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THE COMFY RAIDER’S KIT
AKA HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SAVAGE RAIDING IN FINAL FANTASY XIV: STORMBLOOD
Written by Kiri Kotone of Gilgamesh
Special thanks to Defferion Mercer of Gilgamesh, Bokchoy Mcnuggets of Sargatanas, and Tevatron.8217 of GW2 for inspiring this document
INTRODUCTION
Hello! The purpose of this guide is to prepare aspiring raiders for the challenges of Savage raiding in FFXIV, as well as serve as a companion text for players wishing to participate in the upcoming Raid Training initiative. Raids are the most challenging end-game content, requiring time and dedication from 8 players. Defeating a raid will likely take multiple instance timer’s worth of lockouts, and competence from the raid team in order to understand and execute encounter mechanics. So why raid?
WHY RAID?
Everyone has their own, unique reason for raiding. I think Bokchoy summarizes them well:
Above all, raiding is fun! No better feeling than to finally defeat the raid wing after hours of hard work.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
OVERVIEW/INTRODUCTION TO ENDGAME
DPS METERS (ADVANCED COMBAT TRACKER)
COMMON RAID MECHANICS AND ETIQUETTE
OVERVIEW/INTRODUCTION TO ENDGAME
I do not want to dwell too much on how to catch up to endgame, but there are some endgame concepts I refer to in the guide that may not be intuitive for relatively new players, so I’ll be writing down a quick overview here. This guide is aimed towards newer players, but more experienced non-raiders who wish to get into raiding may find some useful information as well.
WHAT IS ENDGAME?
Endgame refers to the content you can do once you reach maximum level on at least one job for the expansion, and complete the base MSQ for that expansion. Currently in Stormblood, the maximum level is 70, and you must complete the final MSQ “Stormblood”.
THE PATCH CYCLE
FFXIV regularly introduces new content as well as item level (iL) increases. Each even numbered patch increases the maximum iL, as well as introduced a new raid wing. When I refer to the patch base item level, it is 10 iL above the previous patch cycle’s maximum iL. Raids drop gear 20 iL above the patch base iL.
THE WEEKLY LOCKOUT
Most rewards received at endgame are rewarded on a weekly lockout. This means you can only earn x rewards and x amount of currency every week. This resets every Tuesday at 12:00 AM PST/3:00 AM EST.
ALLAGAN TOMESTONES
Almost all endgame content rewards Allagan Tomestones per clear. There are two types of Allagan Tomestones per patch cycle – one uncapped and one capped. The capped one is capped at 450 tomestones per weekly lockout. Every new patch cycle, the oldest tomestone is retired, a new tomestone type is introduced, and the capped one becomes uncapped. The capped tomestones can be traded for gear 10 iL above the patch base iL.
RAID ENCOUNTERS
Raids are boss encounters intended for eight players at the expansion’s level cap. They are accessed by completing a quest, which also introduces the lore of each raid. A new raid wing consisting of four individual fights has been historically introduced every even-numbered patch, with two modes – a Story/Normal mode and a Savage mode. Successfully defeating each boss in the most recent raid wing rewards loot that resets every week, such as strong gear, upgrade items for gear, and unique cosmetics such as minions and mounts. There are other raid encounter difficulties besides these two modes – the Alliance Raid and the Extreme Trial, as well as the new Ultimate Raid.
Generally, there are four types of raid encounters to experience in FFXIV, with a fifth new one released in the Stormblood expansion. They are as follows, in order of difficulty:
- 8 player Normal raids
- These instances are intended to be the story mode to the raid encounters. Mechanics are hardly punishing if at all, the fight lacks a distinct enrage timer, and damage is infrequent and forgiving.
- Each fight in the raid wing drops tokens; multiple tokens can be exchanged for the gear equivalent to the patch’s base item level.
- In the latest raid wing, only one token can be acquired per fight per week.
