[FFXIV] Old HW launch thread

Esh · May 2015

Papagander wrote: »

Esh wrote: »

Well, to your point, no new tank is gonna be anywhere near a fight where he's going to have to worry about not having a cool down up.

Truth, but to bring it full circle I do believe the extra cool-downs make pld/gld an easier class even to level up with, and for a traditional MMO player to ease into FFXIV. Heck, I think even new players wanting to try tanking should start with pld/gld because that seems to make it more forgiving.

On the flip side of that argument, a war/mrd playstyle seems much more involved (perhaps even to a meassure, more self-reliant) so experienced gamers looking for a challenge might appreciate it more. IMO the changes they made to flash awhile back make it easier to hold group aggro with so lower levels as a pld/gld becomes a flash/CD spam if you panic as a new guy (seriously, the most annoying low lvl dungeons are with inexperienced gld tanks who never flash). Heck, even half of high level pld/gld tanking just seems to be gather everything, pull into a group, and spam flash/cooldowns till the dps (and holy-spamming heals) can take care of it.

An interesting new topic that comes when your point is whether WAR or PLD endgame make better solo tanks with experienced groups. Out of my experience, seems ppl favor WAR who know what they're doing but a PLD tank is a safe bet.

Just thoughts. I need to finish lvling my warrior and maybe actually tank some endgame stuff on both.

Edit: edited for clarity of thought.

I endgame tank as a PLD and in most single tank fights, I find groups want me over a WAR.

Any class is easy to level to 50, but PLDs have a real fun time from 30-39 lacking Shield Oath while WARs already have Defiance.

Delphinidaes · May 2015

PCGameN has shown a bunch of pictures on his stream of some ilvl170 armor that they used in the hands on at the Heavensward event. Spoiler'd for large amount of images.

Astrologian

Astrologian 2

Bard

Black Mage

Dark Knight

Dragoon

Machinist

Monk

Ninja

Ninja 2

Paladin

Scholar

Summoner

Warrior

White Mage

Also a nice link to a document compiling what we know about the Jobs in Heavensward so far: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iNBSZkO7eM00z3Kz8aSBybtLadiLCvuQCtH8am04x_U/preview?sle=true#

Esh · May 2015

I'm not sure how I feel about the Normal/Hard Mode raids. So, it's either faceroll easy or holy shit hard? I mean, with the already small part of the population that's beaten T13 and the even smaller part that's taken down SCoB Savage, I'm not sure what they're thinking relegating the more difficult raid to a tiny upper echelon of players. I'm guessing that there's something lost in translation as to the difficulty level of the HM Raids.

Here's the Google Doc from the Twitch stream to show what we know already...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JSCm4VBfKGnegzqWQpsNWKI_uZkSFyVZ3lI1VGvrnl0/pub

Nightslyr · May 2015

Delphinidaes wrote: »

Heavensward Site has updated it's lore section:

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/heavensward/

I love, love, love the Dark Knight lore. Roaming outcasts devoted to fighting the corrupt clergy? Fuck yes.

Papagander · May 2015

I like how the underlying message of the machinist class is basically "wants to be Cid Garlond." Well, sure, why not!?!?!

I'm not one who normally plays a healer but Astrologian looks fun. Their lore is interesting too.. It's hard not to hype and hype hard for this expansion. I love the settings, we're getting flying mounts, each of the new jobs looks fun and distinct. I'm trying really hard not to geek out here.

Delphinidaes · May 2015

Papagander wrote: »

I like how the underlying message of the machinist class is basically "wants to be Cid Garlond." Well, sure, why not!?!?!

I'm not one who normally plays a healer but Astrologian looks fun. Their lore is interesting too.. It's hard not to hype and hype hard for this expansion. I love the settings, we're getting flying mounts, each of the new jobs looks fun and distinct. I'm trying really hard not to geek out here.

Why resist?

Papagander · May 2015

Delphinidaes wrote: »

Why resist?

