easiest extremes/ultimates/savages?

Greetings!
I have been contemplating getting into this content as I realize now that when I get to know a piece of harder content, the chaos can be quite fun (though, it stresses me out at first- don't even get me started on trying to heal when the party keeps dying despite my efforts). So, what would be a good first piece of harder content to dip my toes in? I would consider myself a very casual player. I would also consider a piece of content easier if (mostly) everyone else knows what they are doing since it means the content will eventually get cleared somehow. Though, learning with everyone else can be fun.

I vividly remember a random group trying to introduce me (on my main) to that one Eden Extreme that has a version of Titan but he is on wheels (I forget which). I think at the time it may have been a poor choice as a first piece of harder content because I wasn't ready- Though now I feel a bit more ready.

Don't concern yourself with Ultimate right now, too many new players want to jump straight into Ults because they get told things like "UWU and UCoB are really easy now" and end up terrorizing groups by having absolutely no high end experience. They're still Ultimates even if they're easier than they were on content, and I wouldn't want to do them with someone who hasn't cleared a tier of Savage this expansion.

The newest EX (Zermous) is a great starting point for current content, the DPS check isn't too high and it has a lot of recoverability even if you die. My first clear of it had 6 deaths and that was going into it blind. There's really only one body check-ish mechanic and even that can be salvaged if people are willing to sacrifice themselves. Once you're comfortable with the newest EX, you can try jumping into the current Savage tier, Anabaseios. That's how I would recommend going about it.

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Originally Posted by Nizzi

Don't concern yourself with Ultimate right now, too many new players want to jump straight into Ults because they get told things like "UWU and UCoB are really easy now" and end up terrorizing groups by having absolutely no high end experience. They're still Ultimates even if they're easier than they were on content, and I wouldn't want to do them with someone who hasn't cleared a tier of Savage this expansion.

The newest EX (Zermous) is a great starting point for current content, the DPS check isn't too high and it has a lot of recoverability even if you die. My first clear of it had 6 deaths and that was going into it blind. There's really only one body check-ish mechanic and even that can be salvaged if people are willing to sacrifice themselves. Once you're comfortable with the newest EX, you can try jumping into the current Savage tier, Anabaseios. That's how I would recommend going about it.

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Good to know- I would like my first actual try to not scare me too much. What the order of least to most hard (as in of these three in terms of how they are generally labeled for any harder content: ultimate, savage, extreme)?

Players regard the difficulty of content to be in this order, from easiest to hardest: Extreme/Unreal (Unreal is just old extremes scaled up), Savage, Ultimate (requires a savage clear to do).

Which are easiest is mostly irrelevant (except ultimates because they sync no matter what), because the only relevant ones are the latest ones. The old ones are typically done "unsynced", where they become a joke or even soloable if they are old enough. So obviously the easiest ones would be the oldest ones. For example I can kill the level 50 ones in 7-9 seconds, so old ones don't really count unless you do them Minimum Item Level, which only a minority of raiders are interested in, so it can be hard to find a party for them (but there are discords for it to help find a party).

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Originally Posted by Local_Custard

I vividly remember a random group trying to introduce me (on my main) to that one Eden Extreme that has a version of Titan but he is on wheels (I forget which).

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That is not an extreme. That is the final floor of the first savage tier in Shadowbringers. There were actually statics that spent months on that. Personally it took me a week.

What I recommend doing is:

1. Open Party Finder.
2. Click the High-End category.
3. Look for a [Practice] party for The Abyssal Fracture (Extreme) or The Singularity Reactor that says "fresh prog" or "blind prog" in the description.
4. If it says to watch a guide, then they mean to watch one on youtube. They will often reference hector at https://www.youtube.com/@HectorHectorson/videos
5. When you are confident in all the mechanics, join a [Duty Completion] party. These parties don't expect to clear on the first pull necessarily, but within several attempts.
6. [Duty Complete] can only be joined if you have completed the duty. They expect you to know all the mechanics and be confident and consistent with them. If you are not, join more [Practice] parties first.

