Have you never dared to take on a raid in Final Fantasy XIV? No worries, with our guide you can optimally prepare for the next raid tier, even if you’ve never raided before.
The next major update patch for FFXIV has been announced for December and is expected to bring 4 new boss fights in the final section of the Eden raids. This is a great opportunity for players who have not dared to raid until now to take a look and see how it actually works.
The challenging epic raids in FFXIV primarily promise challenges and the best gear available at their release in the game. The gear is also dyeable, which is not the case with the weaker version from the normal raid. This means you can also assemble cooler outfits.
According to MeinMMO users, FFXIV also belongs to the MMORPGs with the best boss fights. So the epic raids are really a lot of fun.
If you’ve never ventured into raiding in FFXIV and aren’t really sure how to get started, then check out this detailed guide, which is also based on personal experiences.
Gear Up – How to reach Item Level 500
The most important step in preparing for a new raid is the gear. Not only does it help you survive longer and deal more damage. The individual boss fights also have a minimum gear level requirement for participation.
For the first fight in the current Eden raid, Resonance, a gear level of at least 470 was required. Before the release of Resonance, this was the highest available level. So if you want to tackle the next raid, you should assume that the highest gear level will be required again (i.e. 500).
Even though it may sound intimidating at first, this level is currently relatively easy to achieve, as we are in a so-called “catch-up patch” in FFXIV’s patch cycle. This means you don’t have to compete with the epic raids to obtain top gear.
Here’s how to get gear: To raise your gear to item level 500, you need to combine several activities in FFXIV:
- Farming Allagan Stones of Astral.
- The first part of the Eden raid “Awakening”
- “Relic” weapons “Queen’s Watch”
Theoretically, there is also gear available at the market board that you can use as upgrades. The current gear only goes up to 480, but with the release of Patch 5.4 and thus the raid, new gear will be released. It is expected to have item level 510 and would thus provide a significant boost for your gear.
This gear will be prohibitively expensive, especially at the start. So if you don’t have deep pockets full of gil or generous crafter friends, this option may not be feasible.
Theoretically, you could also run the epic version of Eden’s Resonance to get gear with item level 500 directly. However, this raid is now over 6 months old and there are hardly any practice groups willing to train a newcomer.
It is therefore advisable to gear up through other means and start with everyone else in the next raid in December. Once you have a full set of item level 490 Crystarium gear, it’s time to upgrade.
Allagan Stones
The stones are a meta-currency in FFXIV, which you can exchange for new powerful gear pieces at levels 50, 60, 70, and 80. The stones that are relevant for you at level 80 are the Astral ones. You receive them automatically after each successful completion of a level 80 expert dungeon and from the daily random content.
You can earn a maximum of 450 Astral stones per week. You can exchange them with the NPC Aymark for gear for any job. This Crystarium gear has an item level of 490 and is the basis for the 500 set that you should ultimately have.
You should therefore start farming dungeons for stones as early as possible and especially complete the daily random content until you reach the weekly limit. The random content gives an additional bonus of stones every day.
With weapons, it’s somewhat different. You also need Allagan Stones for that, but they cannot be directly purchased from Aymark. You need the following items:
- Crystarium Weapon: 10x Mowen Mark “Astral” from Aymark and 1x High-Density Allagan Stone
You can obtain the special Allagan stones from the NPC Yhal Yal, who is located to the right of Aymark.
Raids for Level 490+
The key to item level 500 is the two raids Eden’s Resonance (Normal) and the YoRHa raids Puppet’s Fortress.
- Eden’s Resonance:
- Puppet Fortress:
You need the normal Eden raid for the weapon. To obtain a Crystarium weapon with item level 500, you must complete the last boss fight of the raid “Stagnation” at least 4 times.
This goes pretty quickly and you get 4 Ancient Swords for it, which you can exchange at the NPC Yhal Yal in Eulmore for the previously mentioned High-Density Allagan Stone. Together with 10 Mowen Marks that you can exchange for 1000 Astral Stones, you will get a Crystarium weapon with item level 490.
To upgrade this weapon and the remaining Crystarium gear to item level 500, you now need to do the YoRHa raids Copy Factory and Puppet Fortress.
