a case of "git gud" for Garrett if he wants to appreciate it. 😜

[@kiriuxeosa8716]

I always felt like it was just another stage of the dungeon route which was good and bad for me good because its simple bad because it feels we were deprived a fight

[@Zakjuh]

I think it's good for a first time. Just not as fun when you have to redo it.

[@Zikoro]

Yep, people still don't know to stand tower mechanics or the chasing aoe

[@SilverZephyr09]

I do believe that percussion/string instrument you were talking about in the Doma Castle segment is a koto, which is in fact a traditional Japanese instrument that has turned out to be *quite* flexible when used with more modern musical genres!

[@ExireHG]

Bardam's Mettle is a banger for me, Burn and Ghimlyt Dark are easy epics too. Lowballing Stormblood dungeons, for shame! It's funny, I always groan getting Doma Castle as a tank or healer cause the first group of mobs can be real nasty and one of the bosses can ping-pong a healer to death lol. So, while the walls are pretty and music funky, never cared for it much. Looking forward to your plans for next week's vid =D

[@Lilybellmusic]

The Burn is my no. 1 favourite dungeon in the game :) I just love everything about it. The cinematic intro cutscene, the soundtrack, the colours, the walk through all the Allagan stuff and that breathtaking reveal of the desert at the end, and one of the hardest dungeon bosses in the game for that extra oomph.

[@Disastra]

this disrespect of Shisui Of The Violet Tides *WILL NOT STAND*

[@arathain2]

The absence of Swallows Compass SHAMES MY PEOPLE AND IT SHAMES YOU

[@Kasaaz]

It says a lot about the rough pacing of Stormblood that they had to make the 63 dungeon optional.

[@Kuripants]

It's not MSQ

[@Kasaaz]

@@Kuripants Only because of pacing. It's still one of the 'ever two levels while leveling' dungeons. In any other expansion it would be.

[@Kuripants]

@@Kasaaz Heavensward had worse pacing and I will die on that hill. Also I wasn't responding to you :)

[@davelzdr]

Nice to have the wall of dungeons back! Great editing on the video. NIce little touches here and there. Very enjoyable. I would put Ghimlyt at the top of epic personally but the burn is great. I still listen to the song from time to time.

[@smilerat8070]

The Burn is an amazing dungeon to mark the start of the shift from Stormblood and what came before into Shadowbringer and what is to come. The Mist Dragon was the first boss you fought in FF which introduced the concept of the Dark Knight into the franchise, which is the post class for Shadowbringer. I do, however, have nostalgia goggles on for most of the references in 14. Grew up playing the franchise.

[@Pellegryn]

As a New Mexican, I'm so glad Kyle also thought of White Sands during the Burn. I will consume my next bacon breakfast burrito with red in your honor, sir. Love the streams and videos! Glad to see you guys take your time and thoroughly enjoy the msq. Looking forward to your Shb content!

[@zantar04]

Fun fact. In the drowned city dungeon, if you have a miqo'te with the well-fed buff, a fat cat appears in the doll boss the old one.

[@anacreon212]

Stormblood is when alot the mechanic markers got standardised and the language of the fights are taught to the players. The plus/minus marker or as its called polarities. What you do is kind of dependant on context with other markers like a tether or what else is going on in the environment. Some times its a push/pull others its a stand in a specific area, etc. In general its a magnet opposites attract the same are repelled.

[@cammokyle]

Proximity marker - the ones that have a location on the ground that pulses out (go away!) and does damage based on distance from when it goes off. Also though, the "triangle looking player marker" that is kind of black and white and usually appears on tanks is also a "proximity" based attack, except the community usually calls it a "flare" or "proximity flare", player based location rather than ground

[@proy3]

40:30 Love to see the love for 08th MS Team! A man of culture, I see.

[@dahZeee]

Keep up the awesome videos! I love the quality of your guy's editing and the way you script these review videos. It really flows well!

[@edwardnowakowski5990]

I like the puzzle boss, it’s challenging at first, then extremely simple once you’ve learned it, and it forces you to learn boss mechanics. Other bosses you can power through with a decent healer and good equipment, but I like that the game made me learn. It really helped me not die to other mechanic heavy bosses later on

[@draigonEx]

Great video guys. I love hearing your analysis of the various dungeons. For myself the Burn is my favorite dungeon. The music is awesome, and the moment you come out of the Allaghan ruins and the storm is over the view is genuinely breathtaking.

