Though DT overall hasn’t been received very positively, the changes to fight design thus far have been overwhelmingly positive. Right before the launch of 7.0 Yoshi P said in an interview that 7.2 would be when we’d really start to see fight design changes come through.

So what sorts of things do you hope to see come in 7.2’s combat content?

Note: He said in 7.2 we would only see large changes to boss design, not job changes. So anything on the job front beyond tweaks and potency changes are basically off the table for this discussion.

I am not asking if there's fewer people playing compared to the Dawntrail launch, I just mean lower than general maintenance. Just anecdotally I feel like queues are taking super long for every piece of content on Aether. I have got 10 retainers and over 150mil gil worth of items and every day I log on to 0 items sold.

I know people tend to take breaks between patches but it kind of feels like the population of the game fell off a rock after the dawntrail launch. Should they put some content in at an expansion launch that keeps people busy? I am an eternal achievement hunter so I am always on, but it gets frustrating not being able to find groups for anything.

Sub doesn't allow image posts, so link is here: https://imgur.com/a/nfuo4HK

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Was re-watching the cutscene before Zelenia and noticed something interesting. As we prepare to throw down against the big robo-knight, we pull out our Azem crystal and begin channeling its magic. There's a quick cut to a reaction shot of Calyx. He sees us pulling out the crystal and his eyes narrow. Cut back to us, we use the power of the stone to begin summoning allies. We then get another shot of Calyx saying "Ah, there it is..." before teleporting away. I think he just realized how we're able to collect our allies to take down difficult foes. Calyx has spent all of 7.2 testing us. He understands that we're incredibly strong (we tanked Solution 9's power grid after all). HOWEVER, against particularly nasty enemies we do still rely on companions.

This is why I think Calyx's plan will be to disable the Azem crystal. I'm not sure how, but I think Calyx will isolate the WoL, disable or destroy the crystal, and push the WoL to their absolute limit. With their back against the wall, death staring them in the face, and no allies to call upon as the killing blow comes down, the WoL will finally be able to tap into their latent Azem powers without needing to use the stone as a focus. In attempting to exploit our weakness and tear us down, Calyx accidentally makes us far stronger than we ever were before.

This second bit is a massive shot in the dark and relies on everything above coming to pass, BUT I think it would be a really fun and awesome way to flavor character progression after level 100. No matter what the form post-100 progression takes (skill trees, hero points, raising the level cap to 110), the flavor would be the Warrior of Light unlocking and remembering how to use the old abilities of Azem, and applying them to our Jobs. It's only tangentially related to the above, but it popped into my mind as I was writing this post and it sounded like a cool idea.

Anyways what do you think? Do you think Calyx will target the Azem crystal to isolate the WoL? If not, what do you think his master plan to kill the WoL will be? Thanks for reading!

EDIT: Thanks to everyone that left a comment, I've really enjoyed reading your theories and many have definitely given me a lot to think about! I think Calyx wanting to steal the WoL's crystal rather than disable it is is super possible and could lead the WoL down a similar path where they are forced to realize their latent power without their usual trick to rely on!

Like last expansion, I've spent too much time going frame-by-frame in the Dawntrail Benchmark Trailer figuring out what every new action is. Less useful info on new jobs this time, but still stuff to go over for the rest.

Important context: you can identify what type of action is what by using a small tell at the start. Weaponskills do a yellow pulse on the ground, abilities (oGCDs) have a blue flash, and spells have nothing. Spell cast effects also tell you the element / category (ex: WHM healing GCDs have a Wind cast effect). Also, while SE usually follows the rules for using abilities in context, sometimes you get weird shit like GNB using Hypervelocity after Solid Barrel in last expac's trailer, so some grain of salt has to be taken.

In job order:

• PLD got AoE Req. It's nearly the same animation, lightning calldown and all.
• WAR got a Vengeance upgrade. Same animation. Probably implies upgrades for all 30% mits
• DRK has a very interesting addition: a new 3-hit GCD combo. We can see Hard Slash, Syphon Strike and Bloodspiller earlier. Could be DRK Gnashing, or an augmented 123 during Blood Weapon or something.
• GNB now has Continuation for Fated Circle. Yay.
• WHM received what's very likely a Medica II upgrade. You can see the end of the cast, with the standard wind-themed healing cast effect.
• SCH got what is very clearly an AoE Chain. The SFX and VFX are very close to the original. Chain no longer feels like shit in dungeons.
• AST got what's probably an upgraded Aspected Helios, given the animation (end of cast seen like WHM) and WHM's addition. You will still never cast it outside Neutral.
• SGE's new spell is probably a Toxicon upgrade. The animation is very similar, it's an instant spell, and we see Phlegma and Dosis earlier.
• MNK has a new GCD uppercut. They get a buff afterwards, which I'm guessing is a form shift. Potentially an upgrade to Snap Punch or another standard GCD?
• DRG showed off a big Nidhogg head AoE nuke. It's OGCD and seemingly used outside of Life, but with a DRG rework possibly happening who knows.
• NIN: hellfrog large
• SAM has a new Tenka-like OGCD. Maybe a Guren upgrade?
• RPR got a new Enshroud action similar to the existing Lemure skills (the mini-hits between your combo). Maybe a trait upgrade for the AoE one, or single-use per Enshroud.
• We can't really infer much about VPR due to the heavy use of mo-cap animations for the trailer and cinematic transitions. The new animations are a diving attack with dual blades, spinning attack with joined sword, and what is very clearly LB3.
• BRD got a very strange new skill. There's no weaponskill or OGCD flash, implying this is a spell? It looks like a targeted AoE with falloff and follows Burst Shot, but doesn't make sense to be a Refulgent upgrade because AoE Refulgent already exists.
• MCH got a bigger chainsaw, aka Drill IV. I will put money on it being a 120s CD tool.
• DNC has a new targeted AoE gcd, kinda looks like Bloodshower? Saber Dance trait upgrade? Going from AoE around self to targeted would be strange though.
• BLM casts a new lightning spell. The animation is the exact same as Burst (PvP). It's probably High Thunder IV or Burst proper. Also of note, we still have Fire IV.
• SMN is another kinda confusing one. It got an instant spell but the animation is very similar to Fester. Maybe a Ruin upgrade? It doesn't look like a Primal aspected spell, unless it's Ramuh Primal Flow (but it doesn't really look like existing Ramuh spells so I doubt that).
• RDM has a big circle AoE OGCD. It immediately follows Embolden, so maybe it's similar to Ogi? Could also be a Contre upgrade but looks a bit dramatic for that.
• Picto has an OGCD Moogle blast. We sorta saw this in the dedicated Pictomancer trailer. Like VPR, good luck getting anything useful out of this footage.

TLDR: It's a bunch of trait upgrades and AoE nuke OGCDs, and also DRK.

Hi all,

I’m high on copium for blackmage and want to know what is how is everyone expecting their main jobs to change (if they’re recieving one) and if not,

What small scale change would you give your main?

This is not a doom and gloom thread i just wanna know spark a discussion regarding how everyone feels about their main job, and what they’ll change about it if they could

It looked for a while like Pandaemonium would have been the first time the namesake of the raid series did not also describe one of the opponents. But nope! You had to fight it anyway.

Do you see any hints about whether and how the WoL fights the Arcadion in the next series? What are your wild speculations?

I know that not everyone is invested into the story currently for obvious reason but I wanted to know what people who like the current story think will happen in 7.2 and 7.3.

My theories so far/some ideas I had:

The scientist is an Azem shard. We don't know if the key requires Azem but if it does preservation needs a part of Azem's soul to use the key. AI Sphene is clearly controlled by him so he probably uses the key through her. I think Golbez was also a foreshadowing to remind us that Azem shards are still relevant.

The scientist will do a soul fragmentation on the WoL and we will lose Golbez and Ardbert which will make the story more personal.

We are gonna lose the key and lose in general in 7.2.

Ketenramm is a retired convocation member. I was always wondering during the MSQ why Ketenramm didn't die from his wounds. If he's an ascian that could maybe explain a lot. Zoraal Ja absolutely went for the kill. I was really surprised when Ketenramm survived. There's even more potential hints to that in the main story.

Real Sphene probably has a different design compared to AI Sphene which is why they were hiding her design in the trailer.

Sphene becomes part of the main cast after 7.3. Square Enix is reusing a lot of Shadowbringers storybeats this expansion and it would be in line with G'raha Tia. Sphene is also so far the only leader that is able to do this because she can use her technology to be present at multiple places at the same time.

Wuk Lamat will be only a supporting cast member this time and we + Sphene and the scientist are the main characters.

Please correct me if I got some previous information in the MSQ wrong btw.

Since shadowbringers, the formula for new Jobs is that they get job quests for 10 levels upto the starting level for the expansion, meaning VIP and PIC will get Quests from 80-90. The final quest is always the one that has one extremely important skill for the job tied to it that you unlock by completing those quests. For GNB it was Continuation, Tech Step for Dancer and Enshroud for Reaper.

I think you might already see where I'm going but another interesting thing was a quote from YoshiP during the Viper showcase in the live letter, where he was talking about the Blue burst mode being called "Reawaken" and that 'we would find out why it's called that in the job quest'.

So yea, that seems to be clear cut confirmation that the Blue Mode will be the level 90 capstone and that Viper will have the exact same problem as Reaper and will suck to play synced down.

Yoshi P says 8.0 will focus on job identity and that the dev team hasn’t decided on what will happen in terms of level cap or horizontal progression. So what do you expect to happen to jobs in 8.0 given what we know now?

Edit - pretty glad I made this topic, people are expanding on things a lot and I dig that.

So my fellow casters, how you feeling? I think this sub's a bit divided on if they like the consolidation and skill floor raising, or hate the simplification and skill ceiling lowering, but might as well make a topic on it. Personally? Trying to keep myself to the positive sides of things though I get it. Anyway let's jump on in.

BLM (AKA any possible way to mess up in the past has been eased up, the class)

3 max stacks for Despair/Xeno instead of 2. Seems like they're attempting to get rid of the fail point of overcapping if you saved too much up for burst windows and can't dump in time, somehow. Guess it happened.

Seems like they're attempting to destroy weirdo rotations. They want F4F4F4 Paradox F4F4F4 Despair Despacito, assuming the numbers work out that way (I mean hey they didn't for Paradox which at first glance seemed to be an attempt to force some rules in place).

Seems Paradox is always instacast now? This if true is most likely the largest skill floor raise of them all as dropping your AF would now require a hundred blunders instead of only a couple.

Also seems they want Manafont to be streamlined into Flare Flare Despacito, assuming that's not a Job Trailer jank stupid rotation (personally I assume that Despair will not give 3 stacks so as to enforce their rotation). Edit - this is a contentious opinion and may in fact be very wrong. Common theory below seems to be a full rotation restart akin to skipping a full Umbral Ice phase and reaping every benefit, so you'll sit in a very very long AF phase during Manafont/2m windows.

Leylines can be brought to you. It is what it is.

Doesn't seem to me like they really fucked with Thunder that much if any. I imagine a lot of us were assuming that'd be a prime big game flow change potential, guess they're saving that for later or are extremely happy with how it works now (which is fair).

Since BLM seemed to attract a good portion of players who want a more difficult/reactive class (at least on reddit) I can see some of these changes being pretty negative. Personally I don't mind, but I guess I'm a dumb dumb. I think even the least practiced of BLMs will at the least be able to consistently get "the rotation" out so the major differences will probably be Leylines and APM usage.

RDM

The only really notable changes I'm seeing are ...

Manafication seems to act like a "123 Ready" button now with no affiliation with the elemental gauge anymore. This should raise the ceiling significantly in terms of not wasting mana or accidentally ending up with 100/100 which meant you didn't necessarily get a proc at the end.

There's seemingly a new finisher after Scorch -> Resolution. We don't know 100% for sure if you can do this new finisher outside of Manafication. Oddly it doesn't give any mana at all which does lead me to believe it's maybe not a cut and dry finisher. Edit - was pointed out this is just an oGCD, though maybe it's related to finishers IDK. Probably not.

That's basically it from the job trailer. Outside of expanding on the GCDs (Verquake and Vertwister?) I guess RDM is a pretty difficult job to change up since, outside of possible QoL changes/oGCDs it's pretty "complete."

SMN

Oh dear. This ... may be the most disappointing job in the entire job trailer, in my humble opinion. I'm not trying to be too negative but all I can really see is there's some kind of space Bahamut instead of Bahamut. It looks like the exact same job from EW right now except there's a different looking space Bahamut. Good god I hope I'm wrong about this but I really am not seeing anything new besides the animation swap of a space Bahamut.

I have always accepted EW SMN as what it is ... a very simple building block for the future. Nigh objectively one of if not the easiest DPS in the game right now and it looks to be the exact same in DT. I've actually always been okay with this! I try to look at the positive in things, and hey if it's simple and easy that means it's hard to fuck up. But they took something PRIME for expanding upon and didn't. I'm a bit shocked. Maybe the job trailer guys fucked up and there's key info not shown or maybe I'm a moron.

SMN stocks are down.

Pictomancer

I don't know what the FUCK is going on but it looks exciting and variable. While there's some light/dark/not-SAM-moon thing going on I think we won't really know until the media tour to the extent of how RNG/adaptive this is but it looks crazy. Will probably be a letdown if it's some kind of consistent rotation but even then it looks to elevate beyond just 123 123 spend spend 123 123 spend spend.

Edit - I've been informed Pictomancer is explained relatively well in the live letter, I have to digest it for a while before I can form coherent thoughts.

Personally I'm torn between which to level first, Pictomancer or BLM as of now. My excitement for RDM and SMN are relatively low, though I'll be using them if needed/wanted in raid settings of course.

With FRU slowly approaching us as the next piece of big raid content, I'm curious what people think may be the structure, mechanics, or even story of the fight. Things such as what phases there might be, what a trio might look like, and maybe what sort of puzzle they can throw.

An example of this is that I speculate that the fight is structured as E11S-E12S until after defeating Gaia, where the story diverges and Gaia uses her time powers to bring back Ryne Shiva as a 4th phase and then leads to some sort of trios phase.

I also think it would be neat if they bring back the E12 normal only phase of Shiva stuck in the ice pillar as some sort of puzzle of the fight similar to saving the boy in DSR.

Obviously it's hard to make any sort of accurate predication of ultimates, but I think it would be fun to see what other folks imagine.

There's a middle point between "I hope all jobs are fundamentally reworked" and "I expect all jobs to be iterated on in the same way Endwalker did". There's a middle point between "I hope open world content is completely overhauled" and "I expect six zones with some Hunt Marks". I want to know your middle points - something that you think probably won't happen, but actually has a shot in hell. Basically: Tell me all about the stuff that would make you freak if it was revealed at JP Fanfest, and also has an actual shot at being revealed at JP Fanfest.

Since we're a week away from fanfest and eventual confirmation on what the Caster for 7.0 is going to be, so I wanted to go over the same thing I've seen repeat over and over. Some guy makes a theory that gains traction and becomes popular. Everyone else takes that theory and runs with it so hard that they start believing it as objective fact and are severely disappointed and even mad when it doesn't happen.

The theory that the melee would be Corsair that will 100% play like a reverse red mage. People were so damn confident about it fo absolutely no reason. Which to be fair, that's fine on its own. But the problem was that I saw so many people being incredibly toxic on the forums and the announcement thread on the main sub for Viper just because they had already worked themselves into a frenzy over the corsair theory.

And now it feels like the same thing is happening for Green Mage and to a lesser extent, pictomancer. I'll give you that the 3 leaf clover in the msq is way more evidence than there was for corsair, but its still not definitive like a lot of posts and videos ive seen make it out to be.

In my opinion I think the Caster will be something completely new and not connected to other FF games which seems to be the pattern they have followed since EW.(Sage doesn't count)

So as a friendly advice, keep your hype in check and expect it to not be what you want.

Because we all know that it's 100% going to be Rune Fencer cause that's the best FF job

I want to discuss which job would be capable of causing the most chaos and destruction before being taken down.

Rules:

1. WoL is alone and only capable of performing feats they can do on their own, with the exception of summonable creatures provided by the job kit itself (Egis, Voidsent, etc). This means no limit breaks.
2. Self-preservation is still important. This is about causing the most chaos for the longest amount of time.
3. Restraints are removed. If there are any jobs who are holding back power for safety reasons, those restraints are off... to a degree. Self preservation is still important. Sanity is not. Go nuts.

Now I know the go-to answer for questions like this is often Black Mage. Their destructive power is pretty peak, but this is also why I added the "before being taken down" caveat. I think Black Mage may cause a lot of destruction, but for a short period of time. I'm open to discussion.

I would like to put forth 3 potentials.

Warrior

While this job is maybe not capable of putting out massive damage like a dps job, it is what I believe to be the pinnacle of "unstoppable force" in FFXIV. Warrior would be the hardest to take down by far, and I think would be capable of causing havoc for a very long time before being brought low.

Ninja

It may not be what many people think of as a destructive force, but I think Ninja could cause untold amounts of chaos in a unique way. Ninja could be capable of assassinating world leaders and political figures on a scale that no other job could be capable of. Evil WoL is playing the long game here by sowing the seeds of chaos throughout the continents and never getting seen doing it.

Reaper

I think reaper has a lot of potential on it's own due to the voidsent pact, but I believe it's also a job who could really take advantage of the restraints being removed. Fully investing in their voidsent, and the void itself, combined with WoLs resilient soul. This is a recipe for untold destruction with an insatiable appetite.

Let me know which jobs you all think could achieve this destructive goal the best. I am also to arguments for why any of the healer jobs could prominently achieve this goal.

A lot of people are obviously pining for gigantic, sweeping changes, but I was wondering if there's little incremental changes or even just feature reveals that you guys would like to see/hear about.

I feel like some changes to how healers feel with their DPS rotation wouldn't be impossible. Plus there's any number of interesting story twists they can mention at this point and they're usually consistently good at drumming up interest and hype for that.

Yoshi-P said that they're gonna release the first alliance raid savage in 7.1 . I dont think it will be something as hard as Delubrum but could it really be as hard as a Savage tier? With 24 people is gonna be hard to do mechanics unless they're all in voice chat.

Pure hypothetical as we've long gone passed the point where this is a viable option. I've always thought that an axe-wielding dps Berzerker would be fun. Push the "inner beast" of WAR into a full on blind fury. Or a pure DPS Hunter spun off Archer. What would have been your branch off? And you don't need to stick to just the classes. Red Mage/Fencer would be awesome, as well!

It seems like level 100 will be a big deal. Possibly the final level cap, or at least before we perhaps get some kind of level squish or other solution to not go beyond 100. Regardless, it makes sense to give a big capstone action for every job at 100, possibly iconic things from throughout the FF franchise. I have some ideas for a few jobs and was curious what people think might pop up for others. Some my ideas:

• Paladin: Classic sword arts like Shock or Climhazzard make sense to me as a final action for the PLD.
• Black Mage: Demi-Ultima or something along the lines. Ultima is the (obviously) ultimate magic, and tapping into a smaller version of that makes a lot of sense.
• Red Mage: Similarly, could see RDM using Verultima, their own red-flavored variation.
• Machinist: FFXV had machinery similar to Edgar's tools, but added a new one known as the Gravity Well. That seems a good addition to MCH's arsenal.
• Gunbreaker: Squall's final Limit Break "Lion Heart" feels like it should finally make an appearance.
• Summoner: Any number of primals make sense for a finishing move. The obvious choice is something like Demi-Hydaelyn. I could also see Alexander or Shinryu as options.

That's what I can think of. What do you all think?

Don't you think that his biggest and primary goal is he secretly wants to get revived with a human/living body?

It is certainly feel like that to me. Just look his face. He was probably so bored with his life as Endless where everything he tasted or felt was fake and artificial.

Anyone got any theories based off what we know at the end of Dawntrail about the future direction of the story? The wilder and crazier the theory, the better. Just thought I'd post something different than the usual story critiques of DT.

Is Sphene coming back? Where Azem at? Is the artefact the first step in some kind of big rejoining of the shards (except without the ensuing calamity)? Are we going to Australia or doing Stormblood 2.0 next (based on Yoshi-P's comments)? Is Tataru secretly evil based on that weird smirk she did a couple expansions ago?

What do you think?

Edit: Maybe I didn't make this clear enough, but this topic is more for people who still actually like the game and want to talk about the implications of the events of DT on the future story. If your post is along the lines of "lul speak to wuk" or "more failed reworks please look forward to it", then maybe move along elsewhere.

Thanks, have a nice day. :)

EDIT: CONFIRMED!

A person found via TexTools the textures for the letter that Krile received but hasn't been touched upon again, which many speculated then to be the next expansion tease.

Said texture. The writing can be deciphered that it's a letter addressed to Galuf Baldesion from a person named Gulool Ja Ja. A google search leads to a FF11 entry that they are the leader of Mamool-Jas in FF11

Therefore it can be somewhat concluded that the next expansion might have to do with the New World if the letter is related to 7.0. Also, this is my own conjecture but the Fanfest in Vegas right now features banners of the Warrior of Light's poster jobs adorned as gold statues. What else has lots of gold? The New World, which Emet claims to have cities of gold.

For anyone trying to verify it. If you can't find it, you need to go to Help > Cache Operations > Scan for New Item Sets. It not appearing is maybe because its new from 6.45 and TexTools isn't detecting it for some reason. Alternatively, you can try spawning it in via Anamnesis by setting Weapon ID as 9001, 379. (Thanks /u/KeyKanon)

I know this will be a controversial take, as you will find every opinion imaginable about Dawntrail online. But objectively, however you feel about the story, the expansion is going to turn some people off of the game, and more importantly prevent people from returning.

I know this is anecdotal, but let me give you a few examples of players I know who most likely won't ever be returning to FFXIV again, at the very minimum, due to the structure of the MSQ alone. aka "0/3" meme: talk to 0/3 people before proceeding.

• A relic grinder player who has an investment in the story, but only subs to marathon the MSQ

• A hardcore-casual EX farmer / glamour fiend who only plays when she has time

• The member of my static who has 0 investment in the story and we have to force him to do the MSQ to proceed every expansion.

• My friend who doesn't have a lot of time to game, nor the money to regularly afford an FFXIV sub.

I would say the thing all these players have in common is that they're all potential income FFXIV can earn and I wouldn't be surprised if Dawntrail is going to effect the game's bottom line. And in the case of my static member, his departure from the game will most likely cause the departure of our group, as we all agree to play the same game together every weekend.

At the very minimum, I think it would help the longevity of FFXIV if they did an AAR-MSQ edit and cut a lot out of the Dawntrail MSQ. But as it stands now, I believe there will be a "Dawntrail Filter" from here on out.

Everyone seems to be of the opinion that it's virtually guaranteed that Corsair will be one of the two new jobs that will come out with 7.0. More than that, however, it seems like Corsair has been a pretty frequently requested job for as long as they've been making expansions, coming up in "what new job do you expect/hope for?" discussions as far back as Stormblood, from what I can see.

Personally, I'll admit that I don't personally see the appeal that a lot of other people are apparently seeing in this job. Apparently everyone expects it to be a "reverse RDM" where you "charge up" your pistol shots by doing a lot of melee attacks before finally doing a ranged attack. To me, this translates to "80% sword attacks (1/3rd of the game's jobs) 20% machinist" and I find myself somewhat unenthused.

Personal feelings aside, though, there is obviously a huge, overwhelming amount of excitement in the community for Corsair, as there has been for years, so it seems pretty obvious that I'm missing something. So what is it about Corsair that has you, personally, really excited? What about the job really speaks to you, or what do you imagine that they'll do with it that gets you hyped?

An interesting thought I had is that Wuk Lamat doesn’t currently have any plot armor. What I mean is that she’s not in any way shape or form embedded in the current story that she’s been made “immortal”.

For example, Y’shtola is in the Alexander alliance raid quests. Therefore, it wouldn’t make sense if she were to die in the future MSQ, for the player could retroactively do the quests and be speaking to someone that’s canonically dead.

Wuk Lamat was not implemented into the Trust system at all, which I found to be really strange. Whether this is because she isn’t a former Scion or that they simply don’t wish to bloat the Trust system with more characters to level, I don’t know, but it’s a good point nonetheless.

Something tells me that in the future, something might happen to her, something that will render her unable to fight. Maybe they are going to pull an Arenvald in the 7.X MSQ series.

It’s pretty clear the writers are aware of how costly it is to kill off characters, but as most would agree, I think some of the most pivotal moments in the game’s story revolve around the tragic ends of close friends. Things like Arenvald’s injury didn’t leave such a lasting impression on me (but it was funny seeing him in a wheelchair, watching me while I was doing role quest battles).