Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LV Summary

23 Oct 2019
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Last Friday, Square Enix held a live broadcast for their latest Letter from the Producer LIVE, which talked more intimately about the new features coming in the next major patch for Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers.

Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.1: Vows of Virtue, Deeds of Cruelty will launch on October 29th.

Extreme Trial

Housing

  • New Housing Wards (19-21 and subdivisions) will be available.
    • Initially, the purchasing of plots will be limited to Free Companies.
  • Purchase of private estates will be made available for Wards 1-18 on Spriggan and Twintania worlds.

Job Adjustments

A large portion of the Live Letter was dedicated to upcoming job changes. Yoshida mentioned that every job would have some tweaks, whereas others would be getting reworked and even feel different in how they play.

Ninja

  • Mudra and Ninjutsu now share a GCD with weaponskills, with a fixed recast time of 0.5 and 1.5 seconds respectively.
  • Ninjutsu is now a charged action, with a max of two charges.
  • Shadow Fang is no longer a combo action.
  • Kassatsu has been reverted back to a normal ability.
  • Ten-Chi-Jin now instantly activates Ninjutsu actions rather than weaving in Mudras.
  • Trick Attack has an increased duration of 15 seconds, but its effect has been reduced to 5% Vulnerability Up. It no longer requires the player to be behind the enemy.
  • Ninki Gauge cost for Hellfrog Medium, Bhavacakra, and Bunshin has been reduced from 80 to 50.
  • Bunshin will accommodate for Ninjutsu downtime.
  • Potency buffs for several abilities

Samurai

  • Potency and rotation changes for increased overall DPS  
  • The Meditation status effect now stacks three times. It no longer expires.
  • Shoha now requires three stacks of Meditation.
  • Meditate, Iaijustsu, and Tsubame-gaeshi now grant stacks of Meditation, allowing Shoha to be more readily used in rotations.
  • Skill speed now affects the cooldown of Tsubame-gaeshi

Summoner

  • Egi Assault and Egi Assault II are categorized as spells, and are now affected by the global cooldown.
    • In accordance with this change, action potencies have been increased.
  • Action recasts and cooldowns will be adjusted to make things align better.
  • Tri-disaster will no longer inflict enemies with Ruination, but directly damages them.
  • The Enhanced Bane trait now extends Bio and Miasma effects to their full duration.
  • Overall potency increases and usability changes.

Astrologian

  • Minor Arcana will now instantly play the Lord or Lady card, since it was an unnecessary step to convert the held card.
  • Potency changes and MP cost reduction on several spells.
  • Collective Unconscious will have its own effect in Nocturnal Stance.

Bard

  • Song cycle will again have a support effect added, albeit not the same as it was in 4.x.
  • Whilst Bard will have less DPS output than Machinist, it will have a higher focus on group synergy.
  • The job will be buffed overall, including its supportive capabilities.
  • The sound effect for Apex Arrow has changed.

Machinist, Dancer

  • Potency increases
  • Reduced recast timers

Red Mage

  • Acceleration (RDM) will now have 3 stacks but an increased recast timer, in order to give more control for procs.
  • Considerable potency and trait buffs

Black Mage

  • Triplecast stacks will now visually display.

Monk

  • Mantra effect is currently too strong and will have a slight adjustment.

Dragoon

  • Potencies and usability will be improved.

White Mage

  • Asylum effect range will be adjusted.

Scholar

  • Usability adjustments

Tanks

  • Reprisal will now be an AoE effect and have an increased duration of 10 seconds.
  • Sentinel and Vengeance will have extended timers of 15 seconds. (It is unclear if this will apply to the GNB and DRK equivalents, Nebula/Shadow Wall.)
  • Holmgang’s effect timer will be extended.

Crafting and Gathering Revamp

First lot of changes coming in 5.1, the other changes are scheduled for 5.2.

  • Skills with similar effects have been merged or remade. Byrgots Blessing, as an example, has been increased to 100% success rate.
  • The developers want to encourage players to learn the crafting system rather than simply relying on shared macros.
  • Introduction of a new “Recipe Tree” which lists the materials you need to gather/craft for each recipe.
  • Materials can also be searched in the gathering log if the relevant gatherer is leveled.

