New Alliance Raid: Well done Devs

[Vyrerus]

I enjoyed the new raid. It does have part of my castle in it, at any rate :P

Will say too that I didn't find it particularly challenging. Some surprises sure, and I do have trouble remembering where safe spot is on third cleave during Shadowlord, but that's very much a me thing.

Kind of interested to see what happens when the interrupts don't happen. I did get to see Ark Angel Hume blow up the alliance, as I was on MCH and had been the only one silencing anything, and I was dead at the time waiting on a raise. The tanks were all off in lala-land I guess. Kinda funny.

Audio tell on gay Prishe was kinda cool. At first I thought I was supposed to be looking for a slight color variance during the wind up, but nah, it's audio telegraphs! Neat!

Also did not have deadpan dry humor jokes Bakool on my bingo card, but that's just my kind of humor.

A bit disappointed that they had us only walk through one half of a Tu'Lia island and put Despot in a way wrong place. We did get an accurate location for Laloff Amphitheatre, but it would have been cooler if they'd given us the main walk through the doll corridor where Despot actually spawns. It wouldn't have added that much time, either! I wish they were less afraid to make 24 man raids bigger, with variable trash in-between bosses with maybe, idk, the addition of alliance raid i720 accessories to be gained from trash. Make these big dungeons for big groups actually feel big!

Aquarius is a step in the right direction, but ultimately disappointing since he didn't take drastically reduced physical damage.

Also really wish the Shadowlord had been given a deeper voiced VA, similar to TG Cid's, but the VA he does have does actually sell infuriated nobility and reads the lines very naturally. I can really get into it!

Now as far as the story surrounding all of this goes... I suppose so far it hasn't offended, yet. Being a simulacrum of a real place made by electrope and Mamool sorcery means us XI vets can rest easy knowing that none of it has any real impact on XI's world or worldbuilding. THANK GOD! I don't have to burn down SE HQ.

Seeing all of the easter eggs and knowing all of them in my core has been delightful. Not so delightful on social media where people younger than XI itself attempt to clout chase the nostalgia and get things they're listing in threads wrong. But I suppose that's a time honored tradition anyway, as a lot of XI vets like to pretend they were playing the game since the time it was JP client only(2002).

[Fawkes]

A bit disappointed that they had us only walk through one half of a Tu'Lia island and put Despot in a way wrong place. We did get an accurate location for Laloff Amphitheatre, but it would have been cooler if they'd given us the main walk through the doll corridor where Despot actually spawns. It wouldn't have added that much time, either! I wish they were less afraid to make 24 man raids bigger, with variable trash in-between bosses with maybe, idk, the addition of alliance raid i720 accessories to be gained from trash. Make these big dungeons for big groups actually feel big!

When we step on the red teleporter pad there's not an inert red pad where we end up. Literally unplayable.

I also wish the trash pulls were bigger, it feels like we speed through most of the areas. I expected more, especially with the Dynamis mobs there should be like 10 times as many, at least from how I remember the pulls going.

Now as far as the story surrounding all of this goes... I suppose so far it hasn't offended, yet. Being a simulacrum of a real place made by electrope and Mamool sorcery means us XI vets can rest easy knowing that none of it has any real impact on XI's world or worldbuilding. THANK GOD! I don't have to burn down SE HQ.

I kinda got the sense that Elvaan Guy not remembering stuff but Prishe having her memory was foreshadowing that she's going to end up being the real Prishe. Which I would prefer over having her dissolve into cubes at the end.

[Vyrerus]

When we step on the red teleporter pad there's not an inert red pad where we end up. Literally unplayable.

I also wish the trash pulls were bigger, it feels like we speed through most of the areas. I expected more, especially with the Dynamis mobs there should be like 10 times as many, at least from how I remember the pulls going.



I kinda got the sense that Elvaan Guy not remembering stuff but Prishe having her memory was foreshadowing that she's going to end up being the real Prishe. Which I would prefer over having her dissolve into cubes at the end.

I took it for the opposite. The Elvaan Guy doesn't remember shit because he's real. Prishe remembers stuff because dude bro recreated her.

Of course, this is Dawntrail and they both ate tacos and enjoyed them, so clearly they're both real.

[Powercow]

I also wish the trash pulls were bigger, it feels like we speed through most of the areas. I expected more, especially with the Dynamis mobs there should be like 10 times as many, at least from how I remember the pulls going.

In Dynamis, as soon as you pull the statue they spawn all the additional mobs. So if they wanted a slightly more authentic Dynamis experience it should have been just a couple statues milling about, and if you pull them a bunch ton of gobbies spawn (who then summon their own pets.)

And yeah there should have been way more statues. What, one statue, how the hell am I gonna farm Apoc off one freaking statue?!

Also I get the fight is plenty hectic but the Ark Angels really should summon their pets too. Let the XIV players feel the wrath of getting 1shot by a freaking rabbit doing Foot Kick.

[TaleraRistain]

Now as far as the story surrounding all of this goes... I suppose so far it hasn't offended, yet. Being a simulacrum of a real place made by electrope and Mamool sorcery means us XI vets can rest easy knowing that none of it has any real impact on XI's world or worldbuilding. THANK GOD! I don't have to burn down SE HQ.

They also respected XIV's worldbuilding tying it into THAT character and making it logically fit into the XIV universe. Plus I was incredibly happy there because I thought that plot point had been done wrong before. And with that connection, they're not just retelling something XI players have already seen before. I was a fan of Tactics and XII when Ivalice released and I was very happy that while there were obvious easter eggs, they were telling me a new XIV-centric story and not just rehashing those two games. I felt the same with the post-EW IV arc though that one was a *bit* more on the nose. I feel like both XI fans and those who didn't play are getting the best of both worlds here. I'm looking forward to seeing where they go from here.

I liked the music, too. XI seems like it was closer to the older games. So there were times I felt I was listening to something I would hear in say VI or IX as the background music somewhere.