Barb is by FAR my favorite EX trial, it felt brutal when I was first learning it due to the pacing, but once I learned the fight it's so fun to try to push your luck with spacing. Also her voice lines are great xD
This. This needed to be Zeromus' enrage. He just plops a black hole in the middle of the arena and you have until it consumes the entire thing to kill him. Rather than just, oh it's this mechanic but arbitrarily just kills you.
Hydalaen is hands down my number 1 I loved how they included the crystals and the waves of pure light. For me its the best add phase of any ex. Its the only one I really felt excited to farm and the music, how can you beat that!
Endsinger extreme was such a massive dissapointment For one,removing the last part that was in normal mode was a big mistake when they couldve tweeked to have more mechanics or a heal check. And the fight doesnt do enough with its rewind mechanic Here is hoping the future endsinger ultimate can rectify this
I agree, but it was extra disappointing for me because I wanted it to be my head cannon for what the real fight would be. Why? Because normal version was awful. First two trials are epic both in story and had interesting mechanics. Endsingers only gimmick was the planets and everything else was just "is that it?" It's not like I hated the end of story or anything that could colour my perception. It just sadly fell flat. (It's extra underwhelming if your party has meh DPS and you spend ages on the final phase)
I see it as an overcorrection compared to Shadowbringers Extremes and their usage of cutscenes to transition phases. "With Hearts Aligned" missing makes the fight very weak, probably the worst just on that basis alone
Dude! Just wanted to say, wow. amazing results with your fitness journey, keep going man. When you went from the Zodiark showcase to the Zeromus showcase I saw the drastic change. Good stuff
Brabarecia was my first current extreme. I had only done unsynced extremes for mount farming up until that point and I picked her fight because the base fight wasn't complicated mechanically, it was just really fast so I figured it'd be a good start point for learning current extremes. I love that fight so much, I got the mount after 30 some tries, but that fight is so fast and frantic I wouldn't have minded grabbing the mount with totems
Barb really reminds me of fights like Sephirot EX, where you have a lot of things to either know they're on the way, or need to react quickly to. It's dope.
Zeromus gets a decent bump for me for just not having really any body check mechanics. As much as I like Golbez, farming him was miserable because there were so many instances where a single mistake could wipe the party. I feel like the two biggest issues in Endwalker fight design were bad pacing and frustrating body checks, so trials like Hydaelyn, Barbariccia, and Zeromus end up near the top for me because they're fun, decently challenging, but you're allowed to make mistakes. Also Barb and Hydaelyn were actually moderately interesting when it came to keeping melee uptime, which is pretty surprising considering how free uptime is in savage raids.
This is me. Zeromus, Hydaelyn, Zodiark, and Barb were my top 4 because they didn't really have any hard body checks. Zeromus was "Barb, but with less movement so you can actually cast heals", which is why it's my 1 and Barb down at 4. Everything lower than that I disliked, and Golbez is my last place because of the body checks. It's the one I haven't gotten a clear of yet since I've yet to find a PF group where people don't all die to Gales 2 and (if I can healer LB to get us passed that) then all die to Gales 3 anyway.
As a Red Mage i could not stand Golbez, while i understood what to do and could do the mechanics. Its the movement and keeping uptime wasint fun when i get busy with the wind walls wasint fun for me but it was a very nice fight on a design level.
As a healer main, Barb was also my top EX of the expansion by a mile. Lots of movement, but most things were pretty comfortably slide-castable. Mechanics were tough enough that people died in droves, yet the combination of lenient DPS check and dearth of body checks made it extremely recoverable. Finding the hole to hardcast a rez in that final tornado dodging section feels so good.
Barb was also one of the best-paced fights for healing. I didn't have to do savage tier coordination with my co healer, but for the fist poundings we needed something big up for each one Barb made me work to keep the rest of the people alive, and the hectic parts were great on top of it all
See, I liked Barb because of the mechanics, but she's my number 4 (only because my 5,6,7 are all worse/more hated) because there's so much movement, there's no time to stand and cast heals. So it's heal plan for bust, and if you're in PF with a co-healer that refuses to work with you on CDs, you're SOL. I remember thinking if they made Barb's damage but with less movement, I'd love it. ...and that's what Zeromus was, so it's my #1 for this expansion. It took the one major failing of Barb - the heavy movement with no breaks - and fixed that by providing breaks, making for an encounter satisfying to play, heal, and replay.
@@SubduedRadical I disagree about the movement. There was a lot of it, but mostly it was small movements (other than when baiting circles). Found normal casts, including heals, to be fairly comfy.
@@adno4 Disagree. I did not enjoy it at all for the reasons I stated, and I farmed it a fair bit (15 or so clears, or roundabouts). Constant movement, constant running around, not really fun unless you're only using instant casts or oGCDs only. Which is mostly how I dealt with it, but it wasn't fun. I think the encounter and mechanics overall were well designed (which is why it's my #4), but the movement was an 11 when it needed to be dialed back to a 7 or so. Hence why I think Zeromus was perfect. It was a perfectly dialed back level of what Barb should have been, imo, and without bodychecks or other mechanics like that. So just about perfect.
I'm just glad that I got to experience Barb on content, it's my favorite EX in the entire game and like you said I'll be comparing any EX to it for years
Yeah I'm honestly happy that they didn't make this some half-baked two-phase garbage with some cheesy cutscene and mandatory tank LB or whatever Reddit wanted this to be. Only trial I actually farmed dozens of times on content because it was just fun to do and PF wasn't horrible at it.
I enjoyed Endsinger, felt really good about solving the ring and heads mechanic for example... but I can't lie I fking hate the 4-planet mechanic it is awful and so punishing
Barb EX was my first patch where I was completely up to date and had the current gear etc for it. My friends had started raiding late into the tier and wanted BiS weapons for the 2nd wing so we had to learn and farm Barb for it and we all had a blast and clearing that fight week 1 was amazing. I'd personally be putting Golbez lower down in my list due to the PF experience I've had with that fight because you can play perfectly but if someone in PF hasn't been looking at a guide and jumps in expecting to just wing it you'll end up in a trap party that spends 60m getting no-where. Otherwise my list would look fairly similar to yours
Barbariccia would be my #1 if Hydaelyn didnt have 10 years to back up that fight. To me that fight shined where Endsinger fell flat *and* had Your Answer to back it up (Also, PF was relatively kind to my soul when running Hydaelyn versus any other EX, so there's that too lol).
I agree with every pick. Barbarricia was really fun and chaotic but in a good way. Definitely the best ex this expansion and probably the most fun I have ever had during an ex trial.
Barby and Hyd are the only EX's I wanted to farm for fun. The others felt like an obligation but those two were just... very enjoyable. That said I haven't stepped into Zerex yet so I can't comment on that one too much.
honestly for me, my least favorite is Rubicante, such a snoozefest. I agree with Barbarichia being 1st, but I'd put hydaelyn at rank 2, Golbez was fun but I feel like I was enjoying myself more with hydaelyn
I gotta place Zodiark a couple spots higher simply because I was my static's danger dorito working out the puzzle on-content. That kind of spatial awareness check just clicks with me on a personal level. Barb EX is absolutely top-tier though, no doubt.
My top 3 personally is: 1. Barbariccia 2. Hydalaen 3. Zeromus I love fights that utilize unique moves where you need to learn, remember, and adapt if need be. Barbariccia taught me I need to put out as much effective damage when possible and most of her moves were essentially a Twice Come Ruin for me (PLD main) which is something I wish more fights did as I loathe instant wipes because a person failed a mechanic or couldn't do it because they were dead and I felt Barba did it right.
