How difficult is Ultimate?

[Roda]

It's really just
"can you do your rotation while doing non-stop mechanics for 20 minutes"
Like if you had to do an entire tier of savage from 1-4 in one go - no breaks, with no to very few deaths (at the right time), on fast forward. and if you wipe, it's back to boss 1.


It just takes time to bash your face against the content while you and 7 others find out what parts give you trouble and how to fix them all at once.
You gotta have patience and humility and the will to keep truckin'.

[MPK]

Not that hard tbh just requires consistency.

I just wish that square stops making it sound like it's a super difficult thing only meant for the 1%. That's just stupid. There's so many legends that I wouldn't be surprised if at least 20% of active players cleared at least one.

uwu right now is like a savage difficulty at most. There's not many hard mechanics aside from titan gaol and the dps check in sb ultimates are a complete joke right now

[KDSilver]

Not that hard tbh just requires consistency.

I just wish that square stops making it sound like it's a super difficult thing only meant for the 1%.

A lot of people keep saying that as well (only 1%) while he have no concrete data.

[Roda]

A lot of people keep saying that as well (only 1%) while he have no concrete data.

It's kind of a problem in raiding scenes in general and why developers are putting more "casual" (read: faceroll) versions of content.
People call raiding, no matter what game, a hardcore scene meant for no-lifers.
Is it considered the most difficult content in the game? if yes, then that obviously means it's impossible to get into if you don't have 5 hours a night to dedicate to raiding, and if you're not the most shining perfect example of your role from the get-go.
Doesn't matter that it's only the most difficult content because it's the only bit of content in the game with a fail-state that requires co-ordination to beat.
And it doesn't help that a lot of insecure raiders who want to think they're hot stuff try to scare off newbies with this hardcore bravado.

I have been a mentor in a lot of raiding groups in various games, and the first thing I have to do with every newbie is beat the idea out of their head, that raiding is exclusively for hardcore no-lifers.

[ForteNightshade]

A lot of people keep saying that as well (only 1%) while he have no concrete data.

From the Lucky Census a while back, I believe the estimated numbers of active characters who have cleared.

UCoB: 1. 89%
UwU: 5.6%
TEA: 6%ish

The general average seems to be 5%. UCoB being the lowest makes sense due to its sheer length (clocking in at 17-18 minutes).

[Reap00]

From the Lucky Census a while back, I believe the estimated numbers of active characters who have cleared.

UCoB: 1. 89%
UwU: 5.6%
TEA: 6%ish

The general average seems to be 5%. UCoB being the lowest makes sense due to its sheer length (clocking in at 17-18 minutes).

One wonders how many of these clears were purchased.

[HyoMinPark]

One wonders how many of these clears were purchased.

Not nearly as many as you’re wanting to insinuate.

[technole]

Ultimates are fun with a good group, the endgame content lul from here until 6.0 is likely going to bring up the ultimate clear percentages since there is no other challenging content after one clears E12S Oracle of Darkness. If you are regularly clearing savage tiers, it's good idea to try to challenge the ultimates. Sometimes it can help push your game play boundaries a little further.

UwU is the most lenient in terms of being alive and dps checks, as you can pick up a lot towards the finish versus say TEA where not 8/8 not being alive at several key times is going to be wipes. Granted after a period of time the +5 ilvl cap boost gives a little wiggle room to farms and newer groups to make a better BiS to challenge them, like some dungeon gear from Heroes Gauntlet surpasses Eden's Gate Savage gear for TEA.

From the Lucky Census a while back, I believe the estimated numbers of active characters who have cleared.

UCoB: 1. 89%
UwU: 5.6%
TEA: 6%ish

The general average seems to be 5%. UCoB being the lowest makes sense due to its sheer length (clocking in at 17-18 minutes).

