[22/05] FFXIV Patch 3.3 arrives on the 7th of June - all details from Live Letter XXX
Live Letter XXX (hehehe) has come and gone, delivering us the final, pre-patch notes information we need for FFXIV's latest upcoming patch content: Patch 3.3 Revenge of the Horde. Come patch day, players will be greeted with new beast tribe quests, the Aquapolis treasure map dungeons, a new Raid Finder feature, a new tedious Anima Weapon step for the masochists, new PvP map, a new EX trial that isn't against a Primal(!), and more.
Nidhogg EX
Hey, do you remember how difficult the original Steps of Faith was? It was absolute murder on Duty Finder, because simply coordinating a group to properly handle mechanics required a legitimate field marshal. Consequently, because it was going to be a significant hindrance to the expansion content, Square Enix inevitably nerfed the trial fight and the Steps of Faith became inconsequential since, only occasionally showing up in the Trials Roulette...with the couple of souls still bailing for no reason.
Well, The FINAL Steps of Faith has now arrived and is for real. Yes, Nidhogg, the vengeful wyrm and the only major obstacle left before we can finally end the Dragonsong War story, will be fought just outside the gates of Ishgard. He will take the place of the usual new Primal, so expect both a normal (presumably story) version of the trial fight, along with the Extreme version.
It will of course drop weapons. And it will also guarantee so much fun and wipes. Wot u doooooin. Spread you fool!
The Aquapolis
But Yoshi, treasure maps are boring! All I'm doing is dragging some reluctant chums around to find an obscure point on a map, search for a chest, open it up and kill things in hopes of getting some scraps of Thavnairian Bustier materials! How can you make the experience more engaging, immersive and challenging?
How about we randomly chuck you into a dimly lit dungeon that is made up of rooms, they ask.
When deciphering a Dragonskin map and completing it, sometimes a portal will unceremoniously spawn. There is a 20% chance of players being thrown into the Aquapolis when they attempt to open the chest. You will only be able to enter the dungeon once the loot from the chest itself has been distributed. You have 10 minutes to do that. Hopefully your bickering over who rolls and who passes doesn't last that long.
Once within, your item level is synched to i180. This makes sense, or your poor undergeared tank will stand alone like an awkward and friendless kid on the playground while the other party members with i230+ are having their faces caressed by the monstrous denizens. The Aquapolis is designed roughly for 3-4 people to clear, which won't stop certain people from rushing in alone or in pairs for the challenge.
You will always start in the same spot. Approach a chest, slay the monsters that spawn and once this first room is clear, you will have to choose a door to go through. If it's a "good" door, you can progress into a deeper room and aim to acquire better loot. If you're fortunate to get far enough, there may even be a small supply of Grade V Materia waiting for you. Most of the loot you receive can be sold on the marketplace, including minions. Goblins have somehow found their way inside this nondescript place. If you give these noseyeyes the stabbityiron, they will drop Gil. The further you progress and the more your party of uplanders lay siege to these goblins, the more Gil will be dropped.
If you choose poorly and go for a "wrong" door, you're hereby ejected from the dungeon. There is a 50:50 chance of a door not screwing you over.
Raid Finder!
Primal Data Centre! Are you sick and tired of your server's Party Finder not being up to scratch? Are you incensed that everyone has flocked to Gilgamesh, leaving you with the equivalent of a brain drain? Fear not, for Raid Finder will be here!
That being said, you can only use this on your own Data Centre, so those on Primal will not be able to reach over to the folks on Aether (where servers such as Balmung and Gilgamesh reside). Raid Finder will only be useable for the latest Savage raids, so at the very least the folks of Lamia can now merrily wipe to A6X in the same party as Leviathan and Behemoth residents.
Also interesting to note, the Raid Finder is designed to be flexible in terms of requirements. Some options that can be chosen include:
Note: two of the same job will for whatever reason not be allowed to enter the party when selecting "Duty Completion" as your purpose. "Duty Completion" is the option for players seeking to clear the encounter for the week, so you can't have two filthy White Mages. This rule will relax if queue times are too long.
