R/ffxivdiscussion

There was some push back from players that say penta/overmelding isn't worth it. One of the reasons is that materia is still very costly for them. Which I agree with because some people want to save up for retirement.
There is an slightly effective solution to this problem. For your overmelds, you can meld Tenacity/Piety/Skill speed/Spell speed depending on your job. Which is cheaper than CRIT/DET/DH. This is not better than your standard overmelds but it is way better than leaving the overmeld slots empty.

Looking for the high end thread? Find it here.
Use this thread to discuss both the mechanics and story of the latest normal raid tier.

(If you saw this post both in ffxiv and in ffxivdiscussion, I am sorry for the spam but I wanted to reach out as much people as possible.)
Hey! For more than a year now I have been working on a DPS simulator for FFXIV. I have made posts about this
project in the past showing the progress of it and what it could do at the time.
In the past weeks I wanted to make a website for the simulator to be used more easily by people without
coding knowledge, and so I made a website that lets you simulate a fight with more than 1 player
of any job (except blue mage) and will tell you the expected DPS and other relevant metrics.
You can find the website at this url : https://ffxivdpscalc.azurewebsites.net/
The website uses the python library I have created and makes it possible for anyone to easily simulate
any set of actions from the game.
Currently, the website has some limitations with regard to what you can simulate in order to limit the computation time and cost :
- Max of 8 players
- Max of 120 actions per player
- Max simulation timer is 150 seconds
- Will not compute the DPS distribution of the fight
I might change those limitations based on the demand and what I can afford.
If however you want to simulate with no such restrictions and have complete freedom on the simulation,
feel free to download the python library and visit the repo (https://github.com/IAmPythagoras/FFXIV-Combat-Simulator).
I have also made a Colab page that lets you use the library in an online environment in which you
have no restrictions to simulation's parameters : https://colab.research.google.com/drive/15RgXpmIdJnFiY34iqj9WqrnC68Pt1ar8?usp=sharing .
Since the last post I made, there has been some improvement to the simulator and I plan on working more on this project
in order to give the community an accurate FFXIV DPS simulator that everyone can use.
I won't make this post longer than it has to be, so if you have any more questions you can check out
the previous posts I made, which explains more about the simulator, or simply go to the website linked above
that has some information about the it and more. (Past post : https://www.reddit.com/ffxiv/comments/xi2jm4/ffxiv_combat_simulator_for_multiple_playe
https://www.reddit.com/ffxiv/comments/ug3n5n/dps_and_pps_calculator_for_multiple_players_at/)
Please note that the website might still have some issues that will be fixed in time. I have not yet been able
to test it with a lot of requests, and some issues might still remain to be discovered. Please be patient with it
and I will do my best to fix them as they come.
Thanks for your time.

(If you saw this post both in ffxiv and in ffxivdiscussion, I am sorry for the spam but I wanted to reach out as much people as possible.)
Hey! For more than a year now I have been working on a DPS simulator for FFXIV. I have made posts about this
project in the past showing the progress of it and what it could do at the time.
In the past weeks I wanted to make a website for the simulator to be used more easily by people without
coding knowledge, and so I made a website that lets you simulate a fight with more than 1 player
of any job (except blue mage) and will tell you the expected DPS and other relevant metrics.
You can find the website at this url : https://ffxivdpscalc.azurewebsites.net/
The website uses the python library I have created and makes it possible for anyone to easily simulate
any set of actions from the game.
Currently, the website has some limitations with regard to what you can simulate in order to limit the computation time and cost :
- Max of 8 players
- Max of 120 actions per player
- Max simulation timer is 150 seconds
- Will not compute the DPS distribution of the fight
I might change those limitations based on the demand and what I can afford.
If however you want to simulate with no such restrictions and have complete freedom on the simulation,
feel free to download the python library and visit the repo (https://github.com/IAmPythagoras/FFXIV-Combat-Simulator).
I have also made a Colab page that lets you use the library in an online environment in which you
have no restrictions to simulation's parameters : https://colab.research.google.com/drive/15RgXpmIdJnFiY34iqj9WqrnC68Pt1ar8?usp=sharing .
Since the last post I made, there has been some improvement to the simulator and I plan on working more on this project
in order to give the community an accurate FFXIV DPS simulator that everyone can use.
I won't make this post longer than it has to be, so if you have any more questions you can check out
the previous posts I made, which explains more about the simulator, or simply go to the website linked above
that has some information about the it and more. (Past post : https://www.reddit.com/ffxiv/comments/xi2jm4/ffxiv_combat_simulator_for_multiple_playe
https://www.reddit.com/ffxiv/comments/ug3n5n/dps_and_pps_calculator_for_multiple_players_at/)
Please note that the website might still have some issues that will be fixed in time. I have not yet been able
to test it with a lot of requests, and some issues might still remain to be discovered. Please be patient with it
and I will do my best to fix them as they come.
Thanks for your time.