Yep, I posted this TEA clears graph in that previous ultimate cancelled thread. It's getting a bit old but I think it describes very well why some in NA doesn't think there are many clears. It's just simply living in bubble mentality, or being on Crystal I guess:

[Shougun]

Yep, I posted this TEA clears graph in that previous ultimate cancelled thread. It's getting a bit old but I think it describes very well why some in NA doesn't think there are many clears. It's just simply living in bubble mentality, or being on Crystal I guess:

Those are small numbers though, compared to the overall population. It's not a bubble ;/

I mean maybe you look at that and think "hardest content in the game and look at that, 10,000+ characters!!" but I look at that and go "10,000 still the minority". Which doesn't mean the content shouldn't exist (honestly does seem like a bummer- ideally everyone is getting it all.. cause.. why not right?, if it was content I had really wanted that was cut I would feel a bit miffed about it), but I think its quite accurate to call that as not very many clears.

Averaging it all together (with population considerations) leaves ultimate around like 1 - 2% of the population, last time I saw this done at least. Even if it is now like 5-8%, that's still very small. And being careful with the math as I saw last time someone was trying to directly average the % rather than account for server size differences (Japanese would boost the average, Crystal tanks it lol). That and I also saw some use of data that would clearly be biased since it was for those who specifically wanted to track their achievements (so they could get the achievements they don't have, making it a place for achievement hunters and not the general population- which explains why those sites often have larger numbers than Lucky Bancho who as far as I know crawls the lodestone pages).

Of course only SE really has the best data, since they could work out the accounts as well. Maybe it's even more since account based it's not repeating much or.. maybe it's even worse and it's many players who played one character doing it again on another. Which if we go by their actions suggests that what people say is probably accurate (wouldn't cut / delay so much a content that was massively desired by a large portion of the community unless you were crazy, assuming they're not crazy then makes the content likely to be minority content).

Although I know this comes around to being a bit frustrating since there are some players who do really enjoy the content and then they have people saying "you're the minority so you don't deserve to have that content made" (paraphrasing), which to be clear is not what I'm saying. I really want to have chocobo hot and cold but honestly I'm not sure how many want that with me lol. Ultimately I just want to say that it does seem quite accurate to maintain the idea that 'few players take part in that content' (not a bubble). The vast majority of players are not doing ultimate, but that doesn't mean ultimate doesn't have a home. Just like there are few Roe or Hroth (honestly I think there would be more Hroth than roe if we had females lol), but I think it's good you've got the big burly man and thic--.. strong girl and as well the beast race even though they will never compare to miqote.

[HyoMinPark]

There's that one person who keeps talking about Ultimate on the forums... so I got curious and looked it up. Apparently there are three Ultimate fights in the entire game and they seem pretty complicated and look really cool. A lot of what was going on went over my head though so I can't tell how hard it is. I'm wondering how hard Ultimate actually is. Is it something that only the 1% can tackle, or is it accessible to any good player in the game? How long does it take?

Ultimates are all about memorizing mechanics and executing them correctly. As far as DPS checks, most are relatively lenient in them. However, screwing up certain mechanics means a wipe, and repeated deaths—especially for core members like healers or tanks—usually means chances of recovery are slim (depending on where said deaths happened).

Honestly, the fights are not difficult in terms of their mechanics. Even with the ones that you cannot afford to screw up. The difficulty comes from trying to find a group good enough and in-sync enough to clear the fights, as well as in finding endurance to handle repeated wipes. From wiping to the final phase to enrage to the first boss in the gauntlet. It’s very common to reach enrage or near-enrage one pull...and then spend the next two hours dying to the first boss. It’s incredibly frustrating to be so close, and then get nowhere for several pulls in a row; or get 15 minutes into an 18 minute fight, and wipe. And this happens even with groups that have players that have cleared the fights. It’s just part of the encounter.

Ultimate is, ultimately, an endurance test for yourself and your static mates.

A group of thanks has done it, so rated out from that, not hard or difficult, also devaluates the worth of the title.

Just because a group of extremely good players cleared UCoB with 8 tanks doesn’t devalue the title for those who cleared with a standard comp and earned the title. The people who have done 8 tank Ultimate clears are some of the best players in the game—they have done the fights multiple times; hundreds of times. An Ultimate clear is an Ultimate clear at the end of the day.