Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXVI Digest (9/30/2021)

[Voltenyne]

We are pleased to present the full digest of the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXVI!  
If you missed the live stream, or if you just want to watch it again (and again), check it out below!
 


* Don't forget to select the 1080p option to watch the video in a higher resolution! 
* Video includes interpretation from Japanese to English. 

Endwalker Title Screen
We started the stream by showcasing the title screen for Endwalker, which you can see in the video.

Job Adjustments
* Note that everything mentioned here is still under development and is subject to change. Furthermore, the adjustments mentioned here are not the entirety of the changes that will be made.



(00:14:27)

We began by going over our general guidelines for these job adjustments.

Our direction with these adjustments follows the base we established in 5.0 (Shadowbringers). While there certainly will be new actions, our overall focus wasn’t to expand upon the jobs with new systems or to introduce additional complexity. That being said, each job will be adjusted to some degree, some more than others, and so we focused on introducing the new aspects during this stream.

We understand that some of you would prefer jobs to be designed around more complex playstyles, similar to how they were in Heavensward, but that’s not what we’re going for. When both the jobs and content are challenging, it can become harder to play. We’ll maintain the current direction we’ve taken since 5.x, which seems to be the most accessible for the majority of players in the long run.

Many jobs will have the recast of their primary offensive abilities aligned to 60 or 120 seconds. This alignment will make it easier to coordinate timings for burst damage in high-end duties, as well as assist with trying a new job with a similar rotation cycle. However, do note that not all abilities will be adjusted to 60 or 120 second timers; for instance, the black mage ability Ley Lines will still have a recast time of 90 seconds.

Next, we showed a new trailer showcasing job actions, including those for reaper and sage.



After the trailer, we went over the directions we took for adjusting the various roles and individual jobs.

Tanks



(00:45:44)

As an adjustment to all tank jobs, technical aspects will be added to certain defensive abilities. For instance, using defensive abilities at the right timing (such as before taking a large amount of damage) will grant greater benefits, or additional effects that are triggered by stacking multiple abilities.

During the stream, we saw comments speculating something similar to a “perfect guard” or “parrying” featured in other games, but that’s not the case in a client-server game like FFXIV. Rather, it would be more along the lines of a brief additional effect after using a defensive ability, which might be a bit of a waste if you use the defensive ability without thinking it through, so be sure to look over the additional effects and use them well.

Additionally, each tank job will have a defensive buff which they can either apply to themselves or another party member. Each one has a unique effect and will come in handy regardless of whether you’re playing as the main tank or off tank.

Furthermore, ranged attacks will no longer interrupt combos, something that will also be applicable to melee DPS jobs as well. This change was made to accommodate the fact that ability recasts have been aligned with 60 seconds and rotations will have shorter cycles than before. Until now, when you stepped away from the boss to dodge an attack, you may have sometimes chosen not to use your ranged attack to maintain your combo. Moving forward, you’ll have more flexibility when adapting your rotation to enemy attack patterns. In some cases, you may want to use your ranged attack, while in other cases you may prefer to use your gap closer action instead. That’s where results may vary depending on the proficiency of the tank player.

Another adjustment has been made not only to tank jobs, but all physical damage jobs in general. Thus far, FFXIV has used separate battle calculation formulas for physical and magical attacks. Between the two, magical attacks were given a higher base value to compensate for more intricate calculations, but these values will be unified in Patch 6.0. Because the base value of physical attacks will be raised to the same value of magical attacks, action potencies will become smaller. Note that this is simply due to raising the base value used in calculations, so the actual power of the actions won’t be any different from before.

• Paladin
  
  
  
  (01:00:04)
  
  Paladin will be updated in a straightforward manner and won’t have any enormous changes. Slight adjustments will be made to allow for further optimization to keep the standard rotation from becoming too simple. The range of the gap closer action Intervene has also been increased by 5 yalms, improving its usability.
  
  
• Warrior
  
  
  
  (01:02:20)
  
  Until now, Storm’s Eye had to be triggered with the single-target combo during AoE rotations, which will be changed so that the AoE combo can now trigger and extend the damage increase effect.
  
  Additionally, the recast of Inner Release will be changed to 60 seconds. Because this increases how often it can be used, it will also be changed so that roughly three weaponskills can be executed during its duration.
  
  Onslaught will be changed into a charged action with three charges, the most charges of all the tank gap closer actions. A new ranged action will be added, further improving the job’s mobility. Nascent Flash has also been powered up and improved for use in off tank situations.
  
