Final Fantasy 14 Reveals Patch 7.1 Job Changes

Key things

• The role adjustments in Final Fantasy 14 Patch 7.1 aim to close the role gap for both PVE and PVP content.
• Significant changes have been made to Jobs such as Dark Knight, Gunbreaker, Ninja, White Mage, and Black Mage to improve their abilities.
• Overall, Crossroads' diverse content update brings quality-of-life changes and opportunities for players to explore different jobs.

As Final Fantasy 14 Square Enix has gone through server maintenance, releasing the full patch notes for its 7.1 content update and confirming that several jobs have been adjusted to fill a gap in their respective roles. Sweeping Job changes for Final Fantasy 14 were not exclusive to PVE content as several PVP adjustments were also made in patch 7.1.

Days before the Crossroads update was released, Final Fantasy 14 gave players a preview of what to expect when the servers come back online on November 12th. In addition to the continued main story quests, Patch 7.1 saw several quality of life changes. Between adding two color channels for older glamor like EndwalkerManderville relic weapons and changes to the Group Pose feature to make it easier for players to take vertical shots. The Crossroads content update is shaping up to be a diverse patch for Final Fantasy 14 overall.

Once Final Fantasy 14 players start Patch 7.1 on November 12th, some may notice that other Jobs will feel a bit more powerful than before. According to the full patch notes released by Square Enix, Final Fantasy 14 The roles that saw the most changes were Dark Knight, Gunbreaker, Ninja, White Mage, and Black Mage. The Dark Knight's self-sustaining ability has been resolved as his Carve and Spit and Abyssal Drain abilities have been changed to provide more healing. Rather than reducing his health to one point, Gunbreaker's Superbolide ability now reduces his health to 50% while still granting invulnerability for 10 seconds. Ninja's Dokumori has received AoE damage and his Ten Chi Jin ability can now be used while moving, as it previously required it to be used in place. The Holy White Mage's spell had its cast time reduced by a second, and the Black Mage received a second charge of Ley Lines, changing his Despair spell to cast instantly while under astral fire.

Other Jobs, including Machinist, Summoner, and Red Mage saw their overall damage as a way to close the gap with other DPS Jobs like Pictomancer. In addition to the PVE Job updates, Final Fantasy 14PVP modes have seen significant changes in all areas. All Jobs in PVP have had their health increased, while Dragoon and Dark Knight have been nerfed in Frontline mode. Gunbreaker, Summoner, and Black Mage received reworked PVP actions, and the Rival Wings mechanical minions had their health pools increased.

Between the balance changes and other additions coming in patch 7.1, Final Fantasy 14 players who want to try a different job will have an ideal opportunity. Only time will tell how players react to the changes.

Final Fantasy 14 Patch 7.1 Quest Changes (November 12, 2024)

Modifications of PVE work

• In patch 7.1, we made several adjustments to action potencies to address issues with overall DPS balance in each role.
• To further improve playability, we've also made more detailed adjustments, such as changing the required level of certain actions, increasing their area of ​​effect, and fine-tuning their hit detection.

Tank

• Abilities that prevent incapacitation, such as Hallowed Ground and Living Dead, have been adjusted in all tank roles, allowing their status effects to be used more quickly.
• We believe this will make it easier for players to use these abilities when taking heavy damage from enemies.

Paladin

• The required level to learn Intervention has been lowered to better align with the movement abilities of other tank jobs.
• We've also increased the effective cover range to make it easier to use.

The Dark Knight

• Dark Missionary's required level to learn has been lowered to better align with the defensive party abilities of other tank roles.
• To improve survivability against damage from large groups of enemies, the healing effectiveness of Abyssal Drain has been increased.
• Additionally, an additional “Restores own HP” effect has been added to its single-target counterpart, Carve and Spit.
• Finally, to address the differences in physical defense between tank jobs, the Dark Mind and Dark Missionary abilities will now also reduce physical damage.

Weapon Breaker

• The cost of the Double Down cartridge has been reduced to make it easier to use.
• Because this cost reduction allows for more use of Burst Strike and Hypervelocity, we've decided to reduce their effectiveness.
• This means that the gunbreaker will still see an overall increase in their DPS.
• To improve the gunbreaker's survivability, we increased Aurora's healing power.
• Additionally, to address differences in physical defense between tank jobs, Heart of Light will now also reduce physical damage.

Dragoon

• To avoid losing DPS when it is necessary to keep distance from the enemy, we increased the power of Piercing Talon.
• An additional effect has also been added to Elusive Jump to further increase its effectiveness.
• To reduce the number of actions taken during damage phases, players will no longer gain multiple Nastrond Ready stacks.
• Since this change significantly affects Dragoon DPS, we've made additional adjustments to other actions to balance the melee DPS roles.

Ninja

• Ten Chi Jin's effect will no longer end with movement, which we believe will improve its ease of use.
• Similarly, Dokumori has been changed to an area of ​​effect attack.
• To avoid losing DPS when it is necessary to keep distance from the enemy, we increased the effectiveness of Throwing Dagger.
• Please note that this change is only intended to supplement the use of ninjutsu, which allows ninjas to deal high damage from a distance.

Black mage

• To help improve the Black Mage's mobility in combat, we've reduced the casting time of Flare and Despair.
• We've also made Ley Lines a charged action, making it easier to use outside of burst damage phases.
• While the effectiveness of Enochian's effect has been reduced slightly, the above changes should result in an overall increase in the Black Mage's DPS.

Crier

• The combo requirement for Crimson Strike has been removed and will now require the “Crimson Strike Ready” status effect to trigger.
• Previously, the Inferno, Earthen Fury, and Aerial Blast actions were incorrectly set to 750 potency, despite their descriptions stating 800 potency.
• This issue has been resolved and their values ​​now match their description.

Healer

• To make it easier to use, Esuna's cast time has been made instant.

White Mage

• To allow players to use abilities between spells, the cast time of Holy and Holy III has been reduced.

Scholar

• The MP cost of area-of-effect healing actions has been reduced to improve MP management.
• Previously, the Embrace and Seraphic Veil actions were incorrectly set to 150 healing power, despite their descriptions saying 180 power.
• After careful consideration, we determined that a potency of 180 would not disrupt the game's balance, so we increased their healing power to match their description.

Astrologer

• To ensure that all objectives can be achieved when fighting groups of enemies, the area of ​​effect for Gravity and Gravity II has been increased.
• This should be especially useful when there are larger enemies between targets.

Editing PVP work

• Similar to the PVE events at release Dawntrailwe've introduced several new PvP events and tweaked existing ones to better highlight the unique aspects of each job.
• We've also made changes to certain Jobs mechanics to give players a more enjoyable gameplay experience.
• Because the additions and modifications made in this patch were so extensive, we've decided to forgo individual job overviews.
• In order for players to better deal with enemy burst damage, all quests will see an increase to their maximum HP and the Purify cast time has been reduced.
• Additionally, we've increased the power of basic weapons and spells considered less effective than most to help put more emphasis on sustained damage.
• Patch 7.1 will also bring improvements to hit detection, which we believe will significantly affect job balance.
• We will continue to monitor the situation and consider further adjustments as necessary, so we encourage you all to join the fight and give us your feedback.