Ask Yoshi-P and Banri Oda Your Questions for the gamescom 2019 Q&A

The AST skill Divination was recently buffed with a reduced cooldown, and some card effects were also buffed.

However, the buffs were given to bad decision gameplay, and we're back to just as much a mess as we were in 4.0 having to fish for balance in a short amount of time again, because we have to quickly fish for seals now since the Divination window is much shorter.

Because of the shorter duration, it's better to now throw whatever card to whoever just to make sure Divination is always used on cooldown.

Why did you decide to reward bad gameplay? Why was only the wrong cards buffed? The AST who played correctly received NO buff, only the ones who were playing badly by giving the wrong cards to people.

The Divination skill being shorter is NOT a buff, it's just making us struggle in between casts in the party list (especially on controller, and I know you play on a controller Yoshida, so I'm SURE you understand and it's probably why you removed mana shift because it's a pain to use as BLM when you have to scroll through the list on a controller)

If you're going to give Divination such a short cooldown, Malefic and Benefic have to be instant as well, otherwise there just isn't enough time to plan card distribution properly and it doesn't even matter because of the buff anyway.

Does anyone on the team actually main a healer that has tested this? Can we get an explanation to bad gameplay reward system instead of rewarding people playing properly who barely got anything at all?

Do you expect to be able to give us an update on your plans for male Viera and female Hrothgar once you have a clearer picture of your plans for the next expansion and also for how well ShB is performing in terms of new players, sales etc?

The hardcore Savage/Ultimate raiding community appears to be in near universal agreement that Healers are not in a good place right now in 5.05. To many, it feels that there is a large mismatch between how the development team engages with healer design and raiding content at these levels, and what the healing community finds engaging.

My question is this: How do the FFXIV Raid and Class Design teams intend to engage healers seeking to master their role in any battle content that they are already familiar with regardless of its difficulty? The answer to this question should help the playerbase identify all of discrepancies they would like to see addressed.

When can we expect to have the Lightning hairstyle available for Viera?

Was there ever a consideration about adding solo challenges ? For example a "mistrel's Ballad"-Version about our solo showdown with Zenos near the end of Stormblood. Maybe rewarding weapon glamour as reward.

As someone who has just begun to leveling all of the crafting jobs (starting in Shadowbringers), I find myself spending more time going through retainers to locate materials to craft one thing at a time. Several other games have implemented a great crafting system that allows you to craft, using your bank/storage and inventory as well on your character to draw from and be able to craft items. Is this something that can be implemented for crafting as a whole? With the added classes, items, materials, and lack of any expansion of inventory makes this process an extreme burden. Please allow us to be able to craft using our stored materials on retainers without having to actually take anything from them,and it automatically deducts it from their inventories.

Will we ever learn more about Emperor Varis, since his role in the story appears to have been cut short?

Would we be able to have a clear explanation on your intentions with the healer role? Are you planning on adding back our damage skills once you consider them balanced enough healing wise? Quite a lot of us are feeling stressed since we don't know what's going on with the jobs we love and we would really really appreciate an acknowledgement that we're not being left out of the agenda. Thank you.

Banri Oda had previously hinted at the current split of the Source and the Reflections as being “unstable” at the JP Fanfest Q&A – is this specific to allowing for the possibility of the Rejoinings or is there something more to it that we will learn of?

Elidibus once described Lahabrea as "unique" after taking a long pause to choose his words. Did he, like Emet-Selch, have less favorable judgment of their colleague in recent years while being too polite to say so?

Emet-Selch mentioned that Lahabrea’s tendency of jumping hosts took its toll on him – could you expand on how that works, and how a wiser Overlord might have recovered from it (e.g. resting to recharge one's aether), since body snatching is integral to their line of work?

When Emet-Selch was talking about his people from the past being complete and us from the present being incomplete, it is a reference to what happened to the Astrologian ?
Past AST have : Balance, Bole, Arrow, Spear, Spire, Ewer, Lady, Lord, Time Dilation, the real Celestial Opposition, the real Collective Uncounscious.
Present AST have : "51 shades of Balance", 3 seals.

Give us back our Astrologian, please !

By reading in the cristal, it is possible for The Exarch to tell us what's your plans/roadmap for healer jobs in this expansion ?

I was sceptic when you said 4 tanks is easier to balance than 3, but 3 healers is easier to balance than 4.
The fact is, you go for 2 Main tanks and 2 Off tanks, while you choose to go from 1 Pure, 1 Shield and 1 Pure/Shield to Pure healers only.

Imagine we are in another timeline.
What would have happened if you did the other way ?
3 Tanks both Main/Off, 2 Pure (WHM/AST) and 2 Shield (SCH/4th healer) healers.

Don't you think the tanks would have known the same issue we have with healers now ?
And vice-versa, don't you think the healers wouldn't have been easier to balance and happy with it because you wouln't had to gut identity, lore and fun to these jobs to achieve it ?

I am grateful for all the buffs received with healers in patch 5.05 but it seems there is still discrepancies between certain healers skills, scholar's sacred soil vs astrologian's collective unconsiousness any plan to address these issues?