From these raids, you will receive one Machine Coin and one Puppet Coin upon completion. You will then exchange these coins with the NPC Fathard, who is also located in Eulmore, for upgrade materials:
- Crystarium Polish brings your accessories and belt to 500
- Crystarium Solvent brings your weapon to 500
- Crystarium Fabric brings the remaining armor to 500
So if you do the Nier raids every week, you will continuously bring more Crystarium gear up to item level 500.
This is the “Relic” weapon from Shadowbringers: As a good alternative for the weapon, there is also the Queen’s Watch. It is a quest line that ends with a strong level 500 weapon with a guaranteed 5 materia slots.
This quest line starts in Kugane with the NPC Keiten (X:13, Y: 13). The start quest is called “Long Live the Queen” and will send you on a journey to Bozja, where you will learn how to forge and upgrade your new weapon.
In general, it is worth doing this quest line because the weapon will likely be the strongest in Shadowbringers after its final upgrade.
Supplies
What supplies do I need? Gear is not the only thing you will need. Good preparation for a raid also includes consumables. In FFXIV, it mainly consists of:
- Food
- Potions
- Materia
Generally, with each new raid tier, there are also new potions and foods, which are stronger and provide better bonuses than the previous ones. To craft them, you usually need items from the new patch, which are currently not available. So it is impossible to craft these in advance.
However, it is a good idea to stock up on the best current food and potions. They may not be as strong, but they are much cheaper and easier to obtain.
And if you’re not competing for the World First title, they will be enough for the first boss fights of the upcoming raid. For food, for example:
- Sausages with Sauerkraut
- Cabbage Rolls in Highlander Style
- Herring Paste
For the potions, you can stock up on Visions III potions for your main stat (Strength, Intelligence, etc.). If possible, aim to gather several hundreds of food and potions so that you have a good supply.
Here’s how to get materia: Also preparing for a raid includes stocking up on materia. Many raiders stock up on materia before a new raid patch to later slot new gear comfortably with materia.
If each guaranteed gear slot in your gear contains a Tier-VIII materia, there will be a status boost of over 1,400 additional points in secondary stats. Therefore, you should always try to slot your gear with materia, especially when preparing for raiding.
With the new patch, new craftable gear will also be introduced, so materia will be particularly in demand, and prices will rise. This type of gear has “forbidden slots”, meaning you can slot more than 2 materia. However, additional slots can fail, resulting in the loss of materia. Therefore, it’s a good idea to stock up on materia.
There are many different sources for materia:
- You can use high-level gear in raids and endgame content, then regularly extract materia when the bond reaches 100%
- Exchange inactive non-aspected and star-shaped polycrystals from daily level increases or the grand hunt for materia
- Exchange against two-colored gemstones at FATE vendors
- If you leveled the Pixie tribe, you can also receive materia from their shop
- Buy at the market board
In general, you want to primarily stock Strategist-, Seer-, Assassin-, or Mage-Materia of rank VII and VIII, depending on the class. Again, the more, the better.
Practice, practice, practice
Job and Rotation: Since the epic raids are the most challenging form of endgame content, you need to be more familiar with your job to be successful. There are, for instance, DPS checks that the group must meet if they want to avoid wipes, and everyone has to do their part. Therefore, if you want to prepare well for a raid, you need to know your job well.
This includes knowing a good opener that sets priorities in the rotation and understanding its timings. Before you dive into the difficult fights, you should thoroughly engage with your class. This also includes reading guides created by players who have invested a lot of time in theorycrafting.
The Balance Discord server and its associated website are standard reading for everyone looking to improve concerning job and raid guides. Unfortunately, it’s only available in English, but the guides are often accompanied by images of the respective skills, which can help you orient yourself more easily.
Read raid guides: In addition to mastering your job, you also need to understand the common strategies for raids. After a new raid tier is released, the first guides and instructions on how certain mechanics work within it usually come out quickly. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on that. It not only saves you a lot of time and frustration but also your teammates.
So if your group has not agreed to go into the raid blind, you should watch guides and at least have an idea of what will happen in the raid. You can find such guides on YouTube or reddit.
Where can I practice? The opener and the basic rotation of the job can easily be practiced on a training dummy. Especially the opener should come easily to you, as it lays the foundation for good DPS in combat. The same goes for tanks and healers, as both roles in FFXIV also need to do good DPS in raids.
With each new raid tier, special training dummies appear that are associated with a boss fight from the raid. They have different amounts of HP and need to be destroyed within 3 minutes. These dummies give you an idea of the DPS you need to achieve to conquer the respective boss fights. So feel free to try them out and see if you can pass the DPS check.