[@cnkclark]

The Prometheus 'bore machine' boss in Ghimlyt Dark is the Tunnel Armor boss fought by Celes and Locke early in FF6. My nostalgia goggles loved the reference.

[@arachineatzeer7478]

So a fact about The Old One boss in Drowned City of Skalla, if a Miqo'te has Well Fud buff during the fight when the boss opens up it'll reveal a Fat Cat just chilling inside

[@therealkami]

The monsters in the back 1/3rd of Drowned City of Skalla are the royal family, including the last boss. They turn back to human as they die. Now THAT'S a vibe.

[@FantogemeStudios]

Fun fact, The Burn uses the Castrum Praetorium motif. Which is why it might sound a bit familiar ;) .. also you're like the only person I heard acknowledge 08 MS Team! Whenever I bring it up I get nothing but blank stares.

[@Cybertech134]

The second boss for Skalla is called a Dogu, which are Japanese, and it cleverly combined it with mechanics involving spriggans which are from Cornish folklore!

[@reyennarhel2505]

also it's operated by the fatter cat which i dont think they caught b/c you can only see it on occasion

[@BlumenCT]

All this has done is remind me of the bizarre situation where Shisui of the Violet Tides is somehow an optional dungeon despite being directly in your path and naturally occurring when the 63 dungeon would happen. As in it is literally the 63 dungeon.

[@TheIvoryDingo]

Heck, it would even make sense why you would've been made to do it in the MSQ.

[@cparle87]

Agreed. Every time it's brought up I'm reminded Shisui is optional. You have Sirensong. Then ALL of Kugane, ALL of Ruby Sea, and almost all of Azim Steppe without having an MSQ dungeon.

[@Kae-k96]

Iirc, stormblood was the first time they started offering story skips in the store and the 2nd boss in bardam was kind of a mechanics tutorial of some of the more 'advanced' mechanics that you generally don't see in dungeons, but might need to know for later content (and would probably know if you didn't story skip). So it was basically just "here's some mechanics you need to know, learn them". It doesn't make it a good idea, but I can see what the devs were going for at least.

[@Abyss0fDelta]

Another great analysis video! Looking forward to your optional dungeons video. Also hoping you have an Ivalice video in the works. I'm dying to hear both your thoughts on ridorana and orbonne.

[@sleepysera]

I love Bardam's Mettle and that mechanics-only boss especially (it feels so unique and it's hilarious seeing newbies get confused), and wasn't particularly blown away by Doma at all (felt like just an orange-tinted hallway of same-y robots to me) 😂 So I would just outright reverse them, but everything else seems pretty in line with what I think of them too :)

[@Reinshark]

Basically ANY time you see a new buff or debuff, your best bet is to hover your mouse cursor over it and read the text that pops up. The picture itself isn't enough to explain what it means at a glance-but that plus or minus sign is enough to remind you at a glance AFTER you've read the details and know what it does. It's interesting to me that your touchpoint for the slightly-too-large badguys is Street Sharks, haha. For me, I think of Warhammer 40k, where the miniatures necessitate slightly odd proportions (big heads, big boots, big weapons, etc.) and the aesthetics involve a lot of "grimdark" robots-meet-chainsaws kinda stuff. In any case the overall effect is very "Saturday Morning Cartoon" trying to be a BIT more grown up for a teen audience.

[@bakashinobi42]

Your takes on the second boss of Castrum Albania are fascinating to me because I was so excited for that boss; it uses a barrier switch mechanic so you need to get the correct buff to hurt it and anything else will do nothing at best I've also played most of the final fantasy games so I've seen that mechanic repeatly in those games and that boss is the first barrier switching boss of it's game. Seeing people who don't play other Final Fantasy games meet bosses in FFXIV that are fanservice to the original game is fascinating; fans will know about the barrier gimmick and be looking for how that's implemented while non-FF fans will be trying to read the MMO mechanics. Seems like the barrier mechanics don't stand out well enough on their own in this case. I will admit I'm surprised ghymlet dark didn't reach epic because that's a dungeon that really felt like it gave a raw look at what all out war with the garleans was like; guns and war machines and infinitely airdrops just being this dark, horrible mess. It's one of my favorite atmospheric theming in a "dungeon". Side note, I do find it interesting how loose FFXIV is with "dungeons" because of how many are often outdoor spaces that aren't internsicly sequestered off now. Looking forward to how you rank the shadowbringers dungeons!

