20 Sep, 2021
0Square-Enix hosted their Letter from the Producer LIVE Part 66, where they went over job changes and battle adjustments coming to Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker. We covered the expansion’s details revealed at Final Fantasy XIV’s digital FanFest earlier this year.
Since then, several new players have made the jump into the long-running MMO, famously causing server issues for the game for some time. Now, new players and veterans alike are looking forward to Final Fantasy XIV’s next expansion, along with the upcoming changes it will bring to the scene. Following a seven hour broadcast detailing all the changes, however, it’s understandable if you didn’t catch all the information. We have a summary for you right here.
Job Changes – General
- In general, the developers are building upon the foundations set during the now-current expansion, Shadowbringers, largely due to the generally positive reception this expansion received.
- Overall, they’ve reworked ability timers to fall within 60-second or 120-second windows to streamline battle rotations. Though there are some exceptions, such as Ley Lines from black mage, which will remain on a 90-second cooldown.
- Physical and magical damage calculations are now more in-line with one another. This means that some abilities might have different potencies than before. Things will eventually work out to be about the same as they are now.
Tanks
- Tanks will receive some sort of reward for using defensive cooldowns properly. Not in the sense of parrying or blocking at optimal times, as this is difficult to do with an online-based game. This is more to incentivize players to use their defensive abilities.
- Ranged attacks, such as Tomahawk on warrior and Lightning Shot on gunbreaker, will no longer disrupt combos.
Dark Knight
- Salted Earth is no longer a targeted ability. The ground area of effect will now drop directly underneath you.
- The Living Shadow simulacrum gains a new ability as you level from 80 to 90.
- The gap-closer Plunge will now reach enemies 20 yalms away instead of only 15.
- New single-target defense buff for your party members.
- Delirium’s cooldown is now shortened to 60 seconds.
Warrior
- The damage buff from Storm’s Eye can now be re-applied with AoE attacks.
- Onslaught and Upheaval will no longer cost Beast Gauge points.
- Onslaught will instead have three charges and increase to a range of 20 yalms.
- New action added following Inner Release.
Gunbreaker
- The entire Gnashing Fang combo string will change to a single button.
- Continuation is usable following Burst Strike.
- Gunbreaker’s maximum cartridges will increase from two to three.
- Rough Divide will increase to 20 yalms.
Paladin
- Requiescat will have the same potency regardless of current MP.
- Using Confiteor opens up a new attack combo.
- Intervene will increase to 20 yalms.
Melee DPS
- Following the changes to physical and magical damage, the effect of Feint will also change. It will give a large physical damage reduction and some magical damage reduction.
- Like with tanks, ranged attacks such as Piercing Talon will no longer break damage combos.
Dragoon
- Similar to Storm’s Eye for warrior, Disembowel’s effect can now be applied while using AoE attacks.
- Spineshatter Dive has two charges.
- Blood of the Dragon will now be a trait instead of an effect you must put up.
- New action granted at the end of main combo.
- Lance Charge changed to a 60-second cooldown. Battle Litany shortened to 120 seconds.
Monk
- Several sweeping changes, such as the removal of maintaining Greased Lightning.
- Chakras now unlockable at lower levels.
- Masterful Blitz is a new action following the use of Perfect Balance.
- Twin Snakes and True Strike no longer have positional requirements.
- New ability to jump toward enemies and party members, with three charges.
- Shoulder Tackle removed in favor of new jump ability.
Ninja
- No fourth mudra added. Raiton, Huton, and Doton will instead have new actions following these abilities.
- Huton will be easier to apply.
- Shadow Fang DoT ability removed.
Samurai
- Like warrior and dragoon, Shifu and Jinpu effects can now be applied with AoE abilities.
- Third Eye will give ten kenki.
- Iaijutsu and Tsubame-gaeshi will receive a new action.
- Tsubame-gaeshi and Meikyo Shisui will have two charges.
Reaper (New Job for Endwalker)
- This new job attacks with a powerful scythe, building up their gauge to unleash a summoned avatar clone.
- Has some party buffs to offer for group synergy.
- Uses a teleport that opens up a gate. Using the teleport again will return you to the gate.
Physical Ranged DPS
- All raid-wide defensive abilities will change to 90-second cooldowns.
Bard
- Songs will add enhancements for the party. Durations increased to 45 seconds.
- New action following Apex Arrow.
