(Adjusted for the 5.05 patch notes.)
General Changes
- Skill Speed and Spell Speed consolidated into Speed.
- Barriers now also show on one’s own HP bar.
- The MP bar and HP bar are now treated as separate gauges and likewise each include a "Match to Simple Mode" option which will cause them to fit the size and aesthetic of Simple Mode gauges. By default, the MP gauge is not active on any job which does not use MP. This option may be deselected via the MP bar's HUD element configuration element.
- Animation lock (time during animation which cannot be clipped into another, and thus prevents other actions) of Swiftcast decreased.
TanksDPSGunbreaker
- Bloodfest revised. Bloodfest no longer "Draws aetheric energy from target, adding 2 Cartridges to your Powder Gauge," but instead "Draws latent aether from your surroundings, adding 2 Cartridges to your Powder Gauge. When used outside of combat, recast time will not drain over time until having reentered combat.”
Warrior
- Infuriate revised. The condition reading "Can only be executed while in combat,” has been replaced with "When used outside of combat, recast time will not drain over time until having reentered combat.” This allows for Beast Gauge to be generated pre-pull for Onslaught and to make the opening smoother, but does not allow preemptive resource stacking.
- Nascent Flash may now be used without a target. After using Nascent Flash without a target, Nascent Flash is replaced with Nascent Glint, allowing you to affect a party member with the remainder of Nascent Flash’s duration. This latter action has no animation and may be used even in the middle of another skill.
Dark Knight
- Living Dead no longer creates a fixed healing requirement. Instead, would-be fatal damage taken creates a debuff called Mortal Coil, of equal value, which must be erased via healing. At the end of Living Dead, 10 seconds after would-be fatal damage is first taken during Walking Dead, the damage stored in Mortal Coil will be dealt instantly. The amount of damage stored by Mortal Coil will be shown similarly to the bar-graphic of shields, but colored a smoky black. Damage stored by Mortal Coil at any given time cannot exceed 1 fewer than Dark Knight's maximum HP. Thus, there is no necessarily increased healing penalty for having a higher-HP Dark Knight.
- The Blackest Night revised. The condition reading “Grants Dark Arts when barrier is completely absorbed,” has been replaced with “Reduces the MP cost of your next Edge of Darkness/Shadow and Flood of Darkness/Shadow as the barrier provided is depleted. Fully consuming its barrier makes the next use of either ability free.” Each %HP of damage absorbed by The Blackest Night returns 1% MP, with a further 5% being reduced if the full amount is consumed. The point of this is not to reduce the risk-reward component of DRK, but simply to deal with future scaling issues insofar as I can without rebalancing TBN itself in optimal play.
EditsBlack Mage
- Between the Lines now replaces Ley Lines while Ley Lines is active. Between the Lines can only be placed on hotbars after Ley Lines is on the bars and placing it on the bars will decouple it from Ley Lines.
- Fire IV now replaces Enochian/Blizzard IV while under the effect of Enochian and Astral Fire. Fire IV can only be placed on hotbars after Enochian is on the bars and placing it on the bars will decouple it from Enochian. If Blizzard IV is also separately placed, it, too, will be decoupled from Blizzard IV.
- Blizzard IV now replaces Enochian/Fire IV while under the effect of Enochian and Umbral Ice. Blizzard IV can only be placed on hotbars after Enochian is on the bars and placing it on the bars will decouple it from Enochian. If Fire IV is also separately placed, it, too, will be decoupled from Fire IV.
Machinist
- Hypercharge now instead decreases the global recast time triggered by your next 6 single-target weaponskills within 15 seconds by 30%, but causes them to generate no Heat. This adds 5 seconds of lenience as not to waste Hypercharge while slightly increasing the GCD in exchange for more shots under effect, better ensuring that the fifth (and now sixth) shot can be made without issue despite high latency while allowing Speed to benefit Hypercharge.
- New trait added at level 52, Spitfire, which causes Spread Shot to upgrade to Auto-crossbow during Hypercharge and for Hypercharge to affect all weaponskills, not just single-target ones.
- Reassemble recast time reduced to 50 seconds and now scales with player GCD.
- Flamethrower now "Deals a 100 potency attack to enemies in front of you every second while stationary. Movement will pause the time until the next attack until stationary again." Automatically replaced by Stow Flamethrower, with which it shares a 1-second internal recast timer. It is no longer ended via movement or turning.
