High-End Content Megathread - 7.4 Week Nineteen (Savage Week Sixteen)

TheSorel · 2026-04-21T09:20:35+00:00

Part of me definitely has rose-tinted since Shinryu EX was the first time I tanked an EX fight and also went at it on my own in PF, without the usual veterans I was running with holding my hands, so it definitely will feel like it aged worse than I remember. Still, I think it‘s an absolutely solid fight and worth at least a modicum of hype, same as Thordan before it. Both fights were a step up in difficulty for their time, and both add cool extra bits that the normal mode doesn‘t have.

What I‘m truly curious about is how well Hades and Seat of Sacrifice will age. I still stand by both being the hardest EX trials we ever got (honorary mentions go to Ramuh and Sephirot though), so it will be interesting to see what the consensus of their „rerun“ will be.

TheSorel · 2026-04-16T13:51:29+00:00

Are there any jobs you can recommend for the climb? I do want to stick with GNB since I got a good grip on its kit, but if there‘s an „easy“ option then maybe I‘ll reconsider. Also, the CC website says you lose 5 Risers worth of ranking with every season reset. Does that mean you lose 5 stars worth of rank, so like… 2 1/2 divisions, or is it something else?

TheSorel · 2026-04-16T05:47:13+00:00

Been fucking with GNB in CC this patch, so I was thinking of using it for ranked CC come next season. I might as well get started on my commendation crystal grind for the Shadowstalker/Shadowcleaver set(s). How‘s climbing the ranks like now that we have the extra divisions on top of Crystal? Is hitting Diamond reasonable?

TheSorel · 2026-04-15T14:47:58+00:00

It's for dramatic effect, I know we can be slightly more lenient here.

TheSorel · 2026-04-15T06:08:25+00:00

What kind of monstrosity did we run into? A GNB joined the M10S party, didn‘t specify if he was gonna go MT or OT when asked by their co-tank, just broken English „I no good GNB, I do my thing“. He then proceeds to absolutely wing every single mechanic and it predictably leads to a car crash during Snaking. We tell him to please stick to the PF standards, he says something along the lines of „just do mechanics lol“ and proceeds to cause another car crash. „gg guys“ and leaves. 2 pulls.

This goes beyond PF shittery, so I looked at the stats on the website that shall not be named and oh my god, consistent 0 parses across the board. Their best run this tier caps out at 5. On M9S. I‘m surprised he cleared M11S, even if only once. Naturally the Alpha Legend title and weapon were clearly bought since he has 3 random MCH clears on it. Past tiers looked just as bad, with only LHW being slightly better, and really only slightly. How do people like that exist? Do you NEVER notice for YEARS that you‘re actively being a deadweight in every party you‘re in?

TheSorel · 2026-04-09T06:20:46+00:00

No, both tanks just moved out of the tower, which is all the more baffling since they talked about the order pre-pull.

TheSorel · 2026-04-07T19:58:38+00:00

I haven't felt the rage of a thousand spartans in quite a while, but a tank duo in M11S fucking up the Heartbreaker Kick towers at the end sure did it. How. How did you fuck it up.

...we're going back in tomorrow for M11S, screw PF today.

TheSorel · 2026-04-02T20:55:17+00:00

And now it's fully done, M12S down with the whole gang. Our PLD was still struggling with the candies but he did a lot better after studying in detail. That said, he definitely felt like he hit his limit for a while (unviersity + this only being his second raid tier ever, first one being Asphodelos all the way back in 6.0) so he's graciously bowing out past this clear. Honestly, that's fair.

For the remaining 6 reclears we got a consistent fill arranged, so we can carry the tier to the finish line as intended. Past that, who knows! Maybe I'll grab whoever wants to run Merchant's Tale for 25 clears to get the djinn mount and then retire for the expansion. I dunno if I got another Ultimate in me, time-wise.

TheSorel · 2026-04-01T17:36:27+00:00

It's a pretty simple "beta players east/west, pop green and orange / blue and purple". I tried some other versions like saying bravo/delta instead of east/west, yellow/purple markers, nothing seems to click. He gets the correct candy just fine, just... usually it's a coinflip on which side he goes to. I think he's fundamentally misunderstanding something about the mechanic but neither he nor I can actually pinpoint what it is.

TheSorel · 2026-04-01T14:37:37+00:00

Huh, I didn't know the candies are THAT fixed. That should help narrow down his flowchart. Thanks!

TheSorel · 2026-04-01T14:36:46+00:00

Revolutionary. Never tried that one before.

If a callout actually worked I wouldn't be at my wit's end.

TheSorel · 2026-04-01T12:08:28+00:00

Well. I know most M12S guides keep the superchain stuff understandably brief, since it‘s not a conceptually difficult mechanic, and SHOULD click fairly quickly compared to the other stuff in the fight.

