With a new patch looming there is a new primal fight in the form of Sophia the Goddess from the Warring Triads from Final Fantasy VI. The interesting part for the Warring Triads is that now it commands its own story line, which is pretty cool. The previous patch set up the scene further so that when the new patch drops there is a purpose for fighting this new Goddess.
Since A Realm Reborn, the Warriors of Light had engaged with numerous primals for countless number of times, some even in hard and extreme conditions (puns intended :P). Some fights were enjoyable and some were chores and some were just outright controller or keyboard throwing. Looking back saving Eorzea from primal threats had been quite an important part of the Warriors of Light’s life. It just seems that even when the Scions were on full scale operation, none of them were capable of fighting any of those primals but leaving them to the Warriors of Light to pick up the pieces. That said maybe it is a good time to look at my good, bad and ugly primals in Eorzea.
Talking about the good ones, I still personally maintained that Shiva is my favourite fight so far. Yes the frozen Akh Afah Amphitheatre was just another round stage for us to run around but the change of stance, the slippery frozen surface and the confusing hail storm patterns in the sky and on the floor made it a joy to learn and satisfying to beat. I spent a lot of times pugging learning parties to find a way to learn the mechanics so that I can time my heals to meet the needs of the party and that was nothing but thrilling. Also the satisfaction of just timing all your cool downs to protect your party to minimise the damage from that invigorating finger snapping from Diamond Dust was chilling in all sense. Shiva is one of the few fights that I enjoyed going in as a Scholar as it was the timed mitigations that gave me most satisfaction. Also the prologue music in the Shiva fight is one of my all-time favourite tracks in the whole game. I once looped it over 70 times in one morning while I was doing my housework – and each loop it about 7 minutes.
Bismarck in the Heavensward expansion is another one that I have always enjoyed playing. For me it was just quite relaxing once you learnt and understanding the mechanics. As a healer all I need to do was to time my heals so that I won’t pull aggro from the tanks and to make sure the tanks and everyone else stayed alive. The only slightly annoying part was the tornadoes at one stage that made it really hard for casters, but once I got some tips from a FC member, it became a non-issue to me immediately. Also the soundtrack in Bismarck is quite funky and different from most of the other tracks in the game so it made it stands out further. Further the Bimsarck fight is one of the few fights that you were not fight Bimsarck most of the time and you saw that huge whale flying next to your island, which was pretty cool, not to mention the chances of being thrown off the island and went sky diving.
As a healer, I hate any extreme primal fights that cast debuffs on healers, as if keeping everyone alive is not hard enough. The first time I ran into this was with Ifrit that places an explosive searing wind status on healers so you constantly needed to move around and away from the party to ensure they were not affected. Although once you got used to it, it became second nature and became a non-issue. And seriously after completing Quake Me Up Before You O’Ghomoro, (the Titan extreme quest), Ifrit is nothing but a piece of cake. Those rushes were nothing compared to the 5-way landslides in Titan extreme. However, the worst offender for me was Leviathan extreme when you got healing debuffs that target on your healing range and you cannot escape it. As in Ifrit extreme both healers need to work together to calculate and share the debuff to minimise the impact but unlike Ifrit extreme when the other healer is not doing the part everyone could see, if your healing partner in Leviathan extreme is not the cooperative kind, you are doomed and probably nobody would notice that and started point fingers at you asking you “Why no healing?”. After I beat it the first time I only went in as damage dealers (DPS) from that point onward (still that waterly mount is still a myth to my collection).
I mentioned about Titan extreme earlier. I believe most players, if you are still playing now, would have gone through the Rite of Passage of Titan extreme at some point. It was once a huge road block to most players as it was unforgivingly hard. The thing with this fight is everything you knew were built upon the previous fight but stepped up in terms of craziness and hecticness. When you are trying to rescue a captive raid member while trying to avoid multiple landslide passages and weights bubbles on the ground on an even smaller platform; that bound to have casualties...and lots of them. However, it was an addictive fight that you just kept on going back because you wanted to best Mr Rocky to show that you are not a softie. And when you eventually cleared it the immense joy and satisfaction is nothing words can express. The Sephirot fight in the Heavensward expansion was designed by the same person as Titan. Although I still enjoyed that fight it never reached a land sliding status as Titan did for me.
High and mighty and annoying
I think the Good King Mog extreme fight for me is without a doubt one of the most tedious and annoying one. This is not because of the fight was hard but it was utterly deflating when you finally reached the last stage and you couldn’t finish the fight before the countdown completed, then wiped and needed to start all over again. The fact that those cute moogles were so deadly was beyond comprehension and the requirements for finishing the fight made it one of the longest and most tedious fights among all primals. But then I was still willing to farm for that elusive but nice looking collar for my Bard at that time. Then came Ravana. For me the only thing that is good about that fight was the music. It is one of the fights that after I beat it I couldn’t even be bothered to go back and farm despite drooling all over that deadly looking Summoner grimoire. That said I knew a lot of player who actually loved the fight and spent time farming it. But I just dislike all the constant movements required for that fight as a healer and then at the same time over such a small space where you can fall off accidentally in certain parts of the arena. It was just too exhausting for me and I just didn’t want to waste my time on it. The music was great just I couldn’t deal with the fight itself.
I haven’t covered all of the primals Eorzea has had in this article but then I am sure everyone has his / her favorites and nemesis. What are yours?