Dragoon
- Jump and High Jump now automatically change to Mirage Dive for the 15 seconds during which Dive Ready is active. Mirage Dive can only be placed on hotbars after Jump or High Jump is on the bars and placing it on the bars will decouple it from Jump or High Jump.
- Life Surge recast time now scales with player GCD and healing dealt increased from 25% of damage inflicted to 50% of damage inflicted.
- After using Dragon Sight without a target, Dragon Sight is replaced with Left Eye, allowing you to affect a party member with the remainder of Dragon Sight’s duration. This latter action has no animation and may be used even in the middle of another skill.
- Battle Litany range increased from 15 yalms to 20.
Dancer
- Standard Step and Technical Step no longer prevent any actions except other weaponskills. Devilment can thus be cast just before Finish.
- Windmill, Bladeshower, Rising Windmill, and Bloodshower now also turn into Emboite, Entrechat, Jete, and Pirouette, respectively. The condition "※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar" attached to Emboite, Entrechat, Jete, and Pirouette has been replaced with "※Assigning this skill to a hotbar will cause other actions to no longer shift into this skill under the effects of Standard Step or Technical Step."
- Global recast time triggered by entering Standard Step, Standard Finish, Technical Step, and Technical Finish reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second, and global recast time triggered by Emboite, Entrechat, Jete, and Pirouette reduced from 1 second to .75 seconds. To compensate, Standard Finish potencies reduced to 350/550/750 (equivalent potency per second would be 333/516/700) and Technical Finish potencies reduced to 350/600/900/1250 (equivalent potency per second would be 333/516/700/884/1066, but this would not account for its inflated relative value as a cooldown if left to itself). By reducing the time of a Standard combo from 5 seconds to 3.5 and a Technical from 7 to 5, these abilities should feel more fluid and less invasive upon buff periods.
- Closed Position cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 10. This allows for more rapid switching between recipients according to their burst phases or upon their deaths. It can therefore oblige slightly more attention at the highest levels of play, but mostly stands as a QoL bonus for parties with many deaths.
Red Mage
Enchanted Reprise potency increased from 220 to 260. Reprise potency increased from 100 to 130. It is still a faint DPS loss, but far more permissible.- Embolden range increased from 15 yalms to 20.
MP costs of Vercure, Verstone, Verfire, Scatter, Impact, and Scorch reduced by 100 each.- Corps-a-corps potency increased to 150 and cooldown decreased to 30 seconds. Displacement potency reduced to 150, but shares a cooldown with Corps-a-corps.
- Red Mage now gains Duelist Arts trait at level 40, the same level as Displacement, which grants Corps-a-corps and Displacement a further charge and reduces their shared recharge time to 15 seconds. This is a slight buff from 8.96 potency-per-second to 10 potency-per-second.
- Engagement now deals 200 potency and newly shares a recast time with Corps-a-corps as well.
- At level 72, Red Mage gains Duelist Arts II, which grants a third charge to be shared between Engagement, Corps-a-corps, and Displacement, and increases the potency of Corps-a-corps and Displacement to 200.
Ninja
- Dream Within a Dream now automatically changes to Assassinate for 10 seconds after usage during which Assassinate Ready is active.
- Fuma Shuriken potency increased from 280 to 320. It is now more competitive with Raiton as a no-clip option.
- Hyoshou Ranryu reduced to 500 potency, but now replaces Fuma Shuriken as a cast of any single Mudra, rather than replacing Hyoton. This on average exchanges 100 potency for about 25% of a GCD’s uptime, worth at least 100 potency, while improving fluidity.
- The 1-second forced pause between Ninjutsu casts prior to the final 3-mudra cast during Ten Chi Jin has been reduced to .75 seconds. This makes it more fluid without giving further advantage therein to players with lower latency.
- Suiton potency increased from 130 to 250, while Trick Attack has lost its Rear attack potency bonus. This is a loss of only 20 potency to Suiton-Trick Attack, more than compensated for by the minute buffs above. This makes Meisui a damage increase over Raiton of 100 potency, minus the further clipping of the extra Mudra in Suiton, making it a faint damage gain worth using rotationally.
Samurai
- Meditate now ticks instantly and then once every half of a player GCD, rather than following the server tick. Cooldown reduced to 45 seconds. This better allows Meditate to be woven into combat without fear of it being unavailable for periods of long downtime, which in turn indirectly increases the attractiveness of Shoha.
