In today’s Letter from the Producer Live, the lengthiest yet, we got a ton of new information about the upcoming changes to the game’s battle system and jobs — including PvE and PvP content. We also got a lengthy video preview of the new Job actions below.

Note: The team cautions that the numbers that you may see in today’s footage may not be final and will likely be adjusted.

PvE Updates:

When designing the new battle system changes, the team looked at some of the issues with the current system: overly complex, hotbars using too much space, managing many status icons, and “core versus casual” player disparity, and “lack of synergy” between jobs.

Additional actions, abilities you can choose from other classes, are being abolished. The problem was that if you were leveling a marauder, you’d have to level gladiator to get “Provoke,” a necessary tanking too. Now, actions will be reclassified by battle role: tank, healer, ranged DPS, melee DPS, and caster. Also, you’ll no longer need to level an additional class to obtain your Job.

Actions that have been deleted will show up on your hotbars, but they will be greyed out. When you first log in to Stormblood, you’ll likely be tweaking your hotbars accordingly. Spells (ex: Stone, Stone II, Stone III, Stone IV) will be consolidated so that they will only be one action — if you are doing lower level content while synced, it will drop to a lower tier. In Thunder’s case, it will be two actions because there are single-target (Thunder -> Thunder III) and AOE-target (Thunder II -> Thunder IV) properties. The team has gone over all the jobs to consolidate actions.

Regarding aforementioned “class synergy” the team noted that Warrior and Ninja worked great together, but not so much with Monk. The revisions have reigned in some of the “overpowered” synergies so every job is viable to be selected in a raiding environment.

Each Job will now have a graphic element called a “Job Gauge.” These are specialized to the mechanics of each Job, and are intended to convey it in a more visual way. The goal here is to reduce the damage disparity between skilled veterans and newcomers. It will also change as you level up, unlocking more as you go.

PvE Job Updates:

(Astrologian) This Job hasn’t changed too much, but there is a new action that you can place on the map. The Job Gauge will display your current cards in play more prominently than in the status icon tray.

(Bard) Casting has been abolished. Different songs will be displayed in the Job Gauge and will let you know when they expire.

(Black Mage) cannot use Enochian right away, but is tied to their Job Gauge; it may not fill right away since it is based on your level.

(Dark Knight) When you get Black Blood you’ll be able to see the Blood Gauge; it will deplete when using certain actions. Building it will require using other actions.

(Dragoon) Not much has changed in your rotation, but new actions have been added for the level increase to 70. A trait “Blood of the Dragon” will attract the gaze of the First Brood when Miracle Dive is used.

(Machinist) Like Bard, will also have no casting. The Heat Gauge will have an effect on your actions so you will need to pay attention to it. You can attack while moving.

(Monk) will be able to build chakra (as displayed in the Job Gauge) and “take it from their party members.”

(Ninja) hasn’t had a big change, but the Senki gauge (Job Gauge) will increase will grow with auto-attacks, that can be consumed with actions.

(Paladin) Your Oath Builds when you are in different Oath stances. You will now be able to block both physical and magical damage. New elements include AOE combo, single-target Holy. The move where wings sprout from your back (Passage of Arms) it’s a cone where if you are behind the Paladin you will take decreased damage. It’ll be useful in the raid setting where a large attack is coming. If you move the effectiveness will be nullified.

(Red Mage) will involve balancing the White Mana and Black Mana attributes of your spells, as indicated in the Job Gauge. At a certain point you’ll be able to execute a Spellblade maneuver.

(Samurai) You will pay attention to your Job gauges to build them up to use Iai jutsu.

(Scholar) hasn’t had a big change to their playstyle, but new actions for the level 70 cap have been added.

(Summoner) will have the ability to summon Bahamut, who is much larger than Egis. When Dreadwyrm Trance is activated, you can summon Bahamut.

(Warrior) will need to pay attention to their Beast (Job) Gauge for Inner Beast. [We noticed they were able to pull off four Fell Cleaves worth 25 points each.]

(White Mage) hasn’t gone through too many changes. Cleric Stance will now be an ability that enhances Mind, rather than swapping values with Intelligence.

