Ah, the second live letter about the patch, reliable as clockwork, confirming the date that we had already probably ascertained just based on the announced cadence of patches as well as simple logic from the proximity of the live letter. Final Fantasy XIV will find ways to surprise you, but the reliability of its patch cycle tends to be anything but surprising. This is not remotely a complaint; it’s nice to be able to count on patches coming at something like a reliable cadence, after all. Who wouldn’t like to be able to count on when the patches for a game are arriving?
Wait, maybe don’t answer that.
Anyhow, there were definitely some things learned with this particular live letter, even though we still haven’t been told what the name of the new dungeon is. That’s unusual, although it definitely appears to be Thavnairian based on the trailer. So let’s catch up with the new information that’s worth noting and speculate a little, shall we?
Balancing act
The part of the whole rundown that I found at once most concrete and most interesting were the changes being made to balance out the various jobs. What’s interesting is that some of the changes being implemented are for the jobs that generally seemed fine as it stands; were people really clamoring for changes to Ninja at this point? Was there really a huge gap in terms of its damage that required another x.1 patch reworking that forces players to wildly adjust to a new set of priorities?
Regardless, this is what we get, and I feel like of particular note are the changes made to Dark Knight, Machinist, and Samurai. The first of the batch is interesting because it’s addressing a long-stated complaint where Dark Knight’s invincibility cooldown is by itself not terribly useful; it makes you invincible, yes, but it’s also very easy to wind up dying as soon as it wears off even if your healer is on the ball, standing in stark contrast to all the other tanks. I’m curious about how the new version of things will be balanced, but it definitely has some potential; making the Dark Knight briefly invulnerable and then allowing attacks to fully heal users up might be a unique effect.
Machinist, as it turns out, is getting straight damage buffs; we know Wildfire, Drill, and Heat Blast are getting buffed, but the wording hints that’s not all. This does maintain the “selfish” nature of Machinist compared to the other ranged DPS; I’m not sure, though, if that’s really enough to address Machinist’s overall desirability, since ranged DPS is still generally not competing with the less-mobile or melee jobs for raw damage.
Samurai, meanwhile, is losing one of its most reliably hit buttons that is, to be fair, kind of a bloated piece of mechanics. There are very specific circumstances wherein you use Kaiten, and so it seems like the goal here is to make those abilities auto-crit without forcing you to constantly hit the button. It’s a reasonable enough change, although I wonder if it’s going to potentially require more adjustments as crit values increase over the course of the expansion.
As always, I’m reluctant to say too much about balance changes until we have all of them in front of us. I do think these are interesting changes, at least; they seem to be aimed not at completely reworking jobs for the most part, although Ninja sure feels like a rework. Let’s see how potencies shake out.
Adventurer plates!
All right, this feature just has me excited because it’s such a silly little thing but it’s also so endearing. Giving players a new way of customizing and displaying information about themselves is a good thing, and while the current version may only be a beta, it does still fulfill the basic function of making your identity a bit easier to discern beyond just your glamour and your job.
I’m curious to see how this particular feature is going to develop over time, especially since this is the sort of vanity feature that definitely lends itself to unlocking more cosmetic rewards over time. It’s almost tailor-made for that, in fact – it’s something that other people can view at a glance, and it’s prominent enough that vanity rewards feel worthwhile there, but it also doesn’t feel like newer players are at a strict disadvantage. I’m excited for this and to customize my own in the future.
The fact that it also lets you state your play focus can be… useful, let’s say. Both for knowing what sort of content someone is invested in and knowing how to evaluate their actions and expectations. It’s just a nice all-around bonus to the existing features and it’s something I’m looking forward to playing around with, especially as it gets rolled out more and becomes more elaborate.
New PvP tracks
I didn’t want to talk about this particular system too much until we’d received more details, but right from the start Yoshida made it sound like this was going to be a welcome change to how PvP rewards were handed out. Right now, there’s a big problem with PvP – there’s basically no reason to do it once you have all the rewards you want, and since all the rewards can be purchased for wolf marks, it is functionally irrelevant. There’s absolutely no incentive to take part once you have a few pieces of cosmetic kit, in other words.
The ways to fix that would be to roll out new PvP sets more frequently, which would be putting a bandage on the solution, or fundamentally reworking how the reward tracks work. Hence, the new system, which works akin to battle passes while conveniently eliding the predatory monetization that normally comes with those. More PvP advances you along the reward track, you get stuff as you hit milestones, and you always have a reason to keep playing PvP as long as you want more rewards along the way.
Plus, you know… more pieces for glamour. That’s a pretty big incentive for people to play right there, always. Admittedly, I’m of the mind that the first season set is kind of on the ugly side, but that’s a fairly minor issue compared to the way that the overall structure works.
The one thing I wonder about is how fast players will progress through the tiers and how much PvP is expected if you want to routinely hit the upper echelons. Will getting to that coveted level 25 require multiple PvP matches per day even if you’re winning during the series, or will it be something that you can knock out steadily even if you’re just participating? That’s going to make a pretty big difference in terms of participation right there.
I suppose that’s another thing we’ll have to see once we’re actually there, then. Lots of reasons to be hopeful, though!
Feedback, as always, is welcome in the comments down below or via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com. Next week, I’ll be taking a look at the patch notes and picking out the bits that seem most interesting to me, probably dealing with more firm numbers. You know how we do things here.
The Nymian civilization hosted an immense amount of knowledge and learning, but so much of it has been lost to the people of Eorzea. That doesn’t stop Eliot Lefebvre from scrutinizing Final Fantasy XIV each week in Wisdom of Nym, hosting guides, discussion, and opinions without so much as a trace of rancor.
