Alexander Ultimate

[Ekimmak]

I'm a bit puzzled why they're shoehorning it all into one raid... I'd have thought they'd have 3 Ultimates, one for each branch.

What's going to be the other Ultimate for this expansion, then. Void Ark?

[Fynlar]

I'd say it's the one twisting other people's arguments, and using the "If they can, why can't I too?" defense.

You could have already provided your reasons to boost discussion, but I guess shirking blame and deflecting is more important.

What arguments? What twisting? I'm not trying to say anyone else is wrong for wanting ultimate; I'm simply stating my opinion, just like the rest of you are.

I didn't post here with the intent of discussing anything. (I don't care enough to discuss it.) I came here to give an opinion, just like everyone else, because the OP was asking for opinions. All I want to know is why I supposedly need to defend mine and "boost discussion" when neither the OP nor anyone else agreeing with them were expected to do the same. My suspicion is that it's simply because my opinion goes against the "popular" opinion. Tell me I'm wrong.

I'm a bit puzzled why they're shoehorning it all into one raid... I'd have thought they'd have 3 Ultimates, one for each branch.

They shoved all three final bosses of Coil into a single ultimate fight. Not sure why this part in particular puzzles you.

[JohnSpawnVFX]

I'm glad for my FC mates who raid, but personally wise I'm somewhat indifferent about Ultimate. Its existence does nothing to me, given I don't raid in the first place (for several reasons, but mostly because of working in rotating shifts). Yet it is laudable that the devs provide this content for the people looking for the challenge, despite them being an extreme minority.

[Fluffernuff]

I'm a bit puzzled why they're shoehorning it all into one raid... I'd have thought they'd have 3 Ultimates, one for each branch.

What's going to be the other Ultimate for this expansion, then. Void Ark?

Ultimate have been "themed". they are singular fights that encompass the entire experience. Coil had bahamut, twintania, nael, pheonix, everything. its like going through the story of coil in a singular fight. it's kinda the point.

Ultima had and was supercharged by the primals- which was the notable connection we were given through 2.0.


In alexander's case, well, we're still speculating, but it falls in line with the other 2 ultimates.

[Enla]

I'm a bit puzzled why they're shoehorning it all into one raid... I'd have thought they'd have 3 Ultimates, one for each branch.

What's going to be the other Ultimate for this expansion, then. Void Ark?

It's usually one Ultimate per expansion right? Then again I wouldn't mind if they shoehorned Deltascape into the next one towards the tail end of the expansion.

[HyoMinPark]

I'm a bit puzzled why they're shoehorning it all into one raid... I'd have thought they'd have 3 Ultimates, one for each branch.

What's going to be the other Ultimate for this expansion, then. Void Ark?

The second Ultimate will likely feature primals—people are speculating Thordan + Warring Triad or Thordan + Nidhogg, since the theme for Ultimates this expansion is Heavensward.

And Ultimate has always had multiple bosses lined up in a gauntlet style. UCoB was Twintania (T5), Nael deus Darnus (T9), and Bahamut (T13); UwU was Garuda, Ifrit, Titan, and Ultima Weapon. When Bahamut and Ultima were on screen, Twin and Nael and the primals were also doing stuff in the background that players had to dodge (e.g., the Trios in UCoB; Predation/Annihilation/Suppression in UwU).

It's usually one Ultimate per expansion right? Then again I wouldn't mind if they shoehorned Deltascape into the next one towards the tail end of the expansion.

It’s two. SB had UCoB and UwU, so we’re speculating at least two Ultimates in ShB—though, there were rumors of the developers maybe doing three fights, but nothing about that has been confirmed.

Deltascape/the Omega raids will likely come in 6.0, as they seem to be following expansions (SB Ultimates both featured ARR raids/primals; ShB’s first Ultimate showcases the HW raid and the second will likely be HW primals).

[SaberMaxwell]

It's usually one Ultimate per expansion right? Then again I wouldn't mind if they shoehorned Deltascape into the next one towards the tail end of the expansion.

Nah, there are two per expansion with a small possibility of three.

[SaitoHikari]

I'm just going to sidestep the Fynlar show here and give my thoughts on what I think the new Ultimate is going to do in regards to mechanics.

UCoB was a relatively slow-ish fight, but it was separated into many distinct phases that forced all party members to adapt to whatever mechanic they were being targeted with - and what mechanic you were targeted with was usually 100% random, aside from the ranged baiting fire puddles.

UwU had very strict mechanics in comparison that had little in the way of randomness aside from Titan gaols and Ultimate Suppression, but they came out FAST one right after the other, and mistakes were usually non-recoverable and spiraled into an immediate wipe. Some mechanics also required a bit of planning, like forcing the Primals to 'awaken' by intentionally failing some mechanics and carrying debuffs from Garuda all the way to Ultima at the very end to survive some of Ultima's attacks.

My guess is that Alexander might lean heavily into the time travel/paradox mechanic from his fight in the raid series. As in, let's say that you're fighting one of Alexander's lackeys (like Cruise Chaser), and he throws out a few AoEs. Said AoEs look suspiciously easy to dodge by Ultimate expectations, but your first hint that something is off is that you see a visage of Alexander watching from the sidelines for a while. Then when you fight Alexander proper, he suddenly throws everyone back in time, so you see that Cruise Chaser is alive again along with copies of your party members. So now you have to handle both Cruse Chaser and Alexander's mechanics at once while taking care to ensure your past copies don't die due to present time mechanics. A tank LB3 may be needed at some point to save your past selves and/or one mechanic may involve Alexander targeting one of the past characters with a stack marker that all of the past selves and present day players have to soak together.

But the mechanic isn't entirely against you either - your past copies will do everything they did once again, so you could end up getting free heals and party buffs from your past selves. (You can also join your past selves in nuking Cruise Chaser faster, and some people could probably set up the phase in advance by using powerful AoE cooldowns to hit both Cruise Chaser and Alexander when the phase happens. Knocking past Cruse Chaser down into a disabled state grants your past selves a buff that prevents them from being hit by present day mechanics, though they will still repeat everything they did until the phase ends.)

[Enla]

Thank you guys for the corrections! I've never really paid attention to the Ultimate raids before so I wasn't sure either way. ^^