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| Scott Clay |
I will be the Lord of Verminion!
08.22.15 - 7:35 PM
During today's Letter from the Producer Live Part XXIV, Director and Producer of Final Fantasy XIV Yoshi-P announced some of the exciting changes coming to the game in the 3.07 and 3.1 patches. No release date for patch 3.1 has been announced yet, but one should come shortly after The Rising event takes place to commemorate the 2 year anniversary of A Realm Reborn. Lots of info to go over, so lets jump right in.
First up is patch 3.07 which is slated for release next week, and will contain some much needed quality of life changes along with possibility of some balance changes for a few classes. The most needed balancing change comes to one of the new classes, the Astrologian. Astros are apparently getting a much needed change to their healing power, along with adjustments to their party-supporting actions. With these boosts, Astrologians should see a substantial gain in their ability to buff their teammates, a much needed fix for a class that's core mechanic is buffing their teammates. Monks will also see adjustments to the duration and potency of Greased Lighting stacks. A chakra change is also in consideration for achieving max stacks while not in combat. Speaking of classes that use a ton of TP, those that play them will be happy to know that in 3.07 the party bar will now show how much TP you have left. No more having to ask for Goad or Army's Paeon, instead Ninjas, Astrologians, Machinists, and Bards will be able to see how much TP everyone has left, and adjust their buffs accordingly. This is a huge quality of life change for which the game's community has been asking for almost 2 years now. Gathering classes will also be happy to note that a change to the Favor System will also be implemented in 3.07. Rumors of a Dark Knight TP adjustment for Blood Weapon, and a Machinist change to Quick Reload's cast time have popped up, but nothing confirmed as of yet.
Now for the juicy stuff. Patch 3.1 will be bringing a few awesome new features to the game. Featured above is the first look at the two new dungeons to be implemented, Saint Mocianne Arboretum and Pharos Sirus Hard Mode. Yes you read that right, Pharos Sirus Hard Mode! As anyone that has played the game for a long time can tell you, seeing the original Pharos Sirius dungeon pop up in a roulette back in the early days of 2.1(before it was nerfed) was pretty much the worst thing ever. Pharos Sirius Hard Mode may actually be the first first challenging 4 man content since the original Pharos Sirius. The other big instanced content being added is the new 24 man raid, Void Ark. If you have been flying around the beautiful new zones, you may have noticed an enormous airship in the background; this is the Void Ark. It will play similar to the previous Crystal Tower raids featuring 3 alliances of 8 people allowing 3 tanks, 6 healers, and 15 DPS to tackle what is inside. You can check out the concept art for the raid below.
3.1 will also feature new main story quests, a new sidequest for the Saint Endalim Scholasticate, and beast tribe quests featuring the Vanu Vanu. A new primal will also be added, but no details have been given out to who or what it could be. Airship Exploration will also finally be implemented, after being talked about in much detail before the expansion was released. It will allow Free Companies to fly to a new zone on their airships to take on various monsters on different floating islands. Time trials will also be making a come back to the game as clear times will be displayed when completing instances now. Also a new weapon upgrade system is in the works for patch 3.1 or patch 3.15. But perhaps the most interesting of all the new additions is the new Gold Saucer mini game, The Lord of Verminion. A few months ago a Developers Blog post joked at a PvP mode where you pit different minions against one another, turns out that wasn't a joke! Lord of Verminion will be a mini-game where you take your minions, and challenge friends at an RTS like game. If it is as awesome as it sounds, I know where I am wasting 90% of my time in game!
To wrap up the rest of the live letter, a few other notable additions will be coming shortly. Removal of Grand Company Restrictions for PvP will be possibly implemented after sufficient testing to stop fixed matches is made. The European data center will be open sometime in mid-October. Land and Housing will be adjusted to allow for moving houses, and reclaiming land from tenants that have not logged on in a long time. And finally the process of allowing existing ground mounts to become flying mounts will also begin.
More information on Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward's patch 3.1 will come shortly after the two year anniversary is over at the end the end of the month. Make sure to check back with RPGFan as more information comes in.
