Square Enix revealed new information on Final Fantasy XIV‘s upcoming expansion, Endwalker, in its latest Live Letter from the Producer last night. The announcements mainly focused on battle job changes that will come alongside the expansion, as well as the two upcoming jobs, Sage and Reaper.
To demonstrate those changes, the developer released a video showing the rotation of all classes in Endwalker, including those of healer Sage and DPS Reaper, in several clips located in various upcoming areas.
After showing the video, the developers delved deeper into both upcoming classes’ abilities, detailing their mechanics and showing them in live gameplay videos.
The Reaper is the next DPS melee class to enter FFXIV. Though it may look like a Dark Knight wielding a scythe, its playstyle is fairly different from it. The game’s producer Naoki Yoshida played the class directly to show off some of its abilities, such as summoning its avatar, AoE damage dealing abilities, and dashes. He said its dynamic gameplay was inspired by anime action scenes, with a back-and-forth style.
The Reaper won’t be an easy job to learn. Yoshida described it as difficult, but the “good kind” of difficult. “It’s something to master while you dive deeper into it,” he said.
The video revealed he will rely on positioning to deal more damage, similar to other DPS melee classes, and on his gauge, similar to Red Mage. Players who are eager to test it out can play DPS melee classes and Red Mage before the launch of Endwalker to get used to the playstyle.
Overall, it shares some similarities with other classes while maintaining a proper identity, which will likely make it hugely popular after the expansion’s release.
Sage, on the other hand, is an offensive healer class. As revealed in the past months, the class will use shields rather than regeneration, as well as several offensive abilities using her floating knives. For this reason, the Astrologian will no longer apply shields with Nocturnal Sect so that it’s only used by Sage and Scholar classes.
As explained above, the Sage will be the first healing class to be able to deal damage while healing simultaneously. Like the Reaper, the job doesn’t look easy to pick up, with short cast delays, a gauge, a seal and several effects to choose from. It will certainly please the most dedicated players, but won’t be the optimal first choice for beginners at healing.
Offensive healers will also be a direction the developer will take while adjusting the other healer classes. The casting delay of offensive spells will be reduced, which will also benefit the White Mage.
Endwalker, FFXIV‘s upcoming expansion, will release on Nov. 23.
