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Hello everyone, Nemekh here with an update on the Announcement Showcase!
If there is anything that needs amending please let us know in the comments below, or via feedback@akhmorning.com.
FFXIV 6.0 Endwalker: Fall 2021
Opening with the teaser trailer, we are shown that Meteor, the Warrior of Light, is canonically a Paladin in the 6th expansion of FFXIV: Endwalker, coming out in Fall 2021.
Alisae is shown to still be a Red Mage and Alphinaud is using weaponry unfamiliar to players. With the trailer concluding, Yoshida and Koji revealed that there will be two new jobs in 6.0.
New Jobs
With Endwalker comes a new Melee DPS job and a new Healer. For today’s announcements they decided to tease the new healer: Sage.
Sage
Sages are a traditional mainstay in the Final Fantasy franchise, however, its implementation in 6.0 is said to be a truly stylish and original implementation for FFXIV in particular with its unique aether imbued weapon: Nouliths (pronounced as “nooliths”).
Why did Alphinaud take up this new job? We’ll be finding out in the 6.0 Main Story Quest.
A rundown was given for how the job works:
The Sage will be a “barrier-type” healer with the means to augment its power for healing and battle.
Currently in FFXIV we have our White Mage as a “pure” healer and Scholar as more of a “barrier-type” healer (shields). With 6.0 the plans are to make the healers more distinct as barrier and pure healer types.
So what will become of Astrologian with toolkits accessing both strengths? In 6.0 AST will be retooled to become the second pure healer, so that there are two barrier healer jobs and two pure healer jobs.
Changes will be reflected in raidfinder with this in mind to require one of each type of healer for content.
If you are wanting to level up Sage when the expansion releases, these are the important points to keep in mind:
- the job unlocks in Limsa Lominsa and starts at Lv. 70
- you must have at least one other job at Lv. 70
- you must have purchased the 6.0 Endwalker
Please look forward to the new Sage job!
The second job will not be teased until the Digital FanFest event later in May. After mentioning this, Yoshida took off his first tshirt and revealed another one.
Some players believe that this is a hint to the Templar job.
Main Story Quest Updates
Introducing the core premise of 6.0’s story, it was emphasised that 6.0 will be the climax of the Hydaelyn vs Zodiark saga, the gods of Light and Dark, making an end to 10 years of this epic. The highlighted words emphasising that matters with the Ascians are finally coming to a close, with the end of Shadowbringers heading towards the direction of the second Final Days.
Yoshida mentioned how the tale is one coming full circle to the original release of ARR back in 2013.
- A Realm Reborn, viewed as “a new morning”
- Heavensward, viewed as “a cold blue sky” (at midday)
- Stormblood, viewed as “a crimson twilight”
- Shadowbringers, viewed as “the black of night”
Endwalker will follow as “a new dawn”.
Not only are we going to the Moon where Zodiark remains entombed, we will also have many questions answered at long last.
However, while the plan is for this arc to wrap up in 6.0, this does not mean the end of FFXIV. 6.1 and beyond will be a brand new story marking a departure from the tale of eld.
Yoshida felt it important to emphasise that while he is busy with FFXVI he will not be departing from FFXIV as he views it as his lifes work. There is much more to come from him and his team.
Level Cap 80 To 90
As expected, the next expansion will continue to be a 10 level increase up to Lv. 90.
It was remarked that soon enough we’ll be at Lv. 100 and that it has been a long, long road.
New Areas
Home of the Dancer job, numerous NPCs, the latest treasure hunt dungeon and some nice glamours, Thavnair is a long anticipated location being teased as the “minor” town addition with 6.0 drawing inspiration from sub-tropical areas. It is to be thought of as the Eulmore of Endwalker.
The Crystarium equivalent will be shown at a later point.
The second area teased and one location long awaited by players for years: Garlemald, or at least, what’s left of it. What is Zenos up to?
New Beast Tribe #1: Matanga
A race of creatures we have met previously in the Azem Steppes, the Matanga are a beast tribe of anthropomorphic elephants.
Found in Thavnair, their attire is very reminiscent of that of India.
New Threats: Anima
An unexpected reveal and an important nod to Final Fantasy X, the aeon of Pain, Anima, has been teased as a new threat for us to face in 6.0.
Will she obliterate us with Oblivion? I sure hope so.
New Dungeons
It would seem that the first two are from Thavnair and the third en route to Garlemald, it being hinted to be like a train-station.
Is this how we reach the imperial capitol at long last?
New Raid: Pandæmonium
The new raid arc for 6.0 will be Pandæmonium.
Nothing was teased about this other than the splash screen featuring the Ascian visage and iconic red mask of Speaker Lahabrea.
What machinations will be in store for us there? Expect more details in May.
New Alliance Raid
As tradition with each expansion, there will be a new 24 man alliance raid arc for 6.0 that is entirely original to FFXIV.
It will be centered on a piece of Eorzean lore steeped in mystery.
More will be revealed in May.
New Small-Scale PVP Mode
Currently the plan is to create new PVP content that feels more casual and immersive by removing role restrictions.