If you choose the "Practice" mode for purpose, ONLY ONE OTHER DPS slot can be filled with a job already present. Yoshi-P stated if players don't like this bizarrely rigid system, it can be relaxed later.
PvP: Field of Glory (Shatter)
Things haven't been the same for the PvP scene since The Feast arrived, has it?
Fear not, Frontlines has not been forgotten and there will be a new map for it. The theme this time is the dreary wastes of Coerthas and the gear you gain from here will be Beast Tribe themed. The map requires players to capture points on the map. There are three circles for players to capture. Once captured, rotating Grand Company banners rotate on the capture point to denote which Grand Company has captured the point. Players will gain points by having the circle claimed.
Additionally, it seems there are large ice crystals on the map. Players will be required to destroy these ice crystals. Once destroyed, the ice crystals do not regenerate for the entire map. Yoshida discussed the purpose was to incite more conflict towards the end of the PvP encounter due to more and more pillars being destroyed throughout the entirety of the battle. Because this is PvP, fools. You're supposed to encounter plenty of conflict. Where is the fun in being civil?
Crafting!
Boy, aren't those scrips gear a pain?
Luckily, new shared crafting gear will soon be available. They will be superior to the i170 scrips gear and will be required if you wish to be able to craft the new raiding gear to follow up on the i220 Eikon sets from the last patch. The new crafting gear will naturally have Materia slots for you pentamelders.
How can you more easily attain crafting Materia, you ask? What is the Void Ark weekly equivalent for your Grade Vs? The Moogle and dragonkin Beast Tribe quests of course! The main scenario will also award players with....*gasp* maybe a few Grade V crafting Materia! RIP those who are hoarding crafting Materias now.
Meanwhile, the team is looking to nerf the horrendous scrips system slightly. Collectibles will yield some more scrips. More EXP will be awarded to crafting and gathering classes below 60 and there will be more locations to gather collectibles from.
Other things!
- There will be no new Warring Triad fight this time round. Nidhogg has stolen Sephirot's spot. Zurvan and Sophia will likely be released in later patches, neatly wrapping up the Warring Triad storyline before 4.0 arrives. This doesn't mean Patch 3.3 will have nothing of substance, because the adventurer and the Scions will be confronting Regula Van Hydrus inside the Aetherochemical Research Facility. Okay, listen. He's basically this game's Kefka just like how Nael Van Darnus was FFXIV's Sephiroth.
- Ohoho, look forward to the new Anima grind. You will be feeding items to the weapon to increase the stats. Per item is +3 points, but if RNG is on your side, you may get +4 or even +5. Crystal drop rates for those looking to start a new Anima Weapon from scratch will be nerfed, but the i200 to i210 step will not be nerfed. Hahahahahahaha.
- Yes, the Moogle Beast Tribe quests will be for the crafters, so it's the 3.0 equivalent of the Ixali quests. It covers the level range of 50-60. Instead of searching the place for their useless brothers, you will now have to build things for them. Or procure more alcohol for them, I dunno.
- If anyone has missed that boat, the new EX Roulette dungeons are: Sohr Kai (in the main scenario) and Hullbreaker Isle (Hard). Fans of FFVI should stick around for the latter, because a certain whelk boss shows up.
- The Weeping City of Mhach is the new 24-man raid to follow up from Void Ark. If you want a Savage version of his raid, just hope that Duty Finder gives you the most inept players imaginable - half of whom are watching something on Netflix.
- Oh yeah, you can grow flowers inside your home. Mix and match soils and you get different coloured flowers! Even better, you can pick these flowers and glamour them onto your character!
Sources 1 and 2
Live Letter XXX (hehehe) has come and gone, delivering us the final, pre-patch notes information we need for FFXIV's latest upcoming patch content: Patch 3.3 Revenge of the Horde. Come patch day, players will be greeted with new beast tribe quests, the Aquapolis treasure map dungeons, a new Raid Finder feature, a new tedious Anima Weapon step for the masochists, new PvP map, a new EX trial that isn't against a Primal(!), and more.
