Authors
Hello everyone, Nemekh here with an update on the 66th Letter from the Producer LIVE covering 6.0 Job Adjustments and Battle System Updates!
The Live Letter is both in Japanese and then English with Aimi-san translating from Square Enix North America.
There are 3 major sections:
Different concepts rather than going into detail for each job, although some jobs will have demonstrations to showcase some of the significant additions and changes.
Many Western influencers are joining the Media Tour. Its embargo will be lifted in the middle of October. Please look forward to it.
PvP, DoH and DoL will be covered in PLL #67.
Due to a lack of time, this page has been published with some elements still in progress - notably job summaries, tooltips from demonstrated jobs and additional updates. The page will be updated with the remaining information later.
If there is anything that needs amending please let us know in the comments below, or via feedback@akhmorning.com.
Endwalker Job Action Trailer
Endwalker Job Adjustments
General Job Adjustments
The development team plans to build upon 5.0 Shadowbringers adjustments. With the new level cap, new actions will be introduced. They have not made any complicated system changes, however, new elements are being added with changes both large and small.
A small group of players desire the job complexity from 3.x Heavensward. This will not be the direction taken. The team believe they are at a stable place post-Shadowbringers. Looking at XIV throughout all of the years, 5.0’s paradigm better fits the desired vision for the game.
Ability recasts of core abilities will be adjusted to align with 60s or 120s timers. However, some abilities will not be adjusted to 60/120s, such as Leylines remaining at 90s.
Job gauge assets have been updated across the board.
Job Action Trailer Order Of Appearance
Tank Adjustments
Using defensive buffs at optimal times will grant greater benefits.
Weapon skills will no longer be broken by ranged attacks.
Party between Physical and Magical weapon damage for calculating
The fundamental damage for two separate formulae for magic attacks and physical attacks, the team determined with magic attacks it tends to be more complicated in calculations is just a bit higher than base physical.
Physical Jobs will also be affected by this, beyond tanks.
Paladin
Warrior
Dark Knight
Gunbreaker
Melee Adjustments
Feint will now reduce both Physical and Magical damage, but the Physical damage reduction will be stronger.
Potencies may appear low but this is to better fit
Dragoon
Monk
Here is the Monk demonstration by Yoshida:
Samurai
Ninja
Reaper
Reaper is able to grant enhancements to the party as its own version of buff synergy. It is not skewed to being a purely melee DPS job like Samurai.
It has two different gauges.
The job’s top one is the “Soul Gauge” that is charged up to unleash different attacks that also applies to the attacks from the Avatar. These actions will deplete the charge in the Soul Gauge.
When you unleash the weapon skills with the Avatar, the “Shroud Gauge” begins to fill eventually enabling the Avatar to manifest and have the reaper become its vessel.
It has the ability to open a void rift that stays open for a limited time as its version of a gap closer to go forwards or backwards.
Yoshida mentions that the pacing of the job feels really good and fun. The more you try it out, the more you will make the most out of it.
Reaper is a job to mindful of resource management and making sure that the buffs are properly managed. The team expects it to be very popular and feel that while they had concerns over making it too challenging, they believe to have struck a good balance.
Here is the Reaper demonstration by Yoshida:
Ranged Adjustments
Machinist
Dancer
Bard
Caster Adjustments
Black Mage
Enochian is now a passive trait that applies automatically with Astral Fire and Umbral Ice. This was a difficult decision for the designers as it was causing a disparity in player skill, however, they decided to go ahead with the change.
New actions will also become available when swapping between Astral Fire and Umbral Ice.
Firestarter and Thundercloud procs have had their duration extended to ease the player experience as there are now more things to be concerned about in the rotation.
Fire II and Blizzard II will have upgrades.
Yoshinori Kitase has said that the only game that takes Final Fantasy spells higher than has been seen before is XIV and that he trusts Yoshida to do it justice. Hi-Fira?
Sharpcast now has an additional charge added.
Yoshida proposed the idea of an action that quintuple casts, but it was rejected.
Red Mage
A new action will be available on executing Scorch.
Verflare, Verholy and Scorch will be changed to AoEs and will also be available as part of AoE rotations.
A new Magic Barrier action has been added as a defensive party buff.
The mana gauge cost of melee combo actions has been reduced.
Manafication now grants enough Black and White Mana to do one combo immediately. Don’t waste mana that is accumulated with Manafication by overcapping.
Displacement and Engagement’s potency is now the same.
Embolden has not been changed.
Summoner
As described by Yoshida, Summoner is “basically a new job”. (Nemekh note: Keeping in tradition for every expansion release!)
DoTs have been removed.
