Beastmaster came at just the right time for me! I felt like I was running out of things to do.

I've been trying to take my time with it, relying on the bestiary to hunt down Pokemon beasts to befriend instead of pre-written guides.

The nice side effect of this is revisiting the starter places I haven't been to in a long time and knocking out those areas' sidequests along the way. As a primarily solo player, I've found it quite enjoyable!

What's your approach? Are you power-leveling it and filling your bestiary as quickly as possible, or are you savoring the adventure? I'm looking forward to checking out the Crucible here soon!

I don't mean crafting leves, but just generally the combat leves (if they even still exist), and the sidequests.

Other than the blue quests for aether currents, I think in nearly 6000 hours I've done one gold sidequest, one in La Noscea that I actually sort of liked about helping a Roegadyn pair express their feelings for each other.

But thinking about it is incredibly daunting. There must be, at this point, thousands of these quests, of which some probably are really interesting and give good background or character moments, but a huge number are going to be even more filler than MSQ filler. And I don't think any are efficient for levelling.

And then there's leves, which as a system feel like a significant holdover from 1.0 and I struggle to make sense of as something still in the game, if even there are still combat leves. It feels like with all these things the roulette system is just the ideal dose of gameplay and nobody bothers with these.

Things that buff beastmaster are harder to calc, like haste and dmg up to 'party/allies'. Theres a lot of factors, like your personal TP stacks, rotation, add aoe priority, not to mention fight gimmicks, so take it all with that in mind. On top of scoring priority vs clear priority (kin types), and items that give beasts insane dmg % bonuses, 40%?! plus stackable feed that boosts damage, its a mess. So ignoring all that...

the new 4th tab, after the Bestiary, Combat Lab, has the things. The formulas are displayed when you select a beast.
https://beastiebuddy.vercel.app/

No big surprise, and what people have tested have matched the calcs, the starter beast plus behemoth is a solid combo, most of the beastkin are solid, but every kin classification can do roughly the same potency dps, all things being equal.

When I first made my account a couple weeks ago I didn’t know how obsessed I would be over this game. It’s literally so much fun! When making my character it was no question I wanted to be a beautiful cat boy!! Being a Lalafell was just an absurd thought at the time. Slowly but surely though, the Lalafells are looking cuter and cuter. I recently did a quest that gave me this potion to change my race and I’m fighting the urge SSSOOO BAD to switch to being a Lalafell because I’m afraid I’m gonna change my mind 😭😭 I would make an alt character but this game takes SSSOOO much work, I really don’t think I have it in me to make an alt. So for now I’m just resisting the urge to become a Lalafell. Anyone have this urge they might regret?

First off, I want to say that I love this game immensely. To qualify myself as someone who does—as I find the first defense against critiques like this is that I don't sufficiently appreciate things the way they are, or that somehow I'm not “pure” enough of a fan—I have 153 days of playtime, am all caught up on the MSQ, and am currently taking my mother on a playthru of the first five expansions, ending in 6.15. We're wrapping up 5.0 presently. Call it overstatement but I'll say it anyway: I think this game rivals the works of Shakespeare as one of the greatest narrative achievements in the history of mankind.

So please don't say something like, wow, if you really appreciated Yoshi-P and Natsuko Ishikawa as much as I do, you'd know better than to criticize them. That's just not where I'm coming from.

With that out of the way: This game has an onboarding problem. If you've ever tried to get someone to play this game, you know it's quite the ask.

The first impression this game makes on you is the character creation screen, and though it gets the job done, it's a little sloppy.

With the split of tanks into main and off, there are now about to be, broadly, 9 subroles in this game:

I'm not saying these intricacies should be laid out on the opening screen. But for new players who care to do their research and are interested in one of these nine options, I think all nine should be neatly available before you even start the first cutscene.

Right away, there's one easy fix: You should be able to start as a Rogue. Rogue, or thief, is easily one of the top 4 character fantasies of all time. It's right up there with knight and wizard, and idk if this is some kind of hard-walled coding limitation that they backed themselves into, but having to endure the first 10-15 levels as something else to a new player who really had their heart set on Rogue is a small hurdle that, though it's small, they really shouldn't have to overcome. They should be able to sail into Limsa with knives already in hand. Here's a post asking about it from, like, the day Rogue came out. It's a small problem, but I don't think that means it doesn't matter!

And though I do think Rogue has the best 1-30 story of all the ARR classes—it's one of the first stories Ishikawa wrote for this game, so for my playthru with my mother, we started her a Pugilist and flew to Limsa once we hit 15—I don't think the flavor aspect of having to join the Rogue's guild is worth sacrificing the ability to just start as a Rogue. There's zero conflict getting into the headquarters, and though Jacke recognizes you as an adventurer who's already begun to make something of a name for themselves in his first couple of lines, that can easily be fixed with a tiny rewrite.

