The weekly maintenance on April 25th has brought Final Fantasy 14 up to version 6.11, and with the update comes an Ultimate raid, new items and achievements, and several balance changes. Final Fantasy 14 raiders have already begun the race for the world's first completion of the new raid, and players of certain jobs will be happy to receive a wave of new buffs.
Final Fantasy 14 updates usually tend to introduce new content in some form or another. As a hugely popular MMORPG, its players are accustomed to periodic additions and changes to keep things fresh. Whether it's in the form of new raids with their own soundtracks, achievements, and gear to revamping older content to a modern standard, something new is seemingly always on the horizon. Its latest expansion, Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker, added the Sage and Reaper jobs, tied off a 10-year-long story arc, introduced new dungeons and raids, and saw a mass exodus of disgruntled World of Warcraft players.
The highlight of patch 6.11 is the new raid, Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate). The wandering minstrel has a new "what if" scenario for Warriors of Light this time, and it's all about bosses from Final Fantasy 14: Heavensward. Players will face off against archbishop Thordan the Seventh, his guardians the Heavens' Ward, and the infamous dragon Nidhogg. As a narrative twist, the dragon Hraesvelgr, an ally to the player during Heavensward, is bound and forced to fight against the player. In order to enter the new raid, players must have completed Asphodelos: The Fourth Circle (Savage), which in itself requires completing all prior Asphodelos raids on both Normal and Savage difficulties.
It wouldn't be a Final Fantasy 14 update without some nerfs and buffs, and this week's update has mostly positive changes for jobs. Gunbreakers have seen potency increases across the board for six of their abilities, and Jump and High Jump for Dragoons have been made less finicky. In addition, Samurais saw multiple potency increases, while Wildfire for Machinists also received a 10% increase. As for nerfs, Warrior healing has been cut back in PVP by 25%, the Samurai's stun duration was decreased as well as their damage mitigation, and Red Mage's DoT potency was cut back. Despite that, most jobs received a range of potency increases in PVP.
Since the new Ultimate raid is the pinnacle of difficult content in Final Fantasy 14, only a small portion of players will get to appreciate this addition. However, a multitude of mostly positive balance changes as well as a healthy dose of bug fixes means this latest patch still has plenty to offer for millions of players.
Final Fantasy 14 is available on PC, PS4, and PS5.
Source: Final Fantasy 14