Because I will froth at the mouth and die due to lack of oxygen as I claw at the images on my computer screen!

I'm trying to maintain a sense of calm and cool detachment until early access. I'll let the hype explode out when I can actually play machinist (probably surviving several days straight with no sleep without the aid of caffeine).

Edit: too excited to proof read my own writing lol (i guess that's kind of normal for me though)

Delphinidaes · May 2015

Papagander wrote: »

Delphinidaes wrote: »

Why resist?

Because I will froth at the mouth and dye due to lack of oxygen as I claw at the images on my computer screen!

I'm trying to maintain a sense of calm and cool detachment until early access. I'll let the hype explode out when I can actually play (probably surviving several days straight with no sleep without the aid of caffeine).

Fair enough :biggrin:

Lucascraft · May 2015

So the other day I saw a White Mage standing around town wearing a big, wide-brimmed hat and a sweet robe that matched, and a really awesome staff. That person is my hero and I want to look like them. Any idea what that armor would be and how hard it is to acquire?

Also! Bonus question! Does 14 have a set of WHM armor that makes the mage look like Minwu from FF2?

Delphinidaes · May 2015

Lucascraft wrote: »

So the other day I saw a White Mage standing around town wearing a big, wide-brimmed hat and a sweet robe that matched, and a really awesome staff. That person is my hero and I want to look like them. Any idea what that armor would be and how hard it is to acquire?

Also! Bonus question! Does 14 have a set of WHM armor that makes the mage look like Minwu from FF2?

It could be the Vanya set (which is crafted) or possibly the Demon set which is from World of Darkness.

Vanya set

Demon healing set:

I'm guessing it's the latter, and you acquire it by doing World of Darkness and getting lucky with drops. To get World of Darkness you first need to complete Labrynth of the Ancients, then Syrcus Tower, and be ilvl 90 at least I think to enter.

Lucascraft · May 2015

Yep, it was the 2nd set. Sounds like something I will not be able to achieve in time for the expansion, considering I'm currently only level 32 at WHM. Love that hat tho.

And I'm guessing that my second question is a "no"? There's no armor that would let me look like Minwu?

Just_Bri_Thanks · May 2015

*Google image search*

OK, no. I've not seen anything like that.

Delphinidaes · May 2015

Lucascraft wrote: »

Yep, it was the 2nd set. Sounds like something I will not be able to achieve in time for the expansion, considering I'm currently only level 32 at WHM. Love that hat tho.

And I'm guessing that my second question is a "no"? There's no armor that would let me look like Minwu?

Sadly i'm not as familiar with the healing sets so i'm not sure. There are a LOT of glamour options in the game though so I'd say it's very likely you can find something similar.

As for getting to World of Darkness? It's not very hard actually, you'll need at least ilvl 90 to finish the main story anyways so you should be able to do so. Once you hit 50 on WHM you can get an ilvl 90 weapon in the relic which is very fast, and then it's just a matter of getting some gear which the FC can help out with either by crafting it or pointing you in the direction of stuff that's easy to obtain. It's very doable but you are correct in that time is starting to run out. We are at just over 3 weeks until the Early access!

Delphinidaes · May 2015

Awesome translation of a Dark Knight hands on article here:

Original article:http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20150526_703328.html
Translation: http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/37dp0u/game_watch_dark_knight_segment/

There are probably some mistakes and iffy translations, but I think it's well worth the read. New or interesting info is bolded.

