Final Fantasy 14 Reveals Patch 7.1 Job Changes

Important takeaways

• Job adjustments in Final Fantasy 14 Patch 7.1 aim to close the gap within roles for both PVE and PVP content.
• Significant changes were made to jobs such as Dark Knight, Gunbreaker, Ninja, White Mage, and Black Mage to improve their abilities.
• Overall, the diverse content update introduces Crossroads quality of life changes and opportunities for players to explore different jobs.

As Final Fantasy 14 underwent server maintenance, Square Enix released the full patch notes for its 7.1 content update and confirmed that several jobs were adjusted to close the gap within their respective roles. The sweeping Job change for Final Fantasy 14 were not exclusive to PVE content, as several PVP tweaks were also made in Patch 7.1.

Days before the Crossroads update went live, Final Fantasy 14 gave players a preliminary look at what to expect when servers come back online on November 12th. Alongside continued main quests, Patch 7.1 saw several quality of life changes. Between the addition of two color channels for older glamours such as End walkers Manderville relic weapon, and changes to the Group Pose feature to make it easier for players to take vertical shots, the Crossroads content update will be a versatile patch for Final Fantasy 14 total.

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 posted by Square Enix, the Final Fantasy 14 Jobs that saw the most changes were Dark Knight, Gunbreaker, Ninja, White Mage, and Black Mage. The Dark Knight's self-sustaining woes were addressed, as its Carve and Spit and Abyssal Drain abilities were changed to provide more healing. Instead of reducing his health to one point, Gunbreaker's Superbolide ability now reduces his health to 50% while granting invulnerability for 10 seconds. Ninja's Dokumori received AoE damage, and its Ten Chi Jin ability can now be used while moving, as it previously required it to be stationary to use. The white wizard's holy spell had its cast time reduced by one second, and the black wizard both gained a second charge of Ley Lines and changed his Despair spell to immediately cast under Astral Fire.

Other jobs, including Machinist, Summoner, and Red Mage saw their total damage buffed as a way to close the gap with other DPS jobs like Pictomancer. Alongside the PVE job updates, Final Fantasy 14s PVP modes saw significant changes across the board. All jobs in PVP had their health increased, while Dragoon and Dark Knight were nerfed in Frontline mode. Gunbreaker, Summoner, and Black Mage received reworked PVP actions, and the mechanical minions in Rival Wings had their health pools expanded.

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

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

PVE Job Adjustments

• In Patch 7.1, we've made several adjustments to the potential of actions to address issues with the overall balance of DPS within each role.
• To further improve the simplicity of the game, 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 for all tank jobs, allowing their status effects to be applied more quickly.
• We believe this will ensure that players can more easily use these abilities when taking heavy damage from enemies.

Paladin

• The level required to learn Intervene has been lowered to better align it with the mobility of other tank jobs.
• We have also expanded the effective range of Cover to improve ease of use.

Dark Knight

• The level required to learn Dark Missionary has been lowered to better align it with the defensive party abilities of other tank jobs.
• To improve survivability when taking damage from large groups of enemies, the cure for Abyssal Drain has been increased.
• In addition, the additional effect “Restores own HP” has been added to its single-target counterpart, Carve and Spit.
• Finally, to address the differences in physical defense among tank jobs, the Dark Mind and Dark Missionary abilities will now also reduce physical damage.

Gunbreaker

• The cartridge cost of Double Down has been lowered to improve ease of use.
• Since this cost reduction allows for greater use of Burst Strike and Hypervelocity, we have chosen to reduce the strength of the latter.
• That said, gunbreaker will still see an overall increase in their DPS.
• To improve the survivability of gunbreakers, we have increased the cure of Aurora.
• Additionally, to address differences in physical defense between tank jobs, Heart of Light will now also reduce physical damage.

Tarragon

• To prevent DPS loss when it is necessary to keep distance from an enemy, we have increased the strength of Piercing Talon.
• An additional effect that further increases its strength has also been added to Elusive Jump.
• To reduce the number of actions taken during damage burst phases, players will no longer receive multiple stacks of Nastrond Ready.
• Since this change greatly affects dragon DPS, we've made additional adjustments to other actions to maintain balance between melee DPS jobs.

Ninja

• The effect of Ten Chi Jin will no longer expire when moving, which we believe will improve its usability.
• Similarly, Dokumori has been changed to an area of ​​effect attack.
• To help prevent DPS loss when it's necessary to keep distance from an enemy, we've increased the power of Throwing Dagger.
• However, note that this change is only intended to complement the use of ninjutsu, allowing ninjas to deal large damage at range.

Black Belly

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

Colder

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

Cure

• To improve ease of use, Esuna's cast time has been made instantaneous.

White Belly

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

Researcher

• The MP cost of area-of-effect healing actions has been reduced to improve MP management.
• Previously, the actions Embrace and Seraphic Veil were incorrectly set to a healing power of 150, despite their descriptions stating a power of 180.
• After careful consideration, we have decided that a strength of 180 would not disrupt game balance and have therefore increased their healing strength to match their descriptions.

Astrologer

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

PVP job adjustments

• Much like with PVE measures at the release of Dawnrailwe've introduced several new PvP actions and tweaked existing ones to better highlight the unique aspects of each job.
• We've also made changes to some Job mechanics to give players a more enjoyable gaming experience.
• Because the additions and tweaks made in this patch were so extensive, we've chosen to forgo individual job overviews.
• To help players better deal with enemy burst damage, all jobs will increase to their maximum HP, and the Purify cooldown has been reduced.
• Additionally, we've increased the strength of basic weapon skills and spells that are considered less effective than most, to help put more emphasis on sustained damage.
• Patch 7.1 will also usher in hit detection improvements, which we believe will significantly affect job balance.
• We'll continue to monitor the situation and consider further adjustments as needed, so we encourage you all to join the fray and give us your feedback.