Seeing general complaints about things and people's responses to questions (for example, here https://www.reddit.com/ffxivdiscussion/comments/1358hov/what_would_be_a_unique_job_in_gameplaymechanics/ or here https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/481556-Are-all-the-Tanks-identical ), it seems there is a prevailing sense that the game's combat system is what needs an overhaul, not its graphics engine.
​
The biggest offender - and what makes EW have more of this feeling than any past expansion - seems to be the 2 min meta. What started out as a well-intentioned attempt to make raiding more approachable has clearly backfired. Not only did it not make raiding easier for the less intrepid, it forced a sameness to the Jobs where every Job is effectively in a cycle of 2 minutes of filler building and conserving resources and CDs to blow all at once in a burst. No matter how distinct some may try to be - Mudras, 1 min mini bursts, 30 sec micro Gnashing Fang bursts - the result is a sameness feel, as there are only so many ways to make a Job that meets the criteria of "blow everything at 2 min points, build and conserve resources and CDs to serve that goal in the meantime". It's even forced reworks of longstanding Jobs like SMN, MNK, and even mid-expansion, PLD, in order to force them to conform to the 2 min meta. Even the least affected Job by this, BLM, has been nudged slightly in its direction.
​
Secondarily, while FFXIV is exceptionally well balanced, it's SO balanced even a 1-2% deviation is enough to get a Job blacklisted from PF content if it is doing a bit below others. This also creates an environment where party buffs are highly valued, and lack of them requires something substantial to make up for it. MCH had to have dismantle readded, and MCH, PLD, RDM, and WAR have, to various extents, also been blacklisted over the course of the expansion, despite doing (particularly in the case of the Tanks) almost identical damage to their peers.
​
This is the result of hyper-fine-tuned fight Enrage checks that force players to prioritize DPS above anything and everything else (other than - and sometimes even - mitigation to survive mechanics), leading to the most minor of differences being made out as uncrossable chasms.
​
People often mention how Jobs were once more distinct, but those were in the before-times, when hyper-tight DPS checks were uncommon, percent damage output differences were tolerated, sustain vs burst DPS was a viable Job encounter damage profile, and gameplay revolving around buffs and utility was either more prized or, at the least, not mocked and condemned vs damage output.
​
People also have largely praised the PvP mechanics of Jobs, which despite being toolkits a fraction of the PvE size, often feel more engaging and freeform since you have freedom in when to use your CDs and your various abilities are more available than once every 2 minutes or rigidly in service to having to hoard resources and CDs for that 2 min burst.
​
.
​
From what people have said, it strikes me that the 2 min burst meta MUST go come 7.0. It seems to have been highly destructive to the game, both in encounter design and Job homogeneity.
​
After that, encounter DPS checks seem in need of some loosening. Part of made MCH and PLD in particular blacklisted was the DPS checks of the bosses being so tight that 1% less DPS for the party literally COULD result in failing Enrage vs clearing the encounter.
​
And finally, Jobs need to be allowed to branch out into niches and accepted for bringing more unique flavors and styles to the combat game in all ways - damage profiles and rotations, definitely, but also healing, tanking, and buffing need not be so carbon copy.
[EDIT2: Oh, and hitboxes. Smaller hitboxes on bosses.]
​
.
​
But, perhaps I'm misreading the situation and the community responses?
​
So I thought I'd present this here, and see what you good folks think about the matter.
.
EDIT: Also posting this here: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/481617-Does-FFXIV-s-combat-system-need-an-overhaul?p=6241914#post6241914

Some time ago I posted about my app here.
(Original post: https://www.reddit.com/ffxivdiscussion/comments/110ez44/made_an_app_where_you_can_try_max_level_rotation/)
Link: https://necroskillz.github.io/ffxiv-rotation-dojo/
Just wanted to mention some updates I made since then. (Also now is the perfect time to use it, because 24h maintenance KEKL)

• Added scrolling text for buffs/debuffs/damage (potency)/healing (potency)/mana
  • Damage text also displays important buffs at the time
• Added script window that allows to set a specified state on each reset
  • This is more of a power user feature, you can check how to use it here
• Added Blue Mage
• Added HUD editor
  • Use to set exact coordinates for an element, or hide elements of the HUD.
• Other smaller improvements and fixes

Here's a quick video I made with the song clips!