Until You Get Used to It, the Fight with Your MP as Opposed to Your Enemies, will Be the True Test of Your Mettle

Dark Knights are an encapsulating, Picaresque style of outlaw tank who has no qualms assassinating those of the clergy. Equipped with a great sword they could be mistaken for a DPS at first glance; however once you actually use them, you will see that they are outfitted with abilities that make you think "this is indeed a tank." As for the characteristic abilities of the Dark Knight (abilities that only they have), their style is that they consume MP to use dark power and while attacking also use strong buffs to take hits. They have the greatest amount of choices among the three tank jobs. Because of this without using your head, you won't be able to demonstrate their true potential. You could say this is a rather tricky tank.
When fighting with the Dark Knight, the skill "Darkness" (Darkside?) becomes the foundation of everything. When you enter "Darkness," there is a constant red and black aura around your feet. While the damage you deal goes up a bit, your MP continuously depletes. While not in battle your MP automatically repleneshes bit-by-bit pretty fast, but in combat it goes down bit-by-bit, fast enough that this automatic recovery is unable to catch up.

Also, when using "Darkness," Bard songs or Machinist turrets will have no effect on your MP. If you want to replenish your MP in battle you have to use abilities that have MP-restorative properties like "Siphon Strike" and bear the burden yourself. That said, just using Darkness, the recovery is a little slow and there's not much of a tangible difference with MP management as spamming flash with Paladin (?), but using the Dark Arts that I'll introduce next ramps up the difficulty straight up.

While you have the Darkness aura you can use Dark Arts which are actions that are like buffs. It isn't that they themselves possess offensive ability, but by using them, some actions gain increased potency or have special additional effects added to them.

For example, if you use Soul Eater and Abyssal Drain when they have Dark Arts applied to them they gain an HP-absorbing effect. In the case of the defensive buff Dark Mind, it gains increased damage reduction. With the Paladin, you simply have to push them to execute them; however with the Dark Knight you can combine Dark Arts with attacks and buffs, making the process a bit more complex but also allowing for powerful effects.

When using Dark Arts, MP consumption is surprisingly fast. The Dark Knight does not have as much freedom as a mage with his/her MP so just by using it 3 times your MP is exhausted. Their Overpower-like ability called "Unleash" or their single-target enmity increasing "Unmade" are magic attacks and thus spend MP, so if you're too focused on Dark Arts, you'll neglect your main job of drawing enmity. When I was getting used to it, my MP was easily exhausted and I noticed I lost hate and the mob was headed straight for the healer I was running around trying to catch it. This happened a lot. This was because I was using the additional effects of Dark Arts too much.

I (the writer of this article) am a tank main. I think my other tanks in arms will think similarly but, we don't really make a habit of paying attention to our MP, so when my MP hit zero and I lost Darkness, no matter how much I tried to get hate and my actions wouldn't execute I realized "oh, my MP's gone." I think that for those who are preparing to play the Dark Knight in Heavensward, it might be best for you to learn the MP management habits of the White Mage.

Even though the Dark Knight has all this going on, you can of course be a regular tank without using Darkness and Dark Arts. They have their version of the Halone and BB combo and ranged and AoE hate generation moves. They can also use Provoke and Foresight as Cross Class skills. Using their Shield Oath-like Grit stance you gain a 20% incoming damage reduction and increased enmity generation. I'm going to digress a bit, but there were some adjustments and the tank-only actions like Shield Oath and Defiance have an accuracy increase so that's good news to those who have insufficient accuracy.
I wrote before that the Dark Knight is an active tank. They have assertive abilities like a rush-in attack where they jump and bring their sword down leaping attack and an placeable DoT. In the hands of a skilled player they can probably put out the same DPS numbers as a Warrior. They also have an ability like the Warrior's Holmgang which is made to fit with the Dark Knight theme. Please check to see what it is after release.

We got the chance to see what the Dark Knight LB3 was and this too was a over-the-top demonic display. This will be a job of unbearable enjoyment for those who are into that sort of thing. If ferocity and angst is your thing, there's no where else to look but the Dark Knight.

edit: Also here is a massive Imgur album of pictures taken during the event. Lots of screencaps of all sorts of stuff. http://imgur.com/a/qjjTJ

Nightslyr · May 2015

The only annoying thing about all this expansion news is that neither GameStop nor Amazon have the CE for sale. I have a shitload of store credit in each place. I really don't want to spend extra $$ for it.