There are some basic things you should know about raiding, if you don't, so look up a basic raid guide on youtube to help, if needed. For example

• You should at minimum have 640 High-Quality crafted gear from the market board.
• It should be melded with X materia (usually Critical Hit, Direct Hit or Determination).
• You should have High-Quality 640 food (such as Baked Eggplant).
• You should have High-Quality potions for your main stat. My main stat is Strength, so I have a stack of "Grade 8 Tincture of Strength".
• Clock spots mean everyone decides their position around a marker, which indicates the direction they will run for certain mechanics ie. heals are usually east/west, tanks are often north/south, melee dps are often SE/SW and ranged dps are often NE/NW, but it can vary depending on the fight.
• There are partner stacks (usually this is 1 tank/healer and 1 dps), light party stacks (typically two parties of 1 tank, 1 healer and 2 dps), or in the current extreme trial it is common to have all melee (tanks/melee dps) in one party and all ranged in another (healers/ranged dps).
• You can see some other common raid mechanics at https://imgur.com/a/c9oxF1d but it's a bit dated. New indicators and mechanics have been added since.

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Originally Posted by Local_Custard

Good to know- I would like my first actual try to not scare me too much. What the order of least to most hard (as in of these three in terms of how they are generally labeled for any harder content: ultimate, savage, extreme)?

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Extreme - Savage - Ultimate

I second the new Extreme. It's very forgivable and recoverable and does not have a tight dps check. Lots of learning parties right now on Aether (which is where it looks like you are if that's your char) but learning parties quickly turn into clearing parties because it's not super hard. It's still fun and can get chaotic but it's the recovery that keeps the salt down.

If you are on Aether, look me up if you're around. This is my char and I've been running it. Got my kitty last night (\o/) but I still want weapons and songs and I always enjoy helping with these. I understand fully getting bitten by the hardcore bug. I thought I was way too casual in mentality for these but now I've done Unreal, Extremes, and Savage this tier.

If you did want to step into Savage, there are still a decent number of learning parties and sometimes I even see completely fresh or blind parties. So it's not a bad time to dip toes in if you're interested.

Easiest Ultimates in order for when you feel ready are:

UwU < UCoB < TEA < DSR =/= TOP

That's about the order from easiest to hardest, DSR and TOP are neck and neck and often tango which is actually harder.

Definitely take a gander at PF and look for parties recruiting for fresh prog of the most recent savage fights, assuming you have them unlocked. Preferably start with P9S (Ninth Circle Savage). If you want to try an easier savage from this expansion, try to create/join a party for P1S, naturally approachable since it's the first of the expansion. If you want to try the easiest savage period, look into O1S haha, arguably as easy as a normal mode raid.

I'll also say, don't forget that all of the older content in the game can still be run at minimum item level and with no echo to simulate the difficulty of when they were released. Just remember there's a lot of older high-end fights that are just as good if not better than the most recent ones (subjective of course).

In terms of ultimates, I would stay away until you are comfortable with mid-hard level savage mechanics, and are ready to put in one hell of a grind to progress lol. The two Endwalker ultimates reach into the 18-minute range (most savages last 8-9 minutes), and are pretty much 6-7 phases of savage level mechanics. For whenever you do feel ready to try out an ult, I would recommend UWU, usually considered the "easiest" of the ultimates (though obviously still harder than most savages).

It's also worth mentioning that even unlocking the ultimates requires you to clear a specific savage fight for each one: O4S for UCOB, O8S for UWU, E4S for TEA, P4S for DSR, and P8S for TOP, so you'll naturally get savage experience just through the process of unlocking these duties.

I don't really run the recent extremes anymore since Shadowbringers, but like others say they are generally easier than savage, and I'd say are the closest thing this game offers to midcore difficulty. Most extremes have maybe one or two mechanics that require strict focus (assuming synced), while savage usually requires good memory and focus across the board.

Edit:
To add a bit of terminology, [ Letter Number "S" ] refers to a specific savage difficulty fight. T7S would mean Turn 7 Savage, referring to the savage mode difficulty of the seventh fight of the Coils of Bahamut raids from ARR, which is actually named "The Second Coil of Bahamut - Turn 2 (Savage)".
O8S would mean Omega 8 Savage, actually named Sigmascape 4.0. It's not really important to remember the actual names of the raids, everyone just uses the letter number "S" names.

thank you all for your responses! I do wonder: how easy is the very first available Extreme offered in the game?

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Originally Posted by Local_Custard

Greetings!
I have been contemplating getting into this content as I realize now that when I get to know a piece of harder content, the chaos can be quite fun (though, it stresses me out at first- don't even get me started on trying to heal when the party keeps dying despite my efforts). So, what would be a good first piece of harder content to dip my toes in? I would consider myself a very casual player. I would also consider a piece of content easier if (mostly) everyone else knows what they are doing since it means the content will eventually get cleared somehow. Though, learning with everyone else can be fun.

I vividly remember a random group trying to introduce me (on my main) to that one Eden Extreme that has a version of Titan but he is on wheels (I forget which). I think at the time it may have been a poor choice as a first piece of harder content because I wasn't ready- Though now I feel a bit more ready.

