One of the most highly-requested content types has arrived, as the Chaotic Alliance Raid has launched in Final Fantasy 14. Starring the Cloud of Darkness, who makes her third appearance as a boss in the MMORPG, this high-end content requires 24 people to memorize and navigate fast-moving attacks.
As we speak, parties have already started “progging” —that is, progressing through the fight—and it appears at least one streamer has cleared so far. Parties are learning the Cloud of Darkness has serious hands, with fast-moving mechanics and a lot of coordination needed based on animations and symbols. Coming from a raider, this appears to be at a difficulty between Extreme and a low-difficulty Savage so far.
Players who are busy this time of the year probably don’t need to fret, as FFXIV has incentivized people to help newcomers. Any clear where there are first-timers, all players will receive a bonus—so there’ll be plenty of learning parties the coming weeks, and likely in the long run.
For those wondering why it’s dropping on Christmas Eve, it seems the FFXIV team is keeping pretty tight to its content cycle that it started during Endwalker (and Christmas isn’t an official holiday over there nor an ordeal like it is internationally, though they seem to love the secular bits). Tuesday is the standard release day for stuff, and the team generally drops stuff in two-week cycles within a 4.5 month larger cycle.
To join the chaos, make sure you’ve finished the Dawntrail expansion and your item level is 710 or above, then go talk to the Wandering Minstrel in Tuliyollal to unlock it.
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