Revelations from Patch 5.5 (Part 1)

[Cilia]

More musings on Werlyt, and sort of responding to Cilia's take on the fight.

The answer is quite simple:

Just about everything in the Diamond Weapon fight we've already seen, and more dynamic at that.

Diamond Weapon's armored form relies on the powers of the previous three Weapons: Ruby's claw tentacles, Sapphire's chest blaster, and Emerald's disembodied hands. It's unique abilities consist mainly of explosions, which... aren't all that impressive. This version appears to use Shinryu's skeleton, albeit with unique animations.

Diamond Weapon's unarmored form is... a coked-up mecha Ifrit, whose main form of attack is knockback into a bottomless pit. It's... not a particularly novel strategy in this game, and while other bosses do employ it said strategy is particularly egregious here because you probably aren't going to die otherwise in this phase.

Finally, the backdrop is... and endless expanse of clouds. While fighting high in the sky on an airship deck is interesting, we've already done crazier stuff; the Bismarck fight is almost identical in setup, except there you're on a floating island being towed behind an airship, shooting harpoons into a sky whale while it manipulates the weather and throws endless flunkies at you... it's much more dynamic than the Diamond Weapon fight which is, again, just an endless expanse of clouds. You hit the Weapon and swap platforms to evade some of its armored attacks. Woo.

As for EX differences... I've watched some tutorial videos to get ready for it (maybe), and there are no major changes to the fight. It's essentially the same as most EX fights: same as normal with some tighter coordination needed, no AoE markers so you have to rely purely on visual tells to dodge attacks, and a couple new mechanics to keep it fresh. I haven't seen the "mutation" type animation anywhere; I dunno, maybe there's a secret phase with Zenos' combat data that triggers if you bring it down fast enough? (Probably not.)

Ruby had the Evangelion-style Nael hatching out of its back. Sapphire was a mano e mano mecha battle. Emerald was a complete battlefield shift, along with a chance to see Gaius in his prime. Diamond... is you beating on a mecha while riding an airship, surrounded by an endless cloud expanse. It's just boring in comparison. There's no "wow" factor.

To me, at least.

[Vyrerus]

The answer is quite simple:

Passing strange from my perspective.

Well, to be fair, normal mode doesn't showcase its "just explosions" mechanics very well. Also to be fair, all of the other weapon fights featured mechanics we've seen before with mildly different aesthetics.

The two platforms are put to more work in Extreme. Diamond Rain aka "just explosions" deals damage and vuln stacks proportional to the number of players on each platform. This means without shields, having too many people on one, even if they are dead, will kill everyone on that platform.

The knockbacks in Extreme also have to be used to be knocked across the gap, sometimes due to the teleporter debuff being 10x longer.

The teleporter debuff is increased to 20 seconds, so that the teleporter can't be used by the same people, such that everyone has to use it at some point, people have to adjust.

I found it really interesting that Auri Arts plays out while Diamond is armored off in Ifrit-speed form. Creating stable aether bubbles to use as jump and pivot points is something we've never seen anything do, though obviously it's a retake on Ifrit's Charges from days of yore, except instead making clones of himself, he just does all of the charges in a zigzag by himself.

The unfortunate metafactor of all .5 Trials is the fact that they will be used to give out weapons intended to increase below average or late to start raider's chances of defeating the 3rd fight in a Savage Tier with their weapons always being 5 iLvls below Ester augmented weapons. They never have the same impact as trials before them. Shiva was easier than Ramuh or Leviathan. Zurvan was easier than Sophia and Sephirot. Seiryu was an absolute joke compared to Byakko, Tsukuyomi, and Suzaku. They are intended to be easier though, and so their mechanics are never as complex or as devastating.

Though, tbh, mechanically none of the weapon fights have really been that difficult to pick up. I find Diamond to be the most interesting, as some of them are actually new. Gonna rattle some comparisons off, after the edit.

Ruby Weapon's Reused Techniques
Quicksand = Sunken Temple of Qarn HM, first boss.
Red Orbs = Stationary versions of orange orbs from Burden of the Father
Dashes with half cleave = Retake on divebombs/ifrit charges mixed with half arena cleave
Group Stack markers w/ donut aoe = reuse of general aoes combined
Nael Adds = Reused Turn 9 mechs
Hide behind comets = reused LoTA mech
Catch comets = reused clash catch mech from Stormblood, seen in Susano, Orbonne, and a couple other places
General raidwide

Emerald Weapons Reused Techs
Colored Orbs = Orbs from Ultima hard mode mixed with orbs from Chrysalis
Donut/proximity aoes = general aoes
Knockback with upper body
Shared tank buster = double rocket punch from BJ
Spread explosions in phase 1 = spread explosions from T11/anywhere else
Cleave spread in phase 2 = Protean wave, except easier
Blue Sword Cross AOEs = Scarlet Price Cross Explosions from Nidhogg Ex/Midgardsormr
Sky Armor bombs = exaflares
Formation volley or whatever = staggered line AOEs in many fights with a much cooler tell
General raid wide

Diamond Weapon's Reused Techs
Laser stack = line stack from Phantom Train
Claw cleave = half room cleave with a twist
Diamond Rain = new to me, maybe something from deeper in an Ultimate than I've been
Line laser autos that hit two highest enmity targets/tanks = Ozma Cube/Leviathan/etc.
Proximity Tethers = Exact purple tether in Chardarnook
Proximity Flares = Lots of fights
Proximity knockback = used in lots of fights, but PK used to cross a gap you can fall off of = new afaik
Quadrant cleaves with alternating party members = First Limit Cut from Cruise Chaser with a different aesthetic

If you've played the game a long time and delved into most of the battle content, you see recycled mechanics with new paint a lot. The most similar thing to have two sides that have a unique method of traversal is probably the Antigravity Limbal vs. getting down with 100Gs in Deltascape. I like seeing a new twist on the battlefield, rather than new paint.