Why The Orbonne Monastery is still my favorite Alliance Raid in FFXIV

Seven shadows cast; seven fates foretold. Yet at the end of the broken path lies death, and death alone.

The Necrohol

Major spoilers ahead.

I've played all of the Alliance raids dozens of times in Alliance raid roulette. But every time Orbonne pops I am happy to see it. The raid does so many things well that's it's fun every time for me. Here's why.

The environments are stunning

Orbonne doesn't support Explorer Mode yet, so I stayed after my alliance completed the raid and wandered around. There are so many details I never noticed when sprinting past everything. The view near the beginning where the jungle begins to transition to the monastery is stunning. It really captures the feeling of an abandoned building being slowly overtaken by nature.

The approach to the monastery from the jungle

The monastery itself has little side rooms off the corridor. Even in these rooms most players will never see, there are details like candles and books. Every wall is rendered with intricate textures. The lighting is phenomenal.

A glaring white, dead, and washed-out area awaits us exiting the monastery, which comes as a visual surprise after the warm tones used until now. Engaging with a miniboss that does require respecting mechanics, and then Cid right after fits right in with the landscape's expression of increasing danger and dread.

Inside the monastery. What's in the treasure box?

By the time we descend into the black passage that leads to the Ultima fight, the environment changes have reinforced the narrative that something has gone terribly wrong here, and the corruption has fully taken over. It's a far cry from the natural beauty of the forest we started in.

Bosses and mechanics are unique

Sometimes we see bosses in Alliance raids that are essentially a remix or reskin of familiar enemies. This isn't the case in Orbonne. Because of the fantastic arena design, space becomes an additional enemy in the fight. There is also frequent layering of mechanics which keeps players engaged. These are some of the boss mechanics I think are the most creative.

Mustadio Bunasa

The warped machinist uses an Analysis ability that has the player rotate so the opening in their target ring lines up with him. There's a very short cutscene from his point of view looking at the players. Also, the memes around this ability are classic.

Lady Agrias

This paladin wants to challenge your worthiness to fight Ultima. Her whole fight carries through the paladin theme and executes it through using creative duty actions. Players must frequently use the actions to either take up swords or shields, used to fight enemies, free allies, and protect against powerful boss attacks.

Additionally, players must respect mechanics. The vuln stacks received for failure can be deadly. Agrias' Divine light can kill a player outright if they have too many vuln stacks. Not even tanks can slide by on this one.

Count Cidolfus Orlandeau the Thunder God (T.G. Cid)

Sound is a huge element of this fight. The voice acting is absolutely incredible, and paired with the ominous music, you really get the sense that you are fighting a god gone mad.

The mechanics are great too. Cid's setpiece attacks are telegraphed by his stance and not an aoe marker, keeping the party engaged. Every alliance must resolve the same mechanics simultaneously. No one gets a free ride.

And status effects actually matter in this fight. One mechanic can cause a bleed that can wipe the entire alliance when failed, and it's tight to avoid it. Another can kill a tank instantly if another party member doesn't take a tether off the tank. Each role has a job to do in this fight.

With teamwork and situational awareness, the mechanics are straightforward to resolve, but the party needs to be paying attention.

The transition from the jungle to the monastery

Ultima, the High Seraph

The boss design here never fails to get remarks from the raid. It is genuinely creepy. Ultima looks like the arcane horror that she is. After an opening phase that includes summoning some previous bosses individually, she becomes untargetable and the fun really begins while players run for their lives.

Players must avoid a brutal half-room cleave, a proximity aoe that will outright kill you if too close, timed exploding ground squares, and a bunch of tornadoes. At the same time, players must resolve additional mechanics such as ground aoes, personal aoes, stack markers, and chase markers. The arena is not incredibly large either which forces difficult movement decisions on the fly.

It's not completely unusual to have half an alliance down after this phase. But the real genius of this fight is that this madness is followed up with a DPS and healer check.

I've never seen the heal check fail on this stage, but I have seen the DPS check fail once. Too many alliance members were still down and many had weakness. For reference, a healthy alliance with a just a few weaknesses can pass the DPS check at 40% gauge or so. It's great fight design that a 5-year old alliance raid that has a permanent Echo buff can still wipe a group.

The final area

More like Ivalice please!

The Crystal Tower series is kind of a meme by now. Heavensward's Shadow of Mhach has great moments, but the environments are repetitive. The Nier series in Shadowbringers is also fun and challenging, but some fights feel like bullet sponges and draw out them out without a real reason. Endwalker brought big bosses and big stages at the cost of difficulty. But nothing has matched the atmosphere, boss design, level design, and mechanic excellence as Orbonne for me.

Echoes of Vana'diel?

The first entry of this current Alliance Raid series, Jeuno: the First Walk, promises good things to come. I have some early criticisms of mechanics that require you to mess with your camera a lot, or whose telegraphs are needlessly complex.

Some of the mechanics, though, are interesting and the level design is beautiful. The add pulls also seem more integrated than in previous series. Rather than hanging out on a stage waiting for you, you pull them along to the path to the next boss, as if you had encountered them on the way.

The instanced content is very strong this expansion. I have high hopes for the next entry in Echoes of Vana'diel!

What's your favorite Alliance Raid? Thoughts on Orbonne? Drop a comment below!