[@LilypadOW]

first time viewer here! I knew of Kyle migrating to ff14 content which sounded really exciting but as someone who mainly enjoyed his proplayer hots interviews I didn’t really find a reason to follow.. that being said, I’m incredibly positively surprised by the quality of the content, definetly gonna be back for more, keep it up! 💕

[@ArakDBlade]

Surprised it wasn't noted that The Burn's music is partly a remix of the Praetorium (unless I missed it). A nice bit of additional foreshadowing about who saved Alphinaud.

[@mobius4247]

Great video guys. The Burn's music is so good it deserves Epic. No other StB dungeon comes close except Ghymlit Dark for me music/visuals/story-wise.

[@Iymarra]

Great wrap up, and pretty fair. I'd say 'rule of cool' for Ala Mhigo includes the cinematic prior and the actual beginning of the siege (with pipin unleashing hell, etc) but within the confines of the actual dungeon, I get the 'seeing the seams too much' aspect. Ghimlyt Dark is an absolute slapper, big brass and trumpets, bombastic as hell rendition of Triumph. You're there to kick the Garleans in the kneecaps. IMO it has one of the best duties after it (hold the line until the warrior of light arrives!) too, but that's not something to consider as part of the rating for the dungeon.

[@gin9410]

Bardam's Mettle is one of my favorite dungeons in the whole game thanks to that middle boss, i wish there were more bosses like it

[@gundampharmacist7348]

Post two but eh: The pulsing indicator you’re referring to in Doma Castle is typically referred to by my group as a “proximity AoE” as they do ultimately have a limit where they can’t reach or any damage they would do would be zero; this can be seen in larger arenas where the pulsating seems to fade or ‘stop’ at a point. However, these are usually big enough that they’re larger than the arena they’re in and otherwise impossible to avoid completely.

[@SventFulgur]

I might be the minority that was just delighted to fight Bardum. We never had a mechanics only boss and I thought it was whimsical and fun ^_^

[@-DeScruff]

One thing about Bardam's Mettle, once you do it enough (thanks roulette) You learn patterns exactly for that middle boss. (For example: The safe rock you need to hide behind is always ether the North or South one, and its determined by the final round of criss cross swords) So it becomes a game of doing dance emotes while doing the mechanics. At this point the only mechanics that I ever fail at are the ones that you can get screwed over by your other party members. (Giant purple AOE circles, and the AOEs that follow you)

[@typeoddnamehere2362]

I always did the rocks thing by looking at whichever one had the higher health before the golems disappeared.

[@vigo2669]

Sirensong Sea was awesome the first time. Made me think of FF5's Ship Graveyard near the beginning of that game.

[@RockR277]

Funny thing about Kelpie, when Skalla first released, it's hydro pull and hydro push attacks were reversed. We thought at the time that it was an intentional thing, like the monster itself was trying to trick us lmao.

[@TheIvoryDingo]

The segment on Bardam's Mettle made me realise that it'll be very interesting to look back at this video once the Stormblood dungeon gets updated for Duty Support (even if that won't be until at least 6.4) as I am curious how or if they'll change that second boss. Though I also already have that in regards to Xelphatol which should be getting Duty Support in 6.3. As for the fight against Number XXIV... You just stand in the circle of the element he DOESN'T say. For example, if he says "Fire and Ice", you stand in the Lightning circle so you don't get counterattacked.

[@ThemisElidibun]

We got Ala Mhigo in a roulette once, one of the dps died to mech causing a chain reaction that ended up with me soloing Zenos as DRK from about 50%, probably one of my favorite memories from this game because when it was over my kid says "That was the most anime fight ever!". He was the healer. Ghimlyt Dark is my favorite StB dungeon, also one of my favorite in the game.

[@glenmoody-elias1040]

I was looking at the brief clip of you fighting Number 24 here and... I feel like he's supposed to have a distinct buff on him that outright tells you which one you need to go to. Also, his text is another tell as well. And uh. I do hope you get the polarities thing settled. Your pluses and minuses. You're gonna see it a few more times going forward. One could argue that it comes a staple mechanic alongside proximities, or stacks. I'm glad you liked the Soul Extraction mechanic. Don't forget about it. Just a pin. Mechanics aside, I can't complain about your list. All in all, a very well thought, well put together list.