Let me prefix this conversation by saying I have no issue with anyone roleplaying, being a DJ on Twitch, promoting their venues through the Party Finder, etc. In fact, I'm a roleplayer myself and have visited a few venues myself. There are great venues who don't rely on these practices. As long there's a method to filter the results out, I have zero issues with any of these promotions and I encourage the promotion to stay there.
Unfortunately, there has been many individuals whom went out of their way to start promoting through the say, shout, and yell chat. It's not just one message of their venue, but multiple throughout the day. Unfortunately, due to the subreddit's rules, I'm unable to link censored chat logs, but I'm certain you've seen the spam yourself in Limsa, Gridania, Ul'dah, and elsewhere. Sometimes, it's just a single message. Sometimes, you'll see a wave of three or four people advertising different venues at the same time. I've even seen these venues advertised at Hunt Trains of all places.
Now, I could blacklist these individuals and move on.
Yet, it doesn't address the underlying problem. I've seen some go to further lengths by advertising on obvious alternative characters, so they can avoid being blacklisted on their main character(s). They'll toss these characters after a few days or so, make a new character, and continue the advertising cycle again. In fact, as I'm writing this paragraph, I came across an advertisement with a character whose lodestone was deleted recently. I wouldn't put it out of reason these characters could also be piloted by bots for their nuisance spam.
So, there's zero point in blacklisting these individuals. If some are relying on alternative characters and even automation to promote their venues and streams, then all I'm doing is wasting space on my blacklist. They're just going to keep coming back after a certain period of time. As of right now, there's no TPP that censors venues and stream advertisements in the chatbox. (There is for Party Finder, but we're not discussing that.) Yet, there are individuals who are uncomfortable with using TPP or doesn't have access to these tools and we shouldn't alienate these individuals too.
Why is this a problem?
If you're a long-time player, you could compare these messages to the old-fashion RMT spam from years ago that littered these cities. The same advertisement spam that people bitched and complained about for months and years about to Square Enix. The same RMT advertisement that forced Square Enix's hand to adding a "Report RMT" feature into the game. This "Report RMT" feature that eventually chat-restricts individuals after a certain amount of reports and forces a manual review on your account. (How do I know this? Mass reported by a botter and their friends.)
Now, let's review the Prohibited Guidances for 'Spamming' / 'Obstruction of Play':

The key point to consider is whether or not the behavior is obstructing another person's gameplay. While the intention may have not been to cause an obstruction, if the situation interferes with the communication of other players then it can be determined as a prohibited activity.

This key point point heavily relies on the communication of other players. If people are having a conversation in shout chat and suddenly bombarded with several ads from venues, then it's going to cause a disruption in their chatting experience. It might cause an argument to get out of control, a lively conversation to fall apart, etc. If they're spamming a macro or the same chat line over and over, then the Game Master can easily retrieve this and determine this specific infraction.
In the main Terms of Service, let's review this point about Botting:

2.1 Cheating and Botting. You may not create or use any unauthorized cheats, bots, automation software, hacks, mods or any other unauthorized software or hardware designed to modify the Game and gameplay. In addition, you may not take advantage of game system bugs and exploits during gameplay.

Again, I bring this rule up, because there are some alternative characters that aren't leveled and spamming the same message again. No adventure plate and if you look up their lodestone, they're level 2 or 3. These 'players' are constantly advertising these venues and DJs on every world on every data center on NA. (I've seen a few do it on a hourly basis as I've been writing this post up.) Could these be human players? Possibly, but given there's multiboxing Bard performance bots and gathering bots in this game... anything is damn possible.
Also, let's review this rule about Modifications:

2.7 Modifying or Creating Derivative Software. You may not modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of the Game or Service in any way not expressly authorized by Square Enix, and may not make any derivative works of the Game.

Now, I could be making a nothingburger out of this, but this rule draws concern over venues, streamers, and DJs, because Square Enix may not want individuals advertising their game in a certain manner. In certain DJ live streams, I've seen modded characters in adult-themed outfits that obviously don't belong in the game. In certain venues, especially the 18+ venues, they'll advertise adult-themed services and some would go further by including Lalafells into the mix. If you open some caards in the advertisements, you may notice modified characters, textures, outfits, etc. All of this is asking for attention from Square Enix and their Game Masters.
If you don't believe me, I can list some examples when SE responded to problems after enough attention:

• Modded and NSFW Pictures on Social Media.
• TPP Tools being used on Livestreams.
• RMT Advertisements flooding social and tell chats.
• GMs banning Roleplayers for Advertising in Party Finder back in 2020.
  • This was later reverted due to public outrage on social media.

Now, other sections of the Prohibited Guidelines and Terms of Service can be bundled into this mess, but I'm going to stick strictly to these three. I don't want to feedback loop and rather keep it straightforward with this post, because they're the strongest three points.
Solution / Conclusion
Obviously, the problem needs to be addressed with an all-around answer from Square Enix. A solution with a TPP will only provide relief to some individuals and not to all. Silencing 'shout chat' isn't also a viable option, because that deletes a source of communication for some who relies on it for hunts.
As mentioned a few weeks ago in the Korean Q&A, Yoshi P did say they're working on an overhaul of the friend's list system. Yet, we don't know the details of this overhaul and what it ensues. Let's say if it did give us additional slots to our blacklist and automatically removed deleted characters, it would only be a band-aid to a temporary problem. The solicitors can simply make another character, spam to their heart's content, and delete it a few days later. Sure, this can help mitigate the problem, but it's only a band-aid to the overall issue that will fester overtime.
A short-term solution, SE could implement an advertisement or roleplay chat that's like shout chat, but solely for venues, roleplaying, etc. This can stop shout chat solicitations, give SE a chance to enforce policies, allow non-roleplayers to mute the chat, and give roleplayers what they want. Longer-term solution would be fixing the Fellowships and making it more accessible and presentable.