Ishgard Restoration

This new system is designed for Crafters and Gatherers to contribute and work on together, offering various rewards. It will be implemented in Patch 5.11 two weeks after the initial release of Patch 5.1.

  • By checking the Skybuilders Board, players can donate collectible items and fill up a gauge.
  • Once the gauge is filled, players can participate in Concerted Works.
  • Concerted Works function like FATEs and involve multiple players handing in items. They can be failed if not enough players participate in them.
  • Rewards that were shown include glamours, housing items and mounts.
  • Future updates will focus on a Ranking System, Scratch-Off Tickets and a “Gathering Island” Diadem rework.

New GATE: The Slice is Right

This new Gold Saucer GATE featuring Yojimbo requires players to dodge attacks while also giving them chances to collect MGP and even try their luck with a cup game.

Beast Tribe – Pixies

  • Just as they did previously, quests will sync to your current level, allowing you to use them to level up other jobs.
  • A new area was revealed, showing a Pixie playground that will be built up as you progress through the questline.
  • During this section, a new emote was teased, showing Yoshida’s character leaning against a wall.

PvP Updates

PVP adjustments and a new Frontlines map, Onsal Hakair (Danshig Naadam), will be implemented alongside Blue Mage updates in a later patch, Patch 5.15.  

  • Changes to existing actions and traits.
  • 24-player battles will be removed.
  • Notifications will be added for objectives spawning.
  • Adjustments to Return recast timer and incapacitation timer will be fixed to 5 seconds.  
  • Party size when registering for duty will be limited to 4 players.
  • Battle High adjustments, including an individual gauge that increases when achieving a takedown or assist, but is reduced when incapacitated. Damage and healing increase in five stages as the gauge increases.
  • Onsal Hakair will have players battle to take control of objectives called an Ovoo. It will be similar to Seal Rock, but focuses more on claiming an objective rather than defending it.

New Game+

  • Allows players to access various story points in the expansions, Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers.
  • Expansions are split up into chapters, which are explained in a short description on the menu screen.
  • Developers are working to implement other quests, such as class quests, in future.
  • A visual element will allow players to see what quest they are up to and leave New Game+ mode at will.
  • A Realm Reborn quests are being reworked, and will be added once they’re done.
    • This should be around Patch 5.3.
  • NPC dialogue will adjust to your current progression, in case you missed out on dialogue from incomplete story arcs.
  • You can replay instanced battles in the story again with varying difficulty options, but you will be level synced.
  • There will be no quest rewards in New Game+.

YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse

Yoshida showed off the beginning area from The Copied Factory. The models from NieR have been recreated for Final Fantasy XIV’s engine. Yoshida didn’t show much of the area or regarding rewards in order to keep things a surprise. However, he did say that that the things that the community are looking for will be obtainable.

The Epic of Alexander (Ultimate)

The next Ultimate challenge will be based around the Alexander raid tier from Heavensward. Once again, the rewards will be ‘very shiny’ weapons.  The opening cutscene was shown which revealed the first enemy to be none other than Living Liquid.

The Epic of Alexander (Ultimate) will arrive with Patch 5.11.

Announcements

  • Patch note reading broadcast will take place on October 29th at 3:00 p.m. JST.
  • Final Fantasy XIV will have a presence at the Kitakyushu Pop Culture Festival in Fukuoka, Japan on November 30th & December 1st.
  • Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers has been nominated for both “Best Game Expansion” and “PlayStation Game of the Year” for the Golden Joystick Awards. You can vote at the following links:
  • Final Fantasy XIV has also been nominated for the PlayStation Game Music Grand Prize Awards 2019. You can support FFXIV by listening to tracks on Spotify or by posting comments.
  • The Eorzean Symphony: Final Fantasy XIV Orchestral Album Vol. 2 Blu-ray will be released on December 11th.
  • New merchandise, including the new ‘Hydaelyn Kick’ T-shirt previously modeled by Yoshida, a new Giant Beaver plushie, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Acrylic Character Stands, and Disciples of the Hand and Land Class Pins.
    • Most of these items are set for a November 30th release date in Japan, with NA and EU dates to be determined. The Giant Beaver plushie has an NA release date of February 2020.
  • The next Letter from the Producer LIVE will take place during the celebratory 14-hour broadcast on December 14th.

Summary based on translations by Miuna and Iluna Minori from the Reddit FFXIV Discord channel.