- Tsubame-Gaeshi condition "Can only be executed immediately following Iaijutsu" has been removed. It now remembers your most recent Iajutsu, not just your most recent GCD, and can be cast for a given Iajutsu at any time until that Iajutsu is replaced by a different one's use, not only in the GCD immediately following your latest Iajutsu.
- Shoha potency decreased to Meditation 1 Potency: 80 | Meditation 2 Potency: 170 | Meditation 3 Potency: 270 | Meditation 4 Potency: 380 | Meditation 5 Potency: 500. This allows for smoother generation of Meditation stacks without obliging it to be used at .5 GCDs' length immediately upon CD refresh for a nearly free 300 potency.
- Ikishouten revised. The condition reading "Can only be executed while in combat” has been replaced with "When used outside of combat, recast time will not drain over time until having reentered combat.” This allows one to quickly engage into combat with Gyoten even from 0 initial Kenki.
- Hissatsu: Gyoten animation lock reduced.
- Hissatsu: Gyoten potency increased to 120.
- Hissatsu: Yaten potency increased to 120.
- Third Eye cooldown reduced to 12 seconds. Mitigation increased to 15%.
- Merciful Eyes healing potency increased from 200 to 500.
- Kaiten cooldown reduced to 1 seconds. However, Kaiten can no longer be used while the Kaiten buff is already active.
- Hagakure recast time reduced to 30 seconds now scales with player GCD speed.
- Hagakure buffed from 5 to 15 Kenki for each Sen consumed, but thereby remains such a small potency benefit (mere ~36 potency) that it is better used for utility than potency gains. Any 3-step combo provides roughly 405 potency per GCD (including Kenki generation per Shinten). Kaiten-Midare deals 1200 while spending 256 Shinten potency, thus exceeding average ppGCD by around 540. To be clear, Hagakure does less than half a positional or a tenth of a GCD of uptime bonus damage.
- Hagakure and Merciful Eye levels swapped.
- Hagakure given two charges at level 74. Name of the level 74 trait, Enhanced Iajutsu, changed to Art of the Sword to fit the new twin effect.
- Enhanced Jinpu and Shifu, the level 78 trait, has been changed to The Wheel Turns, and now grants its 3% additional Attack Speed and Damage baseline.
Summoners
- Now enter and respawn into instances with full charges of Aetherflow.
- One can now properly queue multiple pet abilities at a time without risk of losing a command. Where the ability is later unable to be used or the enemy takes no damage due to invulnerablity, the ability charge will be refunded.
- Energy Drain and Energy Siphon have been replaced again with Aetherflow, which may be used outside of combat, but has received the additional condition "When used outside of combat, recast time does not begin to drain over time until reentering combat." To compensate for the lost potency of Energy Drain itself, Aerial Blast potency has been increased from 350 to 550, Earthen Fury from 200 to 400, and Inferno from 200 to 400.
- The Enhanced Ruin II trait revised. Now "Generates Further Ruin upon using Egi Assault. Additionally, generates one stack of Further Ruin every 30 seconds. No further stacks cannot be gained while out of combat if one or more stacks are already present," When a stack is already in place, the timer will freeze at completion, generating the stack upon re-entering combat.
- Summoners now enter and respawn into instances with a stack of Further Ruin at the ready.
- Egi Assault I and Egi Assault II now share recast times and charges, but charge count now starts at 3 and increases to 4. To compensate for the combined frequency of Egi Assault I and Egi Assault II being halved, their potencies have been doubled. Due to the new passive generation, one still generates 4 Ruin IV per minute, but oGCDs will be less packed, especially during early pulls.
- Devotion range increased from 15 yalms to 20.
Of far lesser consequence...
- Crimson Cyclone now "Rushes target and delivers an attack of 200 potency." This should help to keep your melee pet in melee range. (Note the doubled potency to all Egi Assault skills above.)
- Slipstream now "Afflicts the target with Slipstream, causing the target and all enemies within 5 yalms of the target to take unaspected damage. When the target dies, all enemies within 5 yalms will be inflicted with Windburn at duration equal to Slipstream's remaining duration upon the afflicted target's death and damage equal to Slipstream's. Potency: 40." (Note the doubled potency to all Egi Assault skills above.) This allows Slipstream to be used on the move.