- 24 player Alliance Raid
- These instances are only slightly harder than Normal raids, and are traditionally introduced every odd numbered patch to help non-raiders catch up on gear.
- Incoming damage is infrequent, but high. Mechanics are only individually punishing, and the fights lack a distinct enrage timer (one boss in particular, Construct 7, infamously has seen kills of upwards of 25 minutes)
- These raids are structured like a classic MMO raid, with all three parties moving through a large area, fighting trash and bosses in sequence.
- Gear is directly dropped from boss chests, with certain cosmetics limited to defeating the final boss. Only one piece of gear can be acquired per week until the next Alliance raid is released.
- 8 player Extreme Trial
- The signature instances of the FFXIV series, these are difficult encounters where a party fights against a single boss. One Extreme (EX) encounter is introduced every major patch.
- Mechanics will likely punish the party if done incorrectly, and there are periods of high incoming damage. An enrage timer exists, but it is fairly lenient and balanced accordingly.
- EX trials drop weapons, which are at the patch’s base item level on even-numbered patches and slightly above on odd-numbered patches. These weapons are not on a weekly lockout, meaning they can be farmed whenever without restriction.
- 8 player Savage Raid
- These instances are challenging encounters which test the skill and patience of all eight party members.
- Mechanics must be done correctly to prevent wipes, and incoming damage will be high and frequent. All players must be comfortable with their role, and have basic competency of their class, as there is a strict enrage timer, requiring semi-high DPS for the early fights and high DPS for the latter fights.
- The strongest gear for the raid wing cycle is dropped directly from chests, and players have the opportunity to loot a chest from each fight per wing once per week.
- 8 player Ultimate Raid
- The newest raid difficulty, Ultimate fights are not for the faint of heart. These require precise execution from all eight players, and have high healing, tanking, positioning, and DPS requirements. A single mistake will wipe the raid, or cause enrage.
- Mechanics are difficult to both solve and execute. High coordination and communication is required.
- There are currently two Ultimate encounters released. Both reward an exclusive title, as well as tokens to receive a prestigious shiny weapon.
Participating in Extreme, Savage, or Ultimate content requires time, patience, and commitment. This is the most difficult PvE content released in FFXIV, and should be treated as such. There is a high difficulty curve transitioning from more casual oriented content to these raids. We will be focusing on Savage raids in this document, with Extreme trials as somewhat as a stepping stone to raiding.
ACCESSING RAIDS
The most recent Extreme trial and Savage raid wing, as well as all Ultimate fights are accessible through the Raid Finder. All previous EX and Savage fights are entered through the regular Duty Finder in the Raid tab.
Thanks to Espresso Mug for providing this image
HOW TO GET STARTED
First and foremost, it’s heavily advised that you pick a job or role that you enjoy playing. All jobs are relatively balanced in this game, and you won’t go wrong if you practice and gain experience, as a skilled player on a “weaker” job will be better than an unskilled player on a “stronger” job no matter what.
If you don’t enjoy any specific job, try experimenting with a specific role. One of the core strengths of FFXIV is that all classes can be leveled on one character, which reduces the barrier to entry for endgame. Jobs within the same role also share the same gear minus weapons, so gearing up will be no more difficult than normal. Try different jobs and see what playstyles fits you personally the most!
No matter what you pick, you should research more about how the job performs and learn how to play it. I highly recommend (no bias here) visiting the Balance and the Balance Discord to get the latest information about how to learn your job. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t get the hang of it first – all highly skilled players started where you are right now! The key is to always aim for improvement. Seek help and stay humble.
GEARING UP
FFXIV is unique in that the max and base item level are raised every six to seven months. This may seem like a burden to less committed players, but this is hardly the case! The gear slate is wiped clean every raid patch, meaning a new player can simply buy or farm the base item level for the patch and be able to raid. It’s no horizontal progression, but there is no grinding involved, and it takes very little time to be caught up.
