All this is personal opinion based on information released. If your favourite job looks like I made it sound like it will be fucked over then don’t worry – I’m sure everything actually been balanced.
Yesterday we finally got to see some of the new skills in action and it seems some jobs have minor QoL changes while others have had quite a major make over and going to quickly go over a few of the changes and what it could mean for people who main those jobs.
White Mage
Now one of the things I have been hearing from people is that it looks like we are lacking more healing spells … which honestly we do not need. In A Realm Reborn we already have pretty much all the healing skills we need. We got our standard heals, our burst heal, our heal bomb, basic AOEing, massive AOEing, HoT AOEing, HoT single target and even a barrier.
One of the things we did lack (compared to Scholar) is we lacked being able to damage and we now have access to a few new skills so that its likely we could DPS if we wanted just like how Scholar can now. And new healing skill wise there is only two things I ever would have wanted on White Mage is a skill like Lustrate (which we seem to have something like it now) and a skill like pray from Final Fantasy IV which would give quite a weak heal but for little to no MP usage.
So overall White Mages look like it will still be the healer it is now – just with the added DPSing. While White Mages are likely still going to be the power healers they are right now, I sadly do not see them being as wanted as the other two healers for reasons you are about to read.
Scholar
Just like White Mage Scholars had mostly everything it needed back in A Realm Reborn when you knew how to play it correctly. but overall it looks like it never got that much of an upgrade. The first is Scholars will have something equal to Cure II (which they already could do with their fairy and Physick.
What worries me however is that it has been said Scholar really will only see changes in end game content and there is a skill that seems to kill poor Lily and gain some magical power or something (we don’t really know about this yet). Honestly I don’t see many people staying with Scholar and those looking at Astrologist.
So overall it looks like Scholar ain’t changed that much … and with that Astrologist might tempt people who were Scholars to change but overall likely still going to be the go too end game healer with White Mage.
Astrologist
Now Astrologist is the most interesting to (to me) to include on this list as it is both a healer and we have yet to know really much about it.
So much of the healer community is saying that this will replace both a White Mage and a Scholar and in a way this is exactly what it is designed for. It has two stances which one will make it “White Mage like” and another that will make it “Scholar like” which is clear that it will allow you to have any healer setup you want and for it to still work.
So an example of this is you may be you got a Scholar and you are either looking for a White Mage or a Astrologist or you may have an Astrologist and thus you can either take a White Mage or a Scholar. The problem with this is either Astrologist will be as good as both a White Mage and a Scholar and thus likely to want both of them outright or Astrologist is weaker than both and thus you will just take White Mage and Scholar anyway.
Astrologist also provides buff such as haste (which Scholars already do in a different way) so I would bet that Astrologist will be the wanted healer (simply because of its buffs) and possibly people will go with a Scholar as well leaving White Mage being the healer left out simply because it provides nothing else other than raw healing.
Paladin
So we are now onto the first tank on this list (man writing this is going to take a lot longer than I thought!). So to start with Paladin looks like they will still stay as the main tank position – at least with progression like how it has been in A Realm Reborn.
It looks like Paladin will be getting the following:
- New defensive buffs.
- New DPS combo for off-tanking
- Possible new Dots
- AOE Defensive cool downs.
So overall it looks like Paladins will become more interesting to play but still providing the raw defense plus its insane cool downs that the other tanks will not be able to provide so overall Paladin looks like they will stay as the main tank but can now actually suit an off-tank role were needed rather than just auto attacking after you finished running out of TP for pressing 1, 2, 3.
Warrior
Now Warrior I have to be honest is the most interesting of all the tank changes simply because it looks like Yoshi has embraced that people want Warrior to be able to beat the shit out of things. With this in mind Warrior now has a new stance (the name of it skips me sorry) which will allow them to DPS while likely lowering the amount of agro they get per every attack (so like Quelling Strikes) and keeping the likes of Inner Beast to allow Warrior to tank were needed but with it not being as good as a Paladin – just like how Paladins will be able to tank and take things very hard but not able to DPS as much as a Warrior.