What exactly happened during Elidibus's encounter with Zenos? The latter states there was no actual fight as such, and he was able to stand his ground with us as the Blessing of Light protected WoL in the Ghimlyt Dark, so I assume Elidibus is referring to something else - is it the case that because of Zenos's connection to his own body (perhaps enhanced by the Resonance) that he was able to exert a measure of control over it, like someone with the Echo and skilled in its manipulation might be able to do if confronted with someone else in their body?

Elidibus also had expressed admiration at the "transcendent potential" of Zenos's body during our fight with him, which I assume is due to the Resonance.

Whm has been great so far in Shadowbringers any plans to give it a buff like Bravery or Faith that could be tied to the lily system sort of like after using Afflatus Misery they could then buff a single party member?

Sch has been far less feast or famine now with energy drain being back thank you for this, any plans to add a potential damage spell to Seraph that could share a cooldown with consolidation?

Question for Banri Oda

How fun was it to write up characters like Emet-selch, Vauthry and the Exarch?

Has the Vocal Outcry for Male Viera and Female Hrothgar put any stress or pressure on you or the Dev team?
This topic has been addressed a handful of times, but it seems to always come back up. Will a shift in Priorities be forced if the Missing Genders question is asked enough times, or is there already a dedicated plan for the team on this Expansion?

Question for Banri Oda

Ran'jit had vastly more strength than his soldiers as any good general should have, but did Ran'jit get any extra strength from the sin eaters in any way or was it purely his own?

There appears to be at least a passing resemblance between Amaurot and Sharlayan – will we ever see more of this cryptic city-state in the future?

Can the festival obsessed festival merchant in Gridania be allowed in on the festivities? He seems so depressed wishing for a festival when there is one going on all around him and his booth is even decorated

Why did you remove so many Cross-role skills on casters, when there is clearly room for more skills? Are there any plans to add more role skills?

Do you expect to be able to give us an update on your plans for graphics and character customisation upgrades, such as high res textures, once you have a clearer picture of your plans for the next expansion and also for how well ShB is performing in terms of new players, sales etc?

There was an April Fool’s prank in the past about allowing the Warrior of Light an option to romance NPCs. Is there any chance this could actually be included in the game, like a sidequest?

Both for Oda-San

Will there be more insight into the culture and society of most non-ronka Viis?


What was the most difficult aspect of adapting both the viera and ronso into XIV's lore and story.

Are there plans to address Astrologian's lost Arcana effects in relation to the explanations provided during their job quests? Currently, the job quests reference the old Arcana effects and, since these 5.0 updates, the questline information no longer make sense.

Will we get to see more of the relationship between Elidibus and Unukhalai in the future?

Will we ever see the Ascian robes and an Ascian inspired tier of gear for our use... and since it's hinted strongly that the WoL is a former Convocation member, our own glyph?

Are there any plans to address the disparity between the job quest lore and the job’s playstyle for Bard? Bard’s playstyle has changed completely from when it came out, but the lore remains the same, and so it can feel like the lore is describing a different job

What flavor of tea is each of the city-state leaders' favorite, and what is it they like about that specific flavor?

Can we set aside the lore restriction and open up the trust system to more npcs like how FFXI did?

Many role-players choose to portray a character that is not a Warrior of Light or possessed of the Echo. With that in mind, will a way for 'normal' characters to travel between the Source and the First ever open up or will it always be something exclusive to a very select few?

Would it be possible to get a two person dance emote, such as a waltz? Eulmore's music and all the FF8 references have me thinking about it.

Was Ran'jit, with his bond with his serpent dragon, the Final Fantasy 14 equivalent of the Beastmaster class?

At one of the recent Fanfest panels, you discussed the player-requested possibility of giving us access to the balcony of large houses. You talked about it being difficult because the view from the balcony wouldn't really match the view outside (eg. you wouldn't be able to see someone who was standing in the garden).

From this discussion, it seems you were thinking that the balcony would be part of the house instance.

Would it be possible instead for the upstairs door to be an "exit" door that sends the player out of the house and into the "real" balcony out in the housing ward? Or is there a technical issue with this approach?


(I say this assuming it is what people were thinking of when they asked for the balcony to be accessible. I could be mistaken about that.)

Are there any plans to rework the Tenacity stat for tank jobs? As a main tank I'm really concerned about I need to depend on pure-dps stat materia for group content like Direct Hit or Critical Hit while what should be our main stat is totally useless and worthless at the moment.

Also, since the requirements for the various dps checks in trial ex/savage fights are becoming higher and tougher, even we tanks should expect in the near future to become a "lesser dps classes with high armor" instead to actually "tanking" and focus on mitigations?

Fathard, in Eulmore, is one of my favourite Drahn characters in the game. Can you please tell us more about Fathard?

It's been observed by players that in the Chrysalis, the Meteor phase of the fight has a crystal formation very similar to the Crystal Tower, as well as a figure that looks a lot like Hydaelyn's portrayal in the caves - could you please elaborate on what the Chrysalis is and why the Ascians chose to portray scenes of both gods?

Given the usual meaning of the term, and the precarious state of their planet during the Final Days, it makes sense to think this was a pocket plane they created to summon their god.