I enjoyed Endsinger EX & Barbie EX, Hyde EX & Zod EX but tbh I'm not really able to fully enjoy high end content with my sometimes erratic schedule and communication issues...but I hope Dawntrail brings greater variety in Trial encounters (no door bosses in the 8 player raid maybe :P). Clarity & less visual overload could lead to more interesting mechanics and thus make higher end content more approachable without diluting the difficulty
Endsinger not having an additional phase or a complete revamp of the order of its phase like Shinryu and Hades makes it feel so. Underwhelming. There’s ONE track, the arena doesn’t change, and it has what feels like LESS mechanics from the normal trial??? The wipes feels so aggravating from it just being KB into standing into an AoE. It had so much potential but… it fell so flat
Glad I'm not the only one that feels these things about it. I was looking forward to a new phase, incorporated adds or callbacks of some sort. The different ways they'd expand on all the mechs from normal and there were so many that just weren't there. And weren't replaced with anything interesting.
Barb is the first ex trial ive had to totem the mount for, and I loved it. I can't count how many times I saw the fight click for the group leading to 5-10 clears in a row.
I fully agree with Barb and Golbez up at the top, they're so fast paced and hectic, but just a little bit of cluing yourself into the fight lets you feel so much more in control. I also personally quite liked Rubicante, but that's mainly because I did it blind by myself in PF with no guide. I figured out the fuses and where was safe for all of them, and the tricks to find them was really cool for me. I was able to burn through the 100 totems within the first week because I enjoyed it and optimising the fight so much. Also Zeromus is pretty solid but I just cannot stress how much I hate meteors. You have to be so focused on getting the mechanic correct, there's a massive amount of stress on the 1st group to get it right, and you don't know whether they did until someone dies. Even then you don't know whether that death was on the 1st group, or them not finding the right spot, and it's kind of hard to verify. And I totally agree with Endsinger being at the bottom. Part of it was the hype of the .1 trials being good, but also I think everyone could see the amazing potentials you could do with some of the normal mode mechanics. And even what was done in Extreme, they really could've pushed that way further. Not to mention the lack of a final phase where it was the Group using Dynamis (LB3) to thwart her plans. I'm glad they touched on that during TOP final phase but I wish it was in the Extreme in some way as well.
I honestly prefer the misplacing of the meteors being the thing that wipes the party as opposed to oh no we didn't have *everyone* alive so we wiped. Zeromus, even if arguably a little too easy in some ways, is such a welcome change to the increase in "body check" fights it feels like they've been doing recently
So much this. Especially after Golbez which has...what, 7-10 body checks, depending on how you're counting? They accadentallyed a Savage in the Extreme category with Golbez and it sucked. Zeromus is Barb, but with less movement so the healers and BLMs of the world don't hate their lives, and as a healer, I appreciated that.
Definitely agree on the barbaricca placement. I'm all for more fights like it in the future. 1-3 I agree and the rest I feel mixed on. I honestly was expecting more of Rubicante so its at the bottom for me not a bad fight but could've been better. And Endsinger like wise could've been better but what we got was alright. I like the concept of smashing planets together for explosions its really cool.
Barbie is my favourite trial in the game as a healer. It’s possible for people to screw up but won’t cause a wipe and the healer feels like they’re important because of it
I remembered when yoship hyped up endsinger during the live letter saying it was going to be a tough ex to complete and he hopes the player base doesn't complain too much about the difficulty....completed it in less than 30mins blind on patch day
Endsinger was my first Ex on content and I really appreciated the difficulty. Was the perfect starting point and still is my favorite one after Zeromus
im terrible at barbariccia but its still my favorite its super fun and really tests your skill at dodging. the mechanics arent necessary hard its just reacting to the speed of the mechanics. I cant imagine how fast the fight will go as ilevel increases
My list was basically the same save for I had Zodiark last due to how much you could danger dorito it and my lack of skill of understanding that mechanic till around 80ish totems. Barbariccia as dancer was fun as hell dodging and weaving through all the aoes.
unfortunately I have to agree about Endsinger... the normal mode is awesome, with the story aspect, buildup to dynamis stuff and NPC involvement, especially now that it gets ilvl synced for newcomers to enjoy! It actually has quite a few interesting mechanics that are simply gone in the Extreme. I still enjoyed my prog and farm of it, but it feels like an incomplete fight and it's such a shame for the "final boss".
My list is pretty similar if not the same. After what they did with Shinryu and Hades EX, this being the end of such a long arc I had pretty high expectations. I was so let down. Just....I don't understand what happened, it was honestly kind of a failure. Barb, Golbez, and Zeromus are all fantastic to run as a healer main. Zodiark was entirely satisfying and I still help people farm it long after I've stopped needing it.
Endsinger i love because of the memes, and the dialogue is fantastic. Doing this in PF wipes was a joy "we have seen the end, the same end again and again " that meaning PF dying to double planets lol. Loved it, perhaps my fav next to hydalen. Least is Rubicante and Zodiark.
Absolutely. Barbaricia was terrible in pf most of the time, but when everything was going smooth, she was tons of fun. The most unique extreme in the game imo. And Zeromus may be a bit easier but still entertaining, unlike Rubicante. Which is a shame, I really liked his design and character.
Doing Endsinger on normal, I was so hyped for the extreme trial version. Comparing Endsinger's Aria to Hades's Elegy, the previous .1 trial, makes it feel especially lacking.
Hm...my list (just the rank, then the explanations): Loved Zeromus, Hydaelyn; Liked Zodiark, Barbarecca; Disliked Rubicante, Endsinger; Hated Golbez. Loved: 1: Zeromus - The fight is just fun, there's only ONE body check (meteors) which is super important to me as a PF only player (my own metric is body checks = Savage, not Extreme; Extremes are supposed to be midcore and focus more on individual responsibility, not "one person messes up, we wipe"), but if you can get through that, the rest of the mechanics are mostly understandable with only a couple that are not really intuitive (the buddy stack vs spread based on an easy to miss spell name and the two party members that aren't supposed to join the stack). The final phase is just fun chaos where there's a lot visually going on and it swaps to the Red Wings theme. Even as a non-FF4-super-fan, I enjoyed it. As a healer, I enjoyed it a lot because there was a lot of healing (like Barb), but there were also a lot of periods where we could stand and hardcast to make up for mistakes or provide extra defense for the party. I like encounters that have a lot of healing but let me actually CAST HEALS (bad play, whatever, I actually WANT to be able to cast heals, and movement doesn't allow that), so Zeromus succeeded where Barb failed miserably. 2: Hydaelyn - For basically all the reasons you listed. It was a great fight, although it was Savage level on release. Ironically, this is why I did my first ever at-level savage fights (P1S and P2S) since my friends assured me if I could do it, I could do Savage fights because it was a Savage level Extreme. It was rough at the start because there were a lot of points of failure, but I liked it because it was a technical dance (like Titania in ShB, which I also liked). My one big complaint is that all the blinding light made some mechanics just hard to SEE, period, but aside from that, the fight was really enjoyable and this was the first one I farmed and the first of the two mounts of this expansion I've gotten. Liked: 3: Zodiark - If there weren't Snakes... I almost rated ZodEx a 4 and BarbEx my 3. I hate Snakes that much. Otherwise, I really liked ZodEx. The mechanics were mostly understandable, but spicy enough to be interesting, and a lot of mechanics had MORE THAN ONE SOLUTION, something I personally like a lot. For example, the double ground pound had a safe spot in the front and back, and the falling stars tend to have one super apparent and one less apparent but still viable solution. I also like when mechanics allow for judgement calls or "you messed up, but you can still survive this", like when you're in the safe bird circle that's in the path of the diagonal dash that can throw you off the platform - moving will kill you, but you can use your KB immunity to eat the charge's damage and still survive. I still REALLY hate Snakes, though. To this day I still hate Snakes. But the rest of the fight was fun and this was the first (and to date only) all Class (yes, not Job; CLASS) PF clear that I've done. Which was pretty wild. No body check, you make a mistake it kills you instead of the whole party (unless you're the dorito, anyway), and still some spicy damage to heal. All around, good fight. 