I posted a version of this as a comment reply over on /ffxivdiscussion and I wanted to bring it up more visibly, cuz I wanted to share my perspective and see what people think. Now, I know what I'm about to say will be met with some form of "git gud" or "casuals bad," or "all the hardest content is just so easy though," but hear me out.
(Also: TL;DR instead of complaining that healers need a more complicated DPS rotation, why don't you just play DPS instead? Healers are here to serve a different gameplay niche, and there is an option for everyone -- including you, if you are unhappy with the current healer experience.)
I keep seeing this argument being posed, lately, that the healer role in FFXIV is boring/unengaging/whatever because their damage "rotation" consists of one or two buttons -- spamming Glare or Broil, etc. People bemoan this as bad design, and seem to think the solution is to give healers a DPS-esque rotation. I think this worldview is really narrow and shortsighted, because it presumes that fun/satisfaction is a 1:1 correlation with how busy or complex your ability management is. This might be true for you, but it's not true for everyone.
Pressing one damage button 99% of the time means you aren't getting distracted by your bars and messing up mechanics, which is something that DPS players struggle with more than other roles. Healers don't have a proper rotation to think about, which means that most of their "mental stack" is free to focus on what is occurring in front of them, and respond appropriately.
This is, I've come to understand, part of why I prefer playing healer. If I wanted a damage rotation, I'd play DPS. I don't want to have to struggle more in the area of the game that healer specifically paves a smoother road for. It seems to me that healer mains who complain about this would just be happier playing DPS. Instead, a lot of them keep trying to fit this square peg into a round hole, saying healers need to be reworked, instead of simply correcting the problem for themselves and switching jobs. If you want a more challenging rotation, there is a whole spectrum of DPS jobs you'll probably be happier with, from SMN to BRD/MNK/whatever.
All told, healer "simplicity" is a feature that people treat like a flaw, instead of just being OK with the idea that it might be this way to accommodate a wider range of complexity preferences. Yeah, you can tell me to git gud or that I treat this like a crutch or whatever, but it lets me occupy a comfy gameplay space, and I suspect I'm not the only healer main who feels this way. I wish more people would recognize this as a benefit. I'd like to think they designed healers this way on purpose, for this reason.
EDIT MARCH 30: I am not able to keep up with all the responses, since this thread blew up and there are a ton of perspectives being shared. I apologize if my view on healers (especially my TL;DR) comes across as reductive to anyone; I do agree with the broad sentiment that "as a healer, I want to HEAL MY TEAMMATES and the game doesn't always let me engage with that as much as it ought to." I don't think more damage buttons are the solution to that, though. I guess I should maybe lightly amend my perspective to say, while I think that a proper rotation is a bad idea for healers, some more consistent/necessary opportunities to creatively consider and apply healing tools in a meaningful way would be great, and more in-line with the type of complexity healers SHOULD have.

Someone asked me to do this, and I thought it was an interesting idea. I'm not sure anyone will reply at all or not, but I thought it might be worth doing just to see what everyone says. So here are the questions, and the answers are as open-ended as you want to be:

1. Are you satisfied/dissatisfied with the healers currently? What do you like/dislike about them?
2. Do you believe the healers could be betteworse? If so, what would make them betteworse?
3. Would you stop playing healer if the healers received a few more offensive spells?
4. Would you stop playing healer if the healers received a DPS rotation on par with a DPS Job (you will still be expected to attend to all your healing duties while also juggling that rotation)?

There are no right or wrong answers, it's just how you feel. Thank you for your time, and any who take this seriously and give your answers, thank you in advance.
Oh, and if you would, please indicate if you mainly play Healers or if you play mainly something else and more dabble in Healer or if you dual-main/omni-main.Also cross posting here: https://www.reddit.com/ffxivdiscussion/comments/11va5tt/ffxiv_healer_survey/
EDIT: So many responses so far! I may have to stop individually responding, but I'm reading them all and trying to figure out a good way to parse them into results. But thank you so much, everyone, for taking part and to you people who are still answering! I'll try to tally all the results and present them in a concise form once it seems like everyone who wants to take part has done so. Thank you all again!

Can be any, like something fun/weird/annoying/stressfull/boring/etc experience and transition from ARR to HW.
Also something that you missed during those times, like systems/job skill/etc
(2.0-2.55 post) Any ARR 2.0-2.55 players? Tell us your experience during those times

Apparently it's a repeat of the last step where you hand in 1500 tomestones and get a glowing version of the relic weapon this time.
Iam feeling very conflicted about this right now. On one hand the lack of grind content seems very lackluster this time for relics but on the other hand the ease of getting multiple glowing relic weapons with minimal effort is certainly alluring.
Thoughts? Datamining thread for context

Hello. Apologies if the topic of relic content is getting cumbersome. But as a player new to high end content I'm curious on the opinions of veterans and new players alike on this.
Currently the relic weapons are established as more or less catch-up content for the casual playerbase with them being irrelevant for the major portion of a raid tier lifespan in which that relic stage is introduced in. (75% in case of hildi's for 6.2)
I was thinking of making them relevant again by introducing them early on but also making sure that they don't completely overshadow the raid weapons of that tier by reducing their ilvl by 5 when compared to raid weapons. And to break the relic quest progress in 2 while still maintaining the final ilvl.
To put an example : The upcoming i635 weapons are introduced in 6.35 when the 6.2 raidspan is almost 75% complete ( we have another 2 months for 6.4 ) where they are overthrown by 6.4 anyways. And so as an alternative my approach is:

• Introduce them more early. During 6.28 (i.e x.x8 patch after the raid tier releases) instead of 6.35 when the content lull is at its peak.
• Instead of 635 right of the gate instead make it i630
• Make the grind more meaningful than the upcoming Fate spam (suggestions?)
• Introduce another relic quest at 6.35 where you finally upgrade from 630 to 635 with a new glow

This way it'll keep the relic weapon relevant for high end content while also making sure that the raid weapons are not overshadowed. This will only be introduced at new raid tier patches i.e 6.08, 6.28 , 6.48 etc.,
CONS :

• This kinda invalidates the augmented i630 weapons. Unless they offer better stats more people are prone to just taking the relic
• A second grind for just a +5 ilvl could be cumbersome
• The 6.3 ex will become nigh useless weapon wise as the existing relics already offer a better ilvl
• The expectations for a more meaningful grind could lead to SE looking at ARR like book grinds again.

Happy to hear your thoughts/criticisms on this.
Tldr : Introduce relic weapons early. Possibly at a x.x8 of the patch which introduces a raid tier before the next x.x5 patch (at 6.28 instead of 6.35 as 6.2 introduced the new raid tier). The x.x8 relic is -5ilvl of the next x.x5 relic.
Edit : nvm I was mistaken.. ... I was under the assumption that's it's gonna be i635 come 6.35.... Well now it just shortens to make it available at 6.28 itself instead of 6.35

There seems to be a narrative that the recent Ultimates have placed difficult prog wall mechanics at later and later points in the fight timelines. To quote one person "Then you have Wroth Flames and Dynamis: Omega which are like 15 minutes into the fight" I personally don't actually remember when in the fights the big mechanics occurred, so I went through early FFLogs clears for each fight and assembled the data.

Fight Name	Mechanic/Phase	Time
UCOB	Heavensfall Trio cast	8:41
UCOB	Grand Octet cast	10:37
UCOB	Adds phase start	11:30
UCOB	Adds phase end	13:47
UWU	Titan Gaols (Upheaval)	5:55
UWU	Ultimate Suppression cast	12:41
TEA	Limit Cut	2:18
TEA	Wormhole cast	8:17
DSR	Death of the Heavens cast	9:32
DSR	Wroth Flames cast	12:15
TOP	Dynamis Delta cast	9:23
TOP	Dynamis Omega cast	12:14

From this, I can say that TEA was the exception, rather than the rule. Also the biggest surprise is that the deepest prog wall mechanic was actually Ultimate Suppression, which I thought was earlier in the fight.

First off, hello! And second, yes- I know, yet another exploratory zone post on r slash ffxivdiscussion, how daring! But I really don't want this to turn into yet another rant about how we're not getting one this expansion, rather I just want to have a productive discussion on the design and future of this content.
However, I do have to admit upfront that I am most definitely biased. Next to raiding exploratory zones are the largest portion of content that I consume in this game- yes I still interact with pretty much all other content, but when I'm tired, sad or bored I'm pretty much always right back in Eureka or Bozja. This bias is what made me curious about other peoples opinions and thoughts.
With that out of the way, lets cut to the chase:

What are your largest issues with current exploratory content design?

I think the my personal largest issues are: easing new players into this type of content for the first time, misplaced grinds, and relic weapons.

How could / should these issues be remedied in the future?

• Easing new players in: I think that there should be a "sprout" system, either optional or forced, when someone enters a zone for the first time. Place a symbol over their head and give established players a reason to party up with them and help them. Even if there is no bonus attached I think just having a "Hey, I'm new!" symbol would go far, look at how the sprout has helped new players ease into the game as a whole.
  
• Misplaced grinds - What I mean by this is placing grinds or RNG within certain components of this content that by all means should not be there. Just using a random example, essences in Bozja. It was so common to see people just not use essences in both DR and the field because "I don't wanna farm them", "I don't have money to buy clusters", and "I don't know how to get them." Basic essences should have been purchasable with the bronze Bozja coins in every base camp, there's no reason people should have to farm for clusters to try for a chance to get a basic essence that works on their class.
  
• Relic Weapons - I think this is a contentious point for most, some don't want to be forced to do exploratory content to get the expansions relic weapon (Eureka), while others are frustrated that running content outside of the zones the weapons were built around is the most efficient way to grind (Bozja). If SE ever intermingles Relics and Exploratory zones again they NEED to have parity between both systems so it is equally as efficient to grind choosing either option.
  

And do you think SE will return to this form of content in 7.0 and beyond?

The optimist in me says: Hopefully. The pessimist in me says: Why would they create this content that requires new zones, enemies, bosses, raids, etc. when their most recent expansion had none of that and sold just as well? I'm not saying that we're never going to get one again... But I'm definitely nervous for that possibility.
Anyways, I leave it to you all- I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on all of this whether you're a die hard fan or cannot stand the content!

