Live Letter LXXXVI 86 Discussion Thread

Annoyed that they are reversing some of the QoL we got with Bozja. Deleveling is an outdated mechanic that literally nobody likes, and especially baffling is them going back to the terrible BA style entry method for the large scale raid

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Originally Posted by SkankyRoe

Annoyed that they are reversing some of the QoL we got with Bozja. Deleveling is an outdated mechanic that literally nobody likes, and especially baffling is them going back to the terrible BA style entry method for the large scale raid

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Well, I think it's an entirely different method. While it will involve an item for priority, sure, you actually need those items to make an attempt on Fork Tower. I think it'll be more similar to how they've been making the CEs now with no limit on how many can participate.

Deleveling on the other hand is more Eureka-like, but isn't a bad thing since you can get revived. Also to note, above Lv 5 is where you can lose EXP if you decide to release after you die. Back in Stormblood, people shouted the same way they did in Eureka for Healers to give them a revive.

This is also why Exploration Content like Eureka/Bozja is still going on, even when there aren't as many instances as there used to be: They all involve people working together at some point, and foster community bridging between casual players and veterans, if not those who have tried the likes of Savage and Ultimate.

There are two simple fixes that can be done to re-engage and meet the terms by which the liveletters acclaim:

1. Learn and improve from the Dawntrail writing and content delivery; slowest, smallest and lackluster execution across the board. Didn't satisfy or live up to expectations by which the audience was set mostly due to promises made by Mr. Yoshida & Co. Dawntrail could have been amazing without the "gonna die in the matrix" cliche and even further still if every character we were forced to endure had a father/daddy issue. If you step back a bit, EVERY "important" character we were presented to or at odds with had an issue regarding their paternal guardian and either wouldn't shut up, or had nothing much that could be said until it was too late to care.

2. Increase the intensity of the Jobs themselves and reintroduce complexity into them; the Jobs being simplistic make every fight beyond them insignificant or simple in turn. A simple fight can be difficult if your attention is split or if you are forced to commit more energy into combos. If you increase the intensity, the players that put very little effort into preparation will get a nasty but necessary shock and will either step up their game or quit and complain on the forums about 'how hard' FFXIV is. Across three different MMORPGs (I've tested WoW for 10+ years, GW2 for 10 years and FFXIV for 3-4 years), FFXIV is the most thoroughly-easy when you apply yourself a little at the current level in this current year of 2025. I've mentored across all three, I've taught fundamentals and basics and each time it comes down to the cooperation and communication of the player itself, not the game solely. Veterans of any MMO will eventually grow weary of the same cycle, so I imagine complexity has to be the key into keeping those players engaged rather than try to gamble with a new batch of players and sacrificing the old. Retaining players and nourishing new ones to live up to the very message of "perseverance & struggle" every single expansion presents is something I fear the narrative and team have forgotten.

I have no doubt that the buzz-words (I have no other means to describe them; apologies) in the liveletter will fail to appeal to those that have been holding out since Shadowbringers for meaningful change or a return-to-form on their Jobs and the unique complexity each one used to give. It feels like yesterday that I mastered MNK and it was suddenly changed all too soon to something that was far easier to follow. I feel less accomplished with the simplicity and less inspired to struggle. I suppose it's a struggle to balance the game, but I wish the playerbase overall was challenged more in battle and in their Jobs as a nudge to endure and improve themselves. The work output and reward are both rather lacking in Dawntrail (to an embarrassing degree), and we can only wait and see what will actually be delivered. My thoughts and hopes go out to the team; I hope things improve and regain semblance of what Reborn's promise impressed upon its community. It's a shallow hope, but a hope nonetheless.

Eager for the new 8 mans as I loved the first set of them. Also interested in the crafting zone.

I don’t like any of the new sets so I’ll continue to wear what I have been since StB.

It seems like they are just going to smile and joke through every liveletter like theres been no backlash for anything. Would love to have some actual transparency and ROADMAPS, like.. I dont know. A lot of other games and devs.
I'm not expecting a funeral dour atmosphere for LL, but I mean, they COULD atleast give us something to... yes.. LOOK FORWARD TO.

They should just say something like "Yeah about those hats, we are still working on them, I dont think we can promise them for another year or two"

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Originally Posted by Khryseis_Astra

Not to my knowledge, or at least it wasn’t on a slide if they did.

They had said in a previous interview that it wouldn’t be ready for 7.2, something along the lines of “please give us a little more time,” with the assumption being 7.3, but not firmly stated.

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That's most likely the case, I was hoping we would see that in 7.2, so I guess mid summer when 7.3 is launched that I hope we see those features for housing arrive.

