Dawntrail's 8-man raid discussion

[BigCheez]

I'm definitely looking forward to savage. This raid tier seems like a return to form in terms of fight design. It reminds me of Eden. Smaller hitboxes and uptime isn't completely free. Seems like there will be a lot more room for optimisation and skill expression. Ew's savage tiers felt a lot like hitting a training dummy for 10 minutes once you'd cleared a few times.

[Raven2014]

I feel like this raid tier is being overhyped. The combat is great but come on. This is no Eden raid or even Pandaemonium. At least not in terms of a complete package.

Kinda hard to judge a tier before savage, but right now who care? The most important right now is ... it fit the supposed theme of the expansion. I was laughing through out all the fights, and that in itself is great. Also it got everything that the MSQ got wrong:

- Fun, hilarious, and entertaining like a vacation.

- Great VA (who could have thought!)

- No annoying characters.

- No Wuk Lamat!

Who thought it would be that simple to delivery a win. It's almost feel like a different team comparing to the one that tortured us in the MSQ. Endwalker had great MSQ but a bad post story content cycle, so here hoping we gonna have the reverse of that.

[Silver-Strider]

Black Cat was fine for the 1st boss
Didn't particularly care for Honey Bee. The only noteworthy mechanic is her charm ability but otherwise, the fight itself is largely unremarkable
Bomber Man is the worst of the bunch IMO. No challenge at all and basic dodge the AoE mechanics.
Wicked Thunder was the best of the bunch and it's not even close.

[Turtledeluxe]

I mean, in terms of normal raids, in my opinion it's on par with Eden's first tier and superior to Pandaemonium's first tier. I think Panda's first tier only had 1 fight I liked in it and well, I think we know how much the community absolutely loved P3. What makes or breaks it will be how the savage tiers stack up. Eden first savage tier will be tough to beat, but I don't think it's going to be all that hard to beat Panda's. Obviously this is all subjective, that's just how things are looking atm for me.

That's why I said in terms of complete package. Story wise it's slop, like much of Dawntrail. The premise is "hey you!". Like literally. Whoever writes this freaking expansion cannot write a premise to save their life. And then the first few scenes drone on with extremely tropey dialogue about anime tournaments.

Fights have to be viewed contextually imo. EW is definitely the weakest here, admittedly. But for its time, Eden is pretty damn good imo. Certainly comparable to this raid when adjusted for inflation.

Kinda hard to judge a tier before savage, but right now who care? The most important right now is ... it fit the supposed theme of the expansion. I was laughing through out all the fights, and that in itself is great. Also it got everything that the MSQ got wrong:

- Fun, hilarious, and entertaining like a vacation.

- Great VA (who could have thought!)

- No annoying characters.

- No Wuk Lamat!

Who thought it would be that simple to delivery a win. It's almost feel like a different team comparing to the one that tortured us in the MSQ. Endwalker had great MSQ but a bad post story content cycle, so here hoping we gonna have the reverse of that.

Sorry but I am burned by DT. Story and character wise, this is not doing anything special for me. If you need a laugh after DT I can understand that. But against the story and characters of Eden/Panda this one doesn't stand a chance imo. I'm not curious about where the story goes at all-- it's very tropey like the rest of DT..all anime nonsense we've heard many times before, from the first scene to the final scene. Feels very uninspired.

I actually feel like after DT, having to tolerate this story is a slap in the face. It isn't unique or interesting and it certainly doesn't fix a major problem of 7.0-- setting up an arc? These patches are going to need to do some heavy lifting because outside a magic relic, there's no foundation being built lore wise because the team just wants you to turn your brain off and laugh.

[Raven2014]

But against the story and characters of Eden/Panda this one doesn't stand a chance imo.

I don't care much about that comparison tbh. Just because I had a good steak doesn't mean from then on it's impossible to enjoy a burger. DT's msq sucks wasn't because it's not a steak, but because it's a VERY bad burger by itself. I didn't come into DT expecting a steak, I know I was promised a burger, and the raid tier is decent burger. If I go about comparing every meal I ate to the single best of my life, I think that would be miserable for me.

[Conando]

After wiping M4 for an hour due to the healer checks I can say I feel both pain and elation. It's been a while since Normal Content needed some effort.

[Granyala]

The mechanics had me smiling ear to ear! I kept saying to myself - "You tricked me! What do you mean it's not just a pattern to be followed...

Outside of the "jog around like a madman" hearts mechanic (which we've seen before on a FATE boss in Bozja), it's very much a pattern to be followed. Did we play the same raid?!

Also the story is pretty weak so far. Corrupt businessman hides negative side effects of beast soul use to make cash and one kitten wants to kill you to ensure her own survival.

It's pretty bleh and to be honest: I find it insulting that they go out and make my character put her life on the line just for some random people's entertainment.

That is NOT the WoL I play.

[PangTong]

In terms of presentation of the fights, this might be the best raid tier they have ever done. Love the music, love the voices, love the visuals. I also greatly appreciate a slightly higher difficulty level. My one complaint is that at this point half-room cleaves have become one of the most overused and stale mechanics in the game, and THREE bosses in this tier use them, with the latter two having them as more or less their primary mechanic. The first two bosses are great, but please stop relying on half room cleaves so much.

It's not just this tier, there's so many dungeon bosses that use them and in Endwalker they were everywhere as well. We've all seen left/right and in/out so many times by now that it's just not interesting anymore, they've exhausted every possible permutation of these mechanics. More new stuff like the Black Cat floor panels and Honey Bee hearts, please!

[Nyxs]

I quite enjoyed all of the raid so far. I was hoping the sister would show up later on but with the story about the disease it could lead to something interesting. Later still could of worked to appear to challenge us.

10/10 on the fight,npcs and music though


My only gripe is the awful colouring for the healer gear. Yes it is traditional whitemage colors but I would of liked something more in theme with the rest of the sets.It stands out like a sore thumb. They gave us dark coloring for the gimp coat at least while also being dyeable.

[Toutatis]

I was looking forward for savage and had found a group but I just had to notify them that it wouldn't be happening. The first normal boss was quite easy despite the awful glowy floor. The 2nd, I can't even comment on the difficulty and mechanics as I had to abandon not even mid fight given that I suddenly felt really ill (started with the cutscene) from the visual effects. I even threw up a few minutes later and about an hour later I still have a massive headache. The visuals are not ok. I never had such a reaction in any game before and I've been gaming since 3 decades (I had a few reactions in this game but not as fast). You'd think a company like SE would have advisors concerning those things.

Storywise, I also find it stupid that my WoL suddenly lowers herself to arena fighting.