Note to Mods: This post was originally made 2 weeks ago but removed due to the 2 week rule. Dmed the mods and they are okay this doesn't break the 2 week rule
Introduction
Final Fantasy XIV is an MMORPG that after being rebooted from its failed 1.0 version has gone on to become one of the biggest MMORPG games out there. This post is the tale of one specific part of this game, its Ultimate Raids, and the ultimate story of the drama surrounding the race to be the world's first team to beat it.
What is an Ultimate Raid?
For those without experience playing FFXIV or even an MMORPG, it’s difficult to explain in specific detail why completing one is such an achievement, but I shall try regardless.
A raid in FFXIV is composed of eight players and usually focuses on defeating a single enemy. Each player in a raid has a specific job to play and for an ultimate, they have to play it to perfection with some jobs reaching 40+ actions per minute. To give you an idea of just how manic it gets here is a video of a Ninja playing properly against a training dummy.
Now imagine doing this whilst the boss is madly flinging attacks at you like this. How do you understand what the fuck is going on? Here take this guide) that goes on for pages and pages just to understand what you need to do. You might also be asking how do I play my class properly? Here take this other guide that goes on for pages and pages, have fun getting the muscle memory down for 20+ actions!
Now imagine doing that for hours a day a few days a week for possibly months to beat a fight that lasts up to ~19 minutes that will take you hundreds of attempts to understand.
That is ultimate difficulty raiding in FFXIV.
I cannot understate just how gruelling an endeavour it is on one person and the wider raid team. Everyone has a part to play, and it must be played to near perfection. Just one player not getting it, just one player not playing their class well enough can increase the number of failures and amount of personal attrition among raid members. Many teams will throw in the towel, rage quit or completely implode before seeing the end of an ultimate.
And world first raiders beat these ultimate raids in less than a week. With no guide to speak of, unpaid and for no reward other than virtual street cred and a shiny stick. In a race the community host, and drive.
And yet, it has been this community-sanctioned race that has been the source of one of the saltiest tales of drama in FFXIV. Why? Because raiders can’t stop using mods.
Part 1: The Modding problem
Mods are unofficial add-ons to a game, and they can improve the game in many useful ways. But they can also be used to make a raid much easier than it would be.
Now the FFXIV community has a very strange and at times inconsistent attitude towards Mods regarding the world first race. In a game like WoW the world first race requires mods, there is no getting around it and it is to a degree accepted. In FFXIV however it is heavily looked down upon by the community, officially not permitted at all by the devs in any capacity and yet, it is not enforced by any intrusive anti-cheat to speak of.
To make matters more complicated the community does not consider all mods to be bad. One of the most popular mods: The ACT Damage Parser which compiles very useful player performance metrics is accepted by the community in high-level raids despite it going against the game’s terms of service. In fact, ACT-related Bans usually only happen due to people bullying perceived low-performance players with ACT-collected metrics. You can even see ACT in nearly all videos (It’s in the bottom right corner) of world first clears and no punishment is handed out for having its performance metrics on display by the devs.
Now you may be asking why is the official developer stance not enforced? The answer is: It's extremely hard to do so. The definition of what an external tool is can go as far as using Discord, or an excel spreadsheet to compile damage metrics off your in-game battle log and banning people off that is just insane.
What this has led to is a situation where all the world first clears end up to some degree using mods to make beating an ultimate raid easier, with policing by the devs seemingly being done on community outrage or egregious displays of mod use. This is a situation that has got progressively worse and worse as teams push the limit on what mods are considered okay with the playerbase.
Part 2: The Epic of Alexander Ultimate (TEA)
And so our story begins with the third ultimate fight released, the only one added in the Shadowbringers expansion, TEA. See what was unusual about the world first clear for TEA was it was fast. So fast, that the world second clear took two more days to happen. To show why this was such a big deal here is the world first clear times for all ultimates:

• (Stormblood) The Unending Coil of Bahamut : 11 Days, 22 Hours
• (Stormblood) The Weapons Refrain : 5 Days, 3 Hours
• (Shadowbringers) The Epic of Alexander : 3 days, 21 Hours
• (Endwalker) The Dragonsongs Reprise : 6 Days, 2 Hours
• (Endwalker) The Omega Protocol : 6 Days, 8 Hours (Currently Disputed)