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Originally Posted by Rinoa_353

That's most likely the case

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And this is all well and good, but we have been hearing that exact same statement about a variety of things since literally 2010.

Let me tell you, Frontline is about to get 100x worse. I don't know what they are thinking, adding a skill like Comet to casters, but Frontline is already suffering from Salted Earth / Bahamut spam. Can you imagine Comet on top of all of that?

I'm not sure what the live letter could have done to excite me, but it didn't.
I'll just wait to see if/when I decided to turn my sub back on a whim.
At this point I want to see massive change to the main content loop probably. I don't know.
Still hate the timing, 1 week then savage already.
It's simple, now my friends have unsubbed the game isn't fun, as in unsubbed, I'm not making any. When I was subbed everyone so logging in was doing savage.
There were no social sprouts.
Now I'm unsubbed there is zero chance of making new friends. When I resub I wont be expecting to stick around desk the relationships week be very shallow.
Nothing in this letter exited me. Who knows why. I don't.

The tomestone gear looks so cool! I love the healer set. The FFV job gear looks great too, I just hope it doesn't come from the raid.

I'm glad the occult crescent looks pretty and not muddy and ugly like Bozja.

Cosmic Exploration looks interesting although I'm not sure about how technological it looks.

I'm intrigued by the MSQ and really interested in where it's going.

I'm not sure I like the idea of mounting while moving or jogging in town. Why do we need to go so fast all of a sudden after all this time?

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Originally Posted by Wilford111

Let me tell you, Frontline is about to get 100x worse. I don't know what they are thinking, adding a skill like Comet to casters, but Frontline is already suffering from Salted Earth / Bahamut spam. Can you imagine Comet on top of all of that?

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That's a fair point. One consolation is summoners won't be able to pop bahamut and comet at the same time, so comet might just function the same as summoning bahamut (ie. we're no worse off than we are now). Without knowing what other role actions are available, for the time being I'll just have to hope you're wrong.

I'm tired...

I don't have the energy to hate on a video game, and though I still love the game, I'd honestly rather go find fake Scions that are actually sylphs than deal with whatever's going on with fake Sphene. Relics take too long to arrive, Variant dungeons are nowhere to be seen, and I honestly wish patches would arrive two weeks earlier as they once did, and I'm someone who's spammed all kinds of content in the game.

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Originally Posted by HyperiusUltima

Well, I think it's an entirely different method. While it will involve an item for priority, sure, you actually need those items to make an attempt on Fork Tower. I think it'll be more similar to how they've been making the CEs now with no limit on how many can participate.

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That's my point tho; it's back to the BA style where entry isn't guaranteed even if you're one of the people putting in the work required to even open up entry. It creates a sort of FOMO that pits players against each other, and in Eureka this has resulted in discord groups making claim to an instance and demanding nobody outside of their pre-arranged groups "steal" their portals, while single players who want to do the content but don't wish to be forced into these groups end up having to either "portal snipe" or be left out. This issue was mitigated considerably with CLL and Dalriada, and I really don't understand why they went back from that.

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Deleveling on the other hand is more Eureka-like, but isn't a bad thing since you can get revived. Also to note, above Lv 5 is where you can lose EXP if you decide to release after you die. Back in Stormblood, people shouted the same way they did in Eureka for Healers to give them a revive.

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It being avoidable if someone comes and resurrects you doesn't change that it's an outdated mechanic that does absolutely nothing but detract from content, which is prolly why it was removed from Bozja. There was absolutely no reason to bring deleveling back.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

The tome gear looks to be FFIX-inspired, to varying degrees, though WHM gets very classic WHM robes and I don't recall any of the characters having those. Sadly it seems to have been used as the base for casters as well and just recoloured to kinda-sorta Vivi instead of actually giving us a Vivi outfit.


(will update with pictures in a moment) ...never mind, looks like Discord has stopped making the URLs findable.

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Fending is Steiner. Maiming is kind of following the same Steineresque pattern which is a little odd since they used Freya for aiming instead of maiming. Striking is Amarant. Scouting is like Zidane but not exact. Healing and Casting are both like Garnet's first disguise at the beginning of the game and also invoke a little Quina. A dash of Quina is nice because Quina hasn't been getting a lot of love. Only glam missing is Eiko but probably because she already features elsewhere.

BLM did already get the Vivi outfit which is probably why they had to go this route. Same with the real Zidane outfit we already got as a veteran reward. It is nice to see VPR get the mage mashers, though.

After dawntrail story and content im not impress until i actually try it.

