5 things to know from the latest Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers stream

The latest Live Letter from the Producer for Final Fantasy 14 took place last night, giving players tons of details about upcoming changes that’ll launch with the new expansion, Shadowbringers.

The stream announced many welcome quality-of-life changes, including the expansion of cross-world linkshells, a new light mode for the UI, and enemy HP percentage showing decimals. The game’s director and producer, Naoki Yoshida, also announced a lot of other sweeping gameplay changes, that we’ve compiled below.

Side quests and job quests are changing

In all of the new areas that Shadowbringers unlocks, the side quests there will be level synced, so you’ll be rewarded appropriate experience no matter your level. They’ll be do-able starting at level 70.

Job quests are also being kicked to the sidelines in favor of “role quests,” a new line of quests that goes along with the main story. There’s a set of role quests for each role: tank, healer, ranged DPS, and melee DPS. Players have to complete at least one set before moving on in the main scenario quest. The only new job quests for existing jobs will unlock at 80, with dancer and gunbreaker still getting job quests from levels 60-70.

Role actions are getting updated

Role actions will no longer have the awkward customizable system that it has now. Instead, each role will learn their role actions at specific levels. Tanks will get seven skills, healers, melee DPS, and physical ranged DPS will get six skills, and magical ranged DPS will get four.

What skills are getting removed and which are staying have yet to be completely confirmed, but Yoshida’s demo gave us insight about what is likely staying. His tank skill bars kept Provoke, Shirk, Rampart, Low Blow, Interject, and Reprisal. His tank bar also had Arm’s Length, which is a melee DPS role action normally. His caster bar had Addle, Lucid Dreaming, Swiftcast, and Surecast.

Square Enix Co., LTD.

Main stat materia is retiring

All materia that adds a main stat (such as vitality, strength, intelligence, mind, and dexterity) will no longer do anything when melded onto armor. Players will have to focus on other stats and materia now instead.

Sell all your main stat materia while you can, or consider handing them over to Mutamix Bubblypots in Central Thanalan to get something better.

TP is getting removed, MP is getting capped

Tactical points are straight-up being removed. Mana points will be capped at 10,000, as a bulk of skills used to cost a percentage of total mana anyway. Piety will be adjusted to accommodate this change, but it’ll continue to only affect healers. Yoshida said that these actions will be changed to be used more freely, but it’s unknown if this means that these actions will no longer have a cost.

A new job update trailer released

As expected, all the jobs are getting new skills, and Yoshida announced that some roles will be shaken up as well. The trailer also shows off the two new jobs: gunbreaker and dancer.

Debuffs that increase vulnerability to specific types of damage, like piercing or slashing, are getting removed or changed completely to aid in party builds. Players will no longer have to worry as much about optimizing their builds.

Tanks

All Tanks will now be suitable to play as both main-tank and off-tank. All of the tank jobs are also losing their DPS stance. Now, only tank stance will be toggle-able, and there won’t have any stat-based repercussions for using it.

Your damage will no longer go down, you’ll just be able to get enmity easier, so there’s no reason to toggle it off. Dark Knights, the star of this expansion, are getting a sweet new skill that lets you summon a dark clone of yourself to help you fight, and Dark Arts is being removed. Paladins are finally getting a gap closer, while Warriors will get a shield to give to allies.

Healers

Yoshida noted that the goal of being a healer will be to focus more on healing in the future with the skill we all know and love, Protect, getting removed entirely from the game. White Mages are getting a big rework, with a heavier lean towards its lily motif. White Mage will also finally be getting a heal with no cast time, but the specifics weren’t announced. They’ll have to fulfill specific conditions to trigger black lilies, which deal damage.

Scholars will have their heals and barriers adjusted, and they will no longer be able to rely on a simple macro for Eos’ Embrace. They can now, however, summon a large seraph to help with healing.

The fairies also won’t take damage from enemies moving forward. Players will also be able to see the shields they have casted on them through the party list. Astrologians will have their cards and stances adjusted, though exact details have yet to be revealed.

DPS

Summoners, like Scholars, won’t have summons that can be targeted or damaged anymore. Both Titan-egi and Topaz Carbuncle will be reworked to do something else to accommodate for this change. Summoners will also be able to summon a huge phoenix, similar to the Bahamut summon they already have, and they’ll have to swap around their summons more to optimize damage.

Machinists will be reworked completely with adjustments to Overheat, becoming a more solid job with a variety of skills, including one that resembles a Bio Blaster from Final Fantasy 6. Another skill has a harpoon cannon, and you will even be able to summon a special robot companion to help you fight.

Square Enix

Red Mages are getting a new finisher, and based on the job trailer, possibly some more area-of-effect skills to beef up Verthunder and Veraero. Samurai are also getting tweaks, with a skill that looks like it will let you cast Midare Setsugekka twice consecutively. Black Mages are getting skills that help upkeep their elemental gauge between enemies. Dragoons are getting a new dramatic leap that references the final fight against Nidhogg, as well as generally faster jump times. Monks are getting a fourth slot for Greased Lightning, and a way to upkeep it. Ninjas will be to manage their Ninki better through using their skills, like a new shadow clone ability. Ten Chi Jin will also get be a bit less clunky. Bards will be able to see what songs they’re playing more easily.

More information about Shadowbringers will release during Square Enix’s E3 presentation on June 10 at 9 p.m. ET. Another Letter from the Producer will be streamed from Los Angeles on June 14 at 8 p.m. ET.

Shadowbringers releases on June 28 in early access for players who pre-order the expansion and on July 2 for everyone else. Final Fantasy 14 and its expansions are playable on Windows, Mac, and PlayStation 4. The benchmark is available now.