4: Barbarecca - I said I didn't like the heavy movement preventing healing, and I stand by that. I HATE "healing plan" oGCD Glarefest BS. Always will. So I hated that this fight had SO MUCH movement, it didn't allow me to actually be a healer, it forced me to be a strictly support DPS, something I loathe with a passion. What's worse, in PF, you often get that "I'm using my Lilybell/Panhamia HERE and you can't stop me!" co-healer, which does not work well with this fight since it forces so much oGCD heal use. That said...this is also the one of the only fights that didn't have super strict body checks. Other than the flare-meteors, (and even then if the dead person isn't a Tank), you can drag a party on through stuff, and the later mechanics (Mario Kart) scale down to number of living players. Combined with a somewhat lenient Enrage and this fight allowed a lot for players to get things done and shine, which I did like a lot. I kept saying "If there was a fight like BarbEx but with less movement, I'd love it", and that's why I love Zeromus. Well designed, but too much movement, too little downtime from the movement. Still one of the ones this expansion I've liked more, enough to farm the weapon if not the mount, but that's just because so many Extremes this expansion were accidentally Savages, this one being a step less still made it decent. Disliked: 5: Rubicante - I have the exact opposite opinion of you, Happs. I liked (after Barb) the slow pacing of this fight but HATED the back end. So many wipes. So few clears. People just COULD NOT do that mechanic. Yeah, I got my clear at level (and a second with that party), but this is the one fight I decided "I'll come back to this later when we overgear it to the point we can skip the final mechanics". The fight is nothing for 3/4ths of the fight then an entire Savage's worth of mechanics all at once in the last stretch. It's absolutely ridiculous how much damage it puts out, how many chained body checks there are so that if even one person messes up it IS a guaranteed wipe, etc. It's just stupid. This fight was a MSQ level fight for 75% of it then a Savage/Ultimate for the last 25%. Horribly tuned all around. Sure, the pizza mechanic was interesting, but there wasn't QUITE enough time for (most people) to find the solution on their own, so people just memorized the patterns, but that's no fun (I like maze games being mazes, not memory games: SEE that DR fight with the fire/ice arrows that follow the maze game). But if the last 25% had either not been there or toned down, it might not move this fight up to liked, but I at least wouldn't greatly DISlike it. 6: Endsinger - This fight I disliked so much I've only cleared it once and not gone back in. A lot of the mechanics aren't intuitive at all, and even when you get it, there's weird body checks and there's a lot of stuff coming from off the field (general rule: I dislike it when stuff OFF THE FIELD is part of mechanics because I play at a 3/4 downward looking view so I can't SEE the stuff off the field), the time mechanic could have been interesting, but somehow wasn't, etc. It just wasn't fun and I had zero desire to do it again, even though I someday will for the mount farm, I'll probably wait an expansion. In addition to body checks (which this had) I also tend to relegate "must watch off the field for things" to Savage fights. So this fight had ALL the things that I hate in an Extreme together. At least the music was good, but nothing else was. HATED: 7: Golbez - This is the only fight I haven't even cleared YET. PF groups CANNOT seem to get past Gales. Like...at all. Gales 2 wipes parties. As a healer, I can survive it (if my partner didn't die to the enums and we got the party stacks FIRST), and LB3 everyone...but wait! There's MORE! Then the mechanic is repeated AGAIN with Gales 3, and I don't have healer LB3 after that one, so it's a wipe. There are also SO MANY body checks, and remember my rule; "Body checks = Savage, not Extreme". And Golbez has at least half a dozen, and probably more, depending on how you want to argue it. The line meteors lead into stacks (2 man or light party) which means each can lead to a wipe, especially the one that comes before the flares/knockback which is a hard body check for the entire raid. A later meteor leads into the light party ice wall 1/4th safe spot thing, which also is a hard body check. Gales 2 and Gales 3 are body checks with 6 total waves of mechanics. The later meteor/flares is also a body check. There are just so many body checks, it's impossible to pull a party through or recover from any mistakes. This was a Savage fight they accidentally put in the Extreme category, and it goes down as my most absolutely HATED fight this expansion. I'll come back and clear it in DT, I don't even care at this point. Spent so many hours pushing this one only for at least one person in each PF group to not be able to manage something, and more than half to not be able to manage Gales 2/3, and that's AFTER getting people through flares/meteors, which itself was a pain and a half to get people to learn...ugh! Bad fight. Bad bad fight. Never again, SE.
barbaricia wile mech wise was amazing its my least favorite trial cause of the pf experience so many "farm" who just could not do it alo doesnt help i had over 200 kills and had to buy the mount on 2 caracters. when you had a good party it was a great fight. but sadly i had to much "special" people to fully enjoy it
For people unsure of if they will do EXs this expac one thing I have learned is they are all generous on your uptime with some good soft caps doing these at level 100 will still be fun but will still have a few mechanics so it ain't a face roll.
I got Barbariccia in 16 runs as well. So that one was my quickest. Zodiark took 76, Hydaelyn was 99, Endsinger was 50 runs totem purchase, Rubicante was 50 runs totem purchased as well, and Golbez i have 100 totems from 50 runs waiting on it to be purchasable, and Zeromus I'm currently at 22 of 50 clears or mount win, whichever may come first
I would have put Hydalin at the bottom, it was just way too bright to differentiate mechanics and personally I had to lower my brightness settings to even go in there. But barb is definitely the best fight of the expac so far.
My list! I really love the spectacle of Zodiark. It just feels absolutely epic, and thus, my #1. 7. Rubicante 6. Endsinger 5. Hydalen 4. Zeromus 3. Golbez 2. Barb 1. Zodiark
I had to cap on Barbie's mount, and honestly, I don't mind at all that I had to. Two totems combined with the trial just feeling satisfying to pull off every clear. Can't speak for Endsinger though. I got my mount on kill 2 and haven't been back since. From what Happy said in the video, I guess thats a good thing.
Ultima Weapon, kinda. Good King Moggle Mog XII, kinda. They both have lengthy openers that are truncated and reworked into other parts of the EX. Then there's Innocence as mentioned above.
Roughly the same order/ feeling for me on everything, but Rubi is the lowest for me. I did him day 1, and I knew right off the bat what the fight was going to be and hated it. It was extremely frustrating on day 1, and i told friends "this is going to be a fight where there is probably only a few set patterns and once the patterns are figured out, you'll have a 100% dorito and it'll make the mechanic a non factor, but early it is just going to be punishing the rest of the crowd" and i was right on the money with it. The rest of the fight was ok but it turned what could have been cool randomized patterns where you actually follow the lines through into just frustration into boredom after it was solved.
Barbi being number 1 is how it should be, I loved barbi's prog experience, doing this fight blind was a blast and the ptsd from the fellas who did DSR and saw playstation the first time was a nice bonus lmao
I switched to BLM as main job in Endwalker and it's so much fun to learn every fight. Complete different experience than most classes. It's like hard mode haha I love it.
My biggest regret in EW was that I disliked Rubicante and the middle raid tier in PF so much that I gave up my house and took my first extended break in 6.3. And when I came back for 6.5, Golbez was already old news, and I couldn't find new blind prog groups for it. Execution style fights tend to be my favorite, and I feel like I would have had a blast with it. But instead I was here for Zeromus, which was pretty meh. I guess I won't make that mistake again.
My personal Ex list: 1. Barbara (high pace, pure execution, fun extreme) she is my #1 trial not just for EW, but the whole game. 2. Hydaelyn (super unique, bgm had me teaching PF for 230+ kills) 3. Golbez (good standard ex) 4. Zodiark (I was Duritto, this was too easy to solo carry) 5. Endsinger (simply liked gimmicks better than those lower) 6. Zeromus (too easy, killed it second pull blind with FC mount farm group who still wiped to Barbara just few days prio to 6.5) 7. Rubicante (as a durrito, this wasnt fun gimmick and fight itself you dont to anything, just hitting dummy for over half the fight due to how long puzzle phases last/take to resolve. This could have been way better if puzzle phases were twice as fast, that way pf would always see LC and fight would be less boring due to not standing still for so long.) Edit: (reasoning)
Smaller arena - less running for our poor lalafells feet. Specially if you play Blm. And i agree with Barbie being best. Its fast, but in that very small arena you dont have to run far, just mostly small adjustments.
