FFXIV: Arcadion Normal Raid Clears
Posted on April 9, 2025 by Aywren
Most folks reading this probably already know that I’m not much of a raider. About the only thing that will coax me to do raid fights is if the story is worthwhile, or there’s a fluff reward that I really want.
Up until Patch 7.2, Arcadion hasn’t offered me either of these things, so I’ve skipped the raids. I have, however, done the alliance raid runs of Jeuno pretty consistently. Enough that I feel fairly comfortable when I do a weekly.
So, what changed in 7.2 that made me get on the Arcadion train? Well, Syn informed me that the story has picked up its pace and was worth checking out. Also, that the DDR BunBoss, Dancing Green, is a lot of fun and reminds her of my character, Amon.
I watched a few videos, confirmed this fact, then noticed one of the raid rewards was Groovy Glasses, akin to what Dancing Green wears. Well, I made an off-hand comment to Syn that it would be neat for Amon to have the Groovy Glasses, and that was the end of all things. I got pulled into the raid series from the first fight.
Keep in mind that Amon is just an alt character who had zero in the way of gear beyond the crafted stuff from last patch. He’s generally not the character I raid on, so he didn’t have Jeuno nor Arcadion open. In fact, earlier last week, he didn’t even have the ilvl to run the 7.2 trial.
Over the weekend, Syn and I not only cleared the 7.2 MSQ on our alts, but also Jeuno and all 8 of the Arcadion raids. That’s quite a push through content that I didn’t expect, especially not on an alt. I really did enjoy it, however, as I haven’t been focused on FFXIV very much, outside of running the new PVP series and leveling jobs with beast tribes.
As of yesterday, Amon has now surpassed my main (whom I have a story about for another blog post) in ilvl. Though… as casual as I am, that’s not saying much. He’s also now working on getting the new tome raid weapon, and, of course, hoping for the Groovy Glasses drop one of these weeks.
My Thoughts on Arcadion
So, as a not-raider, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at the mechanics and variety in the fights of the Arcadion. Each boss character they introduced was colorfully themed, and all were very memorable. While the fights were challenging for me (keep in mind, I was playing on Bard and not my normal Red Mage), there were some where I noted (to my surprise) – “That was actually fun.”
The story is also well worth doing in my mind. After struggling through the MSQ of Dawntrail – I do think 7.2 is a welcome improvement – the story of the Arcadion is pretty good. I found myself invested in the characters and interested in unraveling the secrets of this corrupted fight club that’s been built under the guise of keeping people happy through bright entertainment.
We get a bit of a deeper dive into the way souls work in Solution 9, and the dangers that come with it. Again, the characters are unique and tend to stand out quite a bit, so it’s been easy for me to follow the story being told and to care about what’s happening, even for the “disliked” characters.
It was a lot of content to run, but I had fun. Probably more fun than I’ve had in a long time in FFXIV. Which is crazy to think about considering how adverse I’ve been to trying the raids and the harder content this expansion. The first time through the 7.2 trial was not a pretty thing for us, but the second time through was far better.
All of this also got my mind thinking on my Main character, and why I’ve felt so disengaged with them, no matter how much I try to be excited. And yes, this leads to what you probably expect by now, given my history with my Main. But that will be a post for another time.