[@VerdantOmen]

A note on Drowned City, In the last section watch the trash when they die(And read their debuffs), they're all transformed/cursed members of the old Palace there, you transform to cross a pit is because the area is rife with transformationive curses that are dispelled by death.

[@ZZValiant]

When number 24 says "my cup runneth over with fire and ice" that means he's going to get a fire and ice shield. The three towers have to be taken otherwise they explode, and whenever you walk into the aoes they leave behind, you'll get a lightning, fire or ice buff that will make all your attacks that element. If you hit the boss while having the "wrong" element, you get knocked back and damaged. If you miss the text cue from the boss, I'm fairly certain that his buff bar will also tell you the elements. A good general pointer in this game is if you don't understand a buff/debuff that you just got, hover over it with your mouse. A tooltip should pop up and they usually do a pretty good job of explaining what it means! :D

[@moodudable]

saw someone called the doma castle music ‘doma disco’ and i totally dig it

[@davidyork9780]

The Drowned City of Skalla has an Easter Egg in it if you go in with a Miqo'te with the Well Fed buff. Also there's lore about the final boss in that dungeon

[@sonicroze]

The Burn is my personal favorite dungeon in all of Stormblood BUT, the optional dungeon - The Swallow's Compass is my personal second ^_^ I also know you have done that because it and Hell's lid are directly connected to the Four Lords. St. Moccianne's (Hard) is also one I think everyone should do at least once, and I think I actually managed to tag in on that one as Bard so, well I might be biased a bit lol. can't wait to see the wall.... for Shadowbringers.

[@Kuripants]

19:15 I deadass thought the final boss was going to be a hypertuned Krile.

[@aaronlefebre5060]

16:06 Yes, there is a term for that: Proximity Mines.

[@katarh]

Sirensong Sea was partly a callback to previous FF games. In FFXI the area was called Arrapago Reef.

[@ReaverPrime]

When Stormblood first came out, I had just finished another playthrough of Final Fantasy V. With that recency, Sirensong Sea hit just right for me. For any unfamiliar, the whole dungeon is a big callback to FFV's ship graveyard sequence where the big reveal for Ferris happens. Prometheus is also a direct pull from the franchise. It was ripped right from Final Fantasy VI. Prometheus itself is a late game fight, whereas the model was used very early in blue as Tunnel Armor, appropriately enough in a cave.

[@Salt_Mage]

Going to bat for Skalla - the out of place monsters are great. Because they aren’t meant to be there. The mad king had his dissidents transformed into monsters with curses and cast into the treasure vaults to act as the guardians. A lot of them transform back into human corpses when you defeat them as well. It might help that we’ve been hearing about the mad king for so many real life years and to truly see the extent of it was great.

[@SonicSwifter]

Number 24 is super simple. It's a fight that was meant to teach you to read boss buffs/pay attention to the boss text. Once you know to read that stuff you can smack him easily

[@MartinEB72]

The boss mechanic announces in chat what he is going to hit you with, so you have to go to the other circle to get the buff so you don't get knockback and spike damage. They are starting to bring in some of the tougher stuff from trials into dungeons. They will be expanding this theme in Shadowbringer and in EW.

[@ericbright1742]

[Laughs in EW Dungeon 1 Final Boss]

[@Dreded100]

This was a nice nostalgic trip down memory lane of the only expansion that doesn't have duty-support yet. Kinda forget these dungeons exist.

[@Disaster175]

I ran Skalla a bunch for glam and did a lot of tanking practice in it when I was first starting out on the role. I always dug the bit where you're like, freeing the old royal family's souls by killing them in their monster forms. Thank you for defending my old stomping grounds Kyle!

[@keelhaulsthingsthatdontmatter]

I do think the dungeons Shi-sui of the Violet Tides and The Dusk Vigil probably should have made the list, since they're "optional" but required for flying. Plus, they're also leveling dungeons, whereas all other optional dungeons are post-leveling.

[@clangauss4155]

Ghimlyt Dark might still be my favorite dungeon in the entire game. There's good stuff to come, of course, but none of them break me down and make me sit in awe of the raw chaos and grime and sweat like GD does. Stormblood still holds the crown for me for a lot of reasons, and being the first time they explore this tone that I was struck by is one.

[@calzonexiv]

For what it's worth, the Castrum Middle boss is really easy once you get it. He shouts out two elements, and you then go to the element he DID NOT call out, and then you won't get damage when you try to hit him. But I agree that when you are learning it, that fight is a HUGE pain the butt lmfao xD

[@FessyDKnight]

That mechanic you're talking about where you take proximity damage, there are two versions of it and they generally have two distinctions: The first is "meteor" where something falls from the sky into the battlefield and that can be based on fixed positions or positions that were "placed" by the player. Think Shinryu and the adds. The second is "flare" where proximity damage is done from the player itself and it is super obvious. It's 3 triangles that forms a bigger triangle and the marker for it is so unbelievably obvious, you can't mistake it for anything else but flare really. You see this mechanic a lot on tanks, but it can also show up on other players from time to time in certain trials and raids. I don't recall if a lot of these show up before Shadowbringers, but it does come up more post Stormblood.

[@FlameSquall]

16:02

[@YumiGoblin]

16:10 we call those "proximity AOEs" or "proximity markers"

[@Bokugo1]

Number 24 boss is based on Magic Master in FF6. He would absorb all elemental magic except 1 type which he would change every turn. The key to him in 14 is just pay attention to what he says Also The Burns music is just a rendition of the theme from The Praetorium, another big clue that you're going to run into Jeff

[@Gassy555]

In my head cannon doing roulettes is like using the echo to relive past events. At this point the Ghimlyt Dark is now the Ghimlyt Park with grassy fields, swing set, jungle gym, and an off leash dog park . That’s what I’d like to believe!

[@BabylonRedeemer]

"exiting personal reflection" killed me 😄

[@FF-tp7qs]

Shadowbringers and Endwalker only have 2 optional dungeons each, at level cap The middle boss of Bardam's Mettle can be passed, even if 3 out of 4 party members are afk, so long as just 1 passes each mechanics Also Stormblood was where the dungeon bosses started to get more complex, they were marketed as challenging new dungeons

[@siresorb1419]

I'm gonna be honest, my mind just completely checked out during Stormblood and I rarely get any of these in dungeon finder ever. But I remember The Burn so.... The Burn top of Epic.

[@xiaocheng6643]

🤓The boss "Lorelei" (Lo-reh-lai) is based on the German landmark "Loreley" as well as a ballad by the German writer Clemens Brentano from his novel "Godwi" published in 1801. The "Loreley" is a prominent cliff in a dangerous bent of the Rhine river. The place is know for its treacherous currents and riffs which led to a huge number of shipwrecks throughout the ages. Brentano was inspired by this fact and mixed it with the Greek myth around the nymph "Echo" which was turned into a rock and general Siren mythology. In his ballad, he invented a sorceress or mermaid (depending on the version) who lives on the cliff and lures sailors to their death with her beauty. The name's origin is unclear, but there are theories that attribute it to the Celtic word "Ley" (rock) as well as the middle high German words "luren" (to lurk) or lorren/lurren (to howl, to scream). Another one is the word "luren"(to hum) in Rhine dialect or the middle high German "lur" (elf). Prior to 1900 when Brentano's work became popular enough to be adopted as an old fairy tale by other writers, the "Loreley" cliff was referred to as male, which changed completely to female pronouns in present day. 🤓 tl;dr The "Lorelei" is a German version of the Greek sirens, invented by a writer in the 1800s. I thought you might enjoy this little tidbit on the Sirensong dungeon. Also, hard agree on Burn > Ghimlyt Dark!

[@specialnewb9821]

It's great to see you guys reach a consensus, even if you have different reaction. Really surprises me that you can always do it. But bromance and all that! Prometheus is the Tunnel Armor from 6 so it predates the Warcraft thing.😄

[@RadicalRaspberry2]

the "techno" sounding piano instrument you were talking about for dohma castle is actually a strings instrument i forget from where either china or japan, but it's similar to a guitar but usually longer and thinner

[@maik5201]

21:20 the boss tells you the elements he's gonna use. in that case "lighting and fire" so you want to go to the ring he didnt mention. again in that case not the sparky ring, not the flamy ring

[@Scorpius1122]

Ala Mhigo is great, but I grinded it like a maniac trying to get the rare mount drop from Zenos, so it wore on me a little bit.

[@bonesy3179]

Adding a bit about Skalla there's a bit somewhere mentioning that the King actually cursed/forcibly transforms people into monsters. That's why the mobs during last bit of the dungeon curses the King as they die. Final boss is also a cursed person iirc, but it's been a while.