Delphinidaes · May 2015

Nightslyr wrote: »

The only annoying thing about all this expansion news is that neither GameStop nor Amazon have the CE for sale. I have a shitload of store credit in each place. I really don't want to spend extra $$ for it.

Yeah I ended up just going with the Square-Enix store because I wanted it done and ready. I was holding out for the physical CE for PC being available on Amazon for that nice Prime shipping but with the timing getting close I decided not to risk anything going wrong with some last minute switchups.

Nightslyr · May 2015

Delphinidaes wrote: »

Nightslyr wrote: »

The only annoying thing about all this expansion news is that neither GameStop nor Amazon have the CE for sale. I have a shitload of store credit in each place. I really don't want to spend extra $$ for it.

Yeah I ended up just going with the Square-Enix store because I wanted it done and ready. I was holding out for the physical CE for PC being available on Amazon for that nice Prime shipping but with the timing getting close I decided not to risk anything going wrong with some last minute switchups.

I think I'm going to wait until E3 before making my decision. I may or may not regret it. :P

Tridus1x · May 2015

Woot I finally got my Shiva whistle drop and Kirin mount obtained.

My only goals before heavensward are savage coil now.

Jakarrd · May 2015

Oh my, the mini benediction for WHM is called Tetragrammaton?

AAAAAAAAAH! If only I could wield guns and use Katas for attacking, I'd have the clerics from Equilibrium.

As is, 50% heal instant. I hope its on like a 2 min cooldown if that.

Delphinidaes · May 2015

Another big info dump!

Original Article: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201505/26079368.html
Translation: http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/37e1y5/notes_from_famitsu_interview_at_nantes/

I left out stuff that I remembered being in the live letter. Apologies for any repeat info; hard to keep up with the flood of news today. I might look through the Dengeki interview later too if I have time.
New jobs will be available right away upon entering Ishgard, but you will have to go back to ARR content to level them up.

XP balance will remain the same as in ARR. Main scenario will give a sizable chunk but eventually you will need to do fates, dungeons, map exploration etc to keep up (just like post-42 in ARR where the quests dry up).

Both Coerthas West Highlands and the lower layer of Abalathia are accessible at lv50; you can choose where to start. This is to split up the massive number of players that will be doing the main scenario at the same time (both paths will converge later on).

4 of the new dungeons are associated with the main scenario. The other 4 are unlocked via side quests like Qarn.

Entering a dungeon with fewer than the required number of players is done simply by having the party leader select a new option in DF. You won't be able to replenish roles, and there will be no level sync. (Yes it says that. 「レベルシンクもかからないものになります。」)This feature is available for most ARR content, but not Heavensward content. The plan is to make it available for more content in future updates.

The existing low level roulette will be combined with the low level Heavensward dungeons into a Main Story Roulette. The level 50 dungeons will be combined into the Hard roulette and the level 60 Heavensward dungeons will be the Expert roulette.

When you are in a fully premade party, you can change the loot rules. "Master Loot" passes all of the loot to the party leader, who will distribute it amongst the party members. "All Greed" makes it so that you can only roll Greed or Pass. These rules only apply to treasure chests, not random drops from trash mobs or things like TT cards. If you use DF matching then you can only use the default Need/Greed/Pass.

Primals will drop tokens to all players the same way Diamond Dust from Shiva EX works, which can be saved up and exchanged for weapons.

Won't give info on Alexander Savage loot system yet. It won't be open until 4 weeks after release, so YoshiP will go over the loot system in a live letter before then.

Alexander Normal loot will work the same way Crystal Tower did. You can run a turn as much as you want, but can only loot one item per week. Each turn has a separate lockout.

Alexander was designed by a combination of staff who worked on BCoB, SCoB, and FCoB.

Alexander Normal will be harder than CT, but not too difficult as long as you put effort into learning it. You won't be able to one-shot it.

