Ahead of Final Fantasy XIV‘s Dawntrail expansion, the Square-Enix team shared a benchmark download for players to see if their hardware could withstand the upcoming graphics update sent to launch alongside the 7.0 update. At the same time, data miners discovered and shared Dawntrail‘s Artifact Armor sets.
The Artifact Armor sets in Final Fantasy XIV are the final armor pieces players get for making it through an expansion story. They’re certainly not the final endgame armor, as this only signals the start of a hefty, months-long grind for some of the best gear in the game, but it’s some of the more beautiful armor sets players can find, and there’s a full thread showing them off. The upcoming thread could be a deciding factor for Final Fantasy XIV players who are on the fence about what class they should be in when they complete Dawntrail.
The full thread is on Reddit in the Final Fantasy XIV subreddit. Like many of the previous Artifact Armor sets from the series, these are some of the most gorgeous sets the Square-Enix has come up with for the expansion, and it’s the first time we get to see them with the upcoming 7.0 graphical update, which makes a lot of them truly pop.
Fans immediately took notice of some of the small changes in them. User Sera07 wrote, “I love that velvet texture they’ve given to some of the fabrics, like RDM and BLM. Looks … sumptuous. I wanna touch it.” This was followed by community member Drawtaru pointing out “a TRANSPARENT SLEEVE on the dancer??”
It’s difficult for the Final Fantasy XIV fans to find problems with them. It came best from Penndrachen who couldn’t find anything wrong with each set. “The RDM and MCH ones are probably my favorite,” they wrote. “And they absolutely cooked with the RDM weapon. I like that they took a little less fantastical and more like just adventuring gear in some cases.”
The Artifact Armor set previews a testament to what we can expect in the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail expansion. Although we’re looking forward to seeing what new locations and outfits come from this gorgeously tropical place, we’ll also be excited to revisit some of our favorite locations from the Stormblood, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker expansions to see how these vibrant and unique locations have a new treatment with the graphical update.
If you haven’t already, grab the Dawntrail benchmark download for Final Fantasy XIV to ensure your rig is ready for the big change. You receive a score at the end to give you an idea of how big of a strain the update is for your hardware, and you’ll be one step closer to grabbing the Artifact Armor for Dawntrail when it drops on June 28 for early access, and then July 2 for the full public release.