Nidhogg EX
Hey, do you remember how difficult the original Steps of Faith was? It was absolute murder on Duty Finder, because simply coordinating a group to properly handle mechanics required a legitimate field marshal. Consequently, because it was going to be a significant hindrance to the expansion content, Square Enix inevitably nerfed the trial fight and the Steps of Faith became inconsequential since, only occasionally showing up in the Trials Roulette...with the couple of souls still bailing for no reason.
Well, The FINAL Steps of Faith has now arrived and is for real. Yes, Nidhogg, the vengeful wyrm and the only major obstacle left before we can finally end the Dragonsong War story, will be fought just outside the gates of Ishgard. He will take the place of the usual new Primal, so expect both a normal (presumably story) version of the trial fight, along with the Extreme version.
It will of course drop weapons. And it will also guarantee so much fun and wipes. Wot u doooooin. Spread you fool!
The Aquapolis
But Yoshi, treasure maps are boring! All I'm doing is dragging some reluctant chums around to find an obscure point on a map, search for a chest, open it up and kill things in hopes of getting some scraps of Thavnairian Bustier materials! How can you make the experience more engaging, immersive and challenging?
How about we randomly chuck you into a dimly lit dungeon that is made up of rooms, they ask.
When deciphering a Dragonskin map and completing it, sometimes a portal will unceremoniously spawn. There is a 20% chance of players being thrown into the Aquapolis when they attempt to open the chest. You will only be able to enter the dungeon once the loot from the chest itself has been distributed. You have 10 minutes to do that. Hopefully your bickering over who rolls and who passes doesn't last that long.
Once within, your item level is synched to i180. This makes sense, or your poor undergeared tank will stand alone like an awkward and friendless kid on the playground while the other party members with i230+ are having their faces caressed by the monstrous denizens. The Aquapolis is designed roughly for 3-4 people to clear, which won't stop certain people from rushing in alone or in pairs for the challenge.
You will always start in the same spot. Approach a chest, slay the monsters that spawn and once this first room is clear, you will have to choose a door to go through. If it's a "good" door, you can progress into a deeper room and aim to acquire better loot. If you're fortunate to get far enough, there may even be a small supply of Grade V Materia waiting for you. Most of the loot you receive can be sold on the marketplace, including minions. Goblins have somehow found their way inside this nondescript place. If you give these noseyeyes the stabbityiron, they will drop Gil. The further you progress and the more your party of uplanders lay siege to these goblins, the more Gil will be dropped.
If you choose poorly and go for a "wrong" door, you're hereby ejected from the dungeon. There is a 50:50 chance of a door not screwing you over.
Raid Finder!
Primal Data Centre! Are you sick and tired of your server's Party Finder not being up to scratch? Are you incensed that everyone has flocked to Gilgamesh, leaving you with the equivalent of a brain drain? Fear not, for Raid Finder will be here!
That being said, you can only use this on your own Data Centre, so those on Primal will not be able to reach over to the folks on Aether (where servers such as Balmung and Gilgamesh reside). Raid Finder will only be useable for the latest Savage raids, so at the very least the folks of Lamia can now merrily wipe to A6X in the same party as Leviathan and Behemoth residents.
Also interesting to note, the Raid Finder is designed to be flexible in terms of requirements. Some options that can be chosen include:
- Whether the player has completed the raid previously
- Whether the player is attempting to clear the fight, or simply working on progression;
- Can select which phase you want to work on (note: there is some confusion as to whether you will be able to “skip” certain points of a fight to practice on, say Vortexer in AS6, or whether the “phase” selector is merely a way to match you with players who are working on the same point of the fight);
- Able to ensure people have not cleared in order to ensure players will receive two chests upon a clear;
- May permit players who have cleared to assist to join in to help if you do not mind only obtaining one chest.
