Final Fantasy XIV Patch 1.18 Balance Changes

Square Enix producer Naoki Yoshida wrote a forum post in which he detailed the balance changes that will be included in patch 1.18. According to the producer the patch will mark the start of a gradual shift for Final Fantasy XIV “from being a grind-centric game to one that offers enjoyment for all playing styles and circumstances with its ever-expanding variety of content”. Here are the changes:

‘¢ Guildleve Repositioning
We will reposition guildleves as content catering to solo adventurers, which can be enjoyed repeatedly and with minimal time investment and fuss.

Large volumes of quests are being added now and in future patches which require adventurers to interact with an NPC. Until you do so, you won’t be able to gauge the quest’s difficulty level. In contrast, Guildleves can be initiated simply by visiting guild counters and aetherytes. Bone-tired after a hard day’s work? Got only a bit of time to spare? Then guildleves are just what the doctor ordered. Being able to get started without delay is without a doubt the biggest selling point of guildleves.

Having said that, we want to avoid boring players to tears with monotony. We recognize the need to add a pinch of spice to the mix, such as a system in which special levequests can be triggered, that borrow inspiration from guildleves.

Based on my rationale above, 1.18 will see the following changes made to guildleves. This marks only the beginning, mind you. Further revisions are in store for future patches, all driven by the same overarching goal.

‘¢ Imbuing Rewards with Regional Identity
Guildleves won’t simply offer fuss-free adventuring. We also intend to make it so that through guildleves, adventurers will be able to experience the richness and diversity of the world of Eorzea. To achieve this, we will accentuate the uniqueness of rewards for each region. For instance, if it’s metal armor or Blacksmiths’ Guild marks you’re after, you’ll want to make a beeline for Limsa Lominsa.

Levequests yielding guild marks will be limited to city-states hosting the corresponding guild only. In compensation, we will make it easier for players to amass the guild marks they desire.

‘¢ Skill Points: Introduction and Balancing
In light of guildleves’ repositioning as solo-oriented content, leve link bonuses will be reduced. To make up for this reduction, skill points will be added as a new reward for the benefit of solo adventurers.

At the same time, the objectives of certain guildleves will be adjusted in order to accommodate a system in which difficulty and completion time influence your reward. For example, completing a high-difficulty levequest in a short amount of time will yield greater rewards. Through this we hope to encourage skillful adventuring.

In addition to guildleves, sidequests will also be made to yield skill points upon completion, thus providing players with more avenues for advancement.

‘¢ Regional Levequest Battle Rebalancing
Given the tremendous amount of work required for instanced raids and battle reforms in 1.18, we weren’t able to allocate sufficient time to review balance for regional levequest battles. Rather than do a cursory job of rebalancing and risk making a mess of things, we decided to put it off for a later patch.

A handful of levequests with peculiar demands, however, such as those that would send adventurers scrambling long distances, will be revised on a case-by-case basis. At the same time, we’ll implement a system that allows the same levequest to assign different routes, which should help to even out adventurer distribution.

‘¢ Regional Levequest Usability Tweaks

‘¢ Automatic updating of minimap marker position.
‘¢ Pegging of enemy rank variance based on guildleve difficulty.
‘¢ Revised menu position when cancelling within guildleve issuance window.

We’ve finally gotten around to making the adjustments above, and a bunch of others besides. Adjustments like these will continue well beyond 1.18, with changes great and small to be implemented as required to improve user-friendliness.

On a related subject, failing guildleve objectives due to disconnection is a major issue that many players have raised, and we’re looking at ways to tackle it. We’d been deferring work in this area due to concerns that the ability to resume a guildleve after disconnection may be exploited to unfairly obtain large amounts of skill points. But with rewards now undergoing adjustment, we feel this is a suitable time to put together a plan of action to address the issue.