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Originally Posted by HyperiusUltima

Deleveling on the other hand is more Eureka-like, but isn't a bad thing since you can get revived. Also to note, above Lv 5 is where you can lose EXP if you decide to release after you die. Back in Stormblood, people shouted the same way they did in Eureka for Healers to give them a revive.

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I did Pagos back when it was current and even with the zone filled with people, sometimes someone couldn't get a raise when trying to do the quest spot near the griffons because no one would risk going up there and also getting killed. Deleveling is a really outdated MMO concept and I can't believe after the backlash and not having it in Bozja they actually brought it back.

Other than no mention of glamor changes (additional plates, role restrictions removed), and phys ranged continuing to be a neglected role, the patch looks good!

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Originally Posted by TaleraRistain

I did Pagos back when it was current and even with the zone filled with people, sometimes someone couldn't get a raise when trying to do the quest spot near the griffons because no one would risk going up there and also getting killed. Deleveling is a really outdated MMO concept and I can't believe after the backlash and not having it in Bozja they actually brought it back.

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It likely got brought back due to their usual habit of misinterpreting player suggestions in the most baffling ways.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

The tome gear looks to be FFIX-inspired, to varying degrees, though WHM gets very classic WHM robes and I don't recall any of the characters having those. Sadly it seems to have been used as the base for casters as well and just recoloured to kinda-sorta Vivi instead of actually giving us a Vivi outfit.


(will update with pictures in a moment) ...never mind, looks like Discord has stopped making the URLs findable.

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I've been hoping for a real Vivi outfit for years
so seeing the FF9 themed sets give us another basic white mage outfit to recolor for casters has left a really sour taste in my mouth lol. The closest you can get is the shadowbringers dwarf hat, but that has a big goofy beard attached you cant turn off. I just want my jawa eyes man. Its supposed to be Garnets white mage disguise I guess, but it lacks a hood. Probably to make it more fitting for casters. I don't know. Baffling that aiming gets Freyas outfit instead of Maiming though.

I feel similar sentiments to those already expressed. There isn't really anything in the Live Letter that has excited me. The new Bozja/Eureka content looks interesting I suppose but it's still a ways off.

None of the glam showcased is really interesting to me. I'm not excited for the story; I really just want it to be over and done with at this point as I am very much in the crowd of people who did not like Dawntrail's story as a whole.

Perhaps its because of the slow patch cycles or Dawntrail's story as a whole just dissolved most of my excitement for the game.

My subscription expires in 5 days and I have nobody left to play with anymore. I thought the new content would be exciting! Something to bring my friends back! But I feel really disappointed and I'm not sure I'll be back for anymore content this expansion. A lot of what was discussed doesn't seem like "Original" content? It's already been done before and I'm not excited for what the future holds.

It’s amazing that occult crescent genuinely looks like the Best content they have ever created and yet nobody cares because everyone is spending more time going “what the actual f…… Is that BLM change”

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

It’s amazing that occult crescent genuinely looks like the Best content they have ever created and yet nobody cares because everyone is spending more time going “what the actual f…… Is that BLM change”

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I'm pretty excited for the occult crescent personally, it definitely seems to be combining the best aspects of both Eureka and Bozja

From what I remember it seems like there is even a version of Eureka's bunny farm, but with magic pots instead

but yeah those BLM changes are kind of an odd choice, no clue where they pulled that feedback from

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

It’s amazing that occult crescent genuinely looks like the Best content they have ever created and yet nobody cares because everyone is spending more time going “what the actual f…… Is that BLM change”

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Well yeah I went from pretty hype to realising what changes happened to black mage and became depressed. It's hard to get excited for the future of the game when this has happened to so many jobs, PLD, DRG, AST just to name a few of recent years, theirs actually no job that really stands out to me anymore as "difficult to master" which frankly isn't great.

As much as I'm looking forward to Occult crescent its hard to get hyped for something 2 months away from 7.2 when we should be already in 7.2 likely getting Occult by now.

I feel like ruining a job i enjoyed (for all we know with this balance to permanently) vs having a new content that is interesting and fun isn't a great trade, cuz jobs are the core to the actual gameplay being fun in the first place.

It is just too hard to be excited when that is 2 months out, and they are also still committing to dumbing down every job until they are all the same. Have they not understood people do not want this?

without fun jobs none of the content is fun

visuals can carry jobs only for a short time before they get boring

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Originally Posted by Grizzy

It is just too hard to be excited when that is 2 months out, and they are also still committing to dumbing down every job until they are all the same. Have they not understood people do not want this?

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Boy and 8.0 is when jobs are suppose to have identity......i'll believe it when I see it at this point.