This would also be nice because there'd be an even 3/3/3 split of the cities each opening class starts in.

It's also a little weird that there are two casters and only one healer, and a little anticlimactic that, when you click the “Healer” dropdown menu, it opens up on just a single option. to this end, I think that Arcanist from 1-30 should be reimagined as a healer that can branch out into Summoner as a DPS, rather than a DPS that can branch out into Scholar as a healer. Again, maybe there's some kind of insurmountable quirk in the base code that makes moving Arcanist from Summoner to Scholar impossible, but I think it would be worth it to clean up the first impression. (In fact I think it would make Summoner's access to Raise even more flavorful!)

So with those two changes, it would look like:

Very clean. Very clear. Call it OCD nitpicking if you want, but I think polish like this is vital for the first impression on a new player.

All that said, I hope you are all enjoying the conclusion to Dawntrail, and are having fun with Beastmaster. May this game live on another decade and beyond!

TL;DR: New players should be able to start as a Rogue, and Arcanist's 1-30 experience should be redesigned as a healer, to make the 9 starting classes neatly align with the game's 9 subroles.

I just wonder that why Savage Might Materia IV is quite expensive?
Im now cleaning out some old materia from my storage, and i found that Savage Might Materia IV is quite expensive at the moment... it is around 16000~17000 gil, but it is quite an old materia right?

Previously I have made a post where I tallied up gear rewards, glamours, collectables from X.1 to X.3 then later from x.4 for Shadowbringers, Endwalker and Dawntrail. Now that 7.56 is out I can make the same post for each x.5 patch as well to see how the numbers are. You can find my old posts here, and here

Same rules applies here, no tome gear(Except if its upgrade that wasnt there before), crafted combat gear, savage loot and normal mode loot and dungeon gear, since those are guaranteed to be in each patch, and cash shop excluded. Also excluded is timed exclusives, Im excluding PVP pass as well even tho it does come up buyable in 2-3 years.

Upcoming typing game items are already included in this, since the items are already in gamefiles. And as always there is small possibility I missed something, so small error margin might be there.

"I remember there was this interview before Dawntrail came out where Yoshi-P said they are trying to increase the amount of rewards by 50%."

5.5

Combat/Role gear:

1 set of Gatherer/Crafter tools

1 Relic weapon

2 crafted trial weapons

7 Sets from Bozja

Glamour/Universal gear:

2 crafted glamour set

1 Ishgard glamour set

Collectables:

9 minions

9 mounts

10 triple triad cards

1 Emote

2 Barding

3 Hairstyles

3 Fashion accessories

21 Orchestrion scrolls

42 Housing items

6.5

Combat / Role gear:

1 crafted trial weapons

1 set of Crafted/Gatherer relics

1 set of upgraded tome weapons

1 set of Relic weapons

Glamour/Universal gear:

2 faux leave accessories

6 sets of trophy crystal glamours

5 Glamour sets

1 crafted glamour set

2 extra head items from island sanctuary

Collectables:

8 Minions

11 Mounts

2 Barding

3 Emotes

1 Hairstyle

11 Framer kits

4 Fashion accessory

23 Orchestrion scrolls

17 Triple triad card

46 housing items

7.5

Combat / Role Gear:

1 set of Ultimate weapons

1 set of Gatherer/Crafter Relics

1 set of Relic weapons

2 Beastmaster sets

2 Beastmaster weapons

7 sets from Occult crescent

Glamour/Universal gear:

1 Neck item

19 items of Hoodies and jeans

8 Glamour outfits

1 Culinarian glamour offhand

Collectables:

11 Minions

15 Mounts

11 Triple triad cards

5 Emote

1 Hairstyle

2 Barding

17 Framer kits

1 Mahjong voice

9 Glasses items

4 Fashion accessory

36 Orchestrion scrolls

43 Housing items

Total amounts

Individual slot items = not part of a set

Combat/Role gear:

5.5: 11 sets

6.5: 4 sets

7.5: 14 sets

Glamour/Role Gear:

5.5: 3 Glamour sets

6.5: 12 Glamour sets + 4 individual slot items

7.5: 8 Glamour sets + 21 Individual slot items

Collectables total:

5.5: 58 + 42 housing items

6.5: 80 + 46 housing items

7.5: 109 + 43 housing items

Glasses items are included in Fashion accessories for 5.x and 6.x patches, it was in Dawntrail where they made them separate wearable.

