Final Fantasy XIV is constantly evolving from a gameplay perspective, as evident through the several changes to various Jobs in Patch 6.05. This latest update brought a number of adjustments to Ninja, Monk, Dancer, Samurai, and others, and it’s no surprise that more changes are in store for future updates. In a Radio Mog Station audio interview (originally in Japanese, translated by the FFXIV Reddit translation team), director and producer Naoki Yoshida talked about Endwalker and future plans, giving some detail on how they’re changing Jobs in the next few patches.
Reaper Will Not Be Nerfed
The thing that stood out most was the discussion around the newest DPS Job, Reaper. Right now, Reaper is a top-tier DPS considering its utility, mobility, and damage output while being relatively streamlined. With Reaper being built from the ground up, it feels clean and focused to play, which I said as much when I first got hands-on with the Job.
If you’re enjoying Reaper and all the power that comes with it, don’t worry about being nerfed. Yoshida-san said the team’s design philosophy is to prop up other Jobs to improve balance, rather than bringing stronger ones down.
Complex DPS Jobs Will Get Buffed
He pointed out the DPS output for busy Jobs may not reflect the effort it takes to play optimally, and the team is looking into ways to increase their DPS. He specifically mentioned pure damage-focused Jobs like Samurai and Black Mage getting potency buffs with Patch 6.08, whenever that goes live. Monk is also being considered for adjustments given its level of complexity. Yoshida-san also said he believes Dancer should be getting DPS increases in the future.
It’s a careful balancing act, and Yoshida-san recognizes that seemingly slight changes can tip the scales drastically. With regards to making changes to the current roster, he said (as translated by iluna minori from the Discord server): “Existing Jobs has [sic] always been seriously hard to balance due to having to add new elements on top of an existing Job with established playfeel [from the past].” With this in mind, you can better understand why Summoner was rebuilt from the ground up alongside the launch of Endwalker and Patch 6.0.
A Little Oopsie With Samurai
Furthermore, Yoshida-san said there was some miscommunication within the team about changes for Samurai. Apparently, it was believed that cast time for some of Samurai’s abilities was supposed to be increased when, in fact, it was the effective range of those abilities that had to increase. The intended changes didn’t make it into 6.0, which is why Samurai received the range increases on its abilities when Patch 6.05 went live.
Those are the changes that Yoshida-san mentioned in the interview, but he also said that the FFXIV team is looking into making adjustments to all Jobs. However, we’ll have to wait for those details. You can read the translations of the interview through the official r/FFXIV Discord server in the translations-and-liveletters feed, where the information for this article was sourced.
If you’re working your way through endgame content, make sure you’re well-equipped with our FFXIV endgame gear guide. And if you’re working your way through the new raids, check out our Pandaemonium Asphodelos Savage raid guides.