  
• Dark Knight
  
  
  
  (01:06:20)
  
  Dark knight will also be updated in a straightforward manner.
  
  The recast of Delirium will be changed to 60 seconds and roughly three weaponskills can be executed during its duration. Additionally, the range of Plunge will be increased by 5 yalms, and a new single-target defensive buff separate from The Blackest Night will be added.
  
  
• Gunbreaker
  
  
  
  (01:09:01)
  
  The button for Gnashing Fang will automatically swap with Savage Claw and Wicked Talon, which will allow the cartridge combo to be executed with a single button and will save space on hotbars. Likewise, the button for Continuation will still automatically swap with the corresponding follow-up action as they have thus far.
  
  As with other tank jobs, the range of Rough Divide will be increased by 5 yalms.
  
  A key change to gunbreaker will be the maximum number of cartridges being increased to three, which allows for greater flexibility in adapting the rotation to enemy attack patterns.

Melee DPS



(01:12:58)

As a change to all melee DPS jobs, Feint will also reduce the amount of magical damage dealt by the target. This will address a common situation where enemies primarily used magical attacks and Feint was only useful in mitigating auto attack damage. That being said, mitigating damage from physical auto attacks after taking significant damage will still be critical. Furthermore, the amount of magical damage reduced by Feint will be lower compared to the magical ranged DPS action Addle.

• Dragoon
  
  
  
  (01:17:48)
  
  The dragoon rotation already flows wonderfully, so we will be expanding upon its AoE rotation in this iteration. New actions will be added but won’t drastically increase the number of buttons, as some of them will be replacing existing actions as upgraded versions.
  
  Additionally, Blood of the Dragon will be changed into a trait and will no longer need to be initiated with an action or maintained. All actions which previously required Blood of the Dragon to activate will be made usable under normal conditions.
  
  Spineshatter Dive will be changed into a charged action with two charges, which allows for one charge to be saved for mobility. Furthermore, the recast of Lance Charge will be changed to 60 seconds, while the recast of Battle Litany will be changed to 120 seconds.
  
  
• Monk
  
  
  
  (01:21:34)
  
  The system of gaining stacks of Greased Lightning was discontinued in a previous adjustment, so monk will receive an overall job system expansion in 6.0.
  
  First, the new Masterful Blitz system will be added, where a different Blitz attack will be available depending on which weaponskills are used while under the effects of Perfect Balance. Perfect Balance will be changed into a charged action with two charges, and its recast will also be changed to 40 seconds, so it will be used quite often.
  
  Considering the added complexity of Masterful Blitz, the positional requirements of True Strike and Twin Snakes will be removed. Additionally, Shoulder Tackle will be removed but will be replaced with a mobility action that can be used while targeting enemies or allies.
  
  We showed gameplay footage of Masterful Blitz, which you can view in the video.
  
  
• Samurai
  
  
  
  (01:33:04)
  
  Samurai will be adjusted in a straightforward manner as a pure DPS melee job. Most of its changes will be new actions, but Tsubame-gaeshi and Meikyo Shisui will both be changed into charged actions with two charges, which will allow for more flexibility in the opening burst and adapting to different encounters. Furthermore, the usability of Meikyo Shisui will also be improved; when its effect is active, the third weaponskill of a combo will grant the enhancements that are normally granted by the second weaponskill.
  
  
• Ninja
  
  
  
  (01:36:47)
  
  Since ninja is already a busy job requiring accurate use of mudra, we were careful not to make the job even busier. Not to worry, there will not be a fourth mudra hand gesture. Keeping track of DoTs will also no longer be necessary with the removal of Shadowfang. Additionally, there will also be an action exclusively available while Bunshin is active.
  
  
• Reaper
  
  
  
  (01:39:36)
  
  Reaper will accumulate Soul Gauge when they use weaponskills. When the gauge reaches a certain level, it can be consumed to execute attacks alongside the avatar, which then accumulates Shroud Gauge. Consuming the Shroud Gauge will allow the reaper to serve as the avatar’s vessel and unleash a special combo. The job will have one synergy buff but leans more towards being a pure DPS.
  
  Reaper was showcased through gameplay footage, which can be viewed in the video.

Physical Ranged DPS



(02:10:06)

Each of the ranged physical DPS jobs will be adjusted in a straightforward manner. Additionally, damage mitigation abilities on all three jobs will have their recasts changed to 90 seconds.

