For the FFXIV World’s First Clear, Abyssos Savage Raids took 30 hours.
When a new Ultimate raid or Savage raid is released, many eyes in the Final Fantasy XIV community look at the world race. These boss battles are some of the most difficult in the game. They test players’ skills, determination, and reflexes. The latest raid tier, Abyssos Savage, was launched on August 30. This allowed us to see the best players running through the four new raid instances. Also celebrated an FFXIV World-first clear.
You could have seen some of the most talented teams attempt to win with MogTalk’s Twitch stream and charity event. This was led by FXIV content creator Frosty. Multiple streams of players trying to stream their attempts for hours showed difficulty and skill. MogTalk decided to end the day after 24 hours. No team was victorious.
Unnamed Japanese players overcame the last roadblock and became the first to complete all four fights. Only 30 hours after Abyssos Salvage released the news, the unknown team finally won.
Earlier this year, Team Neverland, winners of the FFXIV World-First, showed that they are a force for good. In just six days, they conquered Dragonsong’s Reprise. This Ultimate raid was launched with Patch 6.11. After their fantastic achievement, we spoke with Neverland about the real-life commitment to participating in a World Race. They were close to their second victory. They reached the Abyssos Savage raid Tier (aka P8S) in less than five hours, an hour ahead of anyone else.
Clearing P8S is quite another. Fourth instances of the Savage raid Tier have traditionally had two phases. They also often featured wild difficulty spikes. Many other teams caught up. It felt like any team could claim world-first at any moment. It was done at 9:00 a.m. PST the next day. A screenshot of the clear was then shared (see tweet embedded above).
This may seem like a crazy endeavour if you don’t keep an eye on FFXIV world race results. It is. It’s normal when multiple attempts take place over several days. Twitter user @ZR_TLC shared this chart that shows the time it took to clear the world’s first appearance in the history of FFXIV. Abysses Savage was not as bad as the second and third tiers of Eden Savage raids, even though the first tier seemed more manageable.
This chart shows the fascinating evolution of FFXIV raiding and FFXIV’s first clears. It is easy to see when these unofficial competitions became more serious and organized. It is also possible to determine when the FFXIV team shifted their focus to raid design philosophies.
FFXIV was built differently when Binding Coil was released (and not for the better). It took 65 days to clear the first clean. Hell, the first Alexander Savage raids of the Heavensward days remain the most challenging content in the game. The game’s technical aspects have changed, and FFXIV has become more focused. As a result, the raid teams also evolved.
Abysses Savage is another example of the challenging raids players can get excited about. This became more evident as the world race streams progressed and the teams got deeper. It’s great to see such high-level play as a long-time FFXIV player who can only hope he clears P8S months in the future.
Director and producer Naoki Yashida will likely conjure up his usual official congratulations message in honour of the unofficial race. But that’s more than enough for us. Congratulations to all who have cleared Abyssos Savage.