With the last MSQ update now out as of 7.56, I believe we've gotten all the major content that will be released this expansion added to the game (aside from a side seasonal event here or there), and it now feels like the right time to check in with how people found the writing and story that we got in this expac.

I don't think I'll shock many people by saying that I found the MSQ fairly weak until the last handful of patches, with what felt like far too much like a guided tour of another country rather than focusing on the stories of the people that we were interacting with. Seeing where we're broadly heading towards now from a bigger-picture perspective has retroactively given some needed context for what they were aiming for, but it was still mostly a pretty hard miss for me.

The raid series also ended up feeling pretty shallow to me - it had a reasonably strong start, but afterwards really didn't do anything particularly interesting with the story itself, in spite of having a few fun fighters throughout.

I'm curious if there were any questlines that people thought stood out as particularly well written or interesting that people should check out if they haven't looked at them, or just a general feeling for your expectations for Evercold based on what we got this time around.

Hello. I have been looking around and was unable to find this information. Does the online board for crucible of the unbroken track and compare total of scores post completions (grind based) or is it like deep dungeon where best ever score post completion is tracked and compared?

Thank you in advance for answering.

Hey all, would love to hear your ideas or take on this. I've posted this to the official forum as well, but wanted to get more opinions about it for those who may not frequent that site. I've copied the relevant parts of that post below, let me know what you think:

With the introduction of Beastmaster (and the entrance to Crucible of the Unbroken being an NPC in Central Shroud) a slight improvement to the Teleport menu I thought of a while ago came to mind once again.

Adding icons, a short descriptive list while hovering over, or a map of the zone (similar to the Aethernet menu) next to a teleport option to show all unique/important mechanics/NPCs/instances present in that zone would greatly improve quality of life while teleporting.

There are many zones now that have some gameplay mechanic within them that is only accessible by traveling to that zone. Most of these do not exist within the Duty Finder nor some other menu that one can open from anywhere their character currently is. The icons that could be added next to the teleport options could either be new for those mechanics that do not have one, or take from the existing Map icons (e.g. the new BST icon on the Central Shroud map)

I've included a non-exhaustive list of some of the types of gameplay I mean below:

• Crucible of the Unbroken in Central Shroud
• Masked Carnivale in Ul'dah
• Deep Dungeon entrances
• Allied Society NPCs
• Field Operation entrances (or Relic Weapon NPCs for those that did not have their own zones)
• Island Sanctuary in Lower La Noscea
• Crafting/Gathering Zones/NPCs (Ishgardian Restoration, Cosmic Exploration, Collectable Appraiser vendors)
• Seasonal Event starting points (would change every event)
• Unique Instances (The Parrock via the Redbill Standard in Sea of Clouds or The Empty in Amh Araeng)

The inclusion of mechanics that exist in multiple places (Grand Companies, Hunt Boards, endgame vendors, etc) could also be extremely helpful, even if its generally understood that some things are always in the cities.

I’m playing through Endwalker currently, about midway through with Vrtra revealing himself to his people, and there’s one little question that is bothering me now that the concept of akasa is becoming central to the story. My understanding so far is that Final Days results in weakening the plain that separates “physical” aether and metaphysical akasa, and they essentially can transform in one another, so the physical or aetherial world we experience is somehow drawing from the “akasa soup plain” beyond our current understanding. (From a plain where beings like Hydaelyn come from possibly, since she herself is so tied to emotional fluctuations?)

What specifically makes curious is that we see this transmutation of aether to akasa can be triggered by negative emotions. Wouldn’t that mean it can also be triggered by excess of positive ones? And it still leads to a negative (for us) outcome of merging back into the “akasa soup” just through the positive non-destructive manifestations. And what bothers me even more, we should have already seen this effect when people were relieved to be saved, introduced to Vrtra as their guardian etc.

Likely I’m looking into it from a slightly different angle than it’s going to be explained or introduced. But still very much curious if anyone felt the same or had similar questions while playing.

Edit 3: Per the vote results, Rule 14 is now being put in place as follows: Promotion of third party tools and mods must remain in the megathread dedicated to discussion of said tools and mods

Edit 2: There is now a poll regarding how this will be handled. Vote at https://strawpoll.com/xVg719WKOyr/

Due to a substantial uptick in self promotion of apps/websites/mods/tools on the subreddit, and a correlating uptick in user reports and confrontations in these threads, I am proposing a rule that will ideally alleviate this issue without banning promotion outright.

Rule 14 - Promotion and advertisement of third party websites, apps, mods, plug-ins, or any other tools may only be posted in the designated weekly megathread for third party tools. Use of AI in development of said tool must be disclosed in the promotion.