- Because Slipstream and Aerial Slash no longer use separate resources, the damage of Aerial Slash has been increased to 200. Without this, Ifrit would become the better AoE pet. (Note the doubled potency to all Egi Assault skills above.)
- Because Earthen Armor has no potency to buff and 40% mitigation would be excessive, Earthen Armor now "Creates a barrier around you that absorbs damage totaling 20% of your maximum HP. Duration: 30s. Additional effect: Earthen Pulse. Earthen Pulse: Grants healing over time. Potency: 150. Duration: 15 seconds."
- To see greater usefulness, Mountain Buster now "Deals earth damage with a potency of 160 to all nearby enemies and creates a barrier around you that absorbs damage equal to damage dealt by Mountain Buster, to a maximum of 15% of your maximum HP. Additional Effect: Slow +20%. Duration: 15 seconds."
- To further compensate for the loss of a tank in the form of their Egi, Crimson Cyclone and Flaming Crush has gained the "Additional Effect: Absorbs a portion of damage dealt as HP, to a maximum of 10% HP," and Aerial Slash has gained the "Additional Effect: Blind. Duration: 10 seconds."
MonkChakra/MeditationForms/Form Shift
- Maximum Chakra increased to 7. The Forbidden Chakra and Enlightenment will now consume all available chakra, dealing 75 and 45 potency per Chakra consumed, respectively.
- Monk now enters and respawns into instances with full charges of Chakra.
- Deep Meditation trait now also grants Meditation a chance equal to your critical hit chance to generate a second Chakra.
- The Forbidden Chakra may again be used regardless of combat state.
- Meditation can no longer be used outside of combat, but at level 54 (the level at which Meditation is acquired) Monk also gains the trait, Mind and Body, which causes the Monk to gain a point of Chakra every half-GCD when out of combat, as if Meditation were being used immediately and continuously but without triggering the global recast time. This is a faint nerf relative to the current generation values when otherwise able to rapidly kill one target, exit combat, ready 370 potency (592 relative potency) in 1.2 seconds while out of combat, and then restart combat, kill another quickly, etc., etc. However, it does not therefore oblige MNK to engage a single mob at a time for focus targeting during FATEs and the like. You simply get your in-combat generation spam rate for free when out of combat, with no change in priorities consequent to it.
Anatman & Riddle of Earth
- Form Shift now instead offers access to skills belonging to a further stance until one’s next weaponskill, rather than shifting from one to stance to another, granting either Simian Slight, Raptor’s Flight, or Coeurl’s Might. These may stack together, each lasting
1015 seconds in combat. While out of combat, their durations do not fade.- At level 52, Monks also gain access to the trait, Formless, which causes the effects of Form Shift to occur automatically when out of combat without incurring the global cooldown, starting a global cooldown after combat has ended until reaching access to all three forms, without any duration until entering combat.
- Perfect Balance will now grant Simian Slight, Raptor’s Flight, and Coeurl’s Might at the end of its duration, allowing access to any form for their next hit within
1015 seconds.Other
- Anatman now ticks instantly and then once per player GCD, rather than following the server tick.
- Riddle of Earth only requires that the Monk is attacked, not that damage is taken.
- Brotherhood range increased from 15 yalms to 20.
- Level 66 trait Enhanced Tackle replaced with Echo of Wind, which converts Shoulder Tackle into Echo of Wind for 30 seconds after usage. Like Shoulder Tackle, Echo of Wind "Rushes target" up to 20 yalms away, but deals no potency. Thus, Shoulder Tackle need not be so badly hoarded for Riddle of Fire, and thus using it for damage will not deny mobility.
- Fists of Wind is now activated automatically upon equipping the Pugilist or Monk job crystal. You can no longer leave Fists of Wind, Fists of Earth, or Fists of Fire, only switch between them. The shared cooldown between each has also been reduced to 2 seconds, down from 3.
- July 24. Added Hypercharge change per Jonnycbad's suggestion. Various Summoner additions.
July 26. Changes to abilities that previously could only be used in combat. Remembered to include the Tsubame-Gaeshi change so it should now be more, rather than less, flexible than Hagakure was.
July 29. Adjustments as per the 5.05 changes.
Quick Notes
- If it weren't a noticeable balance change, I'd probably just reduce The Blackest Night to 20% of your HP instead of 25% of target's HP, making it less absurdly overpowered for self- or cotank-mitigation and simultaneously making it easier to pop, all while keeping it just as useful on non-tanks.