Authors
Hello everyone, Nemekh here with an update on the 61st Letter from the Producer LIVE!
Originally our updates on Live Letters from the Producer would be covering a small subset of job changes, however, in the spirit of our direction with covering more news surrounding FFXIV we’ll be summarising each major item covered during the stream that lasted several hours.
While there will be some slides and screenshots featured, we have taken care not to post snapshots from the stream that viewers may deem as spoilers.
If there is anything that needs amending please let us know in the comments below, or via feedback@akhmorning.com.
5.4 Release: December 8th
What’s To Come In Patch 5.4: Futures Rewritten
Patches 5.4 and 5.45 have been hailed as “by far the biggest volume” update in the history of FFXIV, as per Yoshida in his recent Patch 5.4 Famitsu Interview.
Let’s discuss what was covered. Certain major items will feature their own segment further down.
Main Story Quest Updates
The Ascian saga continues with Fandaniel’s machinations, as well as the involvement of a seemingly ‘fishy’ member of the Convocation…
With the Main Story Quest for 5.4 comes a new instanced dungeon, “Matoya’s Relict”, featuring a layout design more reminiscent of older dungeons such as Haukke Manor. To what end will players be assisting Master Matoya Senior?
New Chronicles of a New Era Quests
The Sorrow of Werlyt continues in the new patch following the Garlean’s VIIth Legion and their Weapons.
Unlike the solo instance of Sapphire Weapon, Emerald Weapon in the Castrum Marinum returns us to an 8 man trial with a Normal and Extreme mode.
New Raid Dungeons
One of the most anticipated pieces of content for this year is our return to The First for the Eden storyline with Ryne and Gaia.
Eden’s Promise will feature 4 instances, e9-12, with a Savage difficulty for each of them. We know how much you are looking forward to the exciting conclusion of this arc and what the new fights will reveal!
Completion of the Main Story Quests from Patch 5.3 are required to take part in Eden’s Promise.
Save The Queen: Delubrum Reginae (5.45)
In patch 5.45 the new large-scale instanced content in the Save The Queen story will be released.
There will be 2 modes:
- Normal - 24 man instance. Story related for the Resistance Weapons.
- Savage - 48 man instance. Augmented Bozja Gear and Lost Actions are highly recommended.
Job Adjustments
There will be balance adjustments in numbers to several jobs, slightly increasing them, along with Monk’s rework.
Blue Mage Update (5.45)
A large update for Blue Mage fans, the level cap will be raised from 60 to 70. With this comes the addition of numerous new abilities to Learn and a new set of exclusive gear.
New duties will also be added to the Blue Mage log.
Miscellaneous Uodates
As customary with a new raid tier, new tomestones are being added to the game. Allagan Tomestones of Revelation will be the new weekly capped tomestones to purchase the latest gear with.
The Perform feature will be having violin instruments added to it. We look forward to what you will put together, Moogle Troupe!
The ability to link quests in the chat window is also being added. An example of this in action was not shown.
Bulk Advanced Materia Melding is being added.
Level Sync can now be enabled or disabled separately in the Undersized Party option in the Content Finder.
Job Adjustments
No jobs will be receiving nerfs.
Several jobs will be getting slight increases and adjustments to numbers alone, including:
- Bard
- Dragoon
- Red Mage
- Scholar
Monk will be receiving big adjustments along with the Greased Lightning changes. More on that will be discussed below.
Monk Adjustments
Greased Lightning has been changed to be a passive trait so that the buff management element is no longer the case. No more dropping Greased Lightning stacks for various reasons, Monk will now always be at its fastest without any prior build up.
It no longer increases damage and as such action potencies and effects have been revised. It is not yet known how Auto Attacks are affected by this, however, Yoshida’s footage implies that Auto damage seems to remain the same as current.
Actions that consumed or maintained Greased Lightning stacks have been changed.
Here are some changes that that were seen:
- Perfect Balance has had its duration increased to 16s. It has a stack mechanic of 6 stacks for GCDs, not unlike Acceleration on Red Mage.
- Tornado Kick has had its potency increased and is now a regular oGCD on a 45s cooldown. It no longer has interactions with Greased Lightning.
- Form Shift now grants “Formless Fist” for 15s which allows the execution of actions regardless of form. Think of it as a single GCD use Perfect Balance that correctly gives you the next Form.