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Originally Posted by Grizzy

It is just too hard to be excited when that is 2 months out, and they are also still committing to dumbing down every job until they are all the same. Have they not understood people do not want this?

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At this phase I'm confident they are cherrypicking some forum comments with 2 likes from years ago. Or this is just what the DEVS want to do for their own fun / THINK this is what will lure new players in.

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

It’s amazing that occult crescent genuinely looks like the Best content they have ever created and yet nobody cares because everyone is spending more time going “what the actual f…… Is that BLM change”

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I have been the most hype for Occult Crescent since I first saw it in Fan Fest! But I will not get hyped or talk about something that I will only get in 2 months. 1. My hype for it will die down with time AND 2. I might get my hopes waaay too high for what will be delivered, in so doing I will destroy my enjoyment of it. Ask me again about Occult Crescent in 1 week before it's release.
BLM changes will come in 7.2 on the 25th, if I remember correctly.

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Originally Posted by Zakuyia

Boy and 8.0 is when jobs are suppose to have identity......i'll believe it when I see it at this point.

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Mistranslation TM, I tell you.

Occult Cresent is in patch 7.25 which will release May 27th.

It's certainly a choice to wait 11 months from launch to add a form of long term content to the game. Could at least have switched up Cosmis and Occult times IMO.

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Originally Posted by Hallarem

I'm starting to believe they dont have resources to offer people things to do nor the creativity to come up with something like that, like a proper MMO with a SUBSCRIPTION should.
The white knights usually guide you to content and grinds from years ago as a defense. Or when in doubt, they start harrassing you for not doing savage or ultimates. When even the savage and ultimate players are bored and lack stuff to do.

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It's SquareEnix doing a SquareEnix. Nowadays, we have more infos about what happened with versusXIII, and how, 4 to 5 years after the game was revealed, it still didn't have a full crew, because the the focus was on FFXIII, then its sequels, then came the FFXIV 1.0 fiasco all ressources were allocated there. The lack of ressource is so obvious. People complain (rightfully so) about Viera and Hrothgar hats, but this began even before those were introduce. From Stormblood on, a lot of Miqo'te hat stopped to features ears. They've been cutting edge in every corner for a long time now.

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Originally Posted by Kisshu

Occult Cresent is in patch 7.25 which will release May 27th.

It's certainly a choice to wait 11 months from launch to add a form of long term content to the game. Could at least have switched up Cosmis and Occult times IMO.

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I think so too. After all, combat content is the core gameplay of the game. The gatherer/crafter are mostly means to support that gameplay : creating better gear, potions and foods. They sure took have a little bit of independance that with glam and housing but new recipes, ressources are gated behind fighting content. It's baffling to me that, in the current situation, that's not where their priority should be.

I watched it specifically for any mention of the graphics update. There was none and I feel defeated. I'm tired. Couldn't they at least say if they're still working on it or not? If they couldn't even say that much while the chat was asking for it, it truly feels like a different set of developers than I remembered.

I saw the LL and was like eh, I can't care less anymore tbh I've mostly just been playing other games like DW origins (what a banger).

Saw the LL and just kinda laughed as I don't wanna do the story and the rest of the content that interested me aren't even fully fleshed out. I'm probably gonna try the new raids and then my sub runs out after that so I won't be doing anymore XIVing until at least after summer, I feel bad for people who couldn't raid or didn't want to as they have even less to wait for which is insane to me.

'oh look the unbelievable large patch 7.2 is coming to ff14. lets return to it on march 25. .... or april 22.?... or may 20.?'

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Originally Posted by Pip_Chick

Mistranslation TM, I tell you.

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What is mistranslation..... for 1000 gil

Has there been any translation of Occult Crescent Time Mage's passive and active abilities? I'd a quick look online but couldn't find anything. Wondering if a passive might be the cause of observed lower cast times for black mage in OC.

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Originally Posted by Exmo

Has there been any translation of Occult Crescent Time Mage's passive and active abilities? I'd a quick look online but couldn't find anything. Wondering if a passive might be the cause of observed lower cast times for black mage in OC.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxivdiscus...ills_from_the/

I don't think we have much more than that, but it might give some idea of what to expect.

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Originally Posted by Mikey_R

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxivdiscus...ills_from_the/

I don't think we have much more than that, but it might give some idea of what to expect.

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Thanks for the link. Unfortunately not much info there but sure we won't have to wait long to find out the truth of the matter.

So 7.2 has a MSQ which will probably be more of the same DT Drivel, and Arcadion which MIGHT have been fun if my Black Mage wasn't being made into a Summoner that can actually do damage.

Great.