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AH ha, I just answered your question about astro in your other thread. It's always fun seeing people interested in getting into harder content. Based on the question you asked about astro, I would highly advise not doing ultimates yet, they are in a completely different league of difficulty compared to savage and especially extremes. They are longggggg fights and you will be heavily discouraged if you aren't prepared. I love them, but I also cleared a bunch of extremes and a few savage tiers before I threw myself into that ring.

Honestly, here is my complete recommendation. Watch a guide or two on how you should try and play your job in harder content, you will not retain and understand everything immediately, but having an understanding of your job that is more than just surface level will be very helpful. After that try the extremes in endwalker, especially the more recent ones since you can't cheese them as much with gear levels. Once you are comfortable with it then give anabaseios a shot and see how you like savage content. once you are comfortable there then give UWU a try. It is by far the easiest of all of the ultimates, but don't get it twisted, it is still an incredibly hard fight if you go in expecting to just breeze through it. It took me about 4 weeks of casual-medium farming to get that clear.

Best of luck!

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Originally Posted by Local_Custard

thank you all for your responses! I do wonder: how easy is the very first available Extreme offered in the game?

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It really depends how you do it. The very first one seems to be Ultima's Bane at level 50. You can clear it in a second to a few seconds unsynced.

If you do it synced (to the maximum item level of ARR which is 130), it is probably moderate difficulty.

If you do it minimum item level, it's rough because the healing at level 50 requires mostly GCD casts instead of abilities like at level 90, and it can overwhelm healers, especially if people are dying. Tanks have less mit, less self-heals and the only DPS that can resurrect is Summoner.

We had an unreal version of it a while ago that was scaled up to max level and it was really easy, but part of that was all the high level abilities we get by level 90.

extremes -> relevant savages -> old ultimates -> relevant ultimates

if party finder, training -> enrage -> kill -> farm
if static, casual -> midcore -> semi HC -> HC -> WP

the faster you jump from one to another, the harder it will be

Unreal(s) can also be used as practice too!
About EX - the older ones is the easiest ones...
(Can be hard to find groups tho).

do a flip

then do uwu

Before even considering attempting any hard content, make sure you have thoroughly seen/know your character rotation, can do it blind, as you want to be focused on mechanics not looking at your rotation.

Zodiark was probably the easiest EX we've had recently. You literally mark two competent players and have people follow them. After that I'd say Memoria Misera, it's got just enough challenge for new players but not so easy that it lulls you into thinking all EXs are easymode.

But the problem with Memoria Misera is that you won't find anyone running it. It's locked behind Bozja and doesn't really drop anything of worth.

Zodiark and P1S are the best entries imo, P1S is arguably easier than alot of extremes out there and a perfect entry point to Raiding P6S is also another good option, Zodiark is also good cuz you only have to follow the danger Dorito so you just need to observe and understand mechanics. After that you could try Barbariccia and Hydealyn, also dont try to raid in old content cuz it will take you forever to find people to do it since ppl only farm those now, is better to just focus on EW raids and EX

i think the realese order of the EW trials is kinda nice. because for the first one you gonna have the largest geard advantages and while you get more used to it the advantage gets smaller and smaller going forward

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Originally Posted by Local_Custard

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Can't help with Ultimates, but P1S was pretty approachable (and I say this as a person that doesn't normally do Savages) once you understand the Fourfold Chains mechanic. And with gear now, it's probably not bad at all, though you might have trouble finding people to do it.

For Extremes, ZodEx is probably the easiest one of the expansion if you have a "danger dorito" (person that knows mechs and puts the triangle over their head so they're easy to find) that can guide the party to safe spots. If not, HydEx is pretty straightforward once you understand it. Endsinger Ex is kind of rough. Barbaricca Ex isn't too bad though there's a lot of movement. Rubicante Ex isn't bad once you understand the floor mechanics (or have danger dorito who does)...until the end where all the mechanics hit at once and hurt a lot and wipe parties. That said, you might be able to DPS kill him before he gets to those at this point. GolbEx is...I'd recommend against it for your first one, though you might just take to it. It has a LOT of bodycheck mechanics where if any party member is dead, it's a wipe, or if key members (e.g. a healer) is dead, it's probably a wipe. Probably the roughest one of the bunch. And the latest one, Zeromus Ex, is...somewhere in the middle. Meteors seems to confuse people, but once you get it (and get a party who does), the rest of the fight isn't really terrible, and the attacks hit hard, but they're fair, and unlike BarbEx, the fight doesn't demand nearly as much movement, so you can hardcast GCD heals to pave over mistakes a lot easier.