- Six-sided Star now increases movement speed for seemingly 5s.
With the changes being so late in the expansion, there are no new skills.
Changes may be different on final release of 5.4.
A video demonstration can be seen on the Official FFXIV English Twitter here.
New Encounters
Eden’s Promise
The long awaited climax to the Eden raids will finally be here. Many of you are very hyped for the resolution of Ryne and Gaia’s story as well as the new encounters.
Yoshida teased us a preview of E9 Normal, however, out of respect for viewers not wanting to see spoilers, screenshots of the preview will not be posted. The encounter looks very interesting as an unexpected twist in the story! Our team is very excited for the new fights.
Following the known formula with new raid tiers, there will be E9, E10, E11 and E12 with a Normal version for story, and Savage version with stronger loot and the mount from the final encounter E12s.
From Savage comes the final tier of gear for the expansion. We will make Best in Slot sets for our listed jobs as usual.
Completion of the Main Story Quests from Patch 5.3 are required to take part in Eden’s Promise.
Castrum Marinum (Emerald Weapon)
Carrying on saga of “The Sorrow of Werlyt” comes the next stage in the Weapon trials with Emerald Weapon in the Castrum Marinum.
There will be be a Normal and Extreme trial difficulty.
Weapons, which will likely be 5 ilvls higher than new Crafted weapons, will drop from the Extreme version.
Titan (Unreal)
Unreal Trials will rotate out Shiva (Unreal) with Titan (Unreal).
The fight has been scaled up to 80 and ilvl is once again throttled.
True to its Extreme form, no mechanics have been changed at all. If you get knocked off the edge you cannot be revived!
Expect a Titan (Unreal) guide on AkhMorning soon enough for those of you who never had the chance to hear “Bananananana - Titan!” in its full glory when the fight was current.
Save The Queen: Delubrum Reginae (5.45)
Releasing in Patch 5.45, Delubrum Reginae is a new large-scale duty as the next step in the Save The Queen: Blades of Gunnhildr.
Entry into the instance is in Gangos by speaking to an NPC. Upon entering there will be a Lost Actions cache at the duty entrance. Each player participating will receive rewards from treasure coffers within.
Trash mobs within will have a strong feeling along the lines of Baldesion Arsenal, with a pacing similar to Alliance raids.
It will feature two modes: Normal and Savage.
Normal will be a 24 man with no role requirements for match making. It is required to complete this step of the story and in order to complete the latest step for the Resistance (Relic) weapons.
Savage will be a 48 man where players must preform their parties before entering together. Lost Actions and upgraded gear from Bozjan Southern Front are very much recommended, if not required. This version will feature puzzle elements to resolve before being able to damage bosses. Certain raise actions in this difficulty are restricted. While completing this version is not a requirement for the story nor relic, completing Savage will feature its own set of unique rewards.
There will be a field-content update in Patch 5.5 similar to the Bozjan Southern Front. Yoshida wants players to try and complete Delubrum Reginae in 5.4, however, if it is too difficult, the gear uprgades in 5.5 can be brought back into Delubrum Reginae. While the intended difficulty of the content will not change, players will be stronger and thus having an easier time.
Blue Mage Updates (5.45)
With Patch 5.45 comes a very big update to Blue Mage: Level 70!
Featuring an updated arsenal of monster abilities to Learn from Stormblood content, including The Four Lords such as Suzaku, Blue Mage will be able to enter most Lv. 70 content except for Ultimates. It is not known if Blue Mage will be able to enter Eureka and Heaven on High.
There will be exclusive new Blue Mage gear to acquire and new duty logs to complete.
Update To Content Finder
While separate to the Blue Mage updates, this one directly impacts and improves the Limited Job’s quality of life in being able to obtain monster abilities in a level appropriate manner.
Now a Lv. 50 Blue Mage can solo a Lv. 50 dungeon without being in a full party for a better chance at Learning monster abilities and completing their spell book.
Crafter & Gatherer Updates
Crafters and Gatherers have some significant changes to look forward to with the new patch release!
Fishing
Fish Eyes Adjustment
Fish eyes will no longer be required to catch fish. The difficulty of catching certain fish will also be adjusted.
The updated action will instead allow players to ignore the time requirement for catching fish.
