In Final Fantasy XIV, Patch 6.11 went live today with the new hardest raid ever, Dragon’s War (Fatal). The update marks the start of the World-First race for the kill and is accompanied by a large community event.
What are these raids? The fatal or “ultimate” raids are considered by FFXIV to be the hardest type of PvE content. According to estimates from the Japanese statistics blog LuckyBancho, about 5% of all players manage to master these raids.
The fights are structured as a kind of boss rush, where teams of 8 raiders must fight against multiple intermediate bosses in succession to ultimately defeat the main opponent.
- In Bahamut Ultimate, these bosses are Twintania and Nael deus Darnus
- In Ultima, players fight against the primals Garuda, Ifrit, and Titan beforehand
To ensure that these raids remain a challenge even years after their release, they are the only content that cannot be “over-leveled”. All fatal raids must be mastered at the level and item level they were designed for.
Dragon’s War as the first ultimate raid after over 2 years
This is Dragon’s War: The new fatal raid is derived from the first expansion of FFXIV, Heavensward. It revolves around the millennial war between the nation of Ishgard and the dragons.
Screenshots have already shown individual knights of King Thordan in an arena above the cathedral of Ishgard, as well as the two dragons Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr. In the trailer for Patch 6.1, we also saw King Thordan himself at the end, performing the limit break with his knights.
The raid was postponed to the great dismay of the hardcore community by over half a year. It was originally scheduled to release with Patch 5.5, at the end of Shadowbringers. However, according to director Yoshida, this was not possible without postponing the new expansion Endwalker and other important content.
Accordingly, hardcore raiders had to wait over two years for the new content. The last ultimate raid, Alexander, was released in November 2019.
To make the race for the World-First title fair, all FFXIV servers went online simultaneously after maintenance at 12:00 PM. The maintenance was also not ended early, as is often the case with MMORPGs, so that all raiders would have the same chances.
What are the rewards? The ultimate raids differ from the “normal” raids that bring gear progression. As a reward for the kill, titles and stylish, shining weapons await, which are slightly stronger than the current strongest from the Savage raid with an additional materia slot.
However, they are mainly considered status symbols and signs that one has conquered the hardest content in the game. One does not farm the raids to get better gear, but to have nice glamours.
Data miners have already pulled the appearance of the new weapons from the update code. They are based on the weapons obtained from the extreme fight against King Thordan, but have many more visual effects:
You can check out the new ultimate weapons in an Imgur gallery here.
Community organizes a streaming event
The World-First race is considered a major event in the community, followed by thousands on Twitch. With each raid release, FFXIV briefly ascended into the top 10 games on Twitch with the most viewers.
This is also the case for Thordan Ultimate, as the community around the MogTalk podcast organizes a streaming event again this time with casters and analysts who will accompany the race. Currently, on April 26 at 1:53 PM, FFXIV ranks 6th with 73,800 viewers, following GTA V and ahead of Dota 2, CoD Warzone, and Fortnite.
As a special guest this time is streamer and YouTuber Preach, who recently commented on the race in WoW in February. Preach has been playing FFXIV intensively for several months and recently reached the endgame.
Who is participating in the race? Teams from around the world participate in the race. Since the servers go online simultaneously for everyone, everyone has the same chances of success.
The favorites of the race are the raid group “Thoughts per Second” from the Radiance guild on the Gilgamesh server. The group was the first to conquer Alexander Ultimate in the past and has since secured several World-First titles in the savage raids.
The EU group Entropy, which achieved the World First in Ultima and placed third in the race of Pandaemonium, is also a strong candidate for victory.
However, it could also be like Ultimate Bahamut, where a Japanese raiding group unexpectedly seized first place.
The eSports team Liquid does not seem to be participating this time. Liquid bought the WoW guild Limit in January 2022 to enter the world racing of WoW and FFXIV.