More will be revealed at a later date.
New Side Quests: Role, DoH & DoL
6.0 will bring with it a whole slew of role quests, with an emphasis on expanding PVE role quests to cover Tanks, Healers, Melees, Ranged and Caster roles.
New Gear And Recipes
Some of the newer gear design concepts were teased, with a mention of a large number of new items being added for the next expansion.
Trust System Update
A special someone will be joining you for your 6.0 Trust MSQ experience.
Why would a lone wolf like Estinien join with the Scions? All will be revealed in Patch 5.5.
With the FFIV theme, would he betray us as Dragoons in past Final Fantasies have?
Golden Saucer Update
There are current plans to implement something as large as Mahjong to the Golden Saucer.
What does everyone really want? Blitzball?
More details will be coming in the future. Please look forward to it.
Island Sanctuary
A large addition that’s in progress, the Island Sanctuary represents a safe haven to relax and get away from the day to day grind and enjoy a bit of slow living.
Many jobs will be able to participate in activities there be it cultivating the land and selling the fruits of your labour, or interacting with your mounts and minions.
There should be something for everyone.
Housing Update: Ishgard
Finally after all the work within The Firmament, with the release of 6.0 will come the new residential district: Ishgard.
It was said there’s still quite a lot to do in 6.0 before a player will be able to obtain a plot of land.
There will be the exact same number of wards as the other housing districts in addition to appartments. Sufficient efforts are being made to ensure that there will be enough plots made available.
While not an exact rendition of it, The Firmament will give you a good idea of what the upcoming Ishgard residential area will look like.
Battle System Adjustments: Downscaling Values
A stat squish is a pretty large item and rightly so did they dedicate several slides explaining this.
Our team at Allagan Studies are extremely familiar with the underlying calculations and functions at play in PvE combat and this is something I had been calling for since the end of Heavensward, knowing full well that if they continued at the current pace it would end up being inevitable.
Yoshida went over the reasons for why this has become necessary. In short, for the health of the game long term this needed to happen especially if they wanted to avoid a Garrosh situation in the near future. They also feel that the numbers are becoming increasingly less meaningful and are becoming harder to visibly take in.
There were also numerous bugs that had cropped up over time, several of which I had formally reported to SE and were subsequently fixed, such as the 0 damage bug which is a direct result of how XIV’s servers were sending out damage packets and all the changes they kept having to make as damage kept increasing over the years and expansions.
Another issue was enmity having hit the cap and causing issues in the current game.
The first item they are choosing to address is in toning down level modifiers for Lv.51-80. This is an incredibly important change as the scaling back to back had been at an unnecessarily high gradient that could have been much gentler to prevent figures growing out of hand quickly, and has been a change I was encouraging since the end of Heavensward when we began to understand the modifier numbers at play.
Similarly, damage per attack being reduced implies the main stat formula will be toned down as another multiplier part of the damage formula. Yoshida gave an example where if an i530 BLM at Lv. 80 would have a Fire IV roll for ~50k normal damage, after the damage changes, it would instead be doing ~10k instead. This is a stark drop.
It seems strange for EXP to be reduced as if all the scaling is reduced relatively, the rate of EXP gain would be the same, so in reducing the EXP gain they would be making levels take longer to grind.
Enemy HP and Damage absolutely would have to change, the HP side should be obvious with the number squishes, however, damage may not seem as apparent. This is primarily due to the fact that Defense is also reliant on the level modifier calculations, but also that they may end up reducing Vitality, or HP per Vitality point.
They emphasised that players will not be getting weaker relative to the content. It just means ideally numbers are being globally squished down with no impact to the rate of content being done.
Expect us to cover this in greater detail with updated Allagan Studies resources once 6.0 releases. This is very much integral to our work and all of the calculations gear set and sim tools rely upon.
Belts Removed In 6.0
Belts will no longer be equipable items as of 6.0. The 35 dedicated armoury slots that we have for belts will be redistributed as follows:
- 15 slots will be added to Primary weapons for a total of 50 slots
- 15 slots will be added to Rings for a total of 50 slots
The remaining 5 slots will be held in reserve for the future.
DC Travel
A big project for opening up visiting players on other data centers in other regions, there are plans to make this work with 6.0.
PS5 Open Beta
Square Enix’s CEO, Matsuda Yosuke, came out and was excited to reveal that FFXIV will be ported across to the PS5 at no extra cost to players who own it on the PS4 already. The Beta will be released on April 13th 2021.
Experiencing really fast load times, the option of playing in 4k with a polished UI experience, or 2k optimised for FPS and performance, the PS5 experience is said to be a step above.
Digital FanFest May 15-16 2021
Free to all people tuning in to the event, there are plans for two days of content and even concerts from Soken and his band The Primals.
Lunar Whale & Minions
A commemorative item you can buy from the Digital FanFest, the Lunar Whale mount is an 8 seater mount. Ferry your static off to the moon in 6.0 in true FFIV style!
Additionally, there are new minions of FFIV characters.
Official Amano Artwork
To close, please enjoy this video summary of the showcase put together by the ever talented Denmo McStronghuge.