I think it's honestly the most fair and fun of the bunch. They saved the best for last. :)

EDIT:

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Originally Posted by Kyrj

But the problem with Memoria Misera is that you won't find anyone running it. It's locked behind Bozja and doesn't really drop anything of worth.

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It's where you get the dyable ShB artifact gear, though. So people do sometimes chain run it for those.

EDIT2:

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Originally Posted by Troxbark

Ran zodiark for the first time a couple days ago and cleared it first attempt in 6 minutes, we had it down to 5 by our 4th run, the mechanics were barely any different than normal even if there was ILVL sync, it would have been a complete steam roll. EX1 and really any of the older EX are not a good entry points anymore due to power creep and square enix continuing to make EX fights easier and easier.

EX7 and EX6 are OK starting points for warm ups but I found singularity reactor unreal to be harder than any of the EW day 1 extremes so I'd actually recommend that over anything else.

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The person was asking for an entry, not a Savage level, hardest-ever-in-history Extreme fight.

Ex7 is probably that. It's a completely middle-of-the-road Extreme, and what Extremes should probably be tuned to since several this expansion were tuned closer to Savage level.

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Originally Posted by AurisNix

Zodiark and P1S are the best entries imo, P1S is arguably easier than alot of extremes out there and a perfect entry point to Raiding P6S is also another good option, Zodiark is also good cuz you only have to follow the danger Dorito so you just need to observe and understand mechanics. After that you could try Barbariccia and Hydealyn, also dont try to raid in old content cuz it will take you forever to find people to do it since ppl only farm those now, is better to just focus on EW raids and EX

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Ran zodiark for the first time a couple days ago and cleared it first attempt in 6 minutes, we had it down to 5 by our 4th run, the mechanics were barely any different than normal even if there was ILVL sync, it would have been a complete steam roll. EX1 and really any of the older EX are not a good entry points anymore due to power creep and square enix continuing to make EX fights easier and easier.

EX7 and EX6 are OK starting points for warm ups but I found singularity reactor unreal to be harder than any of the EW day 1 extremes so I'd actually recommend that over anything else.

Extremes are handy enough in ARR to start with: I'd start with Garuda/Ultima/Levi as your first ones. After that they are all about equal. People struggle more with Ramuh for some reason.

Grauda Extreme and Ultimas Bane can be knocked out pretty quick, if fully blind team 1-2 lockouts tops. IF people know what they are doing you could be done in 2-3 pulls each.
Titan Extreme pretty much relies on your Tanks / Healers knowing what tehy are doing, DPS are expendable.
Ifrit Extreme pretty much relies on your Healers knowing about their bomb debuff.

Mog King is really simple if you split your Tanks/Healers NSEW and voke the King every 3 stacks.
Levi is one of the easiest to clear if you just nuke the adds ASAP.
Ramuh can be difficult if no one baits the chaos. With someone baiting most of the difficulty is removed from the fight. Rest relies on your Tanks swapping with 20s on timer.
Shiva is simple, can be destroyed in a few pulls. Staff pop self healing, Sword stay behind in melee range, Bow always behind as soon as you can depending on her form.

Unsyncing Extremes and Savages while working your way up to current content is a really nice way of ramping up to the harder difficulties this game presents. Sure the level 50/60 and so on stuff will be easy, but at least you will be working towards mount rewards (do the last tier of each savage...A8S is a minion instead xD). Once you start hitting the 80s you will start having to look up guides for certain mechs to prog through. This will give you a good feel for how it will be like with just a smaller sample in each fight :). As you get closer to current content, the more you will have to learn. Eventually you will be caught up to the current content!

Then as some have said: Ultimates are UWU -> UCOB/TEA -> DSR -> TOP. So I would consider getting your feet wet with UWU (once you are ready!). It doesn't hurt to fresh prog any of these once you unlock them (for fun), but I would highly suggest not actively pursuing true raid progression until you've caught up and started doing current savages.

Ultima Weapon is the easiest ultimate, about savage, Alte Roite. If you only want the current tier, then Ps9. Extremes... I can't tell.

If you are looking to start doing hard content, then current tier Extremes are a good entry point. Zeromus is a pretty straight forward fight, no really hard to learn, then Golbez or Zodiark. Once you are comfortable with extremes, you can try with savage. I would say P9S is the easiest on this tier, but in my opinion, is a big jump from extremes still, so you may require good preparation if you're not used to this type of raids.