Various small adjustments to existing skills, such as reduced animation lock after DRG jumps.

Most crafting/gathering gear will be crafted.

Patch cycle will be same as ARR with even numbered patches raising the item level cap. It will rise faster though (greater than the 20 ilvls at a time in ARR).

When you reach level 60 the first gear you aim for is i170, similar to Darklight in ARR.

Tomestones of Law < Augmented Law < Alexander Normal < Tomestones of Esoterics < etc (primals?) < Alexander Savage

You will be able to obtain glamour-only versions of previous relic steps. In-game reasoning is that Gerolt remembers what the previous steps look like and can replicate the appearance even if he can't guarantee the stats. Possibly only available for people who have completed up to Zeta.

NQ crafted gear will probably be about 90% as good as HQ (compared to the 80% in ARR).

Materia V will be very rare at 3.0 launch but rates will gradually increase as higher level gear is spiritbonded.

High level crafted gear coming in patch 3.05, which is also when the required crafter scrips will be added.

FC crafting is unlocked by placing the basement workshop. There are 3 components: crafting stand (for company crafting), control stand (for planning airship voyages), and blueprint stand (for creating new recipes).

Required items for blueprint stand vary depending on what you want to make. Airship recipe mats can be obtained from airship voyages, new recipes are unlocked as your airship rank increases, etc.
The basement workshop will cost less than 1 million gil.

No plans to increase capacity of company chest, but you will be able to access it from the workshop. So free companies should clean up their company chests in preparation. (YoshiP's FC's chest apparently still has a ton of pudding minions from WP in it.)

Crafters will gain new skills through leveling until 55; after that there are skills that you can only use as a Specialist.

Patch 3.1 and 3.2 will see improvements to the Wolves Den system. First, 3.1 will add matching based on points/rating. But there are bigger plans as well, such as season-based ranking that resets with each major patch. The highest ranked players will get special titles and items. Wants to end up with a similar system to LoL. This would probably be in patch 3.2.

There is actually an invisible light in front of the player character that lights them up, but this has been turned off for the Heavensward zones to add to the gothic atmosphere. You can turn it back on in the settings to return to the ARR atmosphere. Turning it off also changes how ARR zones will look.

I especially like that each turn of normal Alexander has a separate lockout. That means you should be able to get 4 pieces of loot a week (assuming 4 turns) so long as you run it enough. On the flip side that means you'll be done with it fairly early on unless you want to gear up other classes.

Jakarrd · May 2015

Playstation access video which has some info on jobs and shows off some of the battle animations. Warning, they do include scenes from the main story it seems. No idea if full on spoilers or not. Watch at your own risk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhUV50V0omM&emcid=social_20150526_46438176&adbid=603189189568372736&adbpl=tw&adbpr=347877311

Jakarrd · May 2015

OMG.

new emote. Brofist. Holy Shit.

Syphyre · May 2015

Do we know yet what they plan for for poetics/soldiery and the current gear that's in Mor Dhona?

Caedwyr · May 2015

So, when it asks me for my forename and surname, is that the usual FIRSTNAME/LASTNAME format or is there some strange AmeroEuropean/Japanese naming conventions where your family name is displayed first ingame that I should be aware of?

Stilts · May 2015

It's the usual firstname/lastname thing.

Forename and surname are just fancy synonyms for that.

Axen · May 2015

Syphyre wrote: »

Do we know yet what they plan for for poetics/soldiery and the current gear that's in Mor Dhona?

Probably the same thing that happened all the other times they upgraded the Tomestones (remember this is like the third, I think, time this has happened). Replace the gear with the new hotness. Allow people to trade in Poetics at a discounted rate for, uh, whatever the minor Tomestones will be. Throw the Poetic and/or Soldiery gear in to the common dungeon loot tables?

Just_Bri_Thanks · May 2015

Look up the naming conventions for your race. Even if you don't end up following them, you will kick yourself if you miss an opportunity for a great name because you didn't know. I know I did.