Summoner will be able to summon more realistic manifestations of Ifrit, Garuda and Titan - not just Egis. Pets all appear to be in “Steady” stance as default, with Carbuncles appearing to no longer have an auto attack cycle. This should alleviate most historical issues with pet AI.
In terms of the rotation flow, up until now you would have summoned Demi-Bahamut and Demi-Phoenix.
Now you summon Demi-Bahamut and gain elemental properties letting you summon Ifrit, Garuda and Titan while having abilities augmented with their elemental properties. Once they have been used, this opens up using Demi-Phoenix which then takes us back to the Demi-Primals. This will be the core loop of up to 120s, or 2 minutes.
You can select your Demi-Primal depending on the situation and not in a strict order.
Some of the actions are being consolidated and will swap depending on which elemental Demi-Primal you have summoned in.
Resurrection is being kept after much deliberation and nearly being removed. Physick is also staying.
On Egi glamours: Carbuncle is the base pet, then you can glamour it to look differently. With the number of summons that can be called for, some adjustments have been made to be able to change pet display sizes that only affects you client side.
Endwalker Petsize Commands:
- /garudasize
- /ifritsize
- /titansize
- /bahamutsize
- /phoenixsize
Here is the Summoner demonstration by Yoshida:
Healer Adjustments
White Mage
Astrologian
Scholar
Sage
Barrier/Shield healer that can heal players at the same time of dealing damage.
Cardium/Cardia - you select someone that you will be healing as you deal damage to a target. As an attack lands, there is a heal recourse on the player buffed with Cardium. This heal is not based on damage dealt.
There is a DoT stance with a target gauge asset.
Sage, unusually for a healer, has what appaers to be a gap closer.
Here is the Sage demonstration by Yoshida:
Battle Adjustments
Raid Finder
Parties will now be formed with 1 “Pure Healer” (Astrologian, White Mage) and 1 “Barrier Healer” (Sage, Scholar).
Party Finder
Search results will no longer include parties you cannot join due to the “One Player Per Job” requirement.
Duty Reward Adjustments
Trials with weapon drops will now also drop a Weapon Coffer in addition to the original weapon reward. This is bringing it in line with weapon drops in recent final Savage raid turns.
The final turn of Savage raids up through 3.x Heavensward content will now also drop a Weapon Coffer in addition to the regular weapon drop.
Savage raids up through 4.x Stormblood will now drop gear and accessory coffers in line with how the Eden raid tier dropped them.
In summary this is bringing all content in line with contemporary coffer drop ideas.
Miscellaneous Battle Adjustment
Proc Statuses On The HUD
Procs can now be separated in the HUD as a separate element.
Ground Targeting
New settings and improvements have been implemented for ground targeting functionality.
One option is for an additional action input to confirm the target circle location.
The other option restricts your cursor from moving beyond the action’s target range.
Displaying Party Member’s Target While Casting
A letter for enemy targets or number for party members will show up next to the spell name.
Only hardcast actions will show up and not instants.
This can help identify when multiple people are raising the same target unnecessarily. This is not a substitute for communication!
Displaying Health Bars While Incapacitated
Unreal Trials Temporarily Removed
Scheduled to be reintroduced with Patch 6.1. There are many canditates for future Unreal fights that they can select.
This is a new user interface category separate to standard buffs and debuffs.
Belt Removal
Anything that was equipped on your character, in your retainer, or in your armoury, they will all be transferred to the Calamity Salvager.
Any other belts will remain in your inventory as is with melds and signatures remaining intact.
The Speed Belt from Eureka will have a ring as a substitute. Speed Belts in your possession can be exchanged after the release of Patch 6.0.
Belts will not be searchable on the market board after Patch 6.0.
Downscaling Values
The strength of consumables and materia will be reduced accordingly in line with the stat squish.
It will not take long to get used to the new numbers as the core of XIV’s gameplay will be the same.
Some older enemies might feel a bit tougher when going back to them, however, level appropriate content will not feel any different.
When using the Undersized Party option for older content, the “Enhanced Echo” will be applied to bring the difficulty in line with previous patches. The strength of this echo will vary by Duty level.
Experience gains will also be scaled down where previously EXP earned through dungeon enemies will now be earned from Dungeon bosses.
Rest assured that this change will not be disadvantageous for players.
Our team at Allagan Studies are extremely familiar with the underlying calculations and functions at play in PvE combat and are looking forward to crunching the underlying numbers to provide you with formulae and substat tiers as soon as possible!
Closing Words
Endwalker is a look into the future towards to the next 10 years. There are lots of new things to try for FFXIV and as such Endwalker is like a new start.
XIV’s team wants players to enjoy Endwalker when it comes out, but to also look forward to the new ideas on the horizon. While one arc is concluding, the adventure continues.
Please look forward to it!