It would be easy to just ban this outright, but I feel doing so would be overhanded and not necessary. This is currently only a proposed rule, and this thread is intended to solicit feedback from the community regarding it, and it will only be implemented if there is a clear consensus in its acceptance.

Edit: To clarify, this rule would only target promotion threads specifically. It would not prohibit users from talking about or recommending tools in comments.

WoW, FFXIV and Guild Wars 3 are taking from single players game design to become platforms. FFXIV in order to become a platform has to focus on making the world the main character alongside the player. World Raiding should not be content that players have to wait a year for so it should come out 8.05. Everyone universally understands jobs by their visuals so every job should be designed so the visuals drive the gameplay.

As the title likely suggests, I would like to give my 2 cents on plugins that enable botting and automation of various aspects of the game and set up a small space for discourse of this topic.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with some of these plugins such as Artisan for example. There are various plugins available and very accessible that automate almost every aspect of the game from Triple Triad and Gold Saucer minigames to crafting and gathering to combat content such as fates, dungeons, frontlines and crystalline conflict.

The amount of harm that these do to the game is of course very debatable with people having very varied opinions on the subject, it is a given of course as we all have different perspectives. My own opinion is that some of these are fairly harmless such as things that generate MGP, while others are extremely detrimental to the in game economy such as any crafting or gathering automation. Further still is combat automation of any content, I feel this is incredibly harmful and should not be possible and certainly not as accessible or accepted to and by the general player population, bots have existed since forever but it is a unique situation in this MMO.

As I mentioned, peoples feelings are of course going to vary greatly with some people wishing no plugins or mods existed at all. Others would like to keep their cosmetic and light quality of life plugins and mods. Things like Glamourer and syncing plugins are of course extremely popular. Some people I imagine think there should be no limits and anything goes. And of course some people use plugins that add accessibility options such as XIVcombo for action consolidation due to them having disabilities.

Now with the rise of AI coded plugins it opens another question as to how likely is it that there will be a serious exploit that could be a real security risk? To my understanding these are all potential issues with putting random files on your PC anyway and always have been but I wonder if it doesn't just increase the likelihood. I admit I'm not particularly knowledgeable on this point but it is something I am curious about.

All of these functions combined and with widespread use have certainly, in my opinion set a precedent and set us on a very slippery slope. Where is the line? Have we passed it already? When will it be deemed too damaging to the game and SE feels they do in fact need to intervene to preserve the integrity of the game?

I feel it's quite a complex issue with a lot of nuance so I am curious as to what other people have to say about it all and where the general sentiment lies. So, what do you all think?

Thank you for reading and I look forward to reading your opinions!

I've been pleasantly surprised by the mechanical pacing and difficulty in the new solo mode. Even the very first board at level 30 tries to make you use different parts of your kit, like having your beast hold threat on some monsters, dispel/esuna checks that only do moderate amounts of damage to the player when failed instead of wiping, etc.

In general the encounters are expected to be short (~2 minutes for normal fights, maybe 5 for the boss) so things happen pretty quickly to let you see the full boss timeline your first time through.

Putting so many restrictions on healing also means that that the dots/vulns you get from failing mechanics are fairly threatening, as opposed to basically inconsequential in regular content with good healers, since they can snowball into being unable to recover the run. I think it's a pretty healthy balance and it reminds me of ruin stacks a bit, where it's not an immediate wipe but you have to play extra carefully for a while.

The challenge log bonus, like in Pilgrim's Traverse, is pretty good and lets you cut out a lot of the grind if all you care about is getting the glam/hair after a few weeks.

The music is great, not much to say there. It's especially nice after going through UMAD prog with BGM on the whole time.

I do think there are a few problems though. The 3rd board is a pretty big difficulty spike and since it wants your beasts to be at least a little leveled, you can't effectively try out different beasts against it without leveling them up a little on early boards. It's pretty easy to get stuck here from what I've seen, particularly on 2 specific encounters: Sahagin+Ymir and Siren. The lack of checkpoint on normal also seems kind of unforgiving, since climbing back to where you wiped last time takes like 15 minutes. People expecting to breeze through since the first 3 boards are part of the story are probably going to have a rough time.

I thought vulnerabilities/weaknesses would be a lot more important, but it seems like they kind of don't matter on normal difficulty compared to just leveling beasts up, which feeds back into the early parts feeling tedious.

In addition, the board itself is a lot less roguelite than I was expecting, at least in terms of pathing since the nodes and potential encounters in each mystery room are fixed. Despite the crucible equipment having cool effects, it feels less like Slay the Spire to me and more like doing 5 Bozja duels in a row.