Syphyre · May 2015

I started five or so new characters in 2 days when I played this game, until I finally settled on a name/class/race combo I liked. You have time, no rush!

Oh yes, race. There are extremely minor differences in stats between them. At level 50, they are completely negligible. So don't let that be a sticking point. Go with what you like the look of.

Nightslyr · May 2015

And if you use a Fantasia potion to change your race and your name no longer makes sense, you can just pretend you're adopted. Or you chose a name that matches a different race's conventions for reasons. Like in my case, Kevin Nightslayer is a reasonable Hyur name but shit Miqo'te name. My newly transformed cat dude decided to pick a Hyur name to both stop people from butchering his real name and to save from having to explain what it means to the ignorant. Because he's kinda a dick. Boom, passable RP explanation.

If you don't care about RP, then pick what you want. There are plenty of people running around with Japanese names, puns (like 'Hugh Jass'), things stolen from other sources, etc. Just don't be a dark skinned, white haired Elezen named Drizz't.

Delphinidaes · May 2015

Nightslyr wrote: »

And if you use a Fantasia potion to change your race and your name no longer makes sense, you can just pretend you're adopted. Or you chose a name that matches a different race's conventions for reasons. Like in my case, Kevin Nightslayer is a reasonable Hyur name but shit Miqo'te name. My newly transformed cat dude decided to pick a Hyur name to both stop people from butchering his real name and to save from having to explain what it means to the ignorant. Because he's kinda a dick. Boom, passable RP explanation.

If you don't care about RP, then pick what you want. There are plenty of people running around with Japanese names, puns (like 'Hugh Jass'), things stolen from other sources, etc. Just don't be a dark skinned, white haired Elezen named Drizz't.

You can buy a name change though

Nightslyr · May 2015

Oh shit, really?

Jakarrd · May 2015

Yeup, change your name to whatever without a server hop!

Professor Snugglesworth · May 2015

Before The Fall/Main Story Spoilers:

So I'm currently running the GLD lvl 30 quest in the path to learn Awareness.

Is this dialog changed to reflect the events of the story? I'm pretty impressed if it is. I wonder what it originally said.

Astale · May 2015

No, that's the normal dialogue.

She's talking about how they used money to frame him, since their assassins just add to their life insurance premium.

There is some dialogue she has specific to it though, and I know at points in the main story various guildmasters go "oh, hi" and stuff if you are a member.

Delphinidaes · May 2015

Looks like BlueGartr is doing some translations on the Game Watch article as well they have some info up about healers so far Mostly stuff we know but i'll post it up just in case there is new info:

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/125687-Game-Watch-Heavensward-Role-Highlights-(EU-Media-Event-5-18-5-21)?p=6433711#post6433711
Keep an eye on this link as they'll be doing Tanks and DPS soon.

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward Job Report (Healer Edition)

During the European media tour, we got a chance to play quite a bit of Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward. In this article, we'll primarily be discussing Astrologian, which is attracting the attention of healers, as well as introduce the changes for White Mage and Scholars at level 60.

Note that the specific performance and parameters described here may be adjusted and vary in the future. This is intended to give you a rough idea of the main updates for the jobs. The description is based on our experience in May, so please note that effect or ability names may change after implementation.

Astrologian will be an active buffer and healer. Try your luck with the rolls.

Astrologian, introduced in Heavensward, was established as a job to perform "astromancy" in northern Sharlayan. By turning the star globe floating in their hand and drawing constellations with arcana, they can alter fate. At this event, we got to play as an Au Ra female Astrologian. At job level 60 we had item level 170, and had about 10,000 each of HP and MP despite being a healer. It seems that 170 is not the upper limit of item levels in Heavensward, either, so the performance of gear will be on another level altogether.

