What’s New With All 13 Jobs In Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward
By Sato . May 21, 2015 . 1:01pm
Square Enix’s latest Letter from the Producer Live featuring Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn producer shared a look at the new areas of the Ishgard region during the first half of the stream. The next half was all about jobs, and what’s new in Heavensward.
The second half of the Letter from the Producer Live Part XXI started out with new footage showing all the current classes and some of the new abilities and magic they’ll learn on their way from level 50 to 60. They also showed the three new classes with some moves we’ve yet to see in previous footage clips.
In this segment, Naoki Yoshida and the others of Square Enix shared details on what all the jobs will have as they get to level 60 in the upcoming Heavensward expansion. This is being done to show just how much will change going from 50 to 60 through small samples, so there will be much more than what’s listed below for each job.
Black Mage:
Black Mages get a new diagram-like circle around the caster as part of a new ability, called Ley Lines. These are placed on the floor, and give you a haste effect of 15% while you’re inside them. This only applies to the caster. This mechanic is still being adjusted, and as of now, the Ley Line will disappear if you step outside of it.
The other new action is called the Sharp Cast. While this is on and you cast a spell, it’ll guarantee a proc. This will be handy for your Thunder and Fire procs.
“Enochian” is another buff that lasts 30 seconds, and during this period, if you have Astral Fire or Umbral Ice, you’ll get to cast Fire IV or Ice IV. This new function will need you to figure out a new rotation. Keep in mind, this is something you’ll gradually learn as you hit level 60. Yoshida has two pages of skill sets, one for when Enochian is up, and another during non-Enochian moments.
Additionally, if you use Blizzard IV during the 30 seconds of the Enochian effect, you can renew the buff for another 30 seconds; however, with each “renewal,” it’ll be shortened by 5 seconds.
Paladin:
Riot Sword and Savage Blade will now have their own branches. While main tanking, they will go with Rage of Halone as previously, along with a new damage-over-time attack. While being an off-tank, you’ll get to use a separate set of combos.
The Divine Veil ability makes a barrier around your character when getting healed.
There will also be some block actions as well, which will help with some tanking.
Paladins will be updated with more defensive features, along with ways to support partners.
Warrior:
Up until now, Warriors had to drop Defiance while off-tanking, but they’ll have a new one for damage-dealing, called Deliverance as an offensive stance.
There will also be new stacks to go with the stance.
Raw Intuition is a new ability that lets you counter attacks back to the enemy, but getting hit from the side will result in a critical hit, so it’ll be tricky to use.
Warriors will also have actions that can heal themselves through stacks.
Dark Knight:
Similar to the other tanks, with Sword of Oath and Shield of Oath for the Paladin, Dark Knights will have something similar with the name “Dark” incorporated. When the Dark Knight takes on the dark aura, they’ll do more damage, but their MP will get depleted.
Additionally, while the dark aura is up, other party members won’t be able to help you raise your MP. Since others can’t heal the Dark Knight’s MP, they’ll have weapon skills used to recover MP.
Their tank mode is called “Grit Stance”.
They have weapon skills that are used for getting enmity, along with the previously mentioned MP recovering attack. You’ll be rotating between these two, as you get hate as a tank, while getting MP.
Dark Knights have something similar to Holmgang, and it’s called something along the lines of “Living Dead”.
Unlike the “Shield Lob” of the Paladin, Dark Knights will lob themselves towards the enemy as their ranged attack.
Dark Knights will use additional skills from the Marauder and Gladiator classes.
Monk:
Greased Lightning III is important to maintain, so rather than adding actions that extend it, they’ve considered more on which actions to execute for it instead. For example, when there’s a period of time when you can’t do anything, these actions will come into play to help you out.
“Meditation” can be stacked up to five times. Once there five stacks, you’ll can execute a high DPS attack. You can also deplete Meditation to recover your TP.
There’s also a new action that depletes your Greased Lightning III, which can be used when a boss goes invincible, then followed by preparation with Meditation so you can launch a series of powerful attacks when you’re able to hit the boss once again.
Monk’s new ability helps them use abilities during their downtime, which will be something players will need to get used to.
Dragoon:
“Blood of the Dragon” is a new mode for Dragoons, that lets them get a proc after the Thrust combos. Think of it as a simulated four-tier combo.
There are actions that will take away your Blood of the Dragon, so you’ll have plenty to consider when it comes to actions.