[@FinalDragoon]

The Burn's theme "A Land Long Dead" is a remixed version of Praetorium's theme. Which, given what happens with you know who, makes this track hit even harder.

[@brunohenriqueazevedoborges5490]

16:04 It is called Proximity Mark.

[@Daecoth]

"Always read as Alien Anus." I could make a "Subverse" joke here... but that's beneath me.

[@Sollarious]

Something as an aside for tanks in both Doma and Ala Mhigo. Both tank busters from Hypertuned and Zenos (Chainsaw and Unmoving Troika respectively) are locked in position. So once you see the cast bar of Chainsaw fill, and the first damage instance of Unmoving Troika. You can move and avoid all over damage bits of those moves. (Not critical, but a neat aside as these kind don't actually pop up alot.)

[@RockR277]

A lot of people are mentioning the dialogue for Number XXIV, but if you end up missing that, he also places a buff on himself that's coded to what element you can smack him with.

[@Itama22]

29:00 That could have been the perfect transition into "The Burn" xD

[@usoninja]

Welp, Garret mentioned he liked Gundam so I have to upvote!

[@Harkmagic]

You could have resolved that entire mess at the end my accepting that both The Burn and The Ghimlyt Dark are Epic.

[@pixielst]

Holy f. I never noticed the third eye on the Inferno.

[@andrewlorenz5425]

First video I ever saw of FFXIV was of Gimlyt Dark and the colossus boss and immediately knew I needed to try the game.

[@Kuraerisu]

31:40 And he'd be right; it's based on Dogu (ancient clay sculptures from prehistoric Japan) and IIRC Ancient Aliens did posit them as "proof" of aliens.

[@ZekeRaiden]

For Number XXIV, the attack that confused you is called "Barrier Shift." The boss will shout in the text chat, "My cup runneth over with X and Y." Two things from the list of Fire, Ice, Lightning (e.g. "My cup runneth over with Ice and Lightning.") Whatever two things he says are gonna blow up. You want to stand in the thing he *doesn't* say, so you don't take extra damage. Everything else should be mechanics you've already seen. As for my own list (high to low in each set)... Epic: Ghimlyt Dark (high, high epic), Drowned City of Skalla (low epic) Banger: Sirensong Sea, Bardam's Mettle Grindable: Castrum Abania, Ala Mhigo, Doma Castle (low grindable, borderline Could Be Better) I absolutely grant that the _visual_ vibes of Doma Castle are amazing, but the music is a HUGE turn-off for me. As you guys said, it sounds jaunty, which is completely out of tune for the experience you're supposed to be having while fighting through it. You are, quite literally, *destroying* one of the last vestiges of Doman culture in order to save the nation from Garlean occupation. This is a terrible, terrible sacrifice Hien is making--literally flooding and exploding his own childhood home--in the name of his people's future. It should not feel like an AWESOME EXCITING TECHNO HONG KONG ADVENTURE!(!!!)--it should feel _mournful_ and _nostalgic_ and....yeah. In essentially every other part of the game, the music feeds the mood it's written for, and does it *so well* that you basically become Pavlovian conditioned to respond the way they want you to. Doma Castle is so JARRINGLY opposite that I cannot conscience it above Grindable. All the friends I play with, that was their first reaction to the dungeon, "Wow, this music is really good but _completely out of place_ here." And then for bosses, two out of three are completely forgettable--to the point that I actually started ranting about Ala Mhigo's bosses at first by accident! Thematically Grynewaht is great (I love me some "sympathy for the enemy" stories and this was totally unexpected) but mechanically uninspired and honestly kind of dull, and both of the other two are in the same boat. The first boss feels like an inferior retread of the 2nd boss of Baelsar's Wall (with a slight dash of 2nd boss of Keeper of the Lake), and I just find the second boss boring. I think it's pretty telling that you guys basically didn't say *anything* about the bosses other than Hypertuned Grynewaht, because there really isn't all that much TO them. With weak to middling bosses and EXCELLENT visual vibes but HORRIBLE music vibes, I just find it hard to rate it any higher than (very low) Grindable. I will admit that some of my dislike of Ala Mhigo simply comes from my dislike of Zenos as a character, so it might merit ranking higher for people who don't share my severe frustration with his character and how it was written.

[@omedon666]

"I love the way this dungeon looks, love how it sounds, I never want to run it again!" YES! THANK YOU! Barnam's mettle in one sentence!