From what I can tell, I'd say Golbez was very mixed. If you had a static/farm party/got super luck in PF, and didn't play a caster, you probably would love it. If you were a solo PF hero and had average-or-worse luck getting decent parties, it sucked so bad and you hated it because it was literally impossible to clear considering it had something like 6-10 (depending on how you count) body checks, meaning one person wiping (or a key person dying at a bad time) meant party wipe and there was genuinely nothing you could do about it. it's very "all or nothing", moreso than any other fight.
Maybe I'd rank Rubicante a little higher, but otherwise I agree with the ranking here. And yeah, Barbariccia EX was a masterpiece, I just can't say enough good things about that fight. Excluding Ultimates, it's my favorite fight of the whole expansion.
Actually agreeing on Barbie as #1, I did actually not mind having to farm that one to 100 totems. Though I'd personally rank Rubicante the lowest, idk , it just rubbed me the wrong way. Also lots of red, do no likie as colourblind player
Barb weirdly was my best parse and i think that due to the fact the bit where you bait the big circles is at 3 minites on inner release so fell cleave while baiting primal rend back in after spreads run out of the aoe around here onslaught in then pair, was a very warrior friendly fight but i think Endsinger is too low, yes it didnt have an extra add phase but it had no downtime
I would bet on the Ashura trial having an Ex version, after playing it at fanfest there were lots of places I could see them taking away the AOE tells and stuff for Ex difficulty.
Endsinger was so fucking sad... I hoped for an epic 2nd phase with "With Hearts Aligned" blasting... But no. Just sad bird. Mechanics were neat though. EDIT: Swap Hydaelyn and Zodiark, and I 100% agree with this ranking btw.
Barb is for sure the best Best, but as a "new" player, that started FFXIV during Shadowbringers and experienced the EW EX trials as his first ever EX trials (and not having done the savage raids to outgear the odd-patch extremes), Endsinger ranked way higher for me (in a league with Golbez and Hydaelyn) - I also rank them more from a progression standpoint / 1st time kill experience than from a farming experience. My list would be Barbariccia > Endsinger > Hydaelin > Golbez > Zeromus > Zodiark >>> Rubicante
I agree with basically everything. The only thing why I don't love thinking back about Barbariccia Ex is the Party Finder. True North is so incredibly dumb for some mechanics
I want and need more fights similar to barbs. Its the only ex i had fun with. Hydalaen close second but all the other fights were a disappointment compared to shb.
Barb takes the crown for me and it’s not even a damn contest Lowest is probably endsinger or rubi, just didn’t enjoy them at all (not even normal mode for rubi, at least enjoyed normal endsinger for the story moment)
Pretty much the exact order I would rank them in with one exception (and you touched on it); I would've dropped Golbez down to 4, putting Zeromus and Hydaelyn above it, namely for the amount of body checks that often led to groups disbanding over a different person making 1 mistake and dying right before those checks (looking at you, Double Meteor). Barb was the best one this xpac IMO, and it isn't even close; even stupid simple "dodge the things" where the days of playing shmups as a kid paid off dodging all the orbs being flung our way. Think it would make it in my top 5 EX trials from the game in it's entirety, alongside Titan, Thordan, Shinryu and WoL.
I have to say Rubicante is sadly my least favorite this xpac and Barbaricia is my favorite. I struggled with Rubicante's fuse mechanic, not sure if dyslexia or something else had to do with it but it was one mech I couldn't read, and there's no way to correct it, so if someone else can't lead it, it's just a pain in the ass fight to do
I haven't all of the extremes but Zodiark is my least favorite and Endsinger was my fav. I really enjoyed the mechanics. I definitely have my critiques of it, cause the fact that footfalls didnt play was a shame.
Interesting... I never liked Barbie EX... especially the spitting out all the AOEs while you're tethered bit. It was just irritating and if you had bad RNG, you just died because you had nowhere safe to go to avoid the poop. It didn't help that I also hated the music in that one - it's the only one I had to put on my own music for. So I'd have probably put Barbie and Rubi as my last place trials.
I had expected to differ with you, but our lists are exactly the same. No question on number one, I think everyone agrees Barb is best. Endsinger is worst.
Personally Zodiark was the most disappointing trial this expansion. He's built up over the lifespan of the game as the big bad, and his main mechanic is.... turning the arena 90 degrees? Hydaelyn was easy but she was really cool thematically (lightwaves, doing the move after ads she used to shatter zodiark). I kinda wished Zodiark had Zeromus' mechanics instead, I really thought it looked way more threatening and interesting.
for me is baldicante-> zero-> zodiark->endisnger-> hyda->barbs+ golbez baldicante was so boring i never even cleared it, zero its just a check on how bad people are at the game, zodiark was ok but dorito fights are boring, hyda was my first extreme trail and we stan for crystal mom, barbs was actually fun but the forced downtime during the 2 minutes were annoying as fuck same with the 2 minutes during meteors for golbez but no forced downtime just people greeding and dying . i even forgot endsinger existed but i like it more than zodiark so it gets 4th place
![[FFXIV] Beginner Dawntrail Monk Guide](/img/1.gif)
Barb is by FAR my favorite EX trial, it felt brutal when I was first learning it due to the pacing, but once I learned the fight it's so fun to try to push your luck with spacing. Also her voice lines are great xD
Her voice lines are horny AF...
At launch, the line "I will slaughter you all!" always gives me goosebumps
her eng dub voice is kinda weak sauce but hearing her in JP she sounds like a jojo character, while her french dub is straight up dominantrix 👀
especially in French lol
I fucking hate this fight for the reason people like it. This gave me so much stress.
Have you been hit by Zeromus’s black hole? Honestly one of the coolest attacks to be hit by in the whole game
This. This needed to be Zeromus' enrage. He just plops a black hole in the middle of the arena and you have until it consumes the entire thing to kill him. Rather than just, oh it's this mechanic but arbitrarily just kills you.
Ahhh!!! I’m being spaghettified
This is my single favorite mechanic of all the EW extremes.
Dodging a rotating laser while frantically running way from the BIG SUCC is so satisfying
@@WolfmanXD it is his enrage. If you take too long in part 1 that's exactly what he does.
@@aezerie8239wait, really? If so thats kinda sad honestly because the dps check must be so easy nobody will ever see it.
You're supposed to mute the BGM in Endsinger Ex and play the 1hr loop of "With Hearts Aligned" from RUclips. I think that changes the whole experience
Hydalaen is hands down my number 1 I loved how they included the crystals and the waves of pure light. For me its the best add phase of any ex. Its the only one I really felt excited to farm and the music, how can you beat that!
Barbariccia was my absolute favourite Ex in any patch… I enjoyed farming her!
Endsinger extreme was such a massive dissapointment
For one,removing the last part that was in normal mode was a big mistake when they couldve tweeked to have more mechanics or a heal check. And the fight doesnt do enough with its rewind mechanic
Here is hoping the future endsinger ultimate can rectify this
I agree, but it was extra disappointing for me because I wanted it to be my head cannon for what the real fight would be. Why? Because normal version was awful. First two trials are epic both in story and had interesting mechanics. Endsingers only gimmick was the planets and everything else was just "is that it?" It's not like I hated the end of story or anything that could colour my perception. It just sadly fell flat. (It's extra underwhelming if your party has meh DPS and you spend ages on the final phase)
I see it as an overcorrection compared to Shadowbringers Extremes and their usage of cutscenes to transition phases. "With Hearts Aligned" missing makes the fight very weak, probably the worst just on that basis alone
I havent gotten in trial duty for a while, what did they remove exactly?
@@HyouVizer Nothing to do with the normal mode. Just the extreme missing the final phase with the music change and Endsinger panicking.
I was sure they will add some mech that will push party use many Limit Breaks, but these expectations realized only in Ultimate of Omega, sadly.
