One of the new features of Heavensward was the Undersized party option. Frankly, I think the name should be Unsynced rather than Undersized as it fits a little better. Undersized implies that you must have less party members than the standard. So for standard 4-man dungeons, this means 3 members and under, and for 8-man dungeons, this means 7 members and under.
This is not the case.
You can do 4-man content as 4 members and still use the undersized party option. Same with 8-man. Back at the launch of Heavensward, it wasn’t recommended to use the maximum number due to one of the bugs that could occur but has now been fixed in one of the previous hot fixes.
To activate the undersized party options, bring up the Duty Finder. There is a cog wheel near the Language options located at the top of the menu. This cog is the Duty Finder Settings. Open that up and you will see two options. Undersized Party and Minimum IL.
Not all duties can be selected when using the Undersized Party option. All of A Realm Reborn’s dungeons, Trials, and Coil can be done using this option. The Crystal Tower saga, guildhests, duty roulette and Heavensward dungeons and trials cannot be used in conjunction with the undersized party option.
Using this option will not net you any experience points or loot that drops from enemies. However, treasure coffers still appear – this includes the ones scattered in the dungeon as well as when a boss has been defeated. Yes, this means you can go into the extreme primals of A Realm Reborn as an undersized party and the weapons/accessories and ponies will drop.
Zodiac items from dungeons can also drop using this option too. Just remember that these drop when you exit the dungeon, not upon the bosses defeat.
Undersized will put you into the duty as the level you are. No being synced down if you happen to be a higher level than the duty usually allows. This means you can go into, say Sastasha, when you’re level 60 and stay being 60 rather than being synced to level 18.
While you can deal more damage and take more hits, some mechanics will still kill you. So you’re not too invincible. And some mechanics of the primals will still wipe the party if you’re not careful. Sometimes, dealing too much damage can be a bad thing.
Primal mechanics that you should still watch out for(extreme primals only, not the hard mode version):
Ifrit: Still needs all attacks stopped once he reaches 20% health. Focus on the nails at this point because attacking Ifrit and not the nails will still cause a wipe.
Titan: Killing the heart in the heart phase while he’s doing upheaval can force him to use a five way landslide.
Garuda: Not much worth noting. As the easiest primal, you can kill her before the first spiny plume mechanic.
Ramuh: Getting him low during the Grey Arbiter phase will cause him to use Judgment and in turn, wipe the party.
Leviathan: Too much DPS on Leviathan after the Spume phase will mean the converter will not save you when he does his ‘ultimate’ attack. Best thing is to hold back a little and let the converter charge. 30% charge is enough to keep you alive.
Shiva: A tank will still die to an ice brand to the face if alone. When she switches to bow phase she will still one shot the group if she’s faced towards them.
Those are pretty much the basics of undersized party option. I’ve been using this option to pony farm my last remaining primal ponies!
You guys enjoying the undersized party option? What sort of dungeons and primals have you done so far? Did you go as a three-man party into Titan Extreme? Solo’ed a dungeon? Let me know in the comments below!
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