PvE Mechanics Updates:

— Parry has changed to “Tenacity” which will increase damage dealt and mitigate damage received.
— Accuracy has been removed as we know it and has been changed to Direct Hit. Hitting an enemy from the front will be 100%, but at the flank this will be higher — say 110%, 120%. Having the Blind or Accuracy Down status will reduce this rate, so be sure to cleanse it. Direct Hit will trigger more often than a Critical Hit; if they land at the same time it’ll look exciting. Heaven’s Eye materia will be changed from Accuracy to Direct Hit.
— Piety has been demoted to a sub-attribute; it’ll still have the same effect of increasing MP. It’ll be re-attributed on gear with Piety, which will only be available for healers.
— Tank damage calculation will be returned to Strength instead of Vitality, but accessories have been changed to be role-specific so tanks cannot equip DPS accessories.
— Healers have a new role action called “Rescue” which will allow you to yank another player out of danger.

PvP Updates:

Yoshida descibed current issues with PvP content are that level restrictions are too high — those with lower levels would have a hard time managing the amount of actions. Balancing PvE actions with PvP content was also problematic, as was the AP disparity between new and veteran players. They also felt PvP had overly complex controls with the amount of actions and moving around.

So, the PvP will change thusly: any job over Level 30 can participate. Your PvP attributes will be determined by your battle role. Gear has been changed to glamour only. There will also be a new PvP Hotbar for each Job, so that you don’t have to mess with your hotbars when doing PvP content. When you zone into the Wolves’ Den Pier — your hotbars will automatically change to PvP Mode.

PvP actions are now PvP specific. Each job will get nine actions, and two selectable actions from a pool of other actions, three Traits, as well as Adrenaline Rush. This will allow them to adjust PvP without affecting PvE balance. Direction requirements for melee DPS have been removed. Consolidated combos will also free up hotbar space for more maneuverability and less complexity.

Stun has been removed from melee DPS classes, so you’ll need to coordinate with tanks to use it. Sleep has also been nerfed so that you can’t chain it successively — you’ll need to be more strategic with it as it lasts shorter.

Miscellaneous Updates:

– Mount speed will increase in Stormblood to two higher levels; one is obtained by completing the main quest for each zone, and the other was kept secret for now.
– Tank mounts will get an armored version of their existing mount that will also be able to fly.
– The rare mounts dropped from Stormblood‘s extreme primal trials will have a canine theme.

Job Boost & Story Skip paid items:

Tales of Adventure
– Tales of Adventure: A Realm Reborn $18.00/₤13.31/€15.75 – This will flag all main scenario quests from 2.0 through Patch 2.55 complete
– Tales of Adventure: Heavensward $25.00/₤18.50/€21.75- This will flag all main scenario quests from 2.0 through Patch 3.56 as complete
– This will not raise any of your class or Job levels.
– Available at the start of Early Access — June 16th, 2017.
– You’ll automatically get a chocobo — the name will be randomly generated.
– Your Grand Company will automatically be set to your starting city-state.
– Any instanced dungeons you must complete in a Main Scenario will be flagged as cleared, as well as select sidequests.

Job Level-boost Items
– A diffent Tales of Adventure will be available for each Job except Red Mage and Samurai; it’ll raise your job level to 60.
– Pricing: $25.00/₤18.50/€21.75 per Job. It will be available at the start of Early Access — June 16th, 2017.
– The team wants to monitor how this affects the game, so at start of 4.0 you will only get one per service account until a later date.
– You will get a full set of Level 60 gear and all of the Job quests for that job will be flagged as complete up to Level 60. You’ll get all of the actions gained along the way too.
– Hall of the Novice access will be granted and displayed prominently so you can learn the basics of your Job.

Announcements:

– Preordering Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood will entitle you to a Wind-up Red Mage (Minon), Ala Mhigan Earrings (Vanity), Early Access (June 16th).
– The Far Edge of Fate: Final Fantasy XIV Original Soundtrack releases on June 7th, 2017. $49.99/€36.99 plus tax. Includes Wind-up Nidhogg (minion).
– Trials of Bahamut Real Escape Game tickets are on sale for the North America region. Check out the official site for locations.
– Final Fantasy XIV will be at E3 2017; in the battle challenge they will debut a Stormblood primal.
– The next Letter from the Producer Live will be at E3 2017.
– Plush Cushion Fat Chocobo will go on sale in July 2017; pre-orders begin in June — it will be available in all regions. ¥4800/price TBD in other regions.
– Final Fantasy XIV Projection Mapping will take place on June 10-11 at InterContinental Yokohama Grand Hotel.
– Eorzean Symphony Final Fantasy XIV concert will be held on September 23-24th in Tokyo.