The production value and sound effects in endsinger were top tier 👌 very hot take
Dude! Just wanted to say, wow. amazing results with your fitness journey, keep going man. When you went from the Zodiark showcase to the Zeromus showcase I saw the drastic change. Good stuff
Brabarecia was my first current extreme. I had only done unsynced extremes for mount farming up until that point and I picked her fight because the base fight wasn't complicated mechanically, it was just really fast so I figured it'd be a good start point for learning current extremes. I love that fight so much, I got the mount after 30 some tries, but that fight is so fast and frantic I wouldn't have minded grabbing the mount with totems
Barb really reminds me of fights like Sephirot EX, where you have a lot of things to either know they're on the way, or need to react quickly to. It's dope.
Not placing golbez at bottom is down right criminal.
Who the fuck is the fan of 10 min extreme with gale orbs 2 as pf check
Zeromus gets a decent bump for me for just not having really any body check mechanics. As much as I like Golbez, farming him was miserable because there were so many instances where a single mistake could wipe the party. I feel like the two biggest issues in Endwalker fight design were bad pacing and frustrating body checks, so trials like Hydaelyn, Barbariccia, and Zeromus end up near the top for me because they're fun, decently challenging, but you're allowed to make mistakes.
Also Barb and Hydaelyn were actually moderately interesting when it came to keeping melee uptime, which is pretty surprising considering how free uptime is in savage raids.
Exactly, I like Golbez a lot but 1 persons mistake wiping the party at basically any point in the fight just made for a miserable time.
Get into enough Meteor trap parties and you'll be begging for an encounter where you can trust people to do it right.
True about the body checks. Even the savages recently have had an annoying amount of body check mechanics. More than they usually do it feels like
This is me. Zeromus, Hydaelyn, Zodiark, and Barb were my top 4 because they didn't really have any hard body checks. Zeromus was "Barb, but with less movement so you can actually cast heals", which is why it's my 1 and Barb down at 4. Everything lower than that I disliked, and Golbez is my last place because of the body checks. It's the one I haven't gotten a clear of yet since I've yet to find a PF group where people don't all die to Gales 2 and (if I can healer LB to get us passed that) then all die to Gales 3 anyway.
As a Red Mage i could not stand Golbez, while i understood what to do and could do the mechanics. Its the movement and keeping uptime wasint fun when i get busy with the wind walls wasint fun for me but it was a very nice fight on a design level.
Wow you can really see your personal gym progress over the years good work Haps !!
As a healer main, Barb was also my top EX of the expansion by a mile. Lots of movement, but most things were pretty comfortably slide-castable. Mechanics were tough enough that people died in droves, yet the combination of lenient DPS check and dearth of body checks made it extremely recoverable. Finding the hole to hardcast a rez in that final tornado dodging section feels so good.
Barb was also one of the best-paced fights for healing. I didn't have to do savage tier coordination with my co healer, but for the fist poundings we needed something big up for each one
Barb made me work to keep the rest of the people alive, and the hectic parts were great on top of it all
See, I liked Barb because of the mechanics, but she's my number 4 (only because my 5,6,7 are all worse/more hated) because there's so much movement, there's no time to stand and cast heals. So it's heal plan for bust, and if you're in PF with a co-healer that refuses to work with you on CDs, you're SOL. I remember thinking if they made Barb's damage but with less movement, I'd love it.
...and that's what Zeromus was, so it's my #1 for this expansion. It took the one major failing of Barb - the heavy movement with no breaks - and fixed that by providing breaks, making for an encounter satisfying to play, heal, and replay.
@@SubduedRadical I disagree about the movement. There was a lot of it, but mostly it was small movements (other than when baiting circles). Found normal casts, including heals, to be fairly comfy.
@@adno4 Disagree. I did not enjoy it at all for the reasons I stated, and I farmed it a fair bit (15 or so clears, or roundabouts). Constant movement, constant running around, not really fun unless you're only using instant casts or oGCDs only. Which is mostly how I dealt with it, but it wasn't fun.
I think the encounter and mechanics overall were well designed (which is why it's my #4), but the movement was an 11 when it needed to be dialed back to a 7 or so.
Hence why I think Zeromus was perfect. It was a perfectly dialed back level of what Barb should have been, imo, and without bodychecks or other mechanics like that. So just about perfect.
I guess I'm the only Hydaelyn simp.
I'm just glad that I got to experience Barb on content, it's my favorite EX in the entire game and like you said I'll be comparing any EX to it for years
Endsinger was a really fun EX for me. I get being disappointed but looking at it in a vacuum I found the mechs to be very enjoyable
Yeah I'm honestly happy that they didn't make this some half-baked two-phase garbage with some cheesy cutscene and mandatory tank LB or whatever Reddit wanted this to be. Only trial I actually farmed dozens of times on content because it was just fun to do and PF wasn't horrible at it.
I enjoyed Endsinger, felt really good about solving the ring and heads mechanic for example... but I can't lie I fking hate the 4-planet mechanic it is awful and so punishing
4 planet was kinda annoying
@@ArchieGamez i love that mech lol
Barb EX was my first patch where I was completely up to date and had the current gear etc for it. My friends had started raiding late into the tier and wanted BiS weapons for the 2nd wing so we had to learn and farm Barb for it and we all had a blast and clearing that fight week 1 was amazing.
I'd personally be putting Golbez lower down in my list due to the PF experience I've had with that fight because you can play perfectly but if someone in PF hasn't been looking at a guide and jumps in expecting to just wing it you'll end up in a trap party that spends 60m getting no-where. Otherwise my list would look fairly similar to yours
Barbariccia would be my #1 if Hydaelyn didnt have 10 years to back up that fight. To me that fight shined where Endsinger fell flat *and* had Your Answer to back it up (Also, PF was relatively kind to my soul when running Hydaelyn versus any other EX, so there's that too lol).
I enjoyed all the normal modes. Still haven't worked up to trying extremes. Thanks for the video
I agree with every pick. Barbarricia was really fun and chaotic but in a good way. Definitely the best ex this expansion and probably the most fun I have ever had during an ex trial.
Barby and Hyd are the only EX's I wanted to farm for fun. The others felt like an obligation but those two were just... very enjoyable. That said I haven't stepped into Zerex yet so I can't comment on that one too much.
honestly for me, my least favorite is Rubicante, such a snoozefest. I agree with Barbarichia being 1st, but I'd put hydaelyn at rank 2, Golbez was fun but I feel like I was enjoying myself more with hydaelyn
I gotta place Zodiark a couple spots higher simply because I was my static's danger dorito working out the puzzle on-content. That kind of spatial awareness check just clicks with me on a personal level.
Barb EX is absolutely top-tier though, no doubt.
i'm sorry for stealing the mount on the golbez runs :(
No ur not
My top 3 personally is:
1. Barbariccia
2. Hydalaen
3. Zeromus
I love fights that utilize unique moves where you need to learn, remember, and adapt if need be. Barbariccia taught me I need to put out as much effective damage when possible and most of her moves were essentially a Twice Come Ruin for me (PLD main) which is something I wish more fights did as I loathe instant wipes because a person failed a mechanic or couldn't do it because they were dead and I felt Barba did it right.
My top 3 are the same exact order as yours tbh. But I think my least faves are prob Zodiark and Golbez.
Golbez is good, but entirely too long. The first 3rd of the fight is a complete waste of time on a reclear.
I enjoyed Endsinger EX & Barbie EX, Hyde EX & Zod EX but tbh I'm not really able to fully enjoy high end content with my sometimes erratic schedule and communication issues...but I hope Dawntrail brings greater variety in Trial encounters (no door bosses in the 8 player raid maybe :P). Clarity & less visual overload could lead to more interesting mechanics and thus make higher end content more approachable without diluting the difficulty
Endsinger not having an additional phase or a complete revamp of the order of its phase like Shinryu and Hades makes it feel so. Underwhelming. There’s ONE track, the arena doesn’t change, and it has what feels like LESS mechanics from the normal trial??? The wipes feels so aggravating from it just being KB into standing into an AoE. It had so much potential but… it fell so flat
Glad I'm not the only one that feels these things about it. I was looking forward to a new phase, incorporated adds or callbacks of some sort. The different ways they'd expand on all the mechs from normal and there were so many that just weren't there. And weren't replaced with anything interesting.
