Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail's first Savage raid is here, folks, and that means we're getting our customary sweep of Job changes to iron out the kinks seen so far. While the MMO's community - and Pictomancer mains, largely - had been braced for nerfs, Yoshi-P and the gang are looking to raise DPS across the board, rather than lower it, for a more even playing field.
Looking to Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail's 7.05 patch notes reveal a wall of numbers specifying what's changed down to each move, though jumping over to Final Fantasy 14's Job Guide offers the why.
There, the team explains that the goal of Dawntrail's first big balance sweep is to "raise the DPS of certain jobs rather than lower them, with considerable attention given to Samurai, Viper, and Black Mage rotations." I imagine the new Pictomancer class will feel less menacing when a few other big hitters can match it regarding popping big numbers.
"At present, the DPS of Pictomancer is higher than we originally expected," the devs say. "Because they have a number of actions with long cast times, and no means of reviving others in combat, we intended for them to have comparable DPS to melee jobs alongside Black Mage.
"There is a significant gap in the DPS between these two caster jobs, however, which is why we have increased the potencies of black mage actions. That said, we also increased the potency of actions for the other magical ranged DPS jobs and physical ranged DPS jobs, to ensure there is no large disparity between jobs."
The team goes on to say that they needed to consider the balance between Pictomancer and melee jobs when making changes, especially when it comes to higher-level duties. Caster jobs like the Pictomancer enjoy some distance from enemies when rattling off their moves, though melee class fans have the joy of getting up close and personal and staying on the move as they try and hit attacks with positional requirements.
"Moving forward, we'll continue monitoring job performance, considering the balance between magical ranged DPS jobs that do and do not have reviving actions, as well as the overall balance between melee and ranged jobs," the team says.
So, what's changed beyond that? You can read the patch notes above for the nitty-gritty, though the bigger picture is that Black Mage has got a buff across several moves, while Umbral Soul has been tweaked to help maintain Umbrace Ice and MP recovery outside of combat. Paradox can now be used even when the Umbral Ice effect is active. The team will monitor how it goes, though the hope seems to be that Black Mages will return to their damage-loving selves.
Elsewhere, despite backlash to making the Viper simpler, most of those changes have gone ahead – just not all of them. The team is still making the combo system less busy and is essentially swapping out an enemy debuff for a personal buff, though it is easing off changing directional requirements.
"In light of the above changes, and the considerable feedback received from players who like this aspect of these actions, we've elected to forgo these changes," the team says. "Looking ahead, we'll continue monitoring your feedback as we consider further adjustments."
Monks, Ninjas, Reapers, and Dragoons are getting a slew of buffs, but, letting my personal bias show, I'm more interested in what the Samurai has going on. While I initially panicked over seeing so many actions being nerfed, it's to balance out the fact that Tsubame Gaeshi – a move that lets you use your last Iaijutsu again for free – is free of its cooldown. As the team says, "While a number of potencies have been lowered, samurai's overall DPS has been increased."
The Viper changes aren't going down wonderfully among the community, though other mains seem happier. Mind you, the patch and the new Savage raid have only just been released, so we'll see if the vibe changes as players run their favorite jobs through content - and juice the highest amount of damage possible, of course.
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