All of the job actions through level 60 were available. One main difference from the past is that since astrologian has no class, if you look under "Actions" where class actions are displayed, nothing is there - all of the actions are under "Job." It took me a while to scroll through everything since it was all in one place. By the way, the additional actions are taken from arcanist and conjurer.

In addition to the equipment that was provided, macros were also registered for the trial, but because I didn't even know what was attack and what was healing for astrologian, I went to register my own macros from the beginning.

The basis for curing will be "Benefic" I'm guessing at English, the JP is benefiku. Upon casting, the additional effect that occurs at a certain rate as a proc will be to cast the higher tier "Benefic II" again guessing, JP is Benefira with no casting time. So the basic pattern will be to cast Benefic until getting a Benefic II proc, then using the Benefic II proc as needed. In a pinch, there is an instant heal ability called "Dignity." This is something to use in an emergency when your target has low HP. Thanks to Dignity and the Benefic procs, I got the impression that you'd be able to help rapidly recover other party members.

That said, I started off in reverse here and probably should have started by explaining Astrologian's stance switching with Diurnal Sect and Nocturnal Sect. From a usage perspective, it can be thought of as the Sword and Shield Oaths on Paladin, but the effects of certain abilities vary depending on which is selected.

Specifically, Diurnal Sect grants a continuous recovery (regen) effect when using recovery actions while Nocturnal Sect puts up barriers to help absorb damage when using recovery actions. Choosing which to use may be choosing one's favorite, or in a full party it might help to select based on the partner healer, whether it's white mage or scholar.

AoE recovery actions are also available, with differing effects. The circle-generated type of AoE magic is called "Wheel of Fate" or Wheel of Fortune, or Ring of Fate.... This will also be augmented with either a sustained regen or a damage barrier depending on the stance. Although I'd like to present the disadvantages, I couldn't find many, although certainly more will become apparent after using it further. Astrologian doesn't have a native regenerative spell, so you'll have to take that into consideration, but I did get the impression that their overall healing ability was quite high.

Then there is the characteristic "Draw" action for Astrologians. With this, they can draw a card, after which it's possible to activate the effect by using the card. In addition to draw, there are other card actions as well. One action allows you to return a card and enhance the effect of the next card, known as "Royal Road," others allow you to return a card and immediately re-draw ("Shuffle") or save a card for later use ("Spread"). The actions may be used at almost any time. In other words, although it seems like luck, it can definitely be controlled to an extent by player skill.

The cards are each representations of gods in Eorzea, such as "Azeyma's Balance" and "Byregot's Tower," each with its own effects. These can be utilized in both solo and party play.

I tried it out several times, and the card drawing is very effective. It seems to be particularly effective in boss battles where high DPS is needed, so its proper utilization may have a major impact depending on the situation. As a side note, you'll need to take care not to forget to draw. It was likely because I wasn't familiar with the job in the time we had to try it out, but I noticed that I frequently forgot to draw because I was so focused on healing and drawing every 30 seconds is quite frequent. However, if you keep up the pace and use it every 30 seconds, you should expect a fairly high buffing effect.

For attacking, you can use Cleric Stance and other additional skills, but there aren't many strong individual actions available, so I got the impression that you cannot expect much DPS from the Astrologian himself. However, by supporting with cards, since the overall party's DPS can be raised, that can effectively be taken into account as additional DPS from the Astrologian.

Additionally, Astrologian is equipped with the other necessary functions a healer performs, such as a raise ability (with weakened effect), MP recovery, quickened spell casting ability, an ability to erase debuffs, etc., so it shouldn't be very difficult to play. Astrologian also has unique ability "Celestial Stasis" learned at level 60. The effects are still undergoing final adjustments, but it will be like a Stop Time magic with a cool and flashy effect. It's certainly one of the abilities you'll want to master as an Astrologian.

White mages finally receive new attacks besides Holy, and Scholars see a rise in their healing performance.