Barbariccia MVP. I LOVED that fight, so frantic, so good, so fun! :D
Barb is the first ex trial ive had to totem the mount for, and I loved it. I can't count how many times I saw the fight click for the group leading to 5-10 clears in a row.
I fully agree with Barb and Golbez up at the top, they're so fast paced and hectic, but just a little bit of cluing yourself into the fight lets you feel so much more in control. I also personally quite liked Rubicante, but that's mainly because I did it blind by myself in PF with no guide. I figured out the fuses and where was safe for all of them, and the tricks to find them was really cool for me. I was able to burn through the 100 totems within the first week because I enjoyed it and optimising the fight so much.
Also Zeromus is pretty solid but I just cannot stress how much I hate meteors. You have to be so focused on getting the mechanic correct, there's a massive amount of stress on the 1st group to get it right, and you don't know whether they did until someone dies. Even then you don't know whether that death was on the 1st group, or them not finding the right spot, and it's kind of hard to verify.
And I totally agree with Endsinger being at the bottom. Part of it was the hype of the .1 trials being good, but also I think everyone could see the amazing potentials you could do with some of the normal mode mechanics. And even what was done in Extreme, they really could've pushed that way further. Not to mention the lack of a final phase where it was the Group using Dynamis (LB3) to thwart her plans. I'm glad they touched on that during TOP final phase but I wish it was in the Extreme in some way as well.
Golbez is fast fight?????
Holy fuck. Is this list made based on bis static parties?
he said fast flowing, as in mechanics happen quickly one after the other. not golbez dying quick
Oh my god yeah Barbarricia was so damn fun. More fights like this please. I can't wait to do her again on Unreal.
Personally I say:
7: Rubicante
6: Zodiark
5: Endsinger
4: Zeromus
3: Hydaelyn
2: Barbariccia
1: Golbez
I honestly prefer the misplacing of the meteors being the thing that wipes the party as opposed to oh no we didn't have *everyone* alive so we wiped. Zeromus, even if arguably a little too easy in some ways, is such a welcome change to the increase in "body check" fights it feels like they've been doing recently
So much this. Especially after Golbez which has...what, 7-10 body checks, depending on how you're counting? They accadentallyed a Savage in the Extreme category with Golbez and it sucked. Zeromus is Barb, but with less movement so the healers and BLMs of the world don't hate their lives, and as a healer, I appreciated that.
Definitely agree on the barbaricca placement. I'm all for more fights like it in the future. 1-3 I agree and the rest I feel mixed on. I honestly was expecting more of Rubicante so its at the bottom for me not a bad fight but could've been better. And Endsinger like wise could've been better but what we got was alright. I like the concept of smashing planets together for explosions its really cool.
Barbie is my favourite trial in the game as a healer. It’s possible for people to screw up but won’t cause a wipe and the healer feels like they’re important because of it
I remembered when yoship hyped up endsinger during the live letter saying it was going to be a tough ex to complete and he hopes the player base doesn't complain too much about the difficulty....completed it in less than 30mins blind on patch day
Endsinger was my first Ex on content and I really appreciated the difficulty. Was the perfect starting point and still is my favorite one after Zeromus
Love barbs bullet hell phase near the end
im terrible at barbariccia but its still my favorite its super fun and really tests your skill at dodging. the mechanics arent necessary hard its just reacting to the speed of the mechanics. I cant imagine how fast the fight will go as ilevel increases
My list was basically the same save for I had Zodiark last due to how much you could danger dorito it and my lack of skill of understanding that mechanic till around 80ish totems. Barbariccia as dancer was fun as hell dodging and weaving through all the aoes.
unfortunately I have to agree about Endsinger... the normal mode is awesome, with the story aspect, buildup to dynamis stuff and NPC involvement, especially now that it gets ilvl synced for newcomers to enjoy! It actually has quite a few interesting mechanics that are simply gone in the Extreme. I still enjoyed my prog and farm of it, but it feels like an incomplete fight and it's such a shame for the "final boss".
My list is pretty similar if not the same. After what they did with Shinryu and Hades EX, this being the end of such a long arc I had pretty high expectations. I was so let down. Just....I don't understand what happened, it was honestly kind of a failure.
Barb, Golbez, and Zeromus are all fantastic to run as a healer main. Zodiark was entirely satisfying and I still help people farm it long after I've stopped needing it.
Endsinger i love because of the memes, and the dialogue is fantastic. Doing this in PF wipes was a joy "we have seen the end, the same end again and again " that meaning PF dying to double planets lol.
Loved it, perhaps my fav next to hydalen.
Least is Rubicante and Zodiark.
Barb took me 2 days in party finder. But looking back I had a ton of fun.
Only barbaricia and Zeromus
were fun.
Rubicante is definitely one of the worst extreme challenges in the game, the battle was so ''without interest''.
Absolutely. Barbaricia was terrible in pf most of the time, but when everything was going smooth, she was tons of fun. The most unique extreme in the game imo. And Zeromus may be a bit easier but still entertaining, unlike Rubicante. Which is a shame, I really liked his design and character.
Rubicante is also one of the worst normal trials. Way too long, pointless cutscene that interrupts a two-minute burst, and awful mechanics.
Doing Endsinger on normal, I was so hyped for the extreme trial version.
Comparing Endsinger's Aria to Hades's Elegy, the previous .1 trial, makes it feel especially lacking.
Hm...my list (just the rank, then the explanations): Loved Zeromus, Hydaelyn; Liked Zodiark, Barbarecca; Disliked Rubicante, Endsinger; Hated Golbez.
Loved:
1: Zeromus - The fight is just fun, there's only ONE body check (meteors) which is super important to me as a PF only player (my own metric is body checks = Savage, not Extreme; Extremes are supposed to be midcore and focus more on individual responsibility, not "one person messes up, we wipe"), but if you can get through that, the rest of the mechanics are mostly understandable with only a couple that are not really intuitive (the buddy stack vs spread based on an easy to miss spell name and the two party members that aren't supposed to join the stack). The final phase is just fun chaos where there's a lot visually going on and it swaps to the Red Wings theme. Even as a non-FF4-super-fan, I enjoyed it. As a healer, I enjoyed it a lot because there was a lot of healing (like Barb), but there were also a lot of periods where we could stand and hardcast to make up for mistakes or provide extra defense for the party. I like encounters that have a lot of healing but let me actually CAST HEALS (bad play, whatever, I actually WANT to be able to cast heals, and movement doesn't allow that), so Zeromus succeeded where Barb failed miserably.
2: Hydaelyn - For basically all the reasons you listed. It was a great fight, although it was Savage level on release. Ironically, this is why I did my first ever at-level savage fights (P1S and P2S) since my friends assured me if I could do it, I could do Savage fights because it was a Savage level Extreme. It was rough at the start because there were a lot of points of failure, but I liked it because it was a technical dance (like Titania in ShB, which I also liked). My one big complaint is that all the blinding light made some mechanics just hard to SEE, period, but aside from that, the fight was really enjoyable and this was the first one I farmed and the first of the two mounts of this expansion I've gotten.
Liked:
3: Zodiark - If there weren't Snakes... I almost rated ZodEx a 4 and BarbEx my 3. I hate Snakes that much. Otherwise, I really liked ZodEx. The mechanics were mostly understandable, but spicy enough to be interesting, and a lot of mechanics had MORE THAN ONE SOLUTION, something I personally like a lot. For example, the double ground pound had a safe spot in the front and back, and the falling stars tend to have one super apparent and one less apparent but still viable solution. I also like when mechanics allow for judgement calls or "you messed up, but you can still survive this", like when you're in the safe bird circle that's in the path of the diagonal dash that can throw you off the platform - moving will kill you, but you can use your KB immunity to eat the charge's damage and still survive. I still REALLY hate Snakes, though. To this day I still hate Snakes. But the rest of the fight was fun and this was the first (and to date only) all Class (yes, not Job; CLASS) PF clear that I've done. Which was pretty wild. No body check, you make a mistake it kills you instead of the whole party (unless you're the dorito, anyway), and still some spicy damage to heal. All around, good fight.
