Final Fantasy 14 is an enormous game with countless hours of content. The story, itself, can easily take hundreds of hours to complete. After a while of plugging through the main story, you might be after a different challenge. You’re probably looking for some new content to experience, something a little harder, and with considerably more loot. This is where you want to look into Final Fantasy 14’s normal and savage raids. Furthermore, this sort of content will not only challenge you, but it’ll help you grab some high-tier loot in the process. Although, this can be an overwhelming process for new players. Fortunately, we have got you covered, and here are the necessary steps to prepare for your first raid.
Step 1: Forming A Static
The first thing you’ll need to grab is a static (or party) that will assist in the raids. A static is generally a close group of friends or a guild. There are plenty of ways to find people to play with, but a surefire way is the Final Fantasy 14 recruitment subreddit.
Statics are important as raid content can be difficult, especially in higher levels. Most raid content will involve coordination between party members, so communication is important. Generally speaking, you’ll want to be able to talk to them verbally (on Discord). You’ll also want everyone to stick and learn a certain role.
Ideally, a party composition in Final Fantasy 14 should have:
- Tanks x 2 (main tank and off tank)
- Healers x 2 (1 regen and 1 shield)
- Melee DPS x 2 (any of your choosing)
- Physical Ranged DPS x 1
- Magical DPS x 1
Once formed, you’ll want to organise raid nights when you can look to progress and clear the raids.
Step 2: Gearing Up for Raiding
Secondly, gear should be something to look for. As most raids are already difficult enough as is, you’ll want the highest item level (iLevel) possible to take on the encounter. For the current Endwalker raid tier, the minimum iLevel needed is 580. If you aren’t at the required level, you can’t enter the raid. Furthermore, it will also be a lot harder if you just meet the minimum requirements as well.
If you’re looking for gear, the best current gear set without raiding is the Classical Set. This can be found on the market board for a fair chunk of Gil (money), depending on the server. Similarly, with gear, you’ll also want food pertaining to your class or role. This is specific per job but it’s definitely worth searching up as it’ll provide stat buffs that may help you clear vs fail a run.Â
Finally, the last thing you might want to look at is melding gear. Like food, melding gives stat bonuses that you’ll desperately need. Melding gear is pretty easy, and either requires a LVL 90 crafter class, or Gil to pay an NPC to do it for you. It’s a good idea to search up what stats your class needs, so you can gain the most benefit. Melding is expensive and is only recommended if you have the Gil to spare.
Step 3: Practice in Final Fantasy 14
At the moment with the current gear available, the Endwalker savage raids are incredibly punishing. There will be many times where you’ll just scrape through a raid. What this means is you’ll need to know your class pretty well, and how your class works on that specific boss. If you miss a mechanic, you could wipe your entire party — no pressure.
If you’re unable to practice the fight, it may be a good idea to run through the normal versions, as they have the base mechanics of the fight that aren’t as punishing. On top of that, there are plenty of great guides available on YouTube for specific raids. Finally, you can look to the Balance discord server. This is easily the sweatiest option available but can yield pretty good results.
Despite all this, don’t give up. It may take many attempts to clear the harder content, but you’ll see yourself progress each run. Fatigue and weariness can easily kick in, so remember to take breaks between progression runs and work on a timetable that suits your static.