Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Job Changes Detailed

Square Enix held the the Letter from the Producer Live Part LXVI presentation for Final Fantasy XIV and its newest expansion, Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker. During the presentation, director and producer Naoki Yoshida and community producer Toshio Murouchi — with English translations from Aimi Tokutake — detailed many of the job-related changes coming to the game’s battle system, including providing details on the new Reaper and Sage jobs.


Job Details

The presentation featured a nearly-twenty-minute Job Actions trailer, showing the animations for the updated actions coming in Endwalker. The adjustments are designed to build upon those made for version 5.0 and the Shadowbringers expansion. As a global theme, primary abilities’ recast times are being adjusted to align closer to 60 and 120-second timers, though this doesn’t apply to all of them. Other major global adjustments include combos no longer being broken by ranged attacks and parity between physical and magical damage for weapons of the same item level. Healers will get new single-target buffs and an expanded area of effect for limit breaks. Individual jobs are also getting their own specific changes.

Reaper is a new melee DPS job that uses a scythe and an avatar to attack. It is also able to grant enhancements to other party members and has unique, specialised actions to give it a bonus in some specific situations. The Reaper UI combat indicator includes two gauges; the top one is a soul gauge that is used to unleash different attacks while the bottom one corresponds to being able to transform to their avatar. The job also includes a way to move forwards and backwards quickly by opening a gate.

Of the existing jobs, Summoner is getting the biggest revamp with major adjustments to its mechanics. All of its actions that cause damage over time are being removed. Meanwhile, it will be able to summon versions of Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan — Ifrit Ruby, Garuda Emerald, and Titan Topaz — using jewels, and augment abilities with elements. The job’s designed rotation sees players summoning Demi-Bahamut, obtaining an elemental property, then summoning one of Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan with that property, before finishing with Phoenix. It will retain the Resurrection and Physick actions.

Sage is a new healer job and falls into the new barrier healer designation alongside Scholar, while White Mage and Astrologian are now categorised ad pure healer jobs. Sages use Nouliths, weapons consists of four drone-like items powered by aether. They are able to attack enemies and heal a designated party member simultaneously, and use unique resources to cast magic. The Sage has a chance to inflict a damage over time effect on enemies it hits, while its Adder’s Gall resource accumulates over time and is used to immediately create barriers. It also has its own gap closing ability.

 


Other System Adjustments

Some other gameplay adjustments were also revealed. Savage duties will now require one pure healer and one barrier healer rather than two healers, with the party finder splitting the healer category between the two. Players can also add an option to include those who have yet to receive a weekly completion awards in the party finder. Trials that feature weapon drops will now have an additional weapon coffer drop, while other high-end raids will also now include gear and accessory coffer drops. Ground targeting functionality is being improved with, while the party UI lets members see who others are targeting when casting abilities.

Special Unreal Trials are being removed to undertake balance adjustments, but are planned to return in patch 6.1 after the launch of Endwalker. Belts are also being removed and will no longer be obtainable or equippable. Any belts that are equipped or in the player’s armoury chest will be given to the Calamity Salvager NPC, while other belts will remain in the inventory and materia will remain affixed so players do not need to rush to remove them.

The release of Endwalker will come with some downscaling of numerical values in the game. The adjustments will result differences in values — such as attributes gained per level up — between level 51 and 80 being reduced, as well as reductions for numbers like damage and HP for both the players and enemies. However, formulae will be kept so that the relative strengths will remain the same and adjustments have been made to maintain the game’s balance alongside the downscaling. Dungeon experience is being changed so that the experience previously earned from standard enemies is now earned from dungeon bosses.

Endwalker will see the removal of certain high-quality items, which will only be available as normal quality items going forward. This is intended largely to help reduce inventory bloat when gathering. Gathered items, enemy drops, token exchange materials, and certain non-craftable materials will no longer be available in high-quality forms. Existing high-quality items will still be listed as such but will no longer receive associated bonuses and can be converted to normal quality to be sold on the market. Crafted items (including intermediary materials) and gear will still be available in high-quality forms. Gathering actions and attributes associated with gaining high-quality items will be adjusted, primarily to affect item yield instead.


Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker will launch for PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 on November 23, 2021. All of those who pre-order the expansion will receive early access from 1am PST on November 19, 2021. The next Letter from the Producer Live presentation is scheduled for November 6, 2021, and will focus on crafting and gathering changes, other system adjustments, and a new PvP mode. Naoki Yoshida will also be involved in a special talk at TGS2021 alongside Mistwalker founder and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi at 5pm Pacific on October 1, 2021, that will feature live English interpretation.

 

Full Letter from the Producer Live Part LXVI Presentation

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Alex Fuller

Alex joined RPGamer in 2011 as a Previewer before moving onto Reviews, News Director, and Managing Editor. Became Acting Editor-in-Chief in 2018.

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1 Response

  1. Powerlord Powerlord says:

    I’m slightly concerned that low level Arcanist and Summoner is going to suck as all of the new summons are tied to Summon Bahamut/Phoenix.

    Summon Bahamut is explicitly locked behind the level 58 Summoner job quest thanks to the job quest storyline.

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