I’m not going to specifically detail ways on how to gear up, but I recommend being at least patch base item level before attempting raids. The stronger your gear is, the more mistakes you can get away with.
GET YOUR FEET WET
You should first attempt to practice your job on a dummy, or more recommended, in Stone, Sky, Sea. There is a section on it explained below, but it is a simple training tool to test your job foundations. An issue new raiders sometimes have is not being able to execute their job properly when doing encounter mechanics. Knowing how to play your class is very important in endgame encounters, and is the foundation for success in raiding.
Extreme Trials are a great way to gain experience for raiding, and get accustomed to the difficulties that come in endgame raid encounters. These have a lower item level requirement and are balanced as such, meaning there is a lower barrier to entry. If you can perform well in EX Trials and farm them for a weapon, you are likely ready for the first two fights in the latest raid wing.
When you’re confident enough in your own skills, it’s time to actually get your feet wet and join a raid run. In the beginning you should find a learning party. Here are some options to get your feet wet:
- Look for a learning party in PF/make your own learning party: In the cross-world PF, switch to the High-End duty tab. Learning parties will be advertised here, with the intent to learn a fight. The quality of these parties wildly varies, and players may be at different phases. Don’t be afraid to try joining or making a learning party, though – you’ll still get valuable experience in the instance.
- Join a raiding Free Company or Linkshell: Chances are if you’ve joined a Free Company, there are people who raid. It doesn’t hurt to ask if there’s anyone willing to help you learn a fight in FC chat/Discord or a Linkshell. Worst thing that can happen is they say no.
- Join the FFXIV Raid Training Discord: We train raiders not in their job, but in the encounters themselves. It’s a friendly and relaxed environment and all players are here to learn.
- Group up with friends/make a static: What’s more fun than killing internet bosses with friends? Grab some friends (you have friends, right?) and learn the fights together. Obviously very recommended, but you may have different levels of commitment and many players don’t simply know enough friends with schedules that let them commit to raid.
There are two methods of tackling raid content – PUGs and Statics. PUGs stand for pick-up groups, which is when you group with random strangers, usually through the PF, to fight an encounter. A static is a pre-formed group of eight consistent players who raid together and share progression, loot, and goals in encounters. Joining a raid training run would be considered a PUG. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, succintly stated in Bokchoy’s write-up. Due to FFXIV’s clear-based loot distribution system statics are often preferred, but PUGs can be and have been successful in gearing and clearing. A key difference between statics in FFXIV and raid groups in other MMOs is that statics are usually not confined to one Free Company or server.
Here are some tips for finding a static that fits you:
- Have similar goals when raiding. This is usually defined by a group’s hours or commitment. Groups will label themselves as casual, midcore, or hardcore, in order of least commitment/hours to most. This also extends out of time commitment and into dedication – some players may want to study about the raid out of raid hours and make sure everyone else does the same, while others may want to take it easy and work through the fight together. This is the most important point to remember, and all other points essentially lead back to this one.
- Have a similar schedule and time commitment. Your entire group needs to be able to dedicate a few days a week to raid, and obviously at the same time. If your group has conflicting schedules, it will be difficult to put the hours in that is needed for fight progression. Similarly, your group should have similar ideas of time commitment. Everyone should want to run roughly the same hours per week, as if some players want to raid less and some want to raid more, it may create conflict.
- Make sure each member can handle the raiding environment created. Some players will be more patient with each other, while others will be blunt and straightforward with criticism. Some groups enjoy min-maxing their DPS whether through compositions or strategies and want others to do the same, while others are simply content with defeating a fight. Find a group that your ideals are aligned with.
- Once raids are cleared and finished, what does the group do? Does the group want to simply farm the tier every week until the next raid wing comes out? Or do they want to take it one step further and do speedruns or challenges? Do you want to play together outside of raid, or even outside of FFXIV with your group? Consider the social aspect of your group, because if you stay, you’ll be spending a lot of hours with those guys and gals, and you don’t want to spend a lot of time with people you dislike.
