January saw The Far Edge of Fate Part 1 hit Final Fantasy XIV, with new raids, dungeons, and other bonus content. The next part (3.55a) drops this Tuesday, along with most of the content we’ll get before Stormblood.
I say most content because the updated Diadem and exploration missions are coming in a patch in March. Here’s what producer Naoki Yoshida had to say about that at last weekend’s Live Letter:
“Do you notice something missing here? Diadem? Promised in 3.55? … We’ve run into a bug… There’s a certain raid within the Diadem and … something happened. It’s a new type of raid and we want to it be more fun and not stressful, so…
“On the 28th, we will be releasing all other content. Hopefully by March 7th… Maybe March 9th… Maybe March 14th… But it will be in Patch 3.55b. We’re working on it. We’ll try our best to make it 7 days. (or 9).”
Fair enough. The original Diadem was received pretty poorly by the community, so I’m fine with them taking the time to make sure it’s the best it can be. It’s also likely to be the last totally new content update in Heavensward, meaning we’ll have months to toy about with it whatever happens.
So what IS included? Well, for the first time ever we’ll see a 24-man trial — but how to get involved won’t be in the patch notes. The secret trial will involve fighting Proto-Ultima, and it’s believed that the quest (or maybe even the fight itself) will start in Azys Lla.
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There’s a nice bonus for non-raiders, too, or people who had a hard time getting the right balance of stats on their character: item level 270 accessories will drop from the raid. It’s hard to know how difficult it will be without seeing as nothing like that has been introduced to the game before now, but it probably won’t be as exacting as Zurvan or Sophia’s extreme modes.
On the subject of gear, the final stage of the Heavensward relic weapon quest will also debut on Tuesday. It’ll boost your relic to i275, and is the only way to get a weapon of at an item level that high other than running A12S, which is out of reach for most of us. Apparently, this stage will be easier than the others — so here’s hoping people up to date with their Anima won’t have to endure too much to finish it off.
Not into combat? No problem. Zhloe Aliapoh is here with a different kind of Wondrous Tails dedicated to crafters and gatherers. Khloe’s older sister will provide you with missions that rely on making NPCs happy for glamour gear.
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It remains to be seen if non-crafters can get involved, either by buying things off the market board or in some other way. Equally, it’s not immediately clear if the rewards will be sellable, although Khloe’s rewards (such as the minions) were, so lazy players with a lot of gil should be able to benefit too.
The Garo event has revitalized PVP — and it’s a good thing, too, because they’re adding a new map to The Feast set in Gridania. Wording on official info and from last weekend’s Live Letter seems to hint that more maps than the Gridania one will be included in the patch, too, though nothing has been released about them as of yet. Queues are much shorter than they used to be, so there’s never been a better time to get involved. If you haven’t tried ranked PVP, there will be a pre-season before the next one starts, too.
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Other nice bonuses? Drop rates for warring triad mounts (including the Demonic Lanner from Zurvan EX) will increase, so get ready to skip soar all over again.
In last week’s Live Letter, Yoshi-P also said that a smattering of smaller patches are planned between now and Stormblood’s release to keep giving people stuff to do. That includes 3.56, which will continue the story from where we left off in January.
Now, I know there’s supposed to be a ‘Part 2’ to the Far Edge of Fate. This patch was supposed to be it. But it looks like there’s been a change of plans and it’ll be spread out over a lot more patches than just this one and the Diadem one in the coming weeks — so don’t be too surprised if people start talking about a part 3 or even 4!
We won’t get full patch notes until downtime on Tuesday, so expect a few nice surprises then. In the meantime, the Far Edge of Fate minisite has been updated with some new info, so check it out!
Thanks to GamerEscape and /u/Wolfpup118 for some of the information used here.