This will affect fish in areas from ARR and Heavensward. It has no effect on legendary fish nor those caught while Ocean Fishing.
It will be updated in the future to affect more fish.
Ocean Fishing
There will be 2 new routes added to Ocean Fishing as well additional objectives.
Ishgardian Restoration & Skysteel Tools
Ishgardian Restoration (5.41)
The final step of the Firmament updates, the Ishgardian Restoration is planned to be completed at long last during 5.41. Why planned? That all depends on the players finishing up the progress!
There will be new rankings for the 3rd time. This will be the final chance at participating in the Ishgardian Restoration rankings. Players who rank high enough will receive the same title as before but with a new achievement.
What is new this time is that a monument will be built. During the next set of rankings, the scores of all crafters will be combined and tallied based on crafting jobs. A monument to honor the crafting class with the highest combined score will be built in The Firmament depicting the winning crafting job’s main hand tool. Each server may have a different monument that is purely aesthetic.
Skysteel Tools (5.45)
Coming out in Patch 5.45, there will be a new step in the evolution of the Skysteel Tools.
Skysteel Tools will become very shiny during the crafting process. There will be different effects based on drawing a tool and during the crafting. Effects to crafting actions can be added at a later patch. Yoshida emphasises that they will be very, very shiny!
Treasure Maps
The Shifting Oubliettes of Lyhe Ghiah are finally going live with 5.4.
Teased in the previous Live Letter, it will be in a familiar roulette style with circles you want the roulette to land on and the Atomos circles that will otherwise expel you from the instance, stopping your chances at special loot.
Some things will be similar to the previous instance like this from Stormblood, whereas some aspects will be new.
Collectable & Aetherial Reduction Changes
Collectable Changes
Botanist and Miner are featuring several changes to how Collectable items are handled. There will be new items specifically labelled as collectables that will always be gathered as such.
Wear has been removed entirely and a new UI has been made for gathering Collectables. Having higher Perception and Gathering stats will make it easier to obtain higher numbers in quality and gathering attempts.
With all the adjustments in mind, items requested by the House of Splendors and Expert Deliveries will be changed.
There is a chance that Collectables gathered prior to Patch 5.4 may no longer be accepted by the House of Splendors, or ther rewards from handing them in may be changed.
Aetherial Reduction Changes
The location and number of Ephemeral Nodes in each area has been adjusted. Now the value involved is no longer ranked based on Purity. Instead, having higher collectability will now yield in a greater variety of items. As such, the number of items yielded by Aetherial Reduction has been adjusted.
Explorer Mode For Dungeons
A highly anticipated feature by players who enjoy GPose and Roleplaying, 5.4 will see the advent of Explorer Mode in dungeons.
Restricted to Shadowbringers light-party dungeons only, players are required to have first completed the dungeon they would like to enter in Explorer Mode. This is then selected via the Content Finder like Undersized Parties.
No enemies will appear and all obstacles will be cleared.
Mounts and Minions are able to be used inside presenting an immeasurable number of creative opportunities.
Waypoints throughout the dungeons are available to teleport to at the start and at the arena for each boss within.
One of the more curious additions is the ability for a player to spawn a Striking Dummy at their location and cast, without cooldowns, Limit Breaks from 1-3 for the job they are currently on. What marks this as interesting is that these Limit Breaks can be cast while solo and they also deal damage to the Striking Dummy.
Our team at Allagan Studies are particularly excited by this feature. If the actions as faithful to standard Limit Breaks, this marks a unique theorycrafting opportunity for our attempts to finally solve the Limit Break damage formula - at least at Level 80!
More dungeons wlil be added to this feature in the future.
Housing Updates & Emotes
Many new cosmetic additions for housing are being added in the new patch. The above image is a new house type pushing the game’s housing memory to its limits giving off the vibes of a flower shop
Numerous indoor and outdoor items are being added, including a series of baking housing items so that you can now bake your own cookies.
New emotes have also been added, including extensions to the food eating series of emotes with apple and onigiri, as well as a version of the paintbrush animation from O6 in Stormblood.
Gold Saucer Updates
Triple Triad Updates
5.4 brings several changes and new additions to Triple Triad.