4: Barbarecca - I said I didn't like the heavy movement preventing healing, and I stand by that. I HATE "healing plan" oGCD Glarefest BS. Always will. So I hated that this fight had SO MUCH movement, it didn't allow me to actually be a healer, it forced me to be a strictly support DPS, something I loathe with a passion. What's worse, in PF, you often get that "I'm using my Lilybell/Panhamia HERE and you can't stop me!" co-healer, which does not work well with this fight since it forces so much oGCD heal use. That said...this is also the one of the only fights that didn't have super strict body checks. Other than the flare-meteors, (and even then if the dead person isn't a Tank), you can drag a party on through stuff, and the later mechanics (Mario Kart) scale down to number of living players. Combined with a somewhat lenient Enrage and this fight allowed a lot for players to get things done and shine, which I did like a lot. I kept saying "If there was a fight like BarbEx but with less movement, I'd love it", and that's why I love Zeromus. Well designed, but too much movement, too little downtime from the movement. Still one of the ones this expansion I've liked more, enough to farm the weapon if not the mount, but that's just because so many Extremes this expansion were accidentally Savages, this one being a step less still made it decent.
Disliked:
5: Rubicante - I have the exact opposite opinion of you, Happs. I liked (after Barb) the slow pacing of this fight but HATED the back end. So many wipes. So few clears. People just COULD NOT do that mechanic. Yeah, I got my clear at level (and a second with that party), but this is the one fight I decided "I'll come back to this later when we overgear it to the point we can skip the final mechanics". The fight is nothing for 3/4ths of the fight then an entire Savage's worth of mechanics all at once in the last stretch. It's absolutely ridiculous how much damage it puts out, how many chained body checks there are so that if even one person messes up it IS a guaranteed wipe, etc. It's just stupid. This fight was a MSQ level fight for 75% of it then a Savage/Ultimate for the last 25%. Horribly tuned all around. Sure, the pizza mechanic was interesting, but there wasn't QUITE enough time for (most people) to find the solution on their own, so people just memorized the patterns, but that's no fun (I like maze games being mazes, not memory games: SEE that DR fight with the fire/ice arrows that follow the maze game). But if the last 25% had either not been there or toned down, it might not move this fight up to liked, but I at least wouldn't greatly DISlike it.
6: Endsinger - This fight I disliked so much I've only cleared it once and not gone back in. A lot of the mechanics aren't intuitive at all, and even when you get it, there's weird body checks and there's a lot of stuff coming from off the field (general rule: I dislike it when stuff OFF THE FIELD is part of mechanics because I play at a 3/4 downward looking view so I can't SEE the stuff off the field), the time mechanic could have been interesting, but somehow wasn't, etc. It just wasn't fun and I had zero desire to do it again, even though I someday will for the mount farm, I'll probably wait an expansion. In addition to body checks (which this had) I also tend to relegate "must watch off the field for things" to Savage fights. So this fight had ALL the things that I hate in an Extreme together. At least the music was good, but nothing else was.
HATED:
7: Golbez - This is the only fight I haven't even cleared YET. PF groups CANNOT seem to get past Gales. Like...at all. Gales 2 wipes parties. As a healer, I can survive it (if my partner didn't die to the enums and we got the party stacks FIRST), and LB3 everyone...but wait! There's MORE! Then the mechanic is repeated AGAIN with Gales 3, and I don't have healer LB3 after that one, so it's a wipe. There are also SO MANY body checks, and remember my rule; "Body checks = Savage, not Extreme". And Golbez has at least half a dozen, and probably more, depending on how you want to argue it. The line meteors lead into stacks (2 man or light party) which means each can lead to a wipe, especially the one that comes before the flares/knockback which is a hard body check for the entire raid. A later meteor leads into the light party ice wall 1/4th safe spot thing, which also is a hard body check. Gales 2 and Gales 3 are body checks with 6 total waves of mechanics. The later meteor/flares is also a body check. There are just so many body checks, it's impossible to pull a party through or recover from any mistakes. This was a Savage fight they accidentally put in the Extreme category, and it goes down as my most absolutely HATED fight this expansion. I'll come back and clear it in DT, I don't even care at this point. Spent so many hours pushing this one only for at least one person in each PF group to not be able to manage something, and more than half to not be able to manage Gales 2/3, and that's AFTER getting people through flares/meteors, which itself was a pain and a half to get people to learn...ugh! Bad fight. Bad bad fight. Never again, SE.
barbaricia wile mech wise was amazing its my least favorite trial cause of the pf experience so many "farm" who just could not do it alo doesnt help i had over 200 kills and had to buy the mount on 2 caracters. when you had a good party it was a great fight. but sadly i had to much "special" people to fully enjoy it
100% agree on the top 3, but I put zeromus on the bottom for me. Fight was such a big disappointment for the final one.
Barb was easily top 3 of my favorite EX fights. Putting SOS and either Thordan or Sephirot in the other 2 places.
For people unsure of if they will do EXs this expac one thing I have learned is they are all generous on your uptime with some good soft caps doing these at level 100 will still be fun but will still have a few mechanics so it ain't a face roll.
I agree wholeheartedly with your list
I got Barbariccia in 16 runs as well. So that one was my quickest. Zodiark took 76, Hydaelyn was 99, Endsinger was 50 runs totem purchase, Rubicante was 50 runs totem purchased as well, and Golbez i have 100 totems from 50 runs waiting on it to be purchasable, and Zeromus I'm currently at 22 of 50 clears or mount win, whichever may come first
I would have put Hydalin at the bottom, it was just way too bright to differentiate mechanics and personally I had to lower my brightness settings to even go in there. But barb is definitely the best fight of the expac so far.
My list! I really love the spectacle of Zodiark. It just feels absolutely epic, and thus, my #1.
7. Rubicante
6. Endsinger
5. Hydalen
4. Zeromus
3. Golbez
2. Barb
1. Zodiark
I had to cap on Barbie's mount, and honestly, I don't mind at all that I had to. Two totems combined with the trial just feeling satisfying to pull off every clear.
Can't speak for Endsinger though. I got my mount on kill 2 and haven't been back since. From what Happy said in the video, I guess thats a good thing.
Endsinger is the boss that was most in need of an additional phase.
Does any other fight have more phases in Normal than EX?
Shinryu comes to mind as you have adds then climb on his tail the fight him when hes in the centre of a platform jump up and kill his wings
Oh wait you said normal having more in that case Innocence does you fight him as fat man in normal the twink but only as a twink in extreme
Ultima Weapon, kinda.
Good King Moggle Mog XII, kinda.
They both have lengthy openers that are truncated and reworked into other parts of the EX.
Then there's Innocence as mentioned above.
Roughly the same order/ feeling for me on everything, but Rubi is the lowest for me. I did him day 1, and I knew right off the bat what the fight was going to be and hated it. It was extremely frustrating on day 1, and i told friends "this is going to be a fight where there is probably only a few set patterns and once the patterns are figured out, you'll have a 100% dorito and it'll make the mechanic a non factor, but early it is just going to be punishing the rest of the crowd" and i was right on the money with it. The rest of the fight was ok but it turned what could have been cool randomized patterns where you actually follow the lines through into just frustration into boredom after it was solved.
Barbi being number 1 is how it should be, I loved barbi's prog experience, doing this fight blind was a blast and the ptsd from the fellas who did DSR and saw playstation the first time was a nice bonus lmao
now i really wonder how the future future ultimate is gonna redeem endsinger
I switched to BLM as main job in Endwalker and it's so much fun to learn every fight. Complete different experience than most classes. It's like hard mode haha I love it.
The top 2 extremes both have raging gales that tear you asunder. Coincidence? I think not.
My biggest regret in EW was that I disliked Rubicante and the middle raid tier in PF so much that I gave up my house and took my first extended break in 6.3. And when I came back for 6.5, Golbez was already old news, and I couldn't find new blind prog groups for it. Execution style fights tend to be my favorite, and I feel like I would have had a blast with it. But instead I was here for Zeromus, which was pretty meh. I guess I won't make that mistake again.
My personal Ex list:
1. Barbara (high pace, pure execution, fun extreme) she is my #1 trial not just for EW, but the whole game.
2. Hydaelyn (super unique, bgm had me teaching PF for 230+ kills)
3. Golbez (good standard ex)
4. Zodiark (I was Duritto, this was too easy to solo carry)
5. Endsinger (simply liked gimmicks better than those lower)
6. Zeromus (too easy, killed it second pull blind with FC mount farm group who still wiped to Barbara just few days prio to 6.5)
7. Rubicante (as a durrito, this wasnt fun gimmick and fight itself you dont to anything, just hitting dummy for over half the fight due to how long puzzle phases last/take to resolve. This could have been way better if puzzle phases were twice as fast, that way pf would always see LC and fight would be less boring due to not standing still for so long.)
Edit: (reasoning)
Smaller arena - less running for our poor lalafells feet. Specially if you play Blm.
And i agree with Barbie being best. Its fast, but in that very small arena you dont have to run far, just mostly small adjustments.
Seems like Golbez was pretty liked by a lot of people, but I really got bored with it fast. I loved Barb and Hyd a lot though
From what I can tell, I'd say Golbez was very mixed.
If you had a static/farm party/got super luck in PF, and didn't play a caster, you probably would love it. If you were a solo PF hero and had average-or-worse luck getting decent parties, it sucked so bad and you hated it because it was literally impossible to clear considering it had something like 6-10 (depending on how you count) body checks, meaning one person wiping (or a key person dying at a bad time) meant party wipe and there was genuinely nothing you could do about it.
it's very "all or nothing", moreso than any other fight.
1: Barb
2: Zeromus
3: Rubi
4: Endsinger
5: Jeff Golbezos
Never did Zodiark/Hydaelyn
Maybe I'd rank Rubicante a little higher, but otherwise I agree with the ranking here. And yeah, Barbariccia EX was a masterpiece, I just can't say enough good things about that fight. Excluding Ultimates, it's my favorite fight of the whole expansion.
Actually agreeing on Barbie as #1, I did actually not mind having to farm that one to 100 totems. Though I'd personally rank Rubicante the lowest, idk , it just rubbed me the wrong way. Also lots of red, do no likie as colourblind player
Common Barbie W, she deserves top spot of the Extremes, she's just so much fun
Barb weirdly was my best parse and i think that due to the fact the bit where you bait the big circles is at 3 minites on inner release so fell cleave while baiting primal rend back in after spreads run out of the aoe around here onslaught in then pair, was a very warrior friendly fight but i think Endsinger is too low, yes it didnt have an extra add phase but it had no downtime
almost the same to me. just 1 and 2 swapped! hehe
Agree about Barbie. Every streamer I've watched has gone something along the lines of "Ooh, this'll be a fun extreme."
Barb was certainly fast paced and challenging but it was extremely frustrating as randoms kept dying.
"Why the fuck you dyin, why you always dying"
** swift rez **
** dies again **
"Omg, stop fuckin dying"
** party wipe ** 💀
Barb have a lot of duo mechs that's really unforgiving if your partner ded lmao. But still the best nonetheless.
I would bet on the Ashura trial having an Ex version, after playing it at fanfest there were lots of places I could see them taking away the AOE tells and stuff for Ex difficulty.
Endsinger was so fucking sad... I hoped for an epic 2nd phase with "With Hearts Aligned" blasting... But no. Just sad bird. Mechanics were neat though.
EDIT: Swap Hydaelyn and Zodiark, and I 100% agree with this ranking btw.
Endsinger EX didnt even have the music from phase 2😢😢😢
I really liked endsinger ;~;
Barb is for sure the best Best, but as a "new" player, that started FFXIV during Shadowbringers and experienced the EW EX trials as his first ever EX trials (and not having done the savage raids to outgear the odd-patch extremes), Endsinger ranked way higher for me (in a league with Golbez and Hydaelyn) - I also rank them more from a progression standpoint / 1st time kill experience than from a farming experience. My list would be Barbariccia > Endsinger > Hydaelin > Golbez > Zeromus > Zodiark >>> Rubicante
I agree with basically everything. The only thing why I don't love thinking back about Barbariccia Ex is the Party Finder. True North is so incredibly dumb for some mechanics
For me personally, Zeromus's theme sounds like a Terraria Calamity theme
I want and need more fights similar to barbs. Its the only ex i had fun with. Hydalaen close second but all the other fights were a disappointment compared to shb.
Zeromus sounds like an In The Groove song
barbariccia was the faust of the abyssos raid tier, change my mind
Barb takes the crown for me and it’s not even a damn contest
Lowest is probably endsinger or rubi, just didn’t enjoy them at all (not even normal mode for rubi, at least enjoyed normal endsinger for the story moment)
Pretty much the exact order I would rank them in with one exception (and you touched on it); I would've dropped Golbez down to 4, putting Zeromus and Hydaelyn above it, namely for the amount of body checks that often led to groups disbanding over a different person making 1 mistake and dying right before those checks (looking at you, Double Meteor).
Barb was the best one this xpac IMO, and it isn't even close; even stupid simple "dodge the things" where the days of playing shmups as a kid paid off dodging all the orbs being flung our way. Think it would make it in my top 5 EX trials from the game in it's entirety, alongside Titan, Thordan, Shinryu and WoL.
I have to say Rubicante is sadly my least favorite this xpac and Barbaricia is my favorite. I struggled with Rubicante's fuse mechanic, not sure if dyslexia or something else had to do with it but it was one mech I couldn't read, and there's no way to correct it, so if someone else can't lead it, it's just a pain in the ass fight to do
I haven't all of the extremes but Zodiark is my least favorite and Endsinger was my fav. I really enjoyed the mechanics. I definitely have my critiques of it, cause the fact that footfalls didnt play was a shame.
My ranking beat to worse
Golbez
Barb
Endsinger
Hydaelyn
Zeromus
Zodiark
Rubicante
Barb is the best ex trial imo. Rubicante is the worst. To each their own but i cannot understand how anyone can think it is better than Endsinger lol
Interesting... I never liked Barbie EX... especially the spitting out all the AOEs while you're tethered bit. It was just irritating and if you had bad RNG, you just died because you had nowhere safe to go to avoid the poop. It didn't help that I also hated the music in that one - it's the only one I had to put on my own music for. So I'd have probably put Barbie and Rubi as my last place trials.
I had expected to differ with you, but our lists are exactly the same. No question on number one, I think everyone agrees Barb is best. Endsinger is worst.
Personally Zodiark was the most disappointing trial this expansion. He's built up over the lifespan of the game as the big bad, and his main mechanic is.... turning the arena 90 degrees? Hydaelyn was easy but she was really cool thematically (lightwaves, doing the move after ads she used to shatter zodiark). I kinda wished Zodiark had Zeromus' mechanics instead, I really thought it looked way more threatening and interesting.
this list is like the exact inverse of what i wouldve chosen
for me is baldicante-> zero-> zodiark->endisnger-> hyda->barbs+ golbez
baldicante was so boring i never even cleared it, zero its just a check on how bad people are at the game, zodiark was ok but dorito fights are boring, hyda was my first extreme trail and we stan for crystal mom, barbs was actually fun but the forced downtime during the 2 minutes were annoying as fuck same with the 2 minutes during meteors for golbez but no forced downtime just people greeding and dying . i even forgot endsinger existed but i like it more than zodiark so it gets 4th place
I gotta question whoever like Endsinger the most. That shit is a snooze fest.