At Closing Fantasy 14 FanFest 2023 North America, attendees got the chance to problem Asura, the upcoming Primal Trial that may seem by means of a brand new content material patch. I took this chance in hand and fought my manner by means of the FanFest on-line queue (which required attendees to uninstall and reinstall the app to get it working correctly) to mark my place in keeping with different potential Warriors of Mild to sort out this new Trial.
For these unfamiliar with Trials, they’re successfully 8-person boss fights. These situations are arguably my favourite a part of Closing Fantasy 14, so I used to be tremendous wanting to struggle Asura and see what she’d carry to the desk by comparability to earlier Trials like Heavensward’s Nidhogg, Endwalker’s Golbez, or Stormblood’s Susano. Ready in line I ended up pulling collectively a gaggle comprised of James Galizio of RPGSite, and the next Warriors of Mild: Thallan Gildeford, King Ma, Ishtar Valentine, Worstluck NA, and Kini Solis. The ultimate 4 in that lineup are five-time Legends, which suggests they’ve cleared all at present accessible Final fights — among the hardest items of content material within the recreation.
Ready in line we mentioned what Job Lessons we might play; I assigned myself the function of White Mage, because it was what I used to be most snug with and had probably the most expertise in. Whereas I do take pleasure in enjoying Tank as Gunbreaker and DPS as Summoner, I jumped in as a White Mage as I had for earlier Battle Challenges (notably Thordan and Susano at Gamescom when these fights respectively appeared). After establishing our hotbars, ensuring we had the precise abilities in the precise locations, and chatting amongst ourselves, we had been prepared to leap into the struggle and take down Asura.
The particular battle encounter at Fan Pageant 2023-2024 can be…
The Gilded Araya! ✨
Attendees may have an opportunity to attempt it early earlier than it is formally applied into the sport at a later date! pic.twitter.com/Q5ox8YZNKM
— FINAL FANTASY XIV (@FF_XIV_EN) May 12, 2023
Nevertheless, as soon as we bought into the struggle, it was the identical music and dance as earlier trials. Asura was hardly difficult, and regardless of my sub lapsing for upwards of three months, I had no points co-healing alongside our Sage. Possibly it was as a result of he was extraordinarily good on the recreation, or as a result of White Mage is simple to get again into, or possibly this even speaks about how one can shortly get again into the groove of issues in Closing Fantasy 14, however Asura was simple. Extraordinarily simple.
She featured the entire hallmarks of a typical Closing Fantasy 14 struggle: Telegraphed assaults, Tank busters (extraordinarily hard-hitting assaults reserved just for the Tanks), and orange AoEs on the bottom that will generally manifest in massive circles or rings. There was additionally a mechanic the place she would channel a bigger model of herself to then spawn orange rings on the bottom that we must run out of earlier than getting hit and receiving a negligible quantity of harm and a vulnerability stack. (I can’t converse on any of the music, as a result of for some motive the audio wasn’t working for my setup.) And earlier than we knew it, the struggle was over.
![The writer snapped a photo of the victory screen for an FF14 special battle, The Gilded Araya featuring Asura](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/og5CCaZUwhEkVKp7mIF1HUJyU34=/0x0:4000x1848/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x1848):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24817744/20230728_134906.jpg)
Picture: Sq. Enix by way of Kazuma Hashimoto for Polygon
Asura was felled, and we emerged victorious. All of us had been silent, nearly shocked it had ended as shortly because it started, however then we piped as much as congratulate each other. I needed my crew effectively on their subsequent Final clear, and instructed James I’d be heading again to my lodge room to chill down.
A part of me wonders if Asura was simple due to the group I used to be in, or if Asura is an illustration of Artistic Enterprise Unit 3’s dedication to creating content material extra approachable for all gamers. If the latter, they nailed it. Not like when Nidhogg launched on the tail finish of Heavensward, I can’t see folks getting caught and having to make use of Get together Finder to clear the struggle. If something, I’m to see what her Excessive struggle can be and what different mechanics can be layered on. Ultimately, it was a pleasant expertise and an effective way to bond with different gamers, even when it was simply 5 minutes of their time.