Square Enix held its Letter from the Producer live Part XXXVII featuring producer Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida and community manager Toshio “Foxclon” Murouchi, who talked about some of the changes we’ll be seeing in the near future including various job adjustments.
Here are some highlights from the Q&A session, which has been translated on the official forums of the MMORPG title:
Q1. Currently some tanks stack STR on their accessories to increase their DPS, are changes planned for tank accessories themselves?
A1. We will be introducing adjustments in Tuesday’s patch 4.05.
We have received feedback from tanks regarding continuing to equip item level 270 accessories.
Q3. Currently Paladin feels like it excels both in offensive and defensive capabilities, are there any plans for adjustments to Warrior/Dark Knight?
A3. We will be increasing Warrior and Dark Knight damage.
Making the cast time for Paladin’s Holy Spirit so short made it too powerful, so we will be making adjustments around that point. We’ll also be removing the reduction in the Oath Gauge when switching oaths.
Warrior’s Shake It Off will be adjusted.
Plans for adjustments are currently being talked over, and will be implemented sometime after 4.05.
We have removed the halving of the Beast Gauge when changing stances.
Additionally, the potency during Storm’s Path combo will be increased starting 4.05.Dark Knight will see potency increases in combo damage.
Q9. Scholar went through many changes, having lost a DoT, the damage lost from AoE due to the Bane rework, and nerfs to the faerie healing. In comparison to the other healers, it feels that they have lost quite a bit. Are there any plans for adjustments?
A9. After balancing the three healing jobs, the faerie’s healing was still too powerful. Therefore we decided to go in the direction of lowering the faerie’s healing potencies.
However, by reducing what they could do, their AoE damage also went down.
We have made adjustments in 4.05.Adjustment Details:
■Scholar
・The introduction of “Miasma II” as a job specific skill.
・Changed the cooldown of Emergency Tactics to 20 seconds.
・Indomitability [stay tuned]
・Strengthening Excogitation.
・Changed the range of Fey Union to 15 yalms.*
・ Aetherpact has been changed to increase Faerie Gauge even when Aetherflow actions does not inflict an effect on the target.
・Introduction of a trait reducing the cooldown of Aetherflow.■Astrologian
・Arcana and Royal Road cards can now be discarded via an action.■White Mage
・Adjustments to the rate of which Healing Lilies are granted.
・Plenary Indulgence will see some major adjustments.
Q13. Other job adjustments
■ Black mage
We made a couple of adjustments which black mage players will understand.
Also, when doing their skill rotations, there are moments where they lose all their MP, so we’re making some adjustments to the MP.
– MP cost for Foul has been removed.
– Recast time for Triplecast has been reduced from 90 to 60 seconds.
– Recast time for Fire IV and Blizzard IV has been reduced from 3 to 2.8 seconds.
■ Ninja
– Potency for Gust Slash will be reduced. The reason for this is because the players found a stronger skill rotation than those the dev. team was using while making adjustments.
Q17. It’s hard to get a group for alliance raid content, such as the Crystal Tower. Do you have any plans to address this?
A17. We’re currently working on an alliance raid roulette aimed for Patch 4.1. Players will also be able to make alliance raid parties across other Worlds as well. This is also scheduled for Patch 4.1. As for Labyrinth of the Ancients, we’re making adjustments so the party structure will only require one tank rather than two; however, we may not be able to make this adjustment in time.
Q24. Please let us know if you’ve finalized the number of slots that will be added in the second Inventory and Armoury Chest expansion.
A24. Unless we change from the current method, we do not think we can add any more slots. There are other factors to consider, such as managing inventory through the upcoming app, so this will take a little more time. It would be difficult to implement it by 4.1, but it is not so far off.
Q25. The inventory and Armour Chest expansion has helped a lot, but would it be possible to increase retainer’s inventory as well?
A25. The number of items available has increased in Patch 4.0. We’re making sure that important data isn’t lost, and also so that it can’t be exploited, so it’s difficult to just simply add more slots. Currently, the disparity between those who use a lot of retainers, and those who don’t, is quite large, and we’re a bit worried about this. We would like to observe the amount of retainers being used post the launch of 4.0 before we make future adjustments.
Q28. I’m a Machinist main, but I am concerned because despite the difficulty of the rotation and managing the Heat Gauge, my DPS is not very high. Machinist itself is enjoyable, but in comparison to Bard, it feels lacking in support abilities as well as DPS. Please let us know if there are any adjustments planned.
A28. Perspectives vary from player to player regarding what they would like to see done for Machinist.
Due to the current difficulty of Heat management and how it is affected by fights, as well as the visible difference between Machinist and Bard in content, we have made it easier manage the Heat Gauge. In addition, we will be raising overall base damage.
[General Adjustments]
・Hot Shot
Increased physical damage effect from 5% to 8%.
Increase to Heat Gauge reduced from 10 to 5.
・Removed the Heat Gauge reduction effect from Quick Reload.
・Increased Rook Overload potency from 400 to 800.
・Increased Bishop Overload potency from 300 to 600.
And more.
You can read the rest from the Q&A session over at the official forums.
Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood is available on PlayStation 4 and PC.