I can already see parties will be taking Paladin and Warriors simply due to how well they work together in A Realm Reborn
Dark Knight
Now this one is interesting …. because it doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere and simply seems to be here because of the fan base and then made into a tank simply because we needed more tanks (which is nothing to do with the lack of tanking jobs but more due to what tanks actually do) and then made it feel and sound like DPS to tempt people.
So Dark Knight is a magic based tank where you will have a tanking stance that will use MP somehow (and thus will also have a method to regain MP) and will also have a DPS stance so that it will, well, DPS.
While there has been no talks about what Dark Knight will bring to the group and they only spoke a bit about it, I do believe Dark Knight will be the underdog tank that people who are playing DPS will likely try because it feels like a DPS and then will just switch back to their current roles a few weeks later.
Summoner
Now Summoner … is a weird one.
The first thing is Summoner in A Realm Reborn used to feel half missing and that at end game it started to drift off when it comes to keeping up and this was due to its limited MP and Aetherflow stacks that meant it couldn’t keep up Fester and keep its MP up.
This was a problem when the other caster, Black Mages, are able to keep DPSing forever and forever and never really suffered from movement problems as they claim. Due to this Summoners have had what is honestly not a massive make over but the missing half added to them.
The problem with that missing half however was the Primal Egis where lack busting and never really made you feel like a Summoner where in Final Fantasy XIV a Summoner is someone who uses and control Primal power and this is where the idea of Trance came from.
So the new part about Summoner is they now able to use the power of Bahamut (yes, the same Primal that fucked up Eozrea and wanted to do it again) and now comes in the form of “Dreadwyrm Stacks”. So this means Summoners will keep their dotting, their Aetherflow while also having everything that comes with Dreadwyrm Stacks such as Ahk Morn (which I am sure all tanks with The Final Witness title will cry when they see you use it – might even blow a cool down out of habit) while also still keeping their current Egis.
Honestly it seems Summoner “might” and quite possibly regain its position as a DPS that is to be feared and powerful – just like how people vision a Summoner should be. Now I can understand people not liking the fact there are no more Egis but honestly bringing any more Egis would just be a cluster fuck and won’t actually bring anything new (some ideas people had was another Egi had a dot, others buffs etc) but ALL that will happen is people will find the best one to use and thus you are just expected to use that.
Now Summoners have a clear tanking Egi, a clear range Egi and a clear melee Egi and they have spoken about switching the models of the Egis for each pet so you could switch Garuda with Leviathan or Carbuncle. Rather than getting new pets – we are now able to summon Primal power in form of Egis and now control Primal powers by infusing it into ourselves and who knows maybe in future we will be able to do it to the other Primals for different effects.
Overall I think Summoners might once again be on the table for their casting spot in end game raids.
Black Mages
Now Black Mages are in the same boat as Bards with these new skills. They could keep doing what they are doing now and keep the DPS up they are doing now but if they use their new tools they will be able to increase their DPS quite a bit. While we will get onto Bards later, let’s do Black Mages.
Currently in A Realm Reborn Black Mages have a very, very tight guideline of what to do – Fire III, Fire til out of MP, Blizzard III, Thunder repeat and now and then throw Flare into the mix when you got convert and what not ready but the problem with this job is you never really have to think about what you are going to do next.
What I mean by this is you are always going to have unlimited MP and if you mess up, you can always correct yourself and suffer simply a bit of a DPS loss. With Heavensward they have now added what looks like a fun new game changing attacks for Black Mages – Fire IV and Blizzard IV.
This means there is a new rotation that I imagine will be their increase burst damage for when things have to die fast so people will need to learn when they should dip into Fire IV and then using their new cool downs in order to get procs and then their new haste buff.
So overall Black Mages should be more thinking in advance about what they do rather than just doing their pre-set buttons. Overall I think Black Mages are going to have quite a fun make over and it’s quite likely Black Mages will be battling Summoner for their spot in end game raids.
