The guild Echo, which achieved the last World-First kill in WoW, is currently attempting the hardest raid in Final Fantasy XIV. For over a week, the guys have been struggling with the bosses but are only about halfway through the raid. They’re slowly becoming desperate about the length of the fight and the lack of checkpoints, but still having fun.
The situation in brief:
- The guild Echo is a professional European raiding guild in WoW that participates in every race for the first raid kills.
- In the last raid in WoW against the Jailer, the team quickly achieved victory and stood their ground against their rivals from Team Liquid.
- During the hype around FFXIV in summer 2021, some players from Echo dropped by in the MMORPG and played the Eden raid (Epic) at minimal item level and blind. They returned in Endwalker and also played through the first part of the new raid Pandaemonium (Epic), which they completed in 3 days.
- For 9 days now, the guys have been attempting the latest raid in Final Fantasy XIV, the ultimate raid Dragon War (Fatal), and are still only halfway through.
While the Echo players visibly enjoy the progression and solving the mechanical puzzles, desperation is also growing about the length of the fight and the absence of checkpoints.
“It never ends!”
This is how the Dragon War raid works: The special feature of the new raid is that it unfolds like a “What if?” story. The bard NPC, who is the FFXIV persona of director Naoki Yoshida, initially tells the story of the Dragon War from the Heavensward expansion.
The players face much harder versions of the key fights from the expansion:
- Battle in the Great Basilica
- Battle against King Thordan and his knights
- Battle against Estinien, who is possessed by the dragon Nidhogg
- Destruction of Nidhogg’s eyes that bind Estinien
Once the eyes are destroyed, the bard rewinds time and the alternate version of the story begins. In this version, the beloved NPC Haurchefaunt survives the battle in the Great Basilica and thus the future is changed.
It is specifically the players’ task to save Haurchefaunt. Otherwise, a time loop forms and the players will be sent back to the normal fight against King Thordan. Theoretically, it can continue endlessly like this.
If Haurchefaunt survives, an alternative timeline opens and the players must complete 3 new phases. The battle thus consists of 7 to 8 phases depending on how one counts and lasts a little over 20 minutes. In comparison, raid battles rarely last longer than 15 minutes.
This is the status of Echo: The raiders of the guild Echo are at the phase where the alternative timeline can start after 9 days of progress, during which they played about 7-8 hours.
They have already figured out that Haurchefaunt’s death initiates the time loop and have managed to save the NPC. Thus, they entered the alternative timeline, where they must fight a much stronger King Thordan, who has also gained power over dragons.
The raiders must now solve new mechanical puzzles, with an added lore puzzle. What they do not yet know is that at the end of their current phase, the boss must remain alive. Otherwise, they will be trapped in a time loop again.
And slowly, the guys are becoming desperate about the length of the mechanically intense fight because after the first phase in the Great Basilica, despite their hopes, there are no more checkpoints at all. This means that they have to start completely from the beginning after each wipe.
Accordingly, the guys have groaned with each new phase that the raid seemingly has no end. New, different phases keep coming through which they must work. Phrases like “It never ends!” or “This is pure trolling” keep surfacing.
When the group arrived at the latest phase and still had no trace of a checkpoint, the Echo raider Rogerbrown jokingly commented that they are done. They saved Haurchefaunt, and that is enough now.
There’s also occasional playful cursing at “Mr. Ozma,” the developer responsible for the raid’s design:
I swear to you, Mr. Ozma, he hates people. That’s why he made this mechanic.
Echo raider Rogerbrown
Masaki Nagakawa, referred to by the community as Mr. Ozma, is known for designing particularly challenging battles with elaborate mechanics.
In a producer stream, director Yoshida noted that Nagakawa has packed all his experience into the Dragon War (Fatal). The Echo raiders are now feeling this firsthand.
“Yo, Warcraft developers, you should make ultimate bosses like in FFXIV”
This is what Echo players say: Despite the seemingly never-ending phases, the Echo raiders are still having fun with the Dragon War (Fatal). Each new phase is visibly greeted with excitement and enthusiasm.
The guys also spend hours sifting through their recordings, trying to decipher new mechanics. They also set up diagrams and test theories, everything that is part of a proper raid progression.
The raid leader Scripe even went as far as to post a call to WoW developers on his Twitter:
In it, he wrote that it would be cool if WoW had fights like the Ultimates in FFXIV between raid tiers. In the comments, he received support from his fans, who compared the Ultimates to Crucible of Storms.
The Echo players refrain from establishing whether FFXIV or WoW has the harder raids. The raiding systems of the two MMORPGs are too different to make direct comparisons, the raiders say.
Originally, Echo planned about 10 days to complete the Dragon War (Fatal). The deadline expired today, June 2. But the raiders do not give up and, according to Scripe, will continue to fight until they have mastered the Dragon War.