- Battle Voice and Wanderer’s Minuet will both have 120-second cooldowns.
Machinist
- New action Chain Saw added.
- New Shotgun action added for AoE rotations.
- New action for the Automaton Queen.
- Reassemble will have two charges.
Dancer
- Flourishing procs can occur from AoE abilities in addition to single-target abilities.
- New actions following Devilment, Improvisation, and Technical Finish.
Magical Ranged DPS
- The opposite of Feint, the action Addle will greatly reduce a target’s magical damage and some physical damage.
- Nothing mentioned for blue mage at this time.
Black Mage
- More Fire and Ice abilities.
- Enochian will no longer be a separate ability, instead applied automatically while attacking.
- Sharpcast has two charges.
Summoner
- Like monk, summoner will also undergo substantial changes.
- All damage over time actions will be removed.
- Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan are now summonable with white/golden glows. They are not actual primals as relevant to the game’s lore.
- Bahamut and Phoenix rotations shortened to fifteen seconds.
- Still keeping Resurrection.
Red Mage
- New action following Scorch.
- Verflare, Verholy, and Scorch changed to AoE abilities.
- New party-wide defensive ability.
- Overall MP costs lowered.
Healers
- All healers will receive new actions to give single-target buffs to party members.
- Attack spells such as Glare and Broil have their cast times reduced to 1.5 seconds.
- Limit Break 3 range increased to 50 yalms.
- All four healers, including sage, separated into the pure healer role and barrier healer role.
White Mage (Pure Healer)
- New healing ability to place down on the field.
- New Holy spell added. Possibly Holy II.
- Divine Benison now has two charges.
- Fluid Aura removed.
Astrologian (Pure Healer)
- Certain abilities reworked to better classify astrologian as a pure healer with white mage.
- Diurnal Sect and Nocturnal Sect removed. All healing abilities will function the same as with Diurnal Sect currently.
- Neutral Sect will remain.
- Divination effects will change.
Scholar (Barrier Healer)
- New ability to increase movement speed for party members.
Sage (Barrier Healer – New Job for Endwalker)
- New “partner” ability to heal party member while attacking an enemy.
- Heals and attacks with unique resources through the job gauge.
- Touted as a more complex job that will be difficult to master.
Battle, HUD, Duty Finder, and Other Adjustments
- Raid Finder will now try to match one pure healer (white mage, astrologian) with one barrier healer (scholar, sage).
- Party Finder has categories to search for pure or barrier healers. You can also search for others who have yet to obtain weekly rewards for a duty. The “One Job Requirement” will now hide groups you cannot join.
- Battles with weapon drops will now drop an additional weapon coffer, along with a random weapon.
- For the HUD, Conditional Enhancements, or procs, are now their own separate element for you to move on your screen.
- Ground target abilities should now be easier to use with new settings in the Character Config.
- When a party member is casting something, it will show their target’s number or letter on the party list.
- Party member health bars will display while they are KO’d.
- Unreal trials are temporarily gone until patch 6.1, to allow for reworks for the new level 90 cap.
- Belts will no longer be obtainable or equippable. Any belts in your inventory beginning at 6.0 will automatically go to the Calamity Salvagers. Speed Belts from Eureka will be replaced by a ring.
- Gear attributes will be “squished” to make room for further adjustments in future expansions.
- Enhanced Echo option for Undersized Parties will restore older battles to their previous difficulties.
- Gatherable items, enemy drops, and various other items will no longer have HQ versions available. But it is still possible to craft HQ items.
- Teleportation fees will be recalculated. The current upper limit of 999 gil will change. Some locations will cost upwards of 1,200 gil, while other locations closer to you will be cheaper than they are currently. The teleportation menu will also undergo changes.
- In accordance with the 30-minute auto-logout timer, progress for Fisher’s Intuition will remain even after logging out.
- The auto-logout timer will stay indefinitely throughout the launch of 6.0.
- Data Center Travel rescheduled for patch 6.1 due to the recent sever overcrowding issues.
That about covers it for the summary. If you’d like to catch the full seven-hour broadcast with live Japanese-to-English translations, check out the video below.
If you’ve never played Final Fantasy XIV before, check out one of our recent reviews of the game from a new player’s perspective.
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker launches November 23, 2021 on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Early access for Endwalker beings Friday, November 19, 2021 for those who pre-order the expansion.