Note: two of the same job will for whatever reason not be allowed to enter the party when selecting "Duty Completion" as your purpose. "Duty Completion" is the option for players seeking to clear the encounter for the week, so you can't have two filthy White Mages. This rule will relax if queue times are too long.
If you choose the "Practice" mode for purpose, ONLY ONE OTHER DPS slot can be filled with a job already present. Yoshi-P stated if players don't like this bizarrely rigid system, it can be relaxed later.
PvP: Field of Glory (Shatter)
Things haven't been the same for the PvP scene since The Feast arrived, has it?
Fear not, Frontlines has not been forgotten and there will be a new map for it. The theme this time is the dreary wastes of Coerthas and the gear you gain from here will be Beast Tribe themed. The map requires players to capture points on the map. There are three circles for players to capture. Once captured, rotating Grand Company banners rotate on the capture point to denote which Grand Company has captured the point. Players will gain points by having the circle claimed.
Additionally, it seems there are large ice crystals on the map. Players will be required to destroy these ice crystals. Once destroyed, the ice crystals do not regenerate for the entire map. Yoshida discussed the purpose was to incite more conflict towards the end of the PvP encounter due to more and more pillars being destroyed throughout the entirety of the battle. Because this is PvP, fools. You're supposed to encounter plenty of conflict. Where is the fun in being civil?
Crafting!
Boy, aren't those scrips gear a pain?
Luckily, new shared crafting gear will soon be available. They will be superior to the i170 scrips gear and will be required if you wish to be able to craft the new raiding gear to follow up on the i220 Eikon sets from the last patch. The new crafting gear will naturally have Materia slots for you pentamelders.
How can you more easily attain crafting Materia, you ask? What is the Void Ark weekly equivalent for your Grade Vs? The Moogle and dragonkin Beast Tribe quests of course! The main scenario will also award players with....*gasp* maybe a few Grade V crafting Materia! RIP those who are hoarding crafting Materias now.
Meanwhile, the team is looking to nerf the horrendous scrips system slightly. Collectibles will yield some more scrips. More EXP will be awarded to crafting and gathering classes below 60 and there will be more locations to gather collectibles from.
Other things!
- There will be no new Warring Triad fight this time round. Nidhogg has stolen Sephirot's spot. Zurvan and Sophia will likely be released in later patches, neatly wrapping up the Warring Triad storyline before 4.0 arrives. This doesn't mean Patch 3.3 will have nothing of substance, because the adventurer and the Scions will be confronting Regula Van Hydrus inside the Aetherochemical Research Facility. Okay, listen. He's basically this game's Kefka just like how Nael Van Darnus was FFXIV's Sephiroth.
- Ohoho, look forward to the new Anima grind. You will be feeding items to the weapon to increase the stats. Per item is +3 points, but if RNG is on your side, you may get +4 or even +5. Crystal drop rates for those looking to start a new Anima Weapon from scratch will be nerfed, but the i200 to i210 step will not be nerfed. Hahahahahahaha.
- Yes, the Moogle Beast Tribe quests will be for the crafters, so it's the 3.0 equivalent of the Ixali quests. It covers the level range of 50-60. Instead of searching the place for their useless brothers, you will now have to build things for them. Or procure more alcohol for them, I dunno.
- If anyone has missed that boat, the new EX Roulette dungeons are: Sohr Kai (in the main scenario) and Hullbreaker Isle (Hard). Fans of FFVI should stick around for the latter, because a certain whelk boss shows up.
- The Weeping City of Mhach is the new 24-man raid to follow up from Void Ark. If you want a Savage version of his raid, just hope that Duty Finder gives you the most inept players imaginable - half of whom are watching something on Netflix.
- Oh yeah, you can grow flowers inside your home. Mix and match soils and you get different coloured flowers! Even better, you can pick these flowers and glamour them onto your character!
Sources 1 and 2
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So pumped for the flowers! Sad fact, I'm totally not kidding here. It sounds like a totally epic idea.
