Naoki Yoshida sat down for the latest installment of the Letters from the Producer LIVE series of developer interviews for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. He dug into the details of the recently released patch 2.4 and gave a little preview of the forthcoming patch 2.45, and even looked further down the road.
Goblins Vs Gnomes, The Next Expansion For Hearthstone, Is Out NEXT WEEK!
While the show was presented in Japanese, players were able to follow along in English via the official forum post. The most salient and juicy bits of news are listed below.
Firstly, patch 2.45 will be hitting all servers next Tuesday, December 9. Merry early Christmas to all!
Forget Pigeons And Dinosaurs, Dragon Dating Simulator Is Where The Love Is At
Dragoons will be getting a big balance change, which will make them less squishy. "There are two reasons for why we decided to make adjustments to dragoon," Yoshida said. "[T]he first is the amount of damage taken by magic-related attacks. While other jobs are able to take the same magical hit twice and survive, there are a lot of cases where dragoons taking the same two hits will die. The second reason is the fact that it's easier for dragoons to wind up dead and there has been more and more feedback mentioning that participating in end-game content is becoming increasingly difficult."
"Additionally, we will be increasing the magic defense that they are currently lacking. We will be making other adjustments to the dragoon's action including the reduction of recast timers on certain skills, decreasing the increased damage taken during blood for blood, and increasing the DoT damage on certain actions." The changes will go live next week, so Dragoon users, be patient.
Ninjas will be getting a slight nerf to their DPS, which is outputting at higher rates than anticipated. They do not believe this will affect a ninja's rotation.
People have been asking for an extension for the upgrade plan, wherein players can switch from PS3 to PS4. The campaign originally ended on December 31, however "Sony Computer Entertainment accepted the request and therefore will be extending the campaign until Mar. 31, 2015!"
"Additionally, we are planning to introduce a free trial service for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. PlayStation Plus members will be able to participate from Dec. 11, 2014. If you are not a PlayStation Plus member, you will be able to participate from Dec. 24, 2014." Dates are tenative.
Expect more content coming not just next week, but in patch 2.5 and beyond. Afros! New rules to Frontline will be implemented. "We are also in the process of looking into making it (Frontline) so matching takes place for 8v8v8" Recipe requirements will be adjusted during this round of patch updates, too.
Yoshida spoke briefly on Heavensward, the next expansion and version 3.0 of the game. He mentioned there may be housing areas coming to Ishgard, but nothing has been set yet. Also, "We're currently altering the programs related to Free Companies in preparation for the content that is planned for the expansion as well as Free Company crafting." And finally adding, "Put simply, the expansion will add new maps, a new race, and new jobs on top of what is already there in A Realm Reborn."
Read the full Q&A here.