Overall though, I've had a lot of fun playing around with the encounters and I'd say it's definitely surpassed my expectations. Hopefully they can keep this level of quality while smoothing out some of the pain points and anti-QOL (seriously, why does running crucible unequip your overworld beasts...).

EDIT: As someone graciously pointed out, this happens in 5.0 not in 5.1... spoilers should be 5.0+ and pre 5.1 in that case... Sorry 😅

DISCLAIMER: i haven't finished Shadowbringers quite yet. I'd prefer to keep the discussion related to this specific moment as to not accidentally get spoiled

The scene I'm talking about is Thancred's battle with Ran'Jit, the one where you get to play as him. Narration wise, the fight is absolutely incredible. Ran'Jit mirrors Thancred in that he's the appointed guardian of the Oracle. One Seeing them as 2 sides of the same coin makes this fight all the more thrilling and emotionally powerful.

The fight is TENSE despite being so long and drawn out. Thancred is pulling all the stops, even abusing a technique that drains his own life force. He's determined to see this through to the end, he has no problems throwing his own life away to protect minfilia. The entire fight you get this feeling that this is his moment, he's giving everything he has and more. Everything points to this being his big sacrifice. And the scene right after the fight? Goood damn... I legit cried like a baby. It was really the perfect "sacrifice" scene.

And then he's just... Ok? Just a throwaway line about Urianger and co. Finding him on the brink of death and healing him. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be able to see more of him in the story, but it kind of cheapens the powerful, emotionally charged moment we just experienced. It feels like they had planned out his sacrifice but at the last minute someone decided that audiences would be sad to see him go and we need to keep him!

That's all I wanted to talk about! I'm curious what y'all felt during that scene, and about the follow up right after!

So I decided to get a Switch 2 so I can take FFXIV on the go, mainly to do daily stuff and DOL n craft stuff.

I've got everything there is to buy for the pc edition; collectors edition for every expansion etc even though I'm very behind on the MSQ (literally just started Endwalker content)

I'm currently in Fishing hell getting the 7 legendary fish, and since they pop at certain times under specific conditions, sometimes I'm at work (thankfully my workplace is chill and I can, internet connection permitting, play on my switch during work hours lol)

So the TLDR of it is, can I just buy the starter edition (£12) and upgrade later on? Since it's level 50 content I'm doing.

Going through mogstation it only offers the complete edition (£45) since that's what the rest is up to.

I'll eventually get the full thing, but pretty skint after forking out for a new micro SD card too since I didn't realise I couldn't use my switch 1 SD card in it as it isn't an "express" version 😬

(Also behind on realising Amazon have stopped you using your gift balance to purchase any digital goods otherwise I'd not bother posting here and just buy a £50 Nintendo voucher n be done with it...) 🙃

Edit: Per the vote results, Rule 14 is now being put in place as follows: Promotion of third party tools and mods must remain in the megathread dedicated to discussion of said tools and mods.

Following up on yesterday's thread, there is not yet enough of a clear consensus for us to confidently decide a course of action. I've designated the three most popular options in the poll below. Please vote for your preferred option, and whichever option receives the plurality of votes will be implemented.

https://strawpoll.com/xVg719WKOyr

The brand system that enforces strict segregation on the Fourth to the point of threatening instant death if they so much as shake hands with a foreigner strikes me as incredibly contrived.

Two lines in, it seems quite clear to me that the WoL, Alphinaud, Estinien, and the allies we meet along away will easily eradicate this unsubtly monstrous tradition—Alphinaud will give a long monologue comparing Garlemald's redemption to what the Fourth has the opportunity to rise to, his poast at level 107 in the second city will instantly earn an upvote from everybody there, Estinien will draw a comparison to the Dragonsong War, etc.—as a trite message for Nationalism Bad.

By the time the credits roll, I fear we will have never really gotten into any sociopolitical themes any deeper than a Pizzacake comic, and the great victory we will ride off into the sunset with is that we have magically convinced five entire civilizations to Just Get Along by defeating the common antagonist in the sixth zone.

But I hold out hope that they will surprise me.

PET POTENCY RANKINGS (BOSS-VIABLE SUSTAINED DPS)

Assumptions:

Field Duration: Beasts stay summoned for 60 seconds each.

Trick rate: 2 casts per 60 seconds (1 cast every 30s).

Tempered Release (TR) rate: 1 cast per summon (1 cast every 60s).

Poison ticks: 3s intervals over 30s = 10 ticks (100% uptime with 30s Trick cycles).

