FFXIV 8.0: Evercold (January 2027)

[Gokulo]

However, the contextual skills kinda sound like trouble for people with higher ping

[Vaspinne]

Yeah, MT'ing and trying to counter boss attacks with high ping is gonna be awful lol

Overall though, it looks hype as fuck and really fun

[Anoat]

Yoshi P played Expedition 33 and