Please Share Updates on 8.0 Job Design

[ty_taurus]

In light of recent talks about better responding to and acknowledging player feedback, I wanted to return and share some details about my experience with trust and FFXIV and where I lost that trust. I have not played any amount of Dawntrail content at all. I haven't been subbed for roughly a year, and I have no intention of actually logging in to play FFXIV at this time. However, I chose to buy a month's sub to share my feelings here because, despite having given up on the current expansion, I do still care about this game and I want to see it succeed, not fail.

The reason I quit was solely a response to the mediocre state of job design--more specifically for me healer design. I won't sugarcoat it. Job design in FFXIV has become dull and lifeless. I do not feel any love or passion for making a fun, exciting game when I look at how jobs have changed and how they continue to change. And it has been like this for multiple expansions. Every patch seems to do nothing but continue the combat design team's obsession with aggressive simplification. And those of us who have been trying to give feedback for the last six years have been ignored and disregarded.

When I sat down to try and at least do the MSQ of Dawntrail last year, I couldn't bring myself to start because there is no job in the game that I am willing to play through what little required combat encounters the MSQ would inevitably force me through. The healers I loved playing have been long gone. Sage failed to live up to the expectation of the job fantasy it was pitched as having--a more intricate DPS oriented healer with an offensive play style. And that sucks because that's exactly the job fantasy I really hoped for coming out of Shadowbringers.

Back in 2024, Yoshi P made a bold statement that job identity would be a focal point of the expansion after Dawntrail. But I have lost faith in FFXIV's ability to live up to that lofty promise. The only thing that will restore my trust in FFXIV and Yoshi P will be a genuine response to the six years of backlog job design feedback (which will be 7 when 8.0 releases) and a conscious effort to try and restore fun and excitement back into all jobs. That doesn't need to mean jobs become hard and punishing either. We had a healthy middle ground before, and we can have it again.

But that leads me to the title of this thread... FFXIV has a long history of putting gameplay last when it comes to actually showcasing new expansion content. We didn't even get the jobs actions trailer for Dawntrail until two months prior to its launch, and the media tour information later than that. But by that time, any feedback players might have has no time to be considered because the game's basically at launch.

Yoshi P, NA community management team, combat design team... If you really want to try and restore the trust of players like me--those of us who have been significantly dissatisfied with the ongoing direction of job design because it's not just me, it's a lot of people....Start sharing your plans for 8.0 job design now. Before Dawntrail, you were willing to share the work in progress development of the graphics update and respond to feedback as it rolled in. While it seems there are still lingering criticisms of the update, there was a lot of change in direct response to feedback. Job design needs that same respect. This is the time to communicate and be transparent with us. More transparency would go a very long way in building better trust with your playerbase. Show us what you're working on. Ask us what we think. Please stop hiding job changes until the last possible second before an expansion's release, and please stop simplifying jobs every single patch in Dawntrail.

This post will more than likely fall on deaf ears and disappear into the sea of dead, abandoned threads here, but any chance I have to try and make this game better I still want to take. I really want to see news of 8.0 and feel excited again. I want to come back and enjoy this game again. My criticism is not from a place of hate, but a place of passion.

[ASkellington]

I don't think its enough for them to share their job design if they aren't going to listen to the players when they get their feedback.

Case in point, they changed VPR before the first raid tier release to the player base's chagrin and instead of saying "nevermind, we won't do it and leave VPR as is" they went ahead with it and have yet to change it back.

[ty_taurus]

I don't think its enough for them to share their job design if they aren't going to listen to the players when they get their feedback.

Case in point, they changed VPR before the first raid tier release to the player base's chagrin and instead of saying "nevermind, we won't do it and leave VPR as is" they went ahead with it and have yet to change it back.

You're exactly right. And maybe that's the first step they can take to trying to regain trust from those of us dissatisfied with job design. Roll back on changes to jobs like Viper and Black Mage now. Don't wait for 8.0. Why do we need to wait a year for any meaningful change to maybe occur? Sure, we aren't likely going to get major, sweeping reworks to hollow jobs, but small changes in the present can be a great show of good faith toward our collective community.

But that does require them to actually want to rebuild trust and follow through on this promise to listen to players more. If all that we see of job design over the next year is more aggressive simplifying and radio silence on feedback, then that will indicate to me that these talks of wanting to regain player trust are hollow, meaningless words. And to be fair, my expectations are extremely low, but I care about the game too much to not try and at least say something while there's still time.

[Altina_Orion]

To be honest, I doubt they even have the job design ready. 8.0 development is VERY early and fanfest still hasn't been announced. We know nothing at all and I doubt the devs know much besides what the story is going to be.

[Zairava]

I'm with you. I recently resubbed because I got the itch to do more Occult Crescent post obtaining my DRK relic but my first log in I did expert and I was barely keeping myself from dozing off.

I'm now sitting here having trouble finding the desire to go in the field zone because of how utterly devoid of any life and soul the jobs are despite phantom jobs actually being bite sized fun to play with. They could honestly take some stuff from the phantom jobs and use them for the jobs themselves, at least conceptually or for inspiration.

All I can do is sit here from the bleachers and watch to see if they actually bloody do anything with them to restore my trust and faith.

And it sucks. Genuinely. I guarantee if the jobs weren't completely sucked dry of anything that gave them blood and we had the middle ground we did in Stormblood I would be having an absolute blast with the game but the current state just soils it.

There was a time when I couldn't recommend the game enough because of how good the jobs and encounters felt together, now it's the extreme reverse.

The time for apologies is over, the time for action and transparency is now.

[Saraide]

We're gonna get one more ogcd burst finisher on all jobs and healer dots will be extended to 2 minutes so it's easier to keep them running. Please look forward to it

[CaptainLagbeard]

Based on past trends, the 8.0 Job design is going to be that Tanks get more heals, and that's about it.

[Volgia]

I wouldn't expect much. What people want for the job system to change is basically a different game.

[Kozh]

Based on past trends, the 8.0 Job design is going to be that Tanks get more heals, and that's about it.

Now every weaponskills will give 100 potency heal

[Daralii]

I'm sure we'll get updates during the first promotional convention in late 2026. Just make sure you stay subscribed and keep buying cosmetics while you play other games.