While executing Jump moves, the timing still feels a little off, so Square Enix are making adjustments to that as well.
Their goal is to make even quicker Dragoon abilities. There are more detailed adjustments that will be revealed on a later date.
Ninja:
Ninjas don’t have anything that will switch up their modes. Some felt that it was a little difficult to use while using Huton, so they’ve added ways to extend Huton through a certain rotation.
They’ll have an ability that helps that adjust the enmity that is pointed at yourself or your allies. This means Ninjas will get a new way to help control enmity for the entire party.
There may be more positional actions for the Ninjas, too.
Bard:
Bards will have a new Wanderer’s Minuet move, that lets them charge arrow shots. They won’t be able to move while charging, and it’ll take away their auto-attack; however, the attack will be powerful. MP doesn’t deplete while under the effect of Wanderer’s Minuet, and can be combined with other songs. You’ll need to know when you can use it, as it might not be the best while dodging.
There’s also a new Sidewinder action, which provides an addition boost with damage-over-time.
Switching between songs will be the key to attacking effectively as a Bard.
Machinist:
In terms of what a Machinist can do, they’re quite similar to a Bard. However, the feeling of playing as one, as well as what you should be doing, will differ quite a lot from the Bard.
When using specialized guns and reloading special bullets, there are skills that raise effects and DPS. The rate will shift and will vary by action. You can reload and deplete your bullets, or use your time effectively to reload during downtime.
There will be an action like “Quick Reload,” which will instantly give you one shot.
Weapon skills have unique combinations. For example, shot 1 will give you a 50% rate for a proc, and a shot 2 might add another 50% proc for your third shot, and so on.
There are also bombs that can deal some devastating damage. They’ll also have turrets, which can be used to attack enemies, and also provide you with bonuses.
Summoner:
New spells that deal direct damage.
A couple of actions that you’ll put into your skill rotation once you hit level 60.
“Tri-Disaster” was originally another skill that was made before, and it was way too strong, so some adjustments were made, and it ended up being a weaker spell. The original “Tri-Disaster” will be learned in Heavensward. It sounds like it’ll do all three damage-over-time effects at once.
Rather than getting more pets, Summoner will instead have bolstered actions on the current pets.
There will be a new “Dreadwyrm Trance” action that possesses the caster, using the power of a Dreadwyrm. More details will be revealed on a later date.
White Mage:
White Mages were always considered pure healers, so they’ll have new abilities that helps them more along the lines of support.
“Asylum” will open a field that lets you and your allies heal within range.
Another action that lets you do attacks while casting heals at the same time.
There will also be a less potent version of Benediction.
Stone III and Aero III will be added as new main attacking magic and damage-over-time spells.
Previously, only White Mages had extra effects with their Protects. The other healers will now have their own bonus spells. The reason being, there will be a third healer, and they’re looking to find ways to balance the healing jobs.
Scholar:
Instead of making each action more powerful, Scholars will have actions that they’ll need to find the best timings to use.
While going into dungeons, things won’t change as much, but their difference will show more during stronger boss fights, or Primals.
There will be more actions where you can heal a range of allies, with yourself in the center.
Eye-for-Eye and Adloquium will also be part of a new effect.
The Emergency Tactics will let you turn Adloquium from a barrier into a healing mode.
There will be a new action that lets you turn your Fairy into magic power.
Scholars will be more updated on the technical aspect of the job.
Astrologian:
Astrologians will have two basic stances. Moon Reading and Star Reading. These will allow them to switch between stances, like a more pure healer style similar to the White Mage, or have more support like a Scholar. Skills will differ per stance. Yoshi-P recommends getting used to playing as one stance, then learning the other.
Astrologian will have a high barrier move, similar to what you may have seen from Y’shtola.
The Divining Cards will be used to provide buffs to you and your allies. These cards will be selected out of six different types, and will be used for your allies. They’ll have effects such as attack up, haste, or increases probability of taking less damage.
Once you draw a card, this action is called the “Royal Road,” and you’ll get to keep the card on hold. By doing so, you can draw another card and add it to the first card to add the effect. This will have effects like making single-target moves into multi-target, and so on. You can also “Spread” a card to keep for later. You can also “Shuffle” a card you don’t want.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’s Heavensward expansion will release on June 23, 2015 with an early-access on June 19th for preorders.
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