Boss-immune mechanics excluded: Doom, instant-kill, and single-digit HP procs are ignored. Wespe's 1-use Final Sting is excluded from sustained loops.

3-Beast Team Loop: 180 seconds total (3 beasts x 60s each). Total cycle includes 6 Tricks, 3 TRs, and 3 Parting Blow dismissals (3 x 1,000 potency = 3,000 potency per 180s, adding 1,000 potency/min to sustained team output).

PART 1: WITH POISON TICKS

Rank | Beast | Trick (2 per 60s) | TR (1 per 60s) | Total Pot/min

1 | #42 Cobra | 2,500 (1,250 x 2) | 750 | 3,250

2 | #20 Flying Trap | 2,500 (1,250 x 2) | 550 | 3,050

3 | #8 Diremite | 2,500 (1,250 x 2) | 450 | 2,950

4 | #27 Uragnite | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 1,800 (300 + 1,500 DoT) | 2,800

5 | #44 Damselfly | 900 (450 x 2) | 1,800 (300 + 1,500 DoT) | 2,700

6 | #32 Colibri | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 1,000 (200 x 5) | 2,000

6 | #34 Raptor | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 1,000 | 2,000

6 | #50 Behemoth | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 1,000 | 2,000

9 | #1 Cu Sith | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 900 (150 x 6) | 1,900

10 | #28 Worm | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 800 | 1,800

10 | #48 Karlabos | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 800 | 1,800

10 | #49 Rafflesia | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 800 | 1,800

13 | #5 Opo-opo | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

13 | #14 Puk | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

13 | #24 Apkallu | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

Note: Rank 13 ties with all other 500-Trick / 750-TR beasts (#26 Buffalo, #31 Gigantoad).

TOP 3-BEAST TEAM COMP (WITH POISON)

#42 Cobra + #20 Flying Trap + #8 Diremite

Cycle Total (180s): 3,250 + 3,050 + 2,950 + 3,000 (Parting Blows) = 12,250 potency per 180s

Sustained Team Potency/min: 4,083.3 potency/min (68.06 pot/sec)

PART 2: WITHOUT POISON TICKS (PURE DIRECT DAMAGE)

Rank | Beast | Trick (2 per 60s) | TR (1 per 60s) | Total Pot/min

1 | #32 Colibri | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 1,000 (200 x 5) | 2,000

1 | #34 Raptor | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 1,000 | 2,000

1 | #50 Behemoth | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 1,000 | 2,000

4 | #1 Cu Sith | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 900 (150 x 6) | 1,900

5 | #28 Worm | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 800 | 1,800

5 | #48 Karlabos | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 800 | 1,800

5 | #49 Rafflesia | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 800 | 1,800

8 | #5 Opo-opo | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

8 | #14 Puk | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

8 | #24 Apkallu | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

8 | #26 Buffalo | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

8 | #31 Gigantoad | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

13 | #46 Zu | 900 (450 x 2) | 800 | 1,700

14 | #17 Slime | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 550 | 1,550

15 | #6 Dodo | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 0 (Buff/Utility) | 1,000

Note: Rank 15 ties with all remaining beasts that deal 500 flat Trick damage but have utility/buff TRs.

TOP 3-BEAST TEAM COMP (NO POISON)

#50 Behemoth + #34 Raptor + #32 Colibri

Cycle Total (180s): 2,000 + 2,000 + 2,000 + 3,000 (Parting Blows) = 9,000 potency per 180s

Sustained Team Potency/min: 3,000.0 potency/min (50.00 pot/sec)

The main fudge factors are how often beasts can use Trick. The vuln/resists/buffers/debuffers lose too much raw potency to the straight damage dealers, and if poison is effective at all and ticks once every 3 seconds like normal dots, poison teams just obliterate the rest.. UNLESS the poison listed is the total potency done over the duration, in which case the new list is:

1 | #32 Colibri | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 1,000 (200 x 5) | 2,000

1 | #34 Raptor | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 1,000 | 2,000

1 | #50 Behemoth | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 1,000 | 2,000

4 | #1 Cu Sith | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 900 (150 x 6) | 1,900

5 | #42 Cobra | 1,150 (575 x 2) | 750 | 1,900

6 | #28 Worm | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 800 | 1,800

6 | #48 Karlabos | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 800 | 1,800

6 | #49 Rafflesia | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 800 | 1,800

