The best damage is dealt from range, where you can’t be hit back. In last night’s “Live Letter from the Producer”, director and executive producer Naoki Yoshida and community manager Toshio Murouchi gave an in-depth look at changes and tweaks coming to every job in the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV expansion, Endwalker. For some, it was a feast and for others, a famine.

These changes and new actions are subject to tweaking in the road up to launch. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s see how we’ll deal damage in Patch 6.0.

A wider shift affects all DPS: Square Enix is looking to bring physical and magical damage attributes in line with each other for weapons of the same item level. Action potencies will be adjusted due to this change, to bring them in line with performance expectations.

Ranged Physical DPS Changes

Let’s dig into the job-specific changes for Ranged Physical DPS first:

FFXIV Bard Concept Art — The Bard is pretty much the same as before.

Bard (BRD)
Not many changes for these combat minstrels, just new actions.

The three songs (Mage’s Ballad, Army’s Paeon, Wanderer’s Minuet) will make available a brand-new action that offers a party-wide buff.
Another new action will be available when you execute Apex Arrow.
The recast timers for Wanderer’s Minuet and Battle Voice have been changed to 120 seconds, in line with other changes for all jobs.

Machinist (MCH)

The basic design of this job has not changed. Instead, it’s mostly new additions!

For all those fans of Final Fantasy VI’s Edgar Figaro, a brand-new action called Chain Saw will be added!
Automaton Queen will also be getting a new action, as shown in the Job Actions trailer.
Reassemble has been raised to two charges.

Dancer (DCN)

Similar to the changes made for Gunbreaker, the tweaks to Dancer were made to streamline play and smooth out complexity.

Certain weaponskill effects like Flourishing Cascade will be shared across single-target and area-of-effect (AOE) skills!
There will be new actions available once you execute Technical Finish, Improvisation, and Devilment.
Ability procs have been cleaned up. Now, your hotbar buttons will be changed to either single-target or AOE attacks based on which Step you use. This is intended to conserve hotbar space and make playing Dancer a bit cleaner.
Esprit is now guaranteed to build.

FFXIV Black Mage New Skill — A Black Mage shows off one of its new abilities in Endwalker.

Ranged Magical DPS Changes

Similar to the melee DPS changes to Feint, Addle will now reduce magical damage dealt, but will also reduce physical damage. The magical damage reduction will be stronger, but the ability will add some protection to both damage types.

Next up are the job-specific changes for Ranged Magical DPS:

Black Mage (BLM)

Yoshida explained that the team wants Black Mage to be the magical counterpart to Samurai, making it a pure magical damage dealer.

Enochian has been changed to a trait that’s automatically applied when you’re affected by Astral Fire or Umbral Ice. The current version of the skill was difficult for some players to grasp, hence the change.
Under specific conditions, swapping between Astral Fire and Umbral Ice will make new actions available.
In order to smooth out the rotation, the procs for Fire IV and Thunder IV have been extended.
Likewise, Fire II and Blizzard II will have an additional step, meaning your AOE rotation will change.
Sharpcast will have an additional charge.

Red Mage (RDM)

Once again, this is a job with only a few tweaks here and there to smooth out overall play.

There is a new action after using Scorch.
Verflare, Verholy, and Scorch are now AOEs and can be used for AOE rotations.
A new defensive party-wide buff will be added, called Magic Barrier.
Weaponskills have been adjusted across the job.
The rate of Black and White mana depletion has been reduced.
Manafication has been adjusted to make the burst damage at the beginning of a fight much stronger. Its recast timer is now at 110 seconds.
Displacement and Engagement will now have the same potency.
Embolden’s recast timer has been adjusted to 120 seconds.

FFXIV Garuda Summon — Garuda answers the Summoner’s call.

Summoner (SMN)

The Summoner is one of the jobs that received huge changes this time around. As we noted elsewhere, you’re now summoning versions of the actual Primals, as opposed to the cute Egi iterations.

All damage-over-time (DOT) abilities have been removed. Players complained that Summoner was a DOT job, and now that’s no longer the case!
Instead of the Egi versions of each Primal, you now infuse their powers in various jewels. The new names of each summoned Primal are Ifrit Ruby, Titan Topaz, and Garuda Emerald. By summoning one of the three, you augment your abilities with elemental properties.
The new rotation still involves summoning Demi-Bahamut, which unlocks the three elemental jewels. Then you can summon the three Primals in any order. Once that’s done, you summon Demi-Phoenix, which recharges the jewels again. After that, use the Primals again, and back to Demi-Bahamut.
Each summoned Primal has a different focus. Ifrit Ruby has a rush action and a long-cast, high-damage ability. Titan Topaz has a number of instant and fast-cast abilities, allowing you to move around the battlefield. Garuda Emerald has a number of placement abilities, but you’re still relatively mobile.
When you first summon each elemental Primal, they have a big action they cast.
Resurrection is still in, though Square Enix did discuss removing it. Likewise, Physick remains.
You can still glamour your Carbuncle into the other Egi forms.

If you want more details on what’s new with Square Enix’s excellent online adventure, be sure to check out all our FFXIV coverage. The Endwalker expansion is set to launch for PS4, PS5, and PC on November 19 for those who get the preorder early access and November 23 for everyone else.

If you’re interested in seeing the other job role changes outlined in the “Live Letter from the Producer”, you can find them right here!

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