Dragoon
For the poster child of Heavensward … they kinda just skipped over this and made it sound bad but lets talk about it.
It seems the main thing that Dragoons are getting is a new skill called “Blood of the Dragon” that will allow Dragoon’s DPS to fly high.It is my understanding that while using this new skill you will be able to do further actions after Full Thrust and Chaos Thrust and thus turning them into a four stage combo which to be honest sounds really cool and I feel sorry for people learning it from nothing.
And there was something about a powerful skill that will use Blood of the Dragon right away. And the last thing is something we heard a lot but they are changing animation locks again … they really should just make it apply a defensive buff by default already when they jump.
Overall it looks like Dragoons are going to be back into a strong position.
Bard
Now Bards have gotten quite the buff – even if they ain’t aware of it yet!
So it seems the first major thing that Bards are getting is a new song that will change how people play Bards outright. This new song called The Wanderer’s Minuet. This song will change all of Bard’s skills from being instant cast to a cast bar and thus increase their damage (assuming by quite a bit as you lose auto attacking at this point). Also worth noting that this will not cost any TP and you will be able to use other songs as well – so basically its a stance.
And another thing they have is a new attack that will increase the effects on all DoTs that you have applied – what this means we will find out soon!
By the looks of it I would imagine that Bards will keep their position in statics all around Eozrea – their songs seems to have no replacements from any other job so bards will likely stay as the support job we will have.
Ninja
I suppose out of all the DPSes so far as I can easily sum up all the changes they made in pretty much one line – “Nothing really changed at all”.
The first change that has been made to Ninja is they changed it so you don’t have to keep using Huton which Ninjas do so far and thus they will rarely, if ever, will use any other ninjutsu. So now they have made it so while you are doing your skills you will be able to keep up Huton and thus can use other ninjutsu which will help with making their DPS higher.
… however the next change I think some people will be upset about – some skills will now have extra positioning which is likely to add extra damage to attacks. In the past pretty much all Ninja skills didn’t need any positioning and now some will need it.
Final change is a new skill that will change agro on different party members and seeing it has been said that Ninja will be able to deal a ton of damage at the start it “should” help tanks.
However in terms of end game raiding, I do not see Ninja really being there much. Other than the stuff it currently brings to raid – people will likely use them for progression and then just drop them for something else.
Monk
Monks I think in this whole thing has always been in a good spot and now staying in that same spot for Heavensward. The major change that has come is they have brought out a method to help maintain Greased Lightning stacks during downtime in boss fights where you physically can not attack anything.
And the next major change is “Chakra”which you will gain stacks and use that to do massive damage or use this to restore TP. There are also a skill which will allow you to change your form (guessing to allow new combos or effects) and another skill that will use your Greased Lightning stacks.
Overall this will keep Monks as quite likely the highest overall DPS against single target as long as they keep up their Greased Lightning stacks so I am assuming we will see a lot of fights which will abuse downtime.
Machinist
And now the final one – the new DPS role. Machinist is said to have the same “role” as a Bard so I am assuming it may have access to TP and MP restoring skills but it is said that the actual game play is far different to Bards and thus the job will be much different.
It seems this job will use ammunition that will stack up to 5 which you can then use for your skills and then have to reload to carry on – or even reload when you got enough ammunition which you can then use to do even more damage.
The skill themselves though I honestly do not understand but it seems it works by using “Shot 1, 2 and 3” which one will give a chance to boost the other shot etc. The next thing is the turrets which will affect party members so if I am to guess I imagine it is the turrets themselves that will provide all the buffing role.
Overall I can see people who main bards will be levelling and playing this role with people taking either one depending simply on play skill.
Overall to be honest I do not see much changing. People are still likely to play the job they enjoy and it seems the jobs will be balanced against each other. I myself though will be enjoying levelling all the healers up and very, very likely stay as a White Mage main.
Leave a Reply