Final Fantasy XIV nerfs Hephaistos right after release, underestimated their test team’s skill

It is very rare for Square Enix to nerf a savage raid boss soon after its release. Their tuning is usually extremely precise and always fair, but it seems they might have missed the mark for the final boss of Pandemonium Abyssos: The Eighth Circle (Savage). Since launch, the boss Hephaistos has been an unexpected roadblock for many static groups as the DPS requirement to meet his enrage timer is quite strict for those looking to clear early in the tier. Thankfully, the burden has been lifted by a small margin in Patch 6.21.

Related: How to unlock the Pandaemonium: Abyssos raids in Final Fantasy XIV

Hephaistos has seen about a one percent nerf to his overall health pool in both phases of the fight. According to the patch notes, this change is to account for the developers underestimating their own testing team’s prowess in the fight.

The boss’s DPS check had been tailored around the DPS output of the testing team. The goal was to make the final boss of Pandemonium Abyssos more difficult than Pandemonium Asphodelos: The Fourth Circle (Savage). This led to the testing team spending a substantial amount of time working on the balance of the fight. They managed to get extremely good at the encounter, enough to push numbers that a typical learning party would have trouble reaching on week one. To account for this, the developers have brought the battle in line with their initial balance projections with the Patch 6.21 update.

The tighter check did not stop some groups from persevering, but it also did not allow much room for error. A lot of the fight can also force some downtime depending on raid composition and mechanics that involve separating the party to the opposite sides of the arena. Many players took to Reddit to voice their frustrations, saying that this particular fight had one of the tightest DPS checks in recent memory. Some groups went as far as to ban underperforming jobs, a struggle that Patch 6.21 also solved. This nerf is the first time a savage fight has been adjusted in quite some time. Here’s hoping it allows more groups to push through to defeat it.