Latest Final Fantasy XIV Ultimate Raid causes parties with too many buffs to stumble at DPS check
Hello, world. Goodbye, buffing jobs.
Michael Stoyanoff 
Image via Square Enix
Ultimate raids are the pinnacle of challenge in Final Fantasy XIV, but the beauty of the MMO’s balance design is that any job is viable in all encounters. It is not often that specific jobs hold back progression, but there’s a technical limitation in the newest Ultimate raid, The Omega Protocol. It’s causing many groups pushing for a world-first completion to change out jobs that have too many buffs because of a specific stage of the fight.
Currently, the game’s engine puts a cap of 30 on the number of active buffs on a single player at a time. During phase three of The Omega Protocol Ultimate, a mechanic called Hello World puts multiple buffs on every person in the party. The buffs are so plentiful that jobs cannot provide their own buffs to themselves or their fellow party members.
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This issue in itself wouldn’t be too much of a problem if not for the fact that this phase of the encounter has a very tight DPS check. Many party compositions are struggling to meet this demand with jobs that have a lot of buffs. Certain progression groups have traded their Dancers for Machinists in the ranged DPS slot and tried to have a Samurai or Black Mage in the mix.
Furthermore, the buff limit is causing pain for healers as well. Reaching the max amount means that healers cannot place regen heals, shields, or mitigation on party members to help with the incoming damage as each of these counts as a buff stack as well.
Players are hoping that Square Enix will address this oversight. Ultimate raids should not create an even harder challenge simply due to technical limitations of the engine, and no player should ever feel like they are hindering their group’s progression by playing a specific job.
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