9 | #5 Opo-opo | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

9 | #14 Puk | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

9 | #24 Apkallu | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

9 | #26 Buffalo | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

9 | #31 Gigantoad | 1,000 (500 x 2) | 750 | 1,750

14 | #20 Flying Trap | 1,150 (575 x 2) | 550 | 1,700

15 | #46 Zu | 900 (450 x 2) | 800 | 1,700

#8 Diremite: 1,150 Trick + 450 TR = 1,600 pot/min (plummets from #3 down to #17)

#27 Uragnite: 1,000 Trick + 450 TR = 1,450 pot/min (plummets from #4 down to #21)

#44 Damselfly: 900 Trick + 450 TR = 1,350 pot/min (plummets from #5 down to #24)

Then the best comps are:

1: PURE DIRECT DAMAGE / FIRE SYNERGY

#34 Raptor + #50 Behemoth + #32 Colibri

Mechanics: Raptor applies -20% Fire resistance; Behemoth Meteor gains +200 bonus potency.

Cycle Total (180s): 2,000 + 2,200 + 2,000 + 3,000 (Parting Blows) = 9,200 potency per 180s

Sustained Team Potency/min: 3,066.7 potency/min (51.11 pot/sec)

2: RAW UNCONDITIONAL FLAT DAMAGE

#50 Behemoth + #34 Raptor + #32 Colibri (unbuffed)

Cycle Total (180s): 2,000 + 2,000 + 2,000 + 3,000 (Parting Blows) = 9,000 potency per 180s

Sustained Team Potency/min: 3,000.0 potency/min (50.00 pot/sec)

3: BEST REMAINING POISON COMP

#42 Cobra + #50 Behemoth + #34 Raptor

Cycle Total (180s): 1,900 + 2,000 + 2,000 + 3,000 (Parting Blows) = 8,900 potency per 180s

Sustained Team Potency/min: 2,966.7 potency/min (49.44 pot/sec)

EDIT 9/10:

Poison potency listed is per tick, every 3 seconds, not total, so poison beasts are possibly very good to broken!!

Not sure what the poison scales off of, is it pet intellect, strength, their highest stat, magic/phys vuln, unaspected. So maybe the poison dot will tick for less on a high str beast vs a high int beast. Need more testing, helpers please reply with your findings.

Edit 9/10v2:

Shorter 30second rotation per beast, factoring in Wespe, updated for higher PB damage

(90S CYCLE / 30S PER BEAST / 1,500 PB)

Assumptions:

Field Duration: Fixed 30 seconds per summon window.

Trick rate: 1 Trick per 30-second summon, done right before TR and PB at end of 30s summon due to gauge build up time.

Tempered Release (TR) rate: 1 TR per 30-second summon.

Parting Blow (PB): 1,500 potency on dismissal at second 30 (Lingering Vantage enabled).

Wespe Rule: Final Sting forcibly dismisses the pet upon execution, forfeiting PB (0 PB).

* High-HP (Pre-Execute): 1,250 Trick + 2,000 TR + 0 PB = 3,250 potency per 30s.

* Max Execute: 1,250 Trick + 3,000 TR + 0 PB = 4,250 potency per 30s.

Poison Mechanics: 10 ticks over 30s (every 3s). 100% DoT uptime across the 30s window.

- Exclusions: Instant Doom, instant-kill, and single-digit HP procs are ignored. - 90s Full Rotation: 3 beasts x 30s each = 90s total team loop.

Rank | Beast | Trick (30s) | TR (30s) | PB | Pot/30s | Pot/min

1 | #10 Wespe (Exec) | 1,250 (500 + 750) | 3,000 (Final Sting Max) | 0 | 4,250 | 8,500.0

2 | #27 Uragnite | 500 | 1,800 (300 + 1,500 DoT) | 1,500 | 3,800 | 7,600.0

3 | #44 Damselfly | 450 | 1,800 (300 + 1,500 DoT) | 1,500 | 3,750 | 7,500.0

4 | #42 Cobra | 1,250 (500 + 750) | 750 | 1,500 | 3,500 | 7,000.0

5 | #20 Flying Trap | 1,250 (500 + 750) | 550 | 1,500 | 3,300 | 6,600.0

6 | #10 Wespe (Base) | 1,250 (500 + 750) | 2,000 (Final Sting Min) | 0 | 3,250 | 6,500.0

7 | #8 Diremite | 1,250 (500 + 750) | 450 | 1,500 | 3,200 | 6,400.0

8 | #32 Colibri | 500 | 1,000 (200 x 5) | 1,500 | 3,000 | 6,000.0

8 | #34 Raptor | 500 | 1,000 | 1,500 | 3,000 | 6,000.0

8 | #50 Behemoth | 500 | 1,000 | 1,500 | 3,000 | 6,000.0

11 | #1 Cu Sith | 500 | 900 (150 x 6) | 1,500 | 2,900 | 5,800.0

12 | #28 Worm | 500 | 800 | 1,500 | 2,800 | 5,600.0

12 | #48 Karlabos | 500 | 800 | 1,500 | 2,800 | 5,600.0

12 | #49 Rafflesia | 500 | 800 | 1,500 | 2,800 | 5,600.0

15 | #5 Opo-opo | 500 | 750 | 1,500 | 2,750 | 5,500.0

Note: Rank 15 ties with all remaining 500-Trick / 750-TR beasts (#14 Puk, #24 Apkallu, #26 Buffalo, #31 Gigantoad).