• Bard
  
  
  
  (02:11:54)
  
  Providing party-wide enhancements through songs was widely requested, so we added a new party-wide enhancement which increases in effect based on the use of the three songs. Additionally, the recasts of Wanderer’s Minuet and Battle Voice will be adjusted to 120 seconds.
  
  Whether or not song effects will affect the bard themselves is still under consideration, so we’d like to refrain from announcing that for now.
  
  
• Machinist
  
  
  
  (02:14:12)
  
  Reassemble will be changed into a charged action with two charges, so you’ll want to make sure to use it diligently. The rest of the changes will primarily be new actions, but the concept of keeping things playable without taking up too much hotbar space remains unchanged.
  
  
• Dancer
  
  
  
  (02:16:16)
  
  Dancer will be adjusted in a straightforward manner as a heavily enhancement-oriented DPS job. The procs for its single-target and AoE weaponskills will be consolidated.
  
  Until now, only single-target weaponskills would change into step actions while dancing. As of 6.0, AoE weaponskills will also change, making it easier for players who have single-target and AoE actions on different hotbars.
  
  As for Esprit, the effect granted upon successful execution of a dance, will be changed so that the Esprit Gauge is guaranteed to increase when the dancer themselves uses a weaponskill while under its effect.

[Voltenyne]

Magical Ranged DPS



(02:22:09)

As a change to all magical ranged DPS jobs, Addle will also reduce the amount of physical damage dealt by the target. As you might expect, the amount of physical damage reduced by Addle will be lower compared to the melee DPS action Feint.

• Black Mage
  
  
  
  (02:23:08)
  
  One major adjustment is that Enochian will be changed into a trait. This was heavily debated, but maintaining Enochian was confusing to understand and widening the disparity in damage between players, so we decided to make this change.
  
  As with samurai, black mage will be adjusted in a straightforward manner as a pure DPS and therefore won’t have access to Raise. The duration of Fire III and Thunder procs will be extended, and the AoE rotation will change with the addition of upgraded versions of Fire II and Blizzard II.
  
  Additionally, Sharpcast will be changed into a charged action with two charges and a recast of 30 seconds, making it an aspect where your proficiency will make a difference.
  
  
• Red Mage
  
  
  
  (02:33:06)
  
  The supportive aspect of red mage will be expanded with the addition of the new defensive party-wide enhancement, Magick Barrier. There will be various other changes, but a key point will be the reduced black mana and white mana costs of enchanted combo actions. A single use of Manafication will be enough to use the full combo, which will allow you to enter the opening burst much earlier. However, changing only that aspect would result in using the enchanted combo too frequently, so the rate at which black mana and white mana increase will also be reduced.
  
  Additionally, we received a lot of feedback about how Displacement was hard to use in certain battle areas, so its potency has been unified with Engagement. Furthermore, the recast of Embolden will remain at 120 seconds, and the recast of Manafication will remain at 110 seconds.
  
  
• Summoner
  
  
  
  (02:39:52)
  
  Summoner will be changed the most out of all the jobs, to the point it could almost be considered an entirely new job.
  
  The summoned entities will be named Ruby Ifrit, Topaz Titan, and Emerald Garuda. The idea is that the primals’ powers are being transferred during the summoning, rather than summoning the actual primals themselves.
  
  Summoning one of the three primals will augment the summoner with elemental properties. The flow of summoner’s rotation will be drastically different from the cycle of summoning Demi-Bahamut, summoning Demi-Phoenix, then entering downtime, which had been in place thus far. Moving forward, the rotation will involve summoning Demi-Bahamut to gain elemental aether, followed by summoning Ruby Ifrit, Topaz Titan, and Emerald Garuda to fight using their elemental powers, then summoning Demi-Phoenix to regain elemental aether, and so on.
  
  The three primals can be summoned in any order, and the effects they grant to the summoner will be slightly different from each other, which you will need to consider as you adapt to various encounters. We made full use of actions that swap with each other, which resulted in a huge reduction in the number of buttons. We heavily debated over whether or not to keep Resurrection, and in the end, it has remained.
  
  As with Demi-Bahamut and Demi-Phoenix, the size of each of the summoned primals can be changed. This is something that can be set by the viewing player, not the summoning player. You will also be able to change the appearance of egis as before. As the summoner progresses in level and job quests, their pet will take the form of egis, but can be changed to appear as carbuncles instead.
  
  Summoner was showcased through gameplay footage, which can be viewed in the video.
  
