Today Square Enix hosted the 66th Final Fantasy XIV Letter From the Producer Live broadcast revealing new details about the upcoming expansion Endwalker.
Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida and Global Community Producer Toshio Murouchi delivered the goodies.
First of all, we get to see the opening splash screen of Endwalker.
It’s worth mentioning that some of the things mentioned today may change due to final balancing before Endwalker releases.
First of all, Yoshida-san talked about the job adjustments coming for the expansion, starting with general guidelines followed to make them.
The adjustments build upon the changes made for Shadowbringers. More actions will be added with the level cap increase, but there aren’t big new systems. The system won’t become more complex.
The recast timers of primary abilities will be adjusted to be aligned with either 60 or 120 seconds even if this doesn’t apply to all abilities.
The changes were showcased with a long trailer, which you can watch below. Incidentally, we also get to see some environments from the expansion. Apparently, Garlemald has cars.
Of course, we also get to see the new jobs in action, Sage and Reaper.
Below you can find a few slides explaining changes to the tank role and its jobs. It’s worth mentioning that the mention of optimal attacks isn’t as precise as a just guard (so it’s not as influenced by server lag). Ranged attacks initiated by the tank won’t break their combos.
We also get additional information that isn’t listed in the slides: speaking of Paladins, Intervene will have additional 5 yalms (yards) of range.
For Warriors, Inner Release will have a recast timer of 60 seconds. Onslaught will have 3 charges, allowing for a lot of mobility. Nascent Flash will also help while off-tanking.
For Dark Knights, Salted Earth won’t require selecting an area anymore, which is a very welcome change. The recast time will be adjusted to 60 seconds and will have 3 charges. Plunge will get an extended range by 5 yalms and a single-target defense buff will be added.
Speaking of Gunbreakers, Rough Divide had its range increased by 5 yalms as well.
We then move to the Melee DPS role. Some changes are similar to those applied to tanks.
Looking at Dragoons, Blood of the Dragon will become a train so there won’t be any need to execute it. All actions that require it will be available at all times. Spineshatter Dive will be changed to two charges. Lance Charge will have its recast timer changed to 60 seconds. Battle Litany will have a 120 seconds recast.
Speaking of Monks, Perfect Balance will get two stacks that charge every 40 seconds. True Strike and Twin Snakes won’t have a positional requirement anymore. Shoulder Tackle will be removed and replaced by a gap closer rush action that will also work targeting an ally.
We also get to see a video of the new Masterful Blitz.
Speaking of Samurai, Tsubame-gaeshi and Meikyo Shisui will receive two stacks.
Moving on to Ninja, the job is quite busy, so the developers have tried their best not to make it even busier. Shadowfang will be removed.
Speaking of Reaper, which is one of the two new jobs, we get a more general explanation and we see its Job Hud. The top one is the Soul Gauge that is charged up to unleash a variety of attacks that deplete it.
The bottom gauge is the shroud gauge that is charged while using weapon skills. When it’s charged you can become the vessel of your avatar and unleash even more powerful combos. We also get a video demonstration.
We then move on to physical ranged DPS jobs. Buffs that mitigate damage had their recast timer adjusted to 90 seconds.
Speaking of Bards, Wanderer’s Minuet and Battle Voice had their recast timer adjusted to 120 seconds.
For Machinist, Reassemble will receive two charges. Dancers had their bar management simplified, with ability icons switching automatically between single target and AOE.
Espirit building is also going to be guaranteed for the dancers themselves.
Moving on to magical ranged DPS, the Black Mage has been evolved toward pure DPS. Procs applied to Fire III, Fire IV, and Thunder have been extended to help with the rotation. Fire II and Blizzard II are going to change the job’s AOE rotation. Sharpcast will get an additional charge.
Red Mages will get the chance to fire one more combo off Manafication. As for Summoner, it’s almost a new job. By summoning different primals you gain their ether and unlock different abilities. This removes the downtime in which summoners would just cast Ruin until Demibahamut is back up.
There is no specific order for the summoning of the primals. We also get a video demonstration.
Moving on to healers, in Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker two jobs will be pure healers, and two will be barrier healers.
White Mages will have Divine Benison become a charge action. Astrologians will become more skewed toward pure healers. That being said, they will have a state called Neutral Sect in which they will have access to some barrier actions. An AOE spell has a healing capability and an offensive part at the same time.
Scholars are barrier healers and will get a powerful buff targeting a single party member.
Moving on to Sage, which is the second new job, you designate a party member to receive healing. As you attack, they will be healed. Sages can also apply damage over time on enemies. They have a resource that accumulates over time to execute their barriers.
Once more, we get a gameplay demonstration.
Next, we get a look at adjustments coming to the battle system. The various matching systems will be split between barrier and pure healers. A new option to the party finder will let you include players that have yet to receive their weekly rewards for the duty.
As for duty rewards, trials with weapon drops will drop a weapon coffer in addition to the original weapon reward. More changes can be seen in the slides below.
Conditional enhancements can now be set as a separate category in your HUD layout.
The ground targeting functionality has been improved with new settings that you can change in the character configuration menu.
We get to see what it looks like in the video below.
The UI has been changed to make it easier to see what your party members are targeting.
Health bars will now be displayed even when a character is down.
Unreal trials will be temporarily removed as the jobs are balanced. They will be reintroduced in patch 6.1-
This is not news, but we get a reminder that belts will be removed and more details have been added. Speed belts from Eureka will be replaced by a ring.
We also get more information on the downscaling of various values.
Certain categories of items will have their HQ version removed to reduce inventory crowding.
Teleportation fees will be adjusted and the current 999 gil cap will be removed. There will be different options for teleportation tickets. The Aethernet UI itself will also be changed to be more intuitive. Below you can see a video demonstration.
Incidentally, Yoshida-san mentioned that Square Enix tested cloud servers for a year and a half with a major partner, but it didn’t work. Unfortunately, the pandemic and the shortage of semiconductors are preventing the expansion of the physical servers, but Square Enix still intends to stick with them due to their speed, stability, and safety.
Your progress toward Fisher’s Intuition will be preserved even after logging out. The automatic logout will remain, and unfortunately, the Data Center Travel system will be delayed after the release of the expansion.
More miscellaneous news about events and merchandise can be found below, including the details about the next Letter from the Producer Live broadcast on November 5 (or November 6, if you’re in Europe or Asia).
The collaboration with Dragon Quest X will also return once again on October 19.
Incidentally, the new Final Fantasy XIV expansion Endwalker will release on November 23, 2021, for PS5, PS4, and PC. A benchmark has been released for PC, including the male viera character creation.
If you want to see more about it, you can check out the reveal of the extended trailer and the reaper job, and that of the male viera, locations, and release date.
You can also take a look at plenty of official screenshots and art, the original announcement, tons of initial details, and the first official screenshots and art.
Final Fantasy XIV is currently available for PlayStation 4, PS5, and PC. The upgrade to PS5 is offered free of charge to those who own the PS4 version.