The team that achieved this Thoughts Per Second (TPS) were in a league of their own at this time and to this day holds multiple world firsts for savage raids under their belt. But, in their clear video it was apparent that they were using a mod that moved their waymarks, a useful visual aid that is often used to enable better player positioning. Why this upset a few people is because it was not practically possible to do this mid-fight without mods. Using a mod to auto-place waymarks gave TPS an edge as they could more easily refer to safe parts of the arena during the fight than if they didn’t have a mod auto-placing waymarks. In theory, reducing deaths and making progress through the raid easier.
And so angry people online did what angry people online do. Make death threats to TPS members and spread what I can only describe as virtual conspiracy theories to explain just how TPS got world first. A favourite one of mine is 'they used a private server'. This got regurgitated by angry nerds for years and eventually, Yoshi P, the producer and director of FFXIV addressed this directly as being simply impossible.
In the end, it was eventually hard coded into the game that waymarks could not be placed again during a fight. However, the momentum against the modding world first teams began being sown in the wake of TPS’ clear and as we shall see got worse with the next ultimate…
PART 3: The Dragonsongs Reprise Ultimate (DSR)
The gap between the release of TEA and DSR was unusually long as getting the Endwalker expansion finished was the greater priority over finishing DSR. By the time DSR came out ~2 years after TEA the player base had changed drastically for a few reasons. First the release of Endwalker, the biggest FFXIV expansion yet, second a massive increase in streamer coverage and finally a coinciding invasion of literal video game refugees (No I am not making this up) from World of Warcraft. The events are explained in excellent detail by Rumbleskim’s /HobbyDrama post here.
Anticipation was high and the audience was bigger than ever, and what was released ended up being the longest and hardest ultimate ever, with the added surprise of having a 2-minute-long door boss (A boss that must be beaten before the real 19-minute-long fight begins). There would be no fast clear this time. What followed release day was a gruelling weeklong slog as individual teams did hundreds upon hundreds of pulls to clear this brutal 8 phase fight ), a fight that also contained a puzzle that must be solved, otherwise, you would not see past the first few phases.
Though leaks would arrive with the final boss’ model being leaked, the community patiently awaited the news of the clear and inevitably, one team was triumphant, and it wasn’t TPS (mostly). Neverland, a joint EU/NA team with one former TPS member had achieved the clear in 6 days and 2 hours!
However, celebrations were quickly subdued by the clear video, because, once again, the world first team was using mods! So, the community does what it does, furiously debate the integrity of Neverland and also makes death threats to its members. Oh, and they shit on TPS for losing the race because of course unhinged FFXIV players did that.
It is also worth me mentioning a lot of fury came from the Japanese community who held more fervent anti-cheat rhetoric than western players, something that may be relevant later….
What people took issue with was Neverland using a mod that provided timers on their buffs and debuffs (Essentially good and bad status effects like player damage up or down for example, you can see it in the top right of the clear video) and custom triggers, a feature of ACT that provides audio help in an ultimate raid. Typically, it tells the raid team what to do during certain boss actions making them easier to resolve.
Hang on though. Bit of a plot twist but custom triggers have been used in previous world first races multiple times, why are they now an issue? Well as I mentioned playerbase demographics had changed with a massive influx of new players and many were blissfully unaware of the culture of mod use high-end raiders held.
This time Yoshi P, producer and director of FFXIV provided muted congratulations alongside a stern warning to not use mods. Temporary bans ended up being issued to two Neverland members over mod use and mass reporting of a streamer using mods also resulted in a temporary suspension. The community was out for bans and none more so than the Japanese playerbase.
And now we lead into the true storm of drama, one that would hit news outlets across the gaming sphere. The bringers of this new drama would stir up the biggest ultimate controversy yet. It is now time for the final chapter in the tale of ultimate raiding in FFXIV.
PART 4: The Omega Protocol Ultimate (TOP)
The wait between DSR and TOP was much shorter at ~9 months. Sadly, TPS would disband over this period.
However, TOP like DSR would not be immune to leaks. The first leak was Initially of the end cinematic, obtained through some clever packet spoofing that spoiled the ending cinematic for many. Another leak somehow came from the dev team itself and showed off the fifth phase of the Ultimate from a player in god mode.
As the days wore on more problems arose such as players hitting the in-game buff limit, stifling some players mid-fight as they were unable to apply essential class buffs. However, this didn’t stop the inevitable clear and after 6 days and 8 hours of fighting, clocking in at six hours longer than DSR the Japanese team _UNAMED had claimed the world first. Victory In hand they announced their win and hauled up to the game's most populated city. They then slept through the night, their characters AFK with their hard-won glowing sticks in hand.
Little did they know as the night progressed, divine punishment was on its way, from a YouTube channel called 天罰 (Translation: Divine Punishment). Here is the reuploaded video. Who posted the video and why remains unclear. A common theory is it came from a reserve player who makes vocal callouts and strategy calls who was unhappy in some way with the _UNAMED team.
Whatever the reason, this video showed the world's first team using a zoom mod, a mod that allowed the camera to zoom out past the in-game limit. This is not good because an increase in zoom limits also brought better situational awareness for _UNAMED and in turn gave them an edge in completing the race first. Those JP players that sent death threats to Neverland previously In DSR? Yeah, they were not happy…
Immediately swarms of maximum height, maximum buff, maximum bald Roegadyn males (The swolest race in FFXIV) descended on the _UNAMED player's avatars as they slept with names ranging from ‘Zoom Chan’ to ‘Zoom Dameyo’, a strange protest tactic used by Japanese players to denounce poor behaviour by other players that originated from FF11. Memes, memes and more memes were spawned in the wake of the revelations and community outrage over ultimate cheating reached levels unseen. One member of the _UNAMED team, in the face of the community backlash, would end up deleting their character, a move that I would say is the equivalent of willingly deleting hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of in-game work. Though the crazy FFXIV players cared little for this. Which is made even crazier by the fact this player who deleted their account was not even part of the TOP world first! They were part of _UNAMED's previous Savage raid world first?!
Another would make a very poorly recieved statement claiming the video was leaked and not maliciously uploaded by a channel called 'Divine Punishment' and they used mods because western players do it too. The original tweet doesn't exist anymore, guess the reason.
Eventually, the producer and director of FFXIV Yoshi P had to respond. In a very disappointed tone, he explained to the masses in detail the causes of the aforementioned leaks and reiterated the stance that mods are not allowed, and those that used them would be punished.
Finally, he said he considered _UNAMED, not the true world first if it was proven they used mods to achieve it.
As time wore on each of the _UNAMED players found themselves in GM jail, a place reserved for those that have been a naughty boy or girl on FFXIV. The GM (Think of a GM as video game police) informed the _UNAMED players that their ‘Alpha Legend’ title and achievement would be revoked. Though they could not prove they all used mods, because they achieved the world first with people who did use mods, their clear was considered invalid. They then politely asked that the players throw away their newly won weapons, one of the most coveted awards from an Ultimate.
Epilogue
Though Neverland would clear TOP after _UNAMED, the damage had been done and who could claim a world first that was accepted by the community and dev team remains unclear to this day as there is no good way to completely verify a team’s integrity. This multi-year saga of drama is the story of a community coming to a collective realisation that this meme encapsulates perfectly.
That world first raiders do use mods, will use mods and shall continue to do so community outrage be dammed. Because there is no anti-cheat that enforces the devs anti-mod stance and no way to 100% prove a clear is mod free unless all eight members stream the entire raid all week long. This is something many world first teams are very reluctant to do as it would give their opponents useful information on the inner workings of parts of the raid they have difficulty with.
The culture in high end play to use mods intrinsically compromises the integrity of the community organised world first race that is done for charity. There is no easy solution, an intrusive anti-cheat would cause outrage, a properly policed world first race is a very difficult task and relying on a code of honour to not cheat has gone so well for everyone up till now.
Even an official dev supported world first would still encounter the issue of finding a way to police the race properly. There is no easy solution and where the game and community go with the world first race looks unsure, with Yoshi P questioning the point of developing more ultimate raids if people are just going to cheat.
Will the ultimate raid come back? Will yet another world first team use mods again? Will the community continue to make death threats to world first raiding teams?
Find out next year with the release of the next ultimate!
If it happens ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Note from OP: If there are any mistakes or errors I have made please let me know and I’ll correct them. I had to look in a lot of old forum/social media threads to piece this tale together. Thank you for reading!

