I don't have a clear gpose for this one because I accidentally deleted my screenshot folder and this is the only image I could find that I posted online >w>
At the start of this year I decided to finally get into doing Ultimate Raids with the goal of clearing each of them on a different job, and as I approach having all of them completed (with TOP out of the way as of a couple weeks ago, only DSR remains, at least until 7.5!),. I thought it would be worthwhile to pen down my thoughts on each one, because I think these pieces of content are interesting to dissect in terms of their mechanical and narrative value.
If you're anything like me and 1. only picked up this game after the height of its popularity, 2. are even interested in doing Ultimate Raids in the first place, then UWU is probably the first one you've cleared, or are looking to clear. And if it isn't, it should be! Starting with UWU isn't quite chronological in terms of release order, since UCOB predates (haha) it, but if we're talking about what UWU thematically represents, it is chronological because it's pretty much A Realm Reborn presented as one epic 13 minute fight, with some creative liberties courtesy of the Wandering Minstrel.
As far as actual gameplay goes, UWU is about the best introduction to Ultimates that you could possibly get in FFXIV. You've perhaps heard similar advice before because that's as cold a take as it can get, but that advice exists for a reason — UWU presents the challenge of Ultimate's speed (in terms of how fast things resolve), which is unique to this category of content, without yet infusing too much mechanical complexity. Indeed, most raiders would probably tell you that many recent Savage fights are actually harder than UWU overall, with some even going so far as to call UWU an Extreme (I am guilty of making this joke at times), but this fight is still very much an Ultimate in terms of speed, even if much of the gameplay boils down to "dodge thing."
It's probably worth noting at this point that part of the reason why UWU is so much easier than literally every Ultimate is the Awakening puzzle that spans throughout the entire fight, which requires you to do the mechanics of every phase in a specific way to get one free refund of LB3 for each primal you Awaken, all of which are required to clear. If you were approaching it from the perspective of blind prog, UWU is probably harder to clear than at least UCOB in present day, simply because Awakening is extremely difficult to figure out blind and will likely require reprogging the entire fight, including P5. But I'm generally not a blind progger and neither is most of the raiding community, so for the purposes of this discussion, I'll be looking at the fight from the perspective of someone who came in prepared for it by studying guides.
Garuda is the first primal you face in this gauntlet, and it's certainly a first phase... very little happens actually happens here and most groups overcome it quickly. Featherrains are important to continue respecting throughout the entire fight, but otherwise there really isn't much to talk about; doing too much damage (either when the initial plumes spawn or defeating Garuda before she Awakens) actually becomes a problem once you're more comfortable with the phase. I'm sure the exact process of Awakening the boss through the combination of cleanses during Friction and also the handling of Mesohigh tethers while also ensuring that players remain with the stacks needed to take the same tethers in P5 was a lot more difficult to figure out blind, but doing the fight "normally" it's just kind of whatever, honestly. The remix of Fallen Angel used in this phase is great, though, so even though it's probably the music you'll be listening to the most in this fight, I didn't really lose my mind over it.
Ifrit is where things start to get a little interesting, because there's more that can go wrong here — starting with the transition mechanic where you have to dodge to a random cardinal immediately, or die, which really cements just how unforgiving Ultimate is in terms of speed. For the actual phase itself, PF (and most groups) usually opt to "skipfrit," which is to skip the Crimson Dash mechanic that happens towards the end of the phase by simply doing enough damage to the boss that the phase ends before the mechanic happens. Unfortunately, this tendency leads most people to simply not learn how to do dashes properly, and eliminates the nuance of killing Infernal Nails in a specific order to make dashes happen in a predictable manner, which I thought was pretty interesting. Ifrit's theme has always been the most forgettable of the three starter primals' to me, and it's no different in UWU despite the remix.
Titan comes next, and is probably the wall™ for most people, since it's the most fast-paced, dodge heavy phase outside of P5, but primarily because of the Gaols mechanic. The usage of... technology in the form of Automarkers (or AM, usually euphemized in-game as Allagan Melon) is often a point of contention in the raiding community, but its usage has become widely accepted in UWU PF to deal with Gaols. I don't think Gaols is difficult enough that AM usage is absolutely necessary (no mechanic in the game is) since self-marking macros can easily do as good of a job if players are competent, but some consideration should be given to why it became the norm in the first place. Of course, part of it could be attributed to player laziness and an unwillingness to solve mechanics "properly" (I'm looking at you, UCOB AM users), but I think it really boils down to the mechanic itself being difficult for all the wrong reasons. Firstly, only 3 out of 8 players in the party even have to do the mechanic to begin with, which is already awful design. I don't particularly enjoy the design philosophy of "half the time you do nothing and half the time you have to do everything" in fights, which also encompasses the alternative solution of having one person do all the marking. The amount of time you get to identify that you've been targeted by the mechanic and the visual tell for it are also quite suboptimal, which could've easily been solved by having a debuff with a timer to show that you've been targeted by a Gaol, but this content is over seven years old and its age shows, I guess. The randomness of the mechanic is the final element that makes it difficult, which could be dealt with using a priority system, but that's a lot more annoying when compounded with the speed at which it resolves and the less-than-ideal visuals. It's telling when the go-to method to deal with the mechanic without using AM is to literally sacrifice half the party so that you guarantee who actually gets targeted for it, which is why I understand why things are the way they are. Apart from Gaols, though, this phase is actually pretty awesome. This rendition of Titan is very fun and the remix of his theme is amazing.
Lahabrea is a pretty unique phase in that he doesn't actually have any real mechanics, but he serves as the gatekeeper by forcing you to cash in all the LB3s you accrued in the first three phases to get past him. It's an interesting concept on paper that seems epic at first (wow we get to use so many LB3s in a row!), but gets old quickly once you're progging the final phase of the fight. Thematically, I do enjoy the fact that Lahabrea actually gets some respect here, because the idea that you need to transcend your limits thrice in a row to beat him [ShB spoilers]does put him closer to the level of his compadres in the Unsundered Big Three, as opposed to his generally unceremonious showings in ARR and HW MSQ.
Then we have Ultima. The transition itself is incredible and the way the Ultima Weapon viscerally chomps on each of the primals is iconic. For all the perhaps deserved criticism leveled at UWU for not even being difficult enough to qualify as a "real" Ultimate, the fight is still unique in that instead of having a victory lap for its final phase, we instead get the three hardest mechanics of the entire instance packed into P5. None of the P5 trios are especially difficult in the grand scheme of things, especially when compared to the other Ultimates, and a lot of the phase can be done simply by following the movement of others (assuming they're doing the mechanics correctly), but it's still a phase that you can't quite just waltz through. Personally, progging this phase was also quite satisfying, because it just felt good that I made tangible progress each time I saw a new "Ultimate ______" castbar. While Predation and Annihilation don't really involve much more than dodging stuff for a DPS player like me, Suppression does offer a taste of what trios in other Ultimates are like, with different resolutions for different players based on random assignments. The final real mechanic, Primal Roulette, is a little underwhelming, because it's just "dodge thing" again except you only do it in a small area at the top left of the arena. The enrage sequence is extremely cool, though I've never actually gotten to see it with my own eyes in-game due to how much of a joke the DPS check is in this fight nowadays. Ultima (Orchestral Version) is an excellent track, my favorite in this fight by far, as is the phase itself, though there isn't much to say about the Ultima Weapon in terms of lore since it's just the same except it glows blue and is more powerful. I suppose there could be some commentary to be made here about how the Weapon is less of a vehicle driven by Gaius and portrayed as more of a sentient entity in this depiction (perhaps there is something to be said about how the final enrage cast is named Sabik), but the fight just doesn't offer much for us to make any concrete interpretations with.
I cleared UWU on February 12, 2025, as a Dancer. I've gone back in a few times to help others prog the fight, and have seen the entire fight on Summoner as well, although there's almost no role difference between Physical Ranged and Caster in this fight. I don't hate the fight and there is plenty to praise about it, but at the end of the day it's probably my least favorite Ultimate, if only because every other one I've done so far has had so much more to offer both mechanically and thematically.
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At the start of this year I decided to finally get into doing Ultimate Raids with the goal of clearing each of them on a different job, and as I approach having all of them completed (with TOP out of the way as of a couple weeks ago, only DSR remains, at least until 7.5!),. I thought it would be worthwhile to pen down my thoughts on each one, because I think these pieces of content are interesting to dissect in terms of their mechanical and narrative value.
If you're anything like me and 1. only picked up this game after the height of its popularity, 2. are even interested in doing Ultimate Raids in the first place, then UWU is probably the first one you've cleared, or are looking to clear. And if it isn't, it should be! Starting with UWU isn't quite chronological in terms of release order, since UCOB predates (haha) it, but if we're talking about what UWU thematically represents, it is chronological because it's pretty much A Realm Reborn presented as one epic 13 minute fight, with some creative liberties courtesy of the Wandering Minstrel.
As far as actual gameplay goes, UWU is about the best introduction to Ultimates that you could possibly get in FFXIV. You've perhaps heard similar advice before because that's as cold a take as it can get, but that advice exists for a reason — UWU presents the challenge of Ultimate's speed (in terms of how fast things resolve), which is unique to this category of content, without yet infusing too much mechanical complexity. Indeed, most raiders would probably tell you that many recent Savage fights are actually harder than UWU overall, with some even going so far as to call UWU an Extreme (I am guilty of making this joke at times), but this fight is still very much an Ultimate in terms of speed, even if much of the gameplay boils down to "dodge thing."
It's probably worth noting at this point that part of the reason why UWU is so much easier than literally every Ultimate is the Awakening puzzle that spans throughout the entire fight, which requires you to do the mechanics of every phase in a specific way to get one free refund of LB3 for each primal you Awaken, all of which are required to clear. If you were approaching it from the perspective of blind prog, UWU is probably harder to clear than at least UCOB in present day, simply because Awakening is extremely difficult to figure out blind and will likely require reprogging the entire fight, including P5. But I'm generally not a blind progger and neither is most of the raiding community, so for the purposes of this discussion, I'll be looking at the fight from the perspective of someone who came in prepared for it by studying guides.
Garuda is the first primal you face in this gauntlet, and it's certainly a first phase... very little happens actually happens here and most groups overcome it quickly. Featherrains are important to continue respecting throughout the entire fight, but otherwise there really isn't much to talk about; doing too much damage (either when the initial plumes spawn or defeating Garuda before she Awakens) actually becomes a problem once you're more comfortable with the phase. I'm sure the exact process of Awakening the boss through the combination of cleanses during Friction and also the handling of Mesohigh tethers while also ensuring that players remain with the stacks needed to take the same tethers in P5 was a lot more difficult to figure out blind, but doing the fight "normally" it's just kind of whatever, honestly. The remix of Fallen Angel used in this phase is great, though, so even though it's probably the music you'll be listening to the most in this fight, I didn't really lose my mind over it.
Ifrit is where things start to get a little interesting, because there's more that can go wrong here — starting with the transition mechanic where you have to dodge to a random cardinal immediately, or die, which really cements just how unforgiving Ultimate is in terms of speed. For the actual phase itself, PF (and most groups) usually opt to "skipfrit," which is to skip the Crimson Dash mechanic that happens towards the end of the phase by simply doing enough damage to the boss that the phase ends before the mechanic happens. Unfortunately, this tendency leads most people to simply not learn how to do dashes properly, and eliminates the nuance of killing Infernal Nails in a specific order to make dashes happen in a predictable manner, which I thought was pretty interesting. Ifrit's theme has always been the most forgettable of the three starter primals' to me, and it's no different in UWU despite the remix.
Titan comes next, and is probably the wall™ for most people, since it's the most fast-paced, dodge heavy phase outside of P5, but primarily because of the Gaols mechanic. The usage of... technology in the form of Automarkers (or AM, usually euphemized in-game as Allagan Melon) is often a point of contention in the raiding community, but its usage has become widely accepted in UWU PF to deal with Gaols. I don't think Gaols is difficult enough that AM usage is absolutely necessary (no mechanic in the game is) since self-marking macros can easily do as good of a job if players are competent, but some consideration should be given to why it became the norm in the first place. Of course, part of it could be attributed to player laziness and an unwillingness to solve mechanics "properly" (I'm looking at you, UCOB AM users), but I think it really boils down to the mechanic itself being difficult for all the wrong reasons. Firstly, only 3 out of 8 players in the party even have to do the mechanic to begin with, which is already awful design. I don't particularly enjoy the design philosophy of "half the time you do nothing and half the time you have to do everything" in fights, which also encompasses the alternative solution of having one person do all the marking. The amount of time you get to identify that you've been targeted by the mechanic and the visual tell for it are also quite suboptimal, which could've easily been solved by having a debuff with a timer to show that you've been targeted by a Gaol, but this content is over seven years old and its age shows, I guess. The randomness of the mechanic is the final element that makes it difficult, which could be dealt with using a priority system, but that's a lot more annoying when compounded with the speed at which it resolves and the less-than-ideal visuals. It's telling when the go-to method to deal with the mechanic without using AM is to literally sacrifice half the party so that you guarantee who actually gets targeted for it, which is why I understand why things are the way they are. Apart from Gaols, though, this phase is actually pretty awesome. This rendition of Titan is very fun and the remix of his theme is amazing.
Lahabrea is a pretty unique phase in that he doesn't actually have any real mechanics, but he serves as the gatekeeper by forcing you to cash in all the LB3s you accrued in the first three phases to get past him. It's an interesting concept on paper that seems epic at first (wow we get to use so many LB3s in a row!), but gets old quickly once you're progging the final phase of the fight. Thematically, I do enjoy the fact that Lahabrea actually gets some respect here, because the idea that you need to transcend your limits thrice in a row to beat him [ShB spoilers]does put him closer to the level of his compadres in the Unsundered Big Three, as opposed to his generally unceremonious showings in ARR and HW MSQ.
Then we have Ultima. The transition itself is incredible and the way the Ultima Weapon viscerally chomps on each of the primals is iconic. For all the perhaps deserved criticism leveled at UWU for not even being difficult enough to qualify as a "real" Ultimate, the fight is still unique in that instead of having a victory lap for its final phase, we instead get the three hardest mechanics of the entire instance packed into P5. None of the P5 trios are especially difficult in the grand scheme of things, especially when compared to the other Ultimates, and a lot of the phase can be done simply by following the movement of others (assuming they're doing the mechanics correctly), but it's still a phase that you can't quite just waltz through. Personally, progging this phase was also quite satisfying, because it just felt good that I made tangible progress each time I saw a new "Ultimate ______" castbar. While Predation and Annihilation don't really involve much more than dodging stuff for a DPS player like me, Suppression does offer a taste of what trios in other Ultimates are like, with different resolutions for different players based on random assignments. The final real mechanic, Primal Roulette, is a little underwhelming, because it's just "dodge thing" again except you only do it in a small area at the top left of the arena. The enrage sequence is extremely cool, though I've never actually gotten to see it with my own eyes in-game due to how much of a joke the DPS check is in this fight nowadays. Ultima (Orchestral Version) is an excellent track, my favorite in this fight by far, as is the phase itself, though there isn't much to say about the Ultima Weapon in terms of lore since it's just the same except it glows blue and is more powerful. I suppose there could be some commentary to be made here about how the Weapon is less of a vehicle driven by Gaius and portrayed as more of a sentient entity in this depiction (perhaps there is something to be said about how the final enrage cast is named Sabik), but the fight just doesn't offer much for us to make any concrete interpretations with.
I cleared UWU on February 12, 2025, as a Dancer. I've gone back in a few times to help others prog the fight, and have seen the entire fight on Summoner as well, although there's almost no role difference between Physical Ranged and Caster in this fight. I don't hate the fight and there is plenty to praise about it, but at the end of the day it's probably my least favorite Ultimate, if only because every other one I've done so far has had so much more to offer both mechanically and thematically.
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