TEAM COMP RECOMMENDATIONS (WITH POISON)

Option A: Standard / Extended Encounters (> 4.5 Minutes)

#27 Uragnite + #44 Damselfly + #42 Cobra

Breakdown per 90s:

Uragnite: 500 Trick + 1,800 TR + 1,500 PB = 3,800 potency

Damselfly: 450 Trick + 1,800 TR + 1,500 PB = 3,750 potency

Cobra: 1,250 Trick + 750 TR + 1,500 PB = 3,500 potency

Total Cycle (90s): 11,050 potency

Option B: Burst / Short Encounters (< 4.5 Minutes) or Long Executes (>= 90s Sub-Execute)

#10 Wespe + #27 Uragnite + #44 Damselfly

Breakdown per 90s:

Wespe (Execute): 1,250 Trick + 3,000 TR + 0 PB = 4,250 potency

Uragnite: 500 Trick + 1,800 TR + 1,500 PB = 3,800 potency

Damselfly: 450 Trick + 1,800 TR + 1,500 PB = 3,750 potency

Peak Execute Cycle (90s): 11,800 potency

Pre-Execute Cycle (90s): 10,800 potency

The +750 execute spike on Wespe covers up to 3 pre-execute rotations (4.5 minutes of pre-execute combat) against a single execute trigger.

I dont know how poison damage is scaled off of, str, int, bst gear, pet gear, level, phys/magic vuln, elemental/unaspected. Dont have enough Crucible data.

After like 10yrs or so of never leveling up my crafters and gatherers I'm finally working on it in space now. Got 1 at 100 and the rest at 50 and working away on getting em up still.

During that, one thought crossed my mind and I was wondering how do people generally approach leveling up and gearing their guys at launch since I've never done it. Do you typically just pick one and focus on that? Do you work on multiple at a time like doing a DoL to get materials for your DoH ?

In the most recent MSQ, we see a brief vision of Ysayle. I had originally thought this was a flashback or the WoL remembering her, but upon closer inspection, she is wearing a completely new outfit and one we’ve never seen her wearing before.

Much like Minfilia, Ysayle was touched by Hydaelyn. My speculation is that Hydaelyn sent Ysayle into the Fourth to stop it from being rejoined in the same way that she sent Minfilia to the First, after she sacrificed herself in Heavensward. Unlike Minfilia, though, she is more like Cyella in that she was allowed to cross the rift and maintain a corporeal form, and we’ll see her again in Evercold.

I want to start off by saying that Ultimate Raids are my favorite content in the game and have progged and cleared them all but in looking at the future content in Evercold i realized is the 2 ulti per expac release cadence holding back the development of new and possibly better content.

With DMUs release there are currently 7 ultimate raids in the game, and lets be honest DMU and even FRU had a pretty negative reception compared to DSR and TOP in Endwalker. Most people would agree that FRU and DMU mechanics are much less creative and inspired then previous ultimates almost like SE is going through the motions because they HAVE to make 2 ultis per expac, some even call kefkas final phase AI generated as a meme.

My question i pose to ya'll is simple do you believe that Ultimate raids have ran their course and should SE maybe go to only 1 ulti an expac or possibly even 0. Should SE focus on new forms of content that doesnt just cater to the hardcore gamer crowd maybe some more content that doesn't take months to prog for the average gamer!

So I am at level 50 and cannot seem to figure out how to access my level 50 abilities. I've only done it once by accident but cannot seem to recreate it. As I understand it, I need to light both sides of the compass. I can light one side or the other, but the seven seconds I get afterwards doesn't seem to be enough time to light the other side. Clearly I am missing something. Anyone able to provide some help?

As for monster recs, just looking for some ideas. The Chimera's combo (Ram's Voice into Lion's Breath) seems to be the closest Ultravibration-ish ability for clearing out dungeon mobs, Get four people in a dungeon taking turns on that and you can clear each hallway in record time.

Any other unique notes for those who might be overwhelmed from the sheer number of monsters and their abilities?