FFXIV: The Hunt Continues
Last week, I wrote about unlocking the Monster Hunter World collaboration event in FFXIV. It wasn’t until this weekend that we actually got to sit down and fight the Rathalos trial, however.
Despite somewhat wanting the mount, I only ran the Normal mode once. It was enough to kinda form an opinion on the fight itself, which was a blend of battle mechanics you’d see in Monster Hunter imitated the best that FFXIV could.
Overall, the Normal mode trail isn’t terribly hard. It does require you to be level 70 and to have completed Stormblood to play it. I think it also requires you to have at least ilvl 320 gear. This is more than enough to get the job done, IMHO.
I know the EX version is much more challenging than this, seeing they cut the party number in half and limit the number of potions you can use. Also, the party has a shared 3-death penalty. If you reach that max number, the fight is over.
Mostly, this fight is about moving and spacial awareness. Rathalos often faces someone and charges at them without any ground telegraphs or warnings. The same for the tail swipe mechanic. So you have to keep an eye on boss body language.
In the second half of the battle, healers can’t heal you anymore and it’ll be up to you to use the Potion mechanic. You only have 10 of them, so you have to choose when you need them wisely. Healers can still rez you, however.
The issue I had with this part of the fight is that it was often difficult to see what the boss was doing and which way he was facing when he went into flying mode. I play FFXIV boss battles zoomed all the way out most of the time, but the nature of the small arena for this trial and the boss being in the air just wasn’t a good combination for my camera angles.
If I got struck, it was often because I just couldn’t see very well. This is a problem I have when fighting Famfrit in the Lighthouse, too. Whoever thought it was a great idea to put a spinning mechanic like Tsunami at the TOP of a tall boss was just mean!
Aside from the little design complaint, which I’m sure gets easier to deal with the more familiar you are with the battle, it’s a solid fight with some nice rewards. The Palico minion was the main prize I was after in the end, though there are housing items, music, a Poogie minion, a set of armor, and of course the mount to earn.
Since the fight isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, I may just wait until it becomes easier content to find a farm party for the mount. I’m not really in a huge rush for it, and I’ll have more than enough to do with the Moonfire Faire opening today… so much glamour for so many alts! 🙂
One more shot of the Palico, who is every bit the minion I hoped he’d be!
