And it was not the only mechanic that was designed counterintuitively.
4 Limit Breaks of Level 3 within Half a Minute!
The Aethercharge mechanic aimed to make the first part of the fight harder by, for example, making a DPS check tougher and giving the primal new abilities.
However, bosses had to be overloaded, only then could the raiders survive the first appearance of Ultima unharmed:
- Each primal killed in the overloaded state left a small ground AOE.
- One healer, one mage, and one melee fighter had to enter this AOE and received a buff that was needed much later in the fight.
- If one of these players used the Level 3 Limit Break, their buff caused the Limit bar to fill up immediately afterwards.
- One of each mage, healer, melee, and tank Level 3 limit was required to survive Ultima’s deadly attacks one after the other.
And if one of the players did not have this buff, the entire group had to start over.
The Raider Community of Final Fantasy XIV is Very Satisfied
Even during the progression, one could observe the enthusiastic reactions of the hardcore raiding community of Final Fantasy XIV to the fight on social media.
After the trick with the Aethercharge became known, Elysium published chat logs with the reactions of their raiders to this mechanic:
But the players from Entropy also had their fun. Elia Sand, the white mage of the winning group, believes that Ultima is better in terms of mechanics and general design than Bahamut.
Kiona Lynaer, the Scholar of the Elysium group, shares his opinion. According to them, the Bahamut fight was a bit too anticlimactic due to its excessive length.
Ultima Fell After a Total of 86 Hours of Raid Time
The Entropy group also provided some numbers about their progress:
- From start to finish, the raiders had to restart the fight a total of 495 times.
- They spent approximately 86 hours raiding over the course of 5 days, including breaks in between.
- On one day, they played for a whopping 21 hours straight because the group desperately wanted to overcome the 3% enrage.
It was a close thing: The guys from Entropy had already scored some World First kills during the Alexander raid in Heavensward and were therefore considered one of the favorites in the race alongside Elysium from the USA and Lucrezia from Japan.
And indeed, just half a day later, Elysium also secured their victory and second place.
The competition was tough and the joy of victory correspondingly great, as can be heard at the end of one of the kill videos:
When Square Enix will hold their E3 conference, you can find out from our overview:
E3 2018 schedule: Dates for press conferences at a glance
The new hardest fight of Final Fantasy XIV against the Ultima Weapon was first mastered by the European Free Company Entropy. The developers led them and the other raiders around for almost a day. Because the fight is intricate.
Six days have passed since the fatal fight against the Ultima Weapon went online. Just like its predecessor Bahamut, the Ultima Weapon was meant to be a challenge for the best of the best from the raid community of Final Fantasy XIV.
When Habits Become a Problem
How did it all start? It was already known that players had to defeat Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan in the fatal fight before being able to face Ultima.
For half a day, the raiders managed to progress quickly and without too much difficulty, taking down the primals one by one.
But then they encountered fight mechanics that they could not overcome. Several attacks meant an immediate wipe for the group. No one knew how to avoid that.
Ultima Raid Violates Custom
Gamer reflexes are not always helpful: The developers had used the habits of the raiders against them.
Until now, it was always the rule in the hard epic raid fights of Final Fantasy XIV that any kind of buff on the opponent was fundamentally bad. Players were trained to prevent bosses from gaining any buffs or stacks in fights.
This rule was absolutely taken for granted. But that was precisely the catch. Because with Ultima the trick was to deliberately “mess up” certain fight mechanics at specific moments:
- By messing up certain boss mechanics, the buffs “Aethercharge” were triggered on the primals Garuda, Ifrit, and Titan.
- As soon as a primal had more than 4 stacks of the charge, their attacks became more dangerous and they gained new abilities.
- The individual bosses have to be overloaded in order to gain advantages later.
- The raiders had to completely relearn the fight and find out what conditions give the primals overload.
One of the Elysium raiders with the in-game name Aria also said in a tweet: “The developer [of Ultima] knew all our habits and thought processes as raiders and designed the entire fight with the aim of using them against us.”
And it was not the only mechanic that was designed counterintuitively.
4 Limit Breaks of Level 3 within Half a Minute!
The Aethercharge mechanic aimed to make the first part of the fight harder by, for example, making a DPS check tougher and giving the primal new abilities.
However, bosses had to be overloaded, only then could the raiders survive the first appearance of Ultima unharmed:
- Each primal killed in the overloaded state left a small ground AOE.
- One healer, one mage, and one melee fighter had to enter this AOE and received a buff that was needed much later in the fight.
- If one of these players used the Level 3 Limit Break, their buff caused the Limit bar to fill up immediately afterwards.
- One of each mage, healer, melee, and tank Level 3 limit was required to survive Ultima’s deadly attacks one after the other.
And if one of the players did not have this buff, the entire group had to start over.
The Raider Community of Final Fantasy XIV is Very Satisfied
Even during the progression, one could observe the enthusiastic reactions of the hardcore raiding community of Final Fantasy XIV to the fight on social media.
After the trick with the Aethercharge became known, Elysium published chat logs with the reactions of their raiders to this mechanic:
But the players from Entropy also had their fun. Elia Sand, the white mage of the winning group, believes that Ultima is better in terms of mechanics and general design than Bahamut.
Kiona Lynaer, the Scholar of the Elysium group, shares his opinion. According to them, the Bahamut fight was a bit too anticlimactic due to its excessive length.
Ultima Fell After a Total of 86 Hours of Raid Time
The Entropy group also provided some numbers about their progress:
- From start to finish, the raiders had to restart the fight a total of 495 times.
- They spent approximately 86 hours raiding over the course of 5 days, including breaks in between.
- On one day, they played for a whopping 21 hours straight because the group desperately wanted to overcome the 3% enrage.
It was a close thing: The guys from Entropy had already scored some World First kills during the Alexander raid in Heavensward and were therefore considered one of the favorites in the race alongside Elysium from the USA and Lucrezia from Japan.
And indeed, just half a day later, Elysium also secured their victory and second place.
The competition was tough and the joy of victory correspondingly great, as can be heard at the end of one of the kill videos:
When Square Enix will hold their E3 conference, you can find out from our overview:
