Full Recap: Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter Highlights Big Changes To The Job System

Today, the Final Fantasy XIV team hosted the second-to-last Letter from the Producer Live to take place before the launch of the MMORPG's next expansion, Dawntrail. For those keeping track, the final one is set to take place on June 14.

This was one of the more anticipated Live Letters as it covers what players can expect from Jobs when the expansion launches – including introductions to Viper and Pictomancer.

Of course, they did go over things not related to jobs, such as the work being done to improve the benchmark, but the bulk of the stream is all about the jobs. Things kicked off with a 20+ minute video dedicated to job actions, and if that’s all you want to see out of the stream, you can watch it here.

As we mentioned, a portion of the stream was dedicated to discussing the improvements being made to the benchmark. Some of you will remember that players reported issues with the graphics of the benchmark when it dropped. As it turned out, the benchmark was built upon the original character creator and didn’t accurately reflect the improvements we’d see in Dawntrail. This is being worked on currently and we’ll get a new one soon. In the meantime, players can get an idea of the differences with some of the images shared during the stream.

Following that, Yoshi-P and the crew immediately got down to the business of discussing job changes. Of course, the general changes across the board included adding new abilities to go along with the new level cap and adjusting things based on player feedback.

The biggest “across the board” job change coming in Dawntrail may get a mixed reception, so it’s a good thing they made it optional for players. If you don’t want it, you don’t have to turn it on. For everyone else, it’s there if you want or need it, and that’s a combo system – or as they’re calling it, “Action Change Settings”.

With the sizeable number of skills in all jobs at this point, our hotbars have gotten pretty full. This new feature allows players who wish to cut back on the number of skill slots required by having an initial action replaced on your hotbar with the "next" action in a typical combo. The example shown was taking a Dragoon's "Jump" ability and replacing in with "Elusive Jump" after Jump was executed.

As noted, it’s optional, and players will turn it on via the Actions & Traits menu. A new option will be added underneath abilities that allow for this.

As for each of the individual Roles and Jobs – well there’s not enough room to cover all of them, but we are embedding the stream below, so you can easily look up each of your favorite Jobs and see what changes are being made.

Some general things of note: Astrologian’s card system is no longer random but simultaneously draws cards with offensive, defensive, and curative effects and Astrosigns are being discontinued. Dragoon’s fifth AOE is no longer directional. Monk’s basic combo mechanics are no longer centered around maintaining buffs or DOTs. Several of Bard’s abilities have been changed into buffing abilities that don’t attack enemies. Black Mages are getting a new ability that will reposition their Ley Lines, but this is apparently a limited-use ability, so don’t expect to drag them around with you everywhere.

Of course, the bulk of the Job discussion was dedicated to Viper and Pictomancer. Viper is described as a “fast-paced job that fluidly shifts between dual and double-bladed strikes” It’s also the first job built around the Action Change Settings. It will have the same number of skills. You just won’t be seeing them on the hotbar. It’s also a combo melee/range Job. Yoshi-P demonstrates both it and Pictomancer on the stream, but some brief looks have been posted on Twitter.

SWISH SWOOSH SWISH SWOOSH 💨

Check out some of these cool viper moves! ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/0EpVUXycRO

— FINAL FANTASY XIV (@FF_XIV_EN) May 16, 2024

b o n k pic.twitter.com/dKLBcGm0le

— FINAL FANTASY XIV (@FF_XIV_EN) May 16, 2024

Pictomancers don't make mistakes, they have happy accidents. 🌲 pic.twitter.com/zdTw3kXxRz

— FINAL FANTASY XIV (@FF_XIV_EN) May 16, 2024

Near the end of the stream, there were a few announcements about PvP. These were pretty general as they plan to talk about PvP at a later point. Finally, they finished off with a few general announcements. They also highlighted a couple of new characters we’ll be seeing in Dawntrail.

Apparently, the dev team is trying to drown us in events, as one that wasn’t on the calendar shared during the last livestream has been announced. If you didn’t get everything from the Fall Guys event, it’s returning next week on May 23. It will last until June 10. The plus here is that the event is built around a GATE, it should be helpful for both the MGP event and the Moogle Tome event.

Finally, they’ve also announced a couple of promotional events. One is dedicated to North America and is with Mountain Dew. It requires buying the drink and putting in codes from the caps to win real-world prizes. For the mount collectors out there, it includes a reskin of the Zu mount – the Mountain Zu. In Japan, the KFC event is returning.