Twintania and Titan EX (or FFXIV's current endgame)

[che]

This is going to be a gigantic wall of text.

I finally downed Twintania (Coil Turn 5) this week with my static. I've been with them for 4 weeks. Gone from i76->i80 the first week with 3 Allagan drops. Two the next week, and one last week (none this week). We've spent at least 30-40 hours on Twintania total over the past month trying to down it, raiding Mondays and Wednesdays for 2-3 hours each.

Looking back, it is not that difficult of a fight really. I'm sure learning the mechanics as one of the first groups was really frustrating, but now that their are guides, it's just about doing things correctly. That being said, getting 8 people together (which is a low number for most MMOs I think) that make minimal makes and are all on the same page for the same attempt in order to kill the boss, is one of the most frustrating things I have ever experienced in an MMO.

The reason is not because doing the mechanics are hard, necessarily, but the fact that there is no room to mess up. If you mess up doing divebombs, etc it could cause a wipe on the entire group. If one person dies, thats 800+ mana that healers do not have anymore, with max MP being 4k~ its 1/4th of a healers mana. If two people die...etc. And the lost DPS. The point being, it's extremely unforgiving, and even though its easy, if people's connections spike, or if their ping is really high it can cause all sorts of trouble, even if they are the best player, mechanically, in the entire world.

For that reason, doing end-game content in this game seems almost impossible to do at times. To complete both Titan EX and Twintania (both this week) I have had to just tell great friends and players I've met that I need to move on. I am a great player, way above average but I know that I'm not that best. Not even close, and I don't have to be to do this content. But my connection is mostly great, and that helps me tremendously. I've met so many great players with shitty connections and there is just no hope for them to complete T5 or Titan EX.

It's extremely sad, and unfair I feel like. The content is well thought-out. The fights are challenging and FUN to do, except when you get to the reality that most people do not have a stable connection. And that's if they have a drive enough to even care about really completing the game's content before the next comes out. I have played FFXI and WoW for like 10 years now, raiding with Death and Taxes and other top tier (world first kill) guilds, so I know I'm at an advantage when playing as far as knowing what to expect and how stuff needs to operate.

As of now, I'd say doing T5 and EX primal content (mostly just titan) is a complete headache. I really hope Leviathan is just as challenging, if not more, yet a lot more forgiving than this content is. I don't even know what to expect from Turn 6 in a month, but I guess we'll see.

This is a great game, and I want to see it get even better. And it will. I'm just hoping for a lot more forgiving content, as I honestly feel it's a little unfair at the moment. This game gets so many things right (classes are all useful and none are bad, so taking one of each class is really the best way to go). But it is still so young.

I guess if anyone has any questions about end-game content or just want to talk about it, I love talking and answering questions as best as I can. I mainly play BLM, but I also have experience as a WHM and SCH. I do not play the Tank role yet (my PLD is lvl35) but I can still answer tank questions as I know most of the mechanics anyway.

Here's my character: FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone | Rage Log
And my stream: Twitch

[Treize]

Congrats on beating T5! My group is still trying to get it down, but we're consistently making it to twisters now, so I think we'll beat it this week or next week.

And yeah, I completely agree with you about the unforgiving mechanics. We've had a lot of trouble with divebombs in T5 and plumes in Titan. We have one person who plays on a PS3 and another person from Australia who plays on an NA server. We just have them stay away from everyone else and hope they don't get hit. It's pretty frustrating because if someone dies, it becomes almost impossible to recover. If someone dies to plumes in Titan, you don't have the dps to break the gaols, and if someone dies during divebombs, you don't have the dps to kill the snakes. Oh well, all the fights are a lot of fun. I just hope that the people with internet issues don't end up quitting because of these problems.

[che]

I'm sure you know this already, but when Twintania drops after Asclepius dies (or right before depending on your DPS) and you're standing in the neurolink, I usually give an audible cue over Mumble to set Twintania as focus target. This way no matter what you are doing, you can see the Twister cast bar.

So basically you're just watching the Twintania bar to see her cast Twister after Death Sentence, DPSing/stunning/slowing the Dreadknight, over and over until hatch phase. Hatch phase is super easy and she should go down! Best of luck. I think you guys will down it very soon if you're constantly making it to twisters.

I really hope they add client-side detection for plumes, because it being server side right now really messes a lot of great players up. It can be so devastating to not be able to get through content, and even worse for new players just now buying the game. It's really overwhelming and I hope it doesn't turn too many players away/they add some fixes. Hopefully Leviathan won't be as unforgiving, yet still challenging.

When I posted the first post here, I had downed Titan and Twin, but not Ifrit EX. I then downed Ifrit EX, got my Omnitome for SMN (which is now my main, as my static needed one and we picked up a great BLM to replace our monk that stepped down). On Monday I got up early and did Garuda/Titan/Ifrit EX again and got the Elfin Bow for my BRD, and won Garuda's ring and Titan's earring for my casters. Twin dropped double monk loot this week, right after our monk stepped down for not being able to keep up on Twin. :/ haha