Now that I have my house to myself again it’s time to get back on track for my blogging schedule. I remember vaguely that I said I would blog on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. So I guess it’s time to stick to that rhythm. I may actually blog more in August seeing as Belghast is doing another round of Blaugust this year but I will elaborate on that in another post. Today I want to talk about the new 8 man raid in Final Fantasy XIV: Eden.

I have cleared this raid twice now and of course I’m not immune to the ton of biblical references that are going on with this quest chain, and in FFXIV in general in this expansion. From the bible the garden of Eden was the place where Adam and Eve lived and it was paradise.. Untill they ate the apple and got banned for all eternity. I’ve heard this tale more than once growing up seeing as how I attended a Christian school in my youth. I’m not Christian myself but I respect the religion, as I do with all others. As long as no one is trying to convert me I’m cool with whatever you believe in. I wonder if we are creating a paradise in FFXIV though, even if that is the inspiration for the story.

So yeah, the Eden raid. As far as the fights go I have an obvious favourite already, namely the first wing. I really love that first fight with it’s anime feel and all the pretty colours and the music. After the first wing I think I like the Neo-Leviathan and Neo-Titan fights about equally and I hate the second wing fight the most. Luckily people have pretty much figured out the mechanics for that one so we don’t have fuckups like we had in the first week.
All in all I’d say that Square has delivered a solid 8 man raid again when it comes to the fights themselves. I’m ridiculously pleased about the new loot system aswell. Having 8 items drop in these raids has been a massive improvement over the old system. You basically only have to run the raids once per week now to get an item and since we’re still early in the lifecycle all the tokens are useful. I personally lucked out on the final wing and got the pet last week on my first run aswell so I don’t have to roll on that anymore either. So far I managed to pick up an accesory, the belt and the gloves for my White Mage and I hope to be able to pick up the helm and chest piece next week. Or atleast make some progress towards that.

As far as the story goes, I’m more invested in this 8 man raid than I’ve been in the Heavensward and Stormblood ones. The story, like the mainstory for this expansion, is solid and I can’t wait to see what we’ll get with the next iterations. I’m assuming we are going to be fighting all the original primals in a sort of “new form” and I can’t wait to tackle Ramuh and Garuda specifically. Of course there will have to be some other fights aswell since we basically “only” have four primals left to reimagine but I’m sure that Square has some pretty neat stuff for us in store. As far as Savage goes… I’m not sure if I will be doing that. I may opt to pug as I don’t have a steady raid group right now. I mean it worked out for downing Titania Ex and I’m sure I can pug Innocence Ex aswell so pugging the first wing of Eden on Savage mode should be doable aswell right? Especially with White Mage being in the awesome position it is in now, I’m sure to be able to secure a spot somewhere.

All in all I’m quite happy to run this piece of content on a weekly basis and (slowly) gear up my classes with loot from here and from the new tomestones that are coming out next week. With the updated loot system and the fact that people get better and better at these fights as time goes on I’m quite confident this will remain enjoyable content untill the next raid comes out.