The Final Fantasy XIV team released patch notes for Patch 6.11a early this morning, and it looks to bring balance changes and the freedom to idle for all! If you’re expecting something earth-shattering for this patch, the tiny “a” at the end of the patch name should disabuse you of that idea. Patch 6.11a is a pretty minor little addition. It’s still worth looking over, though!
This patch is mostly balance changes and small fixes, with bigger additions coming later. “Bigger changes” include the Arkasodara tribal quest, new Custom Deliveries, and new Hildibrand Adventures coming in Patch 6.15. Not to mention the Data Center Travel system coming in Patch 6.18.
Crystalline Conflict Balance Changes
Right from the jump, there are a number of PVP action changes — likely focused on the new Crystalline Conflict mode. People have been joking about FFXIV creative director Naoki Yoshida appearing in the mode across all Japanese Data Centers. Apparently, his Black Mage is “Yoshi’p Sampo,” a character that has seemingly reached Crystal Rank.
It seems the problems he personally experienced are the ones being addressed first, because Black Mage has seen a ton of buffs in this patch. Astral Fire II, Astral Fire III, Umbral Ice II, and Umbral Ice III have all had their effect duration doubled to 30 seconds. Burst potency has been increased to 16,000 from 12,000. Paradox, a key action that deals damage and increases your target’s stacks of Astral Warmth or Umbral Freeze to maximum, now has two charges, rather than being an instant cast with a 15-second recast.
There’s still more! Fire IV, Flare, Blizzard IV, and Freeze have all had their cast times reduced from 1.92 seconds to 1.44 seconds. Flare and Freeze also got potency buffs. Finally, Soul Resonance grants Apocatastasis, reducing damage taken by 20% for 15 seconds. Yoshida got to Crystal Rank already and he’s only going to have an easier time. Thank him, Black Mages.
The other buffs are smaller in nature. Gunbreaker gets a buff to Rough Divide, where the No Mercy buff now increases damage dealt and healing potency by 20%. Relentless Rush also now reduces damage taken by 20%. Bard, Machinist, and Summoner all see potency buffs to a few abilities, while Dancer gets a potency buff to Fan Dance and a damage reduction effect for Honing Dance. Finally, Astrologian get a cure potency buff for Aspected Benefic.
The only nerf in the PVP list? It’s for Red Mage, who has the damage reduction of Corps-a-corps changed from 20% to 10%.
Crystalline Conflict Matchmaking
There’s also been a small change to matchmaking for Crystalline Conflict. Probably because the wolves need more and weaker wolves to prey upon. Players in the Crystal tier can now be matched with players who are Diamond Rank 3 and above. Essentially, those on the cusp of becoming Crystal can now find themselves up against players already in Crystal. Nice…?
Auto Logout Disabled
Long ago, leading up to Endwalker and following into a few weeks after the expansion’s launch, the queues were long. Really long. Which got the community stoking the fires of rage. The growing playerbase was creating server congestion issues and the FFXIV team was trying to deal with it. Back in July 2021, the team introduced a Logout Timer, kicking players who were inactive for 30 minutes.
This preemptive move was met with some anger of its own, especially from those who mill about Limsa Lominsa. FFXIV had never had a logout timer before then; it wasn’t something the community was prepared for or, ineed, particularly happy with once it hit.
Well, the long international nightmare is over. With FFXIV Patch 6.11a, the logout timer is gone! “Players will no longer be logged out automatically after 30 minutes of inactivity,” says the patch notes to the sound of weeping and angelic trumpets. This change applies to all areas of the game. A nice little addendum for a tiny little patch!