There are plenty of other factors that will make your decision in finding the right group. However, no static is identical, and it is likely none will perfectly fit your schedule or goals, so you will have to make some compromises.
CONSUMABLES
Food is a consumable that lasts for 30 minutes per use, and can be extended with the Meat and Mead buff or its equivalents. Eating food boosts a player’s stats, and should be consumed whenever possible for those extra stats, especially Vitality.
Potions are consumables that temporarily boosts a player’s main stat for a brief period of time, with a long cooldown. Infusions are the baseline, with Grade 2 Infusions being a strict upgrade.
When raiding, it is expected for everyone to be using standard end-game food. Don’t worry too much about using the strongest food and Grade 2 Infusions every pull. I highly advise to use some medium-priced endgame food for the Vitality bonus and use potions only when going for clear pulls or to meet a DPS check. If you have Culinarian or Alchemist leveled to max, you can make those consumables yourself.
DAMAGE PER SECOND
A raid team needs damage. All bosses at Extreme and harder endgame have DPS checks and enrages – the former requires your group to deal x amount of DPS in y amount of time, usually on an add. The latter is an overarching DPS check which dictates the maximum length of the fight; at the enrage timer the boss will cast a long ability which instantly wipes the raid.
High raid DPS is very important. Having high DPS allows your group, depending on the fight, to phase difficult mechanics, and/or kill the boss earlier, skipping more complicated mechanics towards the end of a fight and reduce the chance to cause a wipe. Low DPS requires raid groups to perform more mechanics, and while this is not a bad thing, having to do more will always increase the chance for mistakes to happen.
All players in a raid team should be contributing to DPS. Healers should still heal as necessary, and tanks should be playing safe and using cooldowns appropriately, but all roles should be focusing on doing as much damage as possible, while still performing encounter mechanics. Failing to perform encounter mechanics improperly can punish you from inflicting damage down debuffs to outright killing you – and death is very detrimental to your DPS. When in doubt, do mechanics first, and then focus on DPS – but ideally you should be doing both.
OPENER AND ROTATION
Gear, rotation, and uptime are the three keys to high DPS. Of those three, gear is the only one you cannot actively improve in. Your rotation, however, can always be practiced, whether in an actual encounter or on a training dummy. A rotation is “the usage of skills in a specific order to maximize DPS output.” An opener is simply the beginning of your job’s natural rotation that aims to maximize damage inside party buffs and potion, while also using all important skills to put them on cooldown.
Some jobs have more complicated openers and rotations than others, but a complicated rotation does not mean the job will necessarily do more damage. A simpler rotation allows the player to focus on encounter mechanics over the job’s mechanics and gauges.
There is no better way to learn your opener and rotation than practicing in a lower difficulty encounter or on a training dummy. Keeping up your rotation, job gauge, and using cooldowns appropriately may seem daunting at first, but with more experience and muscle memory it will get easier, allowing you to upkeep damage while doing the most intense of mechanics without thinking.
Again, the Balance is the best place to learn how to play your job and the different openers and rotations that are used in raids.
UPTIME AND BUFFS
On virtually all end-game boss fights, there are mechanics that will cause the player to detach from the boss, especially if you are on a melee job. Players must learn how to maximize uptime, that is, the time spent attacking an enemy or casting a spell. This is because having high uptime is another key to sustaining high DPS. In FFXIV, most jobs have a gauge or buff to upkeep, which is gained through uptime, and this gauge is used for more DPS, or in a tank or healer’s case, used defensively. By maintaining high uptime, a player is able to do more with this gauge.
You should also seek to maximize buff uptime and coordinate buffs for synergy. In pugs this is difficult due to little coordination, but the recommended openers seek to standardize buff timings so they are synchronized throughout the fight. In FFXIV, % damage buffs all stack multiplicatively, so if they are used in unison they become stronger. By attempting to use buffs as often as possible within reason you can contribute even more damage to a raid.