Less than a week after the previous drama, we have fresh new drama in FFXIV subreddits and some others, as while putting this post together, I found non-XIV threads.
This time, GShade, a popular tool used for expanding graphical settings and more was updated today. However, this update contained anti-tampering coding which, if the tool was used in a very specific manner, IE not an intended one, force the user's PC to restart. By the developer's own words, paraphrased, it was "to teach a young coder a lesson" due to disapproving of their modifications to his (GShade) plugin.
A couple of subs have reacted, and there's fighting over it!
Also note this has drama on Twitter and XIV-related discords. GPOSERS, a popular community for GPosing (Group Posing, aka taking custom screenshots inside FFXIV) is distancing themselves from GShade, and the dev of the mod has been banned from at least the FFXIV Discord.
The fighting on these two may spill to Reddit, as there's accusations of ex-staff member(s) involved in GPOSERS (as I understand it) engaging in attempted sexual advances on underage users.
ffxivdiscussion
Unddit
ffxiv
Unddit
Square Enix's statement on Third Party Tools, issued by Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P), Director+Producer of XIV
GuildWars2
Unddit
Downvoted:
ffxivdiscussion: One user believes it's not a big deal and that it's not malware
ffxivdiscussion: One user states it's why you shouldn't use third party tools
ffxivdiscussion: Arguments over the definition of malware
ffxivdiscussion: WoW is brought up
ffxivdiscussion: Minecraft is brought up
GuildWars2: Poster raging about downvotes
ffxiv: User accuses a dev of being a chronically online 16 year old
ffxiv: User claims there's nothing to see
ffxiv: User asks for a dragon nuke
ffxiv: User claims shaders are cheating
ffxiv: User compares cheating mods to shader mods
Notable:
ffxiv: Discussion about what discords the developer was and wasn't banned from
ffxiv: Discussion over the legality of this
Upvoted:
ffxivdiscussion: User explains, in a simple way, what happened
ffxivdiscussion: User reminds the sub that Yoshi-P warned people about this
ffxiv: User posts longer explanation of the drama
ffxiv: User brings up Marot (GShade dev's) history
Flairs!
Upgrading ToS to Termination of Service
Malware is standard modder behavior
Illegal Russian CCP FFXIV Modding
Dragon Nuke, please
Modus Operandi: pettiness fueling bad decisions
XIV modding makes theater kids sane
gg the evil is gone
Please tell us why he's a bad, bad boy.

We're continuing this series for awhile as no streamer has cleared yet, let alone seen the entire fight.
Please try to keep most discussion of the UNNAMED_ stuff to the other threads created for the topic, such as this one.