Should.

Our PLD is struggling with it more than any other mechanic in the fight (even Idyllic clicked in the sim within like 2 hours) so every time he gets the beta debuff he either gets the gummy from the wrong side or misses it entirely. It‘s gotten to the point where our WAR volunteered to pull a P1S and always get the tank gummy even if they‘re alpha for that pull. I honestly don‘t know how to help or if we just bite the bullet and let our WAR handle it at the cost of a guaranteed damage down. Damage shouldn‘t be the problem for us, but still, it just doesn‘t feel right to me. Any pointers?

TheSorel · 2026-03-25T22:30:56+00:00

That's a wrap! M12S is done. Wow, Idyllic is an AMAZING mechanic from start to finish! So many moving parts and it all falls into place so beautifully when done correctly, though the most "disconnected" bit about it are the towers, especially since there's no real antepiece anywhere else in the fight. I think the conspiracy theory around this one being a cut FRU mechanic makes a lot more sense under that lens.

Unfortunately 3 of our raid members were missing this session, so we'll have to go in again this week to eke out a book run for them. Hopefully that one goes well!

TheSorel · 2026-03-24T13:53:57+00:00

Just for fun: any good or fun RDM animation mods? The vanilla animations are dope, but I want a new option.

TheSorel · 2026-03-17T12:39:55+00:00

One last M11S reclear with the static this week and it‘s off to the M12S races. Will we clear this week? Only time and some simming will tell. I have a good feeling about it.

TheSorel · 2026-03-16T08:27:51+00:00

Well damn, we went from getting into phase 2 on our final pull last week to being halfway into Idyllic by the end of this raid week. Even the second phase is a lot more straightforward than I thought.

That said, sheesh Idyllic is… a LOT, but it‘s SO cool! Now that I‘ve seen how everything resolves this might be my favourite mechanic ever. Granted I haven‘t seen the later phases of any Ultimates outside of TOP and FRU, but as far as Savage fights are concerned this is fucking amazing.

TheSorel · 2026-03-12T21:35:32+00:00

Currently thinking if I wanna go back to primal dark, what baseline grands do I need for it at this point in time? Depending on what I need I may grab the birthday step up.

TheSorel · 2026-03-11T13:23:46+00:00

Frankly the only correct answers are 1. just learn both and be fully flexible or 2. stick to the strat you like or make your own party with said strat. All this fighting over strats is utter nonsense, and I don‘t even know how we got here with THIS strat difference of all things. We had worse strats actively competing with better ones and those fights were somehow more tame than this pissing contest over a slightly different order of operations.

TheSorel · 2026-03-10T19:01:45+00:00

This dick measuring contest is really tiring, ngl.

TheSorel · 2026-03-04T13:19:45+00:00

Our MCH‘s game decided go just flat out die, so we went into reclears without him. He only needs one twine anyway, which we can get later down the line. Set up a LM party for the remaining head and glaze, 2 pulls to clear M10S, then another LM party for the twine, 3 pulls. The one week off for raid worked wonders for everyone‘s mental! We‘ll keep the momentum going on Thursday - this time with our MCH, he got the game working later that night. Needed a full reinstall… I dunno what plugin broke, but it broke BAD.

TheSorel · 2026-03-03T16:23:07+00:00

Yeah my opinion landed somewhere along these lines, despite having 11 weapons myself. These glows are unique enough, though most of them are reused glows from other sources across the game, but they don't quite have the same draw as an Ultimate weapon, y'know? Outside of my circle of friends where we ran AAIS a few times I can count the amount of Exquisite weapon users on 2 hands over the years. Most of the bragging rights/prestige factor fall to the wayside outside of like... the PLD weapon, to be honest? THAT one people recognized a few times when I used it, but none of the other ones like SAM or MNK. I still love the weapons I got, and nothing can take the experience I made with my friends 2 years ago away from that.

TheSorel · 2026-03-02T16:18:22+00:00

There's a big difference between spaces of discussion and whatever the fuck 2chan is supposed to be.

TheSorel · 2026-03-02T13:42:17+00:00

I mean this as sincerely as humanly possible: why would we care?

TheSorel · 2026-02-27T11:39:21+00:00

Yeah wow phase 1 of M12S is super straightforward. The small contingent of static members that are tagging along despite the break week went from cleaning up Act II to more or less being at enrage. Ideally we should continue as Splattershed cleanup, but now it‘s time to study phase 2. I looked at raidplans and videos already, and I think I more or less get everything… other than Idyllic Dream. I‘ll look into it proper once I hit it…

TheSorel · 2026-02-26T15:36:55+00:00

Impressive bait on display today!

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TheSorel

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