There is one main buff that can be provided realistically with 100% uptime:
There are several buffs that can be provided realistically with 100% uptime, based on the composition:
Most of the other raid buffs are provided at set intervals – aim to maximize uptime:
- Battle Litany
- Battle Voice
- Hypercharge
- Devotion
- Chain Stratagem
- The Balance/The Spear/The Arrow
- Fey Wind
- Trick Attack
There are two raid buffs that affect physical damage only:
There is one raid buff that affects magical damage only:
DPS METERS (ADVANCED COMBAT TRACKER)
The existence of DPS meters are a touchy matter in the community, but it is unarguably an extremely valuable tool for gauging performance in a high-end raid setting. The main DPS meter is a third-party tool called Advanced Combat Tracker, or ACT for short. ACT by itself can show much DPS any group member is doing at any given time, as well as set-up triggers to play cues when mechanics are occurring. Learn how to set-up ACT here.
SE does not directly approve of a player using ACT, but they have adopted a don’t ask don’t tell policy towards the usage of DPS meters, because they are extremely useful for player growth. You should not harass other players using information from ACT.
Additionally, players can set-up their FFLogs, which lets you upload logs generated by ACT into a diagnostics and ranking website. FFLogs will break down the entire fight for you and your party, right down to each individual cast and damage taken and dealt. FFLogs is the premiere tool for looking at areas of improvement for a player. You can see what you did wrong, what you did right, and what you could have changed in any given encounter. If you are inexperienced, you can ask for your logs to be analyzed by the community on the FFXIV subreddit or in the Balance Discord. There is also a tool being developed called XIVAnalysis, which aims to automatically analyze logs and suggests areas of improvement.
STONE, SKY, SEA
Stone, Sky, Sea (SSS) is an alternative way to gauge DPS. Interacting with an NPC outside Rhalgr’s Reach in the Fringes will bring you to an area which spawns a personal training dummy. You can select a specific encounter to tune the dummy’s health bar for, and you’ll be transported to an area where you have three minutes to kill the dummy. Your cooldowns will be reset upon entering, allowing you to practice your openers and rotations freely without time constraints.
SSS is a very powerful tool to help you learn your class, as you can reset cooldowns upon entering. All new raiders should look to practice in order to start achieving high DPS. The tool here can display your DPS after your attempt to kill the dummy.
THE META
The meta consists of strategies and raid compositions that allow a team to defeat an encounter faster and easier. The meta is the so-called optimal way to challenge an encounter, tested by top raid groups and players over time. The meta can change as a result of balance changes, but the core meta of the game is likely to stay the same barring heavy expansion changes.
Currently, the accepted raid composition meta is two tanks, two healers, and four DPS. This is the core raid composition that the developers balance content for. Players can challenge content with different group compositions, but they are not as efficient as the 2/2/4. When raiding, you should adhere to the 2/2/4 as strictly as possible until you know what you are doing, and even then experienced raiders agree this composition is superior to others.
The meta then changes depending on the encounter. New players should still attempt to follow these rules, but they are more of suggestions rather than laws. The rest of the meta is not rigid, and does not need to be strictly adhered to in order to defeat content.
- No two identical jobs should be stacked. The main reason for this is that stacked jobs penalizes Limit Break gauge generation. Additionally, jobs are unique, and often their special group buffs do not stack.
- Of the four DPS, two should be melee DPS, one should be a ranged physical DPS, and one should be a caster DPS. Many encounter mechanics are balanced towards a 4 melee/4 ranged split. Some encounters favour a 3 melee 1 ranged DPS split, and some groups may find it easier to do some fights with a 1 melee 3 ranged DPS split.
- One healer should be a regen healer (WHM/Diurnal AST) and the other should be a shield healer (SCH/Nocturnal AST). Regens are extremely efficient heals, and shields are often required to survive intensive raid-wide damage. Shields also do not stack.