Deck Building Restriction Changes
Deck building restrictions have been eased. Before there were restrictions on 1-3 ★ cards based on how many cards you had discovered. After the patch there will no longer be restrictions on 1-3 ★ cards. Only one 4 ★ or higher card will be permitted.
Drafts
A new advanced rule has been added: “Draft”.
In the vein of drafting in other trading card games, participants will not have access to their individual decks and instead must put together a deck from a selection of randomly provided cards that are not limited to cards you have already obtained.
Open Tournaments
Open Tournaments are a new addition to the competitive side.
Held every 2 (Earth) hours, players will have 30 minutes to register at the Gold Saucer to participate in an event with prizes.
Players are matched into groups of 8 where they must earn as many points as possible within Three Matches. If the event that there are less than 8 players, NPC players will fill the remaining slots.
The new Advanced Rule, “Draft”, is always in effect for Open Tournaments.
Invitational Tournaments
Invitational Tournaments are also a new addition.
Formed freely between players, there are no rewards on offer for participating. Consider it as a friendly tournament players can start by themselves.
Registration is done via the Duty Finder. Like Open Tournaments, players must earn as many points as possible within three matches. Once more, in the event there are an insufficient number of players, NPCs will fill the remaining spots.
Up to 4 Advanced Rules can be set by the tournament leader.
Quality Of Life Improvements
Materia Melding Changes
With Patch 5.4 comes a very much requested and anticipated improvement to the melding process for Crafted Gear with Forbidden melds, or Overmelds.
Now present at the bottom of the Materia Melding window which displays your % chances for Overmelds is a check box that when toggled on will repeatedly process meld attempts from a selected stack of materia until it succeeds or your stack depletes itself, saving a considerable amount of time vs the older method of melding one at a time over and over.
When a meld is succsseful there will be a single line in the chat log indicating how many many materia from the chosen stack were consumed in the process.
This makes for a great time saving improvement when wanting to penta-meld crafted gear be it for raiding or your Crafter/Gatherer jobs.
Announcements & Promotions
5.4 Patch Notes Reading (December 7th)
Yoshida and Morbol will be reading through the 5.4 Patch notes offering insight into parts of the patch to look forward to at 3am PST / 11am GMT on December 7th during the 24 hour maintenance downtime
Audio will only be in Japanese.
FFXIV Announcement Showcase (Feb 5-6 2021)
Replacing what would have been FanFest in London, FFXIV will be having an Announcement Showcase to disclose the upcoming developments for FFXIV including the next expansion with 6.0!
The broadcast will be in Japanese but will include a live interpretation from Japanese to English.
FFXIV 7th 14 Hour Broadcast
The 7th in a series of 14 hour broadcasts from Square Enix FFXIV staff in Japan showcasing the team playing the game and participating in various antics, the broadcast is scheduled for February 5th 2021 5pm PST / 6th 1am GMT.
Collaborations
FFXIV x Pusheen (Early December)
FFXIV is proud to announce a special collaboration with Pusheen®!
With iMessage, you will be able to obtain some animated stickers on the App Store to share your love for FFXIV and Pusheen.
Black Friday Sale (NA/EU)
From Black Friday until Cyber Monday, the Complete Edition (including Stormblood) and Shadowbringers expansion are 50% off for North America and Europe regions only.
This promotion is not available to the Japanese Region.
Lawson FFXIV-man Choco (December 15th)
In tradition with other promotions with conbini in Japan, FFXIV is partnering with Lawson to show a Shadowbringers edition of a chocolate wafer snack known as a “man Choco”.
Each FFXIV-man Choco will feature a holographic sticker of various well-known and loved characters from FFXIV to collect.
On top of the holo-stickers, purchasing a “FFXIV-man Choco” and other select items from Lawson will allow you to obtain a special Chocorpokkur mount.
This campaign is limited to Japan only. Square Enix are considering alternate methods for distributing the mount in other regions.
Nemekh note: If the item code for this works like other Japanese products, claiming the code for a EU/NA accounts should work. It then becomes a matter of how you will obtain the code from Lawson in the first place.
FFXIV Mahjong Tournament
Scheduled for December 29th, Yoshida and other guests will be playing real life mahjong together on stream!
Yoshida has mentioned that it is not a formal tournament and is more a bunch of old friends playing Mahjong together.
It appears the stream will only be broadcast on NicoNico.
Goodbye!
