FF14 Dawntrail is making a lot of changes but they won’t make the game harder

Some long-standing skills and spells are being upgraded in Final Fantasy 14’s Dawntrail expansion, and the MMO’s director has explained that these changes are about the feel of combat, not just making it harder.

Jobs in Final Fantasy 14 are often tweaked via updates, with some receiving major overhauls in expansions. The Black Mage, Dragoon, Monk, and Ninja will all get huge changes in Dawntrail – especially post-level 90.

However, some existing skills will also see big upgrades. Swiftcast’s recast time is being reduced from 60 seconds to 40, and the Tank’s Reprisal ability will have its duration increased to 15 seconds. These changes occur after level 90, suggesting that they’re intended to give the players a chance in Dawntrail’s harder encounters.

Square Enix

During a recent hands-on preview of Dawntrail, Dexerto asked Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida about the changes to these established abilities. Yoshida explained why those powers were being upgraded.

“So, the fact that the recast time Swiftcast has been shortened means that there would be more casts of spells with no casting time.”

“You could see it from the perspective from the Tank, so the time for Reprisal is 15 seconds, so previously, they would have to do it at a pinpoint timing with the cast time, but now there’s time to see the cast and then they can apply it.”

“And so our intention from 7.0 and throughout the 7.0x series is not to make the content more difficult but to make it more exciting.”

“The intention that we have is to make the mechanics and the attacks faster, and maybe there’s going to be a situation where there are two actions where the player would need to use Reprisal to be effective, so it’s really focusing on areas where players need to resort to technique, in order to counteract those situations.”

“And so, previously, we had not implemented this kind of policy. The players did not have the means to stand against those kinds of attacks or situations, but now we decided that we would give the players the cards, as it were so that they would be prepared to be able to carry out actions in those situations.”

“So, now we are in a position where we are able to make more exciting content ourselves, and that will lead on to a more interesting playing experience.”

“And I’d just like to reiterate: it’s absolutely not our intention to increase the difficulty, we really want to heighten the level of excitement so I’d appreciate that if you could convey that to your readership.”

The dungeon Dexerto played in the preview certainly lived up to Yoshida’s comments, with a definite increase in pace for the boss battles, but not to a degree that made them more difficult. Indeed, being able to throw out more Swiftcasts adds some safety to the harder fights, especially if you’re playing a non-Healer role with a raise spell.

These changes are exclusive to Dawntrail content, so players don’t have to worry about the balance being thrown off in existing Final Fantasy 14 expansions. Spending hundreds of hours reaching Dawntrail’s content should give you all the training you need for the enemies you’ll face in Tural.