- WAR > DRK > PLD, in that order, should pull the boss. PLD loses a lot from having to pull the boss, while DRK can still get by and WAR loses virtually nothing at all.
The meta then goes even further into ideal party compositions, uptime strategies, and buff usage. This guide will not go into detail about those, but feel free to ask in the Balance about theorycrafting for raid encounters!
COMMON RAID MECHANICS AND ETIQUETTE
WIP
GLOSSARY
A dictionary of all terms of slang used by players can be found here: https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Dictionary_of_Terms_and_Slang
I will list additional terms below (some taken from said dictionary).
COMMON RAID TERMINOLOGY
Ability – See also: oGCD. A type of action that is not on the global cooldown.
Adds – Extra enemies that spawn in addition to the boss.
Aggro – See also: Enmity, Hate, Threat. Refers who the enemy is targeting with their autoattacks and targeted skills.
AoE – Area of Effect. The area in which a spell or ability will have an effect on a player or enemy.
Burn – To focus on dealing as much damage as possible in a small time frame.
Cleave – Any attack that damages in a frontal cone in front of an enemy.
Donut – Also referred to as Dynamo, the first instance of this mechanic. A type of AoE that damages everywhere except close to the boss and extremely far away.
DoT – Damage over Time. Damaging or healing skills that take effect every three seconds for a prolonged period of time.
DPS – Damage per second. Refers to either any class that focuses on dealing damage with a red icon, or refers to any player’s damage. Measured with ACT and FFLogs.
Enrage – A mechanic that occurs at a set time which instantly kills the party (hard enrage) or slowly burns them down through gradually increasing incoming damage (soft enrage).
GCD – Global Cool Down. The affect of using an action that renders other actions unusable until the casting timer for the selected action becomes 0. All Weaponskills and Spells are on the GCD.
LF – Looking For [X]
LFG – Looking for Group.
LFM – Looking for Member(s).
Marker – Waymarks. Refers to ground symbols set by any member of the party, viewable by all members of the party. Players can also mark allies and enemies with distinct markers.
Party – A group of 2 or more people who are in a party.
Positional – A bonus effect or damage granted to melee actions when they are executed fom the Rear or the Flank of a target.
PUG – Pick Up Group. Also used to refer to any unknown player in a pre-formed party.
Pull – To instigate combat with an enemy. Done at the end of the a countdown macro.
Res – See also: Rez. To cast Raise, Resurrect, Ascend, or Verraise on a defeated player.
Soak – To stand inside a circle or mechanic which deals damage to the player, but prevents further damage from going out.
SSS – Stone, Sky, Sea.
Stack – A call for players position themselves on top of each other on a designated area. It assures that players receive heals, get buffs, and can handle mechanics. Alternatively, a mechanic which requires players to share damage by doing the former.
Voke – Short for Provoke. A tank Role Action ability that places them on top of the enmity list by 1 point. Necessary for tank swaps.
Wipe – Death of the group by failing an encounter.
I will add common ability abbreviations if they are requested!
LINKS
ACT Set-up Guide: https://redd.it/3b7ogz
The Balance FFXIV Guides: thebalanceffxiv.com
The Balance Discord: invite.gg/thebalanceffxiv
FFXIV Raid Training Discord: https://discord.gg/cZwf8Pc
FFXIV Reddit: reddit.com/r/ffxiv
FFLogs: fflogs.com
XIVAnalysis: https://xivanalysis.com
Bokchoy’s Taking the Savage Plunge: https://bokchoykn.wordpress.com/2018/04/23/taking-the-savage-plunge-a-primer-for-starting-end-game-content/
CHANGELOG
06/08/2018 – Working on Common Raid Terminology!
05/08/2018 – Tips to finding a static written, XIVAnalysis added, also some clerical/grammatical errors fixed.
03/08/2018 – First draft of guide written and released.