- Unlock at the NPC Poor Worker in the lowest level of Eulmore X:9 / Y: 10
However, the rotation on the dummy cannot be directly transferred to a real fight. In a raid, one must adapt to many mechanics and the possible movement of bosses, which can make it difficult to execute rotation correctly while also handling mechanics from the start. But this is also a matter of practice.
Good preparations for an actual raid fight are the extreme versions of primals and trial fights. They are challenging, fast-paced, require teamwork, but are still below the difficulty of epic raids.
In the extreme fights, you can see how well you deal with your rotation while being bombarded by mechanics from all sides. For this, it’s best to join fresh practice groups in the party finder or to form your own.
Static vs Party Finder
Of course, you cannot go into a raid alone. You need a group of 8 people for the epic raids with the classic composition:
- 2x Tank
- 2x Healer
- 4x DPS
There are two options here: You can find a static or use the party finder.
What are statics? Statics are fixed player groups in FFXIV that usually meet weekly at specific agreed times for raiding. The frequency of such sessions varies significantly depending on the static. Hardcore groups often raid every day for many hours right at the release of raids, while mid-core and casual players limit themselves to a few days.
For someone venturing into raiding in FFXIV for the first time, a casual group is best. Such groups often happily accept newcomers and progress through the content at their own pace.
This way, a raid newcomer can get used to the higher pace of raids and develop “raid awareness”. This refers to the ability to maintain an overview in a fast-paced fight where many things happen simultaneously. It is something that can be learned.
The advantages of a static are primarily reliability and consistent progress, as you always play with the same people and can coordinate with each other. Furthermore, most statics use voice chat for arrangements and callouts, which greatly facilitates communication.
Where can I find a static? If you want to start looking for a static, you have several options for that.
- On Facebook, there are many German FFXIV communities where new raid members are regularly sought
- You can create a thread in the official forums
- If you are proficient in English, you can try it on international platforms. These include the FFXIV reddit and the Discord server Europe Raiding Central
When considering a static, don’t just look at whether the agreed raid times work for you, but also how well you get along with the people. No matter how experienced a group is, if you constantly clash, raiding is no fun.
It is therefore quite possible that you may need to search for a while until you find a static that suits you. But don’t let that frustrate you; in real life, you don’t get along with everyone either.
This is the party finder: If you don’t have time for a fixed static, perhaps due to shift work or can’t find one, there is the option of the party finder.
Here, players gather who are looking for groups to practice, clear, or farm the extreme or epic fights together. A newcomer should naturally first join a practice group or form their own.
As mentioned above, such groups often expect that you have some knowledge of the fight and have looked at guides. So if you want to go in completely blind, it’s better to open your own party finder and look for like-minded players.
Since such parties in the party finder are usually a mix of different players, success for a kill is by no means guaranteed. Therefore, prepare for many wipes and occasional raging. However, they are good for practice, and sooner or later, you’ll find a group that succeeds in a kill.
Yes, it can be frustrating
Lastly, a personal piece of advice: Don’t let yourselves get discouraged. When engaging in epic raid content, you must expect wipes. Many annoying, exhausting, and often silly wipes.
It is therefore important to mentally prepare for this and not to let it bring you down too much. I can tell you from experience that it is a matter of practice.
The raids in FFXIV can be well learned. They often operate on the principle of “dance steps”. The mechanics usually come in a specific order and need to be solved in a particular way. Eventually, you learn these dance steps and can react much faster.
What can be done against frustration? If you notice that your static starts making many mistakes, people are unfocused, and the morale is low, then take a break. Try to avoid pointing fingers at others. It’s important to own up to your mistakes, but it doesn’t help to constantly dwell on the fact that someone caused a wipe.
The key here is, as so often: talk. Ask where the problems lie and try alternative strategies that might work better for you. My static often uses completely crazy strategies in some fights, but they work well for us. It doesn’t always have to be done by the guide.
In random groups in the party finder, it’s naturally harder, and it will happen that people rage or leave when things go wrong. But that’s just human nature. Try not to be discouraged here either. Look soberly at what the causes of wipes were and whether they can be fixed. You can’t change other people in such cases. But you can work on yourself.
The reward at the end is not only the strong gear and an achievement for me personally but also the cool feeling of having overcome a tough challenge with my team.
If you are not quite sure which job you want to play and later raid with, check out our class guide.
