FF14 producer says action buttons are at their limit in Endwalker

As Final Fantasy14 onlineAs the number of jobs and classes increases, there are more updates and expansions. Every expansion has a level cap. With that, comes more passive skills, which in turn means there’s more buttons. Future updates Endwalker This November will see expansion.

Enjoy the chance to try a new build Endwalker, we were able to talk about these problems with the game’s producer, Naoki Yoshida, in a short Q&A session. After the playtest ended, there were questions regarding skill changes.

Some jobs really push the boundaries with their hotbar action buttons. The default orientation of Astrologian filled three hotbars when I switched to it in preview. The preview build included buttons to limit break and sprint with the default orientation. Scholar and some other jobs also had not-full-but-getting-close hotbars.

“In Stormblood, we were looking at different icons or buttons that you’re controlling to execute these actions,” Yoshida told Polygon through a translator. “Amongst the team, we did determine that there is an upper limit of how many buttons can be assigned to the hotbar. Whenever we are considering the different abilities that we add, we try to evenly distribute it, so it’ll fit within that cap. I do feel like right now we are at that limit.”

Yoshida also noted the difficulties in designing healers with DPS and hotbars. He noted that DPS skills tend to evolve and improve as they level up, and since new skills will replace old ones, you don’t have to deal with button bloat for these jobs.

“This is a very tough line to toe for sure,” Yoshida said. “But for healer, there isn’t a particular combo route, per se. The actions are a lot more one-shot or simple, so it inevitably adds more actions whenever we try to add new elements, so it’s a challenge when we try to work on the healer jobs.”

A male Viera in Sage artifact gear stands on a beanch

Square Enix via Polygon

While a lot of the changes and adjusted numbers we got to play with were previously confirmed in the most recent Live Letter from the Producer stream, there were tons of changes that weren’t announced, like shortened cast times and potency changes. However, Yoshida warned that lots of the skill potency changes that we were seeing in the build weren’t final and were subject to change. One thing we noticed immediately was the way that magic DPS cast times had been slightly modified. Yoshida confirmed that cast times for magic DPS were intentionally altered, along with previously disclosed changes for healers.

A comparison of Thunder IV and Blizzard II in Final Fantasy 14. The left side shows the current cast times and the right shows the cast times as they were in the Endwalker media preview

Here’s an example Shadowbringers Black Mage skills (left) versus Endwalker Black Mage skills as seen in media preview (right).
Photos: Square Enix| Images: Square Enix

“For the DPS magic, there are certain newly obtained skills, like a self-buff or things like that. That is done to maintain a steady tempo. We don’t want it to drag as they are casting,” Yoshida said. “That being said, we don’t want to have a case where casters are using powerful spells quickly and frequently. Therefore, we needed to adjust how it dealt damage. We are very mindful of the balance that we are making, but we also want to improve the play-feel of each individual job.”

Paradox, one of the Black Mage new skills, was explained by him as an enhanced version of Fire. Paradox, which replaces Fire in the hotbar after unlocking it, is now part of the Black Mage’s rotation and can be used to replace Fire. Originally, Paradox had a longer cast time and dealt more damage, but it was changed to match Fire’s cast time, so players wouldn’t be thrown off in their rotation. The spell’s potency was reduced to compensate.

Larryzaur and the rest of The Summoner can be viewed in this video. Final Fantasy 14, EndwalkerYou can watch a playlist of job opportunities that have changed.

Final Fantasy 14, EndwalkerThe expansion will go live on November 23rd, with players who have pre-ordered it starting Nov. 19th.

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