For white mage, the new abilities are easy to understand. The new attack spells Stone III, Aero III, and Assize will be added, along with a new instant recovery ability Tetragrammaton, and "Asylum," which will generate an area on the field where players recover HP. Let's go through them in order.

Stone III will be the strongest earth elemental magic attack, above Stone and Stone II. Aero III is a wind elemental magic attack above Aero and Aero II. Aero III is also an AoE, so it will be possible to do a good amount of DoT from a long distance. The new ability "Assize" not only does powerful damage in its AoE, but can also be used to recover the HP of nearby party members. Since it can also be used instantly, it's a very strong integrated offense and defense spell.

Up until now, white mage's only immediate recovery action was "Benediction," but their instant healing capabilities have been enhanced. The new ability Tetragrammaton is an ability which can be utilized more frequently to recover fewer HP. Asylum is another instant ability that can be used to generate a healing area where players will recover HP over time, which may help to change WHM's ability to fight.

Scholars are unique in their strong abilities to heal, buff, and attack. A new AoE healing ability, Indomitability, has been added as a higher version of Succor. Whereas with Succor the spell is cast by using MP, Indomitability is triggered as an instant ability with a higher recovery value, but Aetherflow will be required. Emergency Tactics is an instant ability which removes the barrier effect of Scholar healing spells and replaces it with additional recovery power, which should likely help out in an emergency.

In addition, new attack magic dedicated to Scholars will be added. The power won't be so high, but it will be an important component of Scholar's offensive capability.

Deployment Tactics are another ability newly added for Scholars. This ability will extend the effects of Eye for an Eye and Galvanize from one party member to other party members around them, similar to a buffing version of Bane.

A new ability to assist with scholar's healing is called "Dissipation." In this test edition, it was determined that the effect was too strong so adjustments will continue to be carried out prior to release. I gave it a try anyway, and it was very helpful.

So, in addition to its basic recovery ability, by using stance changes and drawing cards, Astrologian can function as both an effective buffer and a healer. However, it's unlikely that white mages and scholars will be deprived of party spots just because of the addition of Astrologian. In addition to their extremely high recovery performance as a pure healer, white mages should also be able to put out significant DPS by using Cleric Stance along with some of their new spells. Finally, Scholar will have stronger AoE recovery and see improved performance as a buffer, so, while somewhat technical, with mastery it may have the highest potential.

Neurotika · May 2015

"Astrologian also has unique ability "Celestial Stasis" learned at level 60. The effects are still undergoing final adjustments, but it will be like a Stop Time magic with a cool and flashy effect."

Sexy

DemonStacey · May 2015

Oh glob all that DRK info up thurr.

Yussssssss.

I can't wait to see all the new LBs.

Finally hit 50 last night and can commence my way through he rest of the story.

Just so I know if I'm looking to get through just the story in the quickest and simplest fashion what are(if any) gear sticking points and the easiest ways to get through them?

Tofystedeth · May 2015

I think you need to be i90 on average to queue for the last story stuff.
You can get an i90 weapon fairly easily through the relic quest.
The Crystal Tower raids are easily puggable and drop i80, i100, and i120 gear.
You can fill in what doesn't drop with tomes gear. The first time you run a lvl 50 dungeon or raid, you and anybody with you gets bonus soldiery tomes, so you can pretty quickly upgade a few slots.

DemonStacey · May 2015

Tofystedeth wrote: »

I think you need to be i90 on average to queue for the last story stuff.
You can get an i90 weapon fairly easily through the relic quest.
The Crystal Tower raids are easily puggable and drop i80, i100, and i120 gear.
You can fill in what doesn't drop with tomes gear. The first time you run a lvl 50 dungeon or raid, you and anybody with you gets bonus soldiery tomes, so you can pretty quickly upgade a few slots.

What's a good kicking off point to go into crystal tower?

Syphyre · May 2015

Go into crystal tower and ST with any gear you have. People at the highest iLevels run it for weekly quests and so you can be the worst player and still get carried along nicely.

Penny Arcade

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