  The three primals will use a follow-up attack upon being summoned and have unique characteristics in their attacks.
  Summoning Ruby Ifrit will allow you to use powerful attacks with long cast times and a gap closer. These long cast times will mean that you will want to plan for when to summon each primal depending on the enemy’s attack pattern.
  Topaz Titan will allow you to execute actions on the go and allows for greater mobility.
  Emerald Garuda will allow you to set a persistent AoE.
  
  For maximum firepower, all three primals should be summoned between summoning Demi-Bahamut and summoning Demi-Phoenix, so keep that in mind when planning your rotation!

Healers



(02:58:56)

As we’ve previously announced, with the addition of the new sage job, white mage and astrologian will be categorized as “pure healers,” whereas scholar and sage will be categorized as “barrier healers.”

For the most part, the cast time for offensive spells will be reduced to 1.5 seconds. This should help with situations where using abilities would clip with the global cooldown.

• White Mage
  
  
  
  (03:01:58)
  
  White mage will be adjusted in a straightforward manner. An upgraded version of Holy will be added.* There will be various other changes, such as Fluid Aura being removed, and Divine Benison being changed into a charged action, but the job should feel the same as before.
  
  * Edited on October 5, 2021 at 6:48 p.m. (PDT)
  
  
• Astrologian
  
  
  
  (03:04:05)
  
  As of Patch 6.0, astrologian will be categorized as a pure healer. However, Neutral Sect will still have its barrier effects, so astrologian won’t be completely losing access to barrier healing.
  
  Divination’s activation requirements will be reevaluated to address frustration due to damage enhancements relying on luck. Seals of Arcana will instead be used for a new self-enhancement effect which relies on them.
  
  Instead of being changed into a charged action, Redraw will become an ability that can be used every time Draw is used. Other changes include adjustments to Minor Arcana and a new AoE spell which has both healing and offensive effects.
  
  All healer jobs will have an offensive spell that will be easy to use on enemies in dungeons, equivalent to the white mage action Holy. We considered adding stun effects to the attacks for scholar and astrologian as well, but decided against it since it would make the jobs less unique.*
  
  * Edited on October 5, 2021 at 6:48 p.m. (PDT)
  
  
• Scholar
  
  
  
  (03:09:50)
  
  Scholar will maintain their playstyle as a barrier healer. Although adjustments will be made to pet behavior, many of the adjustments to scholar are unlikely to drastically change how the job is played.
  
  Perhaps the biggest change of them all is a new enhancement action which will temporarily increase the movement speed of party members even in combat and also reduce damage taken. The increased movement speed will be equivalent to using Sprint but will not stack with its effect.
  
  In addition to these, all healer jobs will also have a new powerful enhancement that will be usable on a single party member.
  
  
• Sage
  
  
  
  (03:13:50)
  
  Sage, the newest addition to the healer role, will be a barrier healer. As one of their primary characteristics, they will be capable of attacking an enemy while simultaneously healing a specific party member. Another feature is that by using a particular action, the effect of another action will change from dealing damage to dealing damage over time.
  
  Sage might be considered a barrier healer with a technical playstyle. They will be able to consume a certain resource accumulated over time in order to execute an instant barrier heal and will also have a gap closer. Sage was showcased through gameplay footage, and can be viewed in the video if you’d like to see and hear what their job actions will be like.
  
  As with reaper, sage will feature a new mechanic that has yet to be seen on other healer jobs. It should be quite the fun job to master, so we hope you’ll give it a try.

Battle Adjustments




(03:49:52)

The Raid Finder, which is used for matchmaking in high-end duties, will function the same as before with the exception of the healer role category. We understand that some of you would like the matchmaking settings to be divided even further to avoid being matched with other players of the same job. However, encounters are generally designed to be completed with any party composition and splitting the roles even further would lead to longer matchmaking times, so only the healer role has been divided.

Miscellaneous Battle Adjustments





(03:58:28)

The new ground targeting settings should be a huge improvement for those of you playing with a controller. Of course, you can choose to stick with the current ground targeting settings, so be sure to try them both. These new settings were showcased through gameplay footage and can be viewed in the video.

0% HP bars for incapacitated players will be made visible in order to locate incapacitated players in the field more easily.

Battle-related balancing adjustments for level 90 will be conducted right up until patch release. As such, Unreal trials will be temporarily removed with Patch 6.0 and will return in Patch 6.1 with a new trial.

[Voltenyne]

Belt Removal




(04:20:46)

As previously announced, belts will become unobtainable after Patch 6.0. For the most part, players won’t need to do anything to prepare for this change, so rest assured.
* Extracting materia from fully spiritbonded belts will no longer be possible after 6.0, so we recommend extracting the materia before then.

Should you have any belts listed for sale on the market board before Patch 6.0, they will no longer be displayed or appear in market search results after Patch 6.0. We ask that you remove any market board listings for belts after Patch 6.0 is released.

Downscaling Values



(04:28:56)

The downscaling will reduce various values at level 80 / item level 530 to roughly a fifth of what they currently are. All content will be assessed for balance after the downscaling, but we assure you that they will feel almost entirely the same as before. Admittedly, enemies in certain old content which were easily crushed with high item levels may feel tougher than before, but that will be hardly noticeable after level 80. Additionally, rewards may be rebalanced for content that is affected by the downscaling.

We chose to downscale values at this time as the current value balance will eventually result in various values becoming enormous, leading to in-game issues, problems with enmity management, and other concerns. We hope you’ll understand that this process is necessary in order for us to continue development and operations for many years to come.

Separately from downscaling, the rate at which experience points are gained between 2.0 and 5.0 have been readjusted. The changes are enough to allow you to level up multiple jobs as you progress with quests.

HQ Item Removal




(04:57:40)

Regarding the adjustment of actions and attributes which affect HQ yields, we are planning to add a new attribute to fisher to replace HQ yields. In a similar vein to the downscaling of values mentioned earlier, the removal of HQ items is also an effort to slim down data for continuing development and operations in the long-term.

Further details will be announced in the next installment of the Letter from the Producer LIVE.

Teleportation and Aethernet Updates



(05:06:49)

As you may be already aware, Warriors of Light will be going to the moon in Patch 6.0. Considering the world of FFXIV will continue to expand in this manner with every adventure, we have decided to recalculate teleportation fees.

Teleportation fees will change based on the distance from your current location to the destination. When the current limit of 999 gil is removed, in some cases teleporting great distances may cost over 1,000 gil. But on the other hand, the recalculation will also result in many cases where fees will become much lower for shorter distances.

It’ll be possible to heavily reduce costs by setting your favored destinations to intermediary locations, which you may want to consider. We are also planning to add a new feature where you’ll be able to specify a cost threshold where aetheryte tickets will be automatically used if the teleportation fee is higher than the threshold.

Some of you may be wondering why teleportation fees are in place to begin with, so we’d like to explain why we have this feature. In MMORPGs, systems such as teleportation fees are referred to as “sinks.” Without a gil sink, the players will continue to obtain gil as they play the game, and the player community will continue to amass more and more gil, causing prices on the market board to inflate. As such, it’s important for the game to remove gil from the economy, and teleportation fees are one such feature that does this. We hope that you’ll understand that this is a critical system in maintaining a healthy player economy in FFXIV.

On the other hand, the lore explanation is that teleportation fees are used to pay for the maintenance of aetherytes. You’ll be able to meet the people who create these aetherytes in Patch 6.0, so please look forward to it.

As for the aethernet user interface when teleporting to an aethernet shard, until now, each destination was listed by name only. It was rather unclear where the actual destination was, so we’ve made it so aethernet destinations will be viewable with a map as well. You can teleport by selecting your destination from the list of names or by selecting it on the map, as demonstrated in the gameplay footage.

Miscellaneous Updates



(05:26:42)

With our current situation, we’re seeing record numbers for total logins on a daily basis, so the automatic logout feature will remain in place for a while longer. With the ongoing global semiconductor shortage, we’re having difficulty trying to add new Worlds. We apologize for the inconvenience and ask for your understanding in this matter.

In the past, we partnered with a major company to experiment with switching to cloud servers. However, from a server cost and reliability perspective, we concluded that it was unlikely.

As we must prioritize addressing further levels of congestion in Patch 6.0, Data Center Travel will be delayed until after 6.0x. We have seen many of you looking forward to playing with friends on other data centers, and we considered all sorts of possibilities to try and implement the feature as originally planned. However, we found there was a high risk of the feature causing server outages, and that recovering from those outages could require long periods of time. As such, we decided against implementing Data Center Travel in 6.0, and we apologize for the delay.

On the other hand, the implementation of the Oceania Data Center has been proceeding as planned, so please rest assured regarding that.

Finally, any information regarding 6.0 we were unable to cover in this broadcast will be announced in the next installment of the Letter from the Producer LIVE, so please look forward to it!