FFXIV nerfs raid boss because the devs were too good at it

Sam Smith
Buried Memory

The Final Fantasy XIV developers have needed to nerf one of the hardest raids from update 6.2 Buried Memory after fans struggled to complete it.

FFXIV Buried Memory added a collection of new raids to the game, post-Endwalker which included Abyssos: The Eighth Circle (Savage), an ultra-hard raid that encouraged players to work together to overcome.

However, it soon became apparent that the raid was too hard for even the most experienced players, forcing Square-Enix to nerf it. Most of the difficulty was in regard to the vast amount of HP given to the raid boss, Hephaistos.

The dev team played the raid themselves and although they found it difficult, they didn’t think it was too hard for the players. Although they underestimated their own skills when it came to FFXIV, and didn’t realize that as the game’s developers, they were also the best players.

Buried memory FFXIV 6.21
Patch 6.21 of FFXIV nerfs a powerful raid boss.

Now that update 6.21 is live, the new patch notes state that Abyssos: The Eighth Circle (Savage) has now been nerfed and that essentially, the devs didn’t realize they were as good as they are. They said:

“Under normal circumstances, the DPS of this team serves as a base for determining a boss HP value that results in clears as close to the time limit as possible.”

“However, as extra time was dedicated to testing this battle, the team’s overall performance proved to be higher than usual. As a result, the base values used for adjustments were too high, with final values roughly 1% higher than intended.”

The team wanted to create a raid that challenged veteran players and then went on to apologize for the inconvenience caused by their ambitious goal.

Players have actually found the whole episode funny though, as the devs have essentially apologized for being too good at their game.

About The Author

Sam is a Senior Games Writer for Dexerto specializing in Survival Horror, Diablo, Final Fantasy, and Soulslikes. An NCTJ accredited journalist, Sam also holds a degree in journalism from the University of Central Lancashire and has many years of experience as a professional writer. Being able to marry his love of writing with his addiction to video games was always one of his life goals. He also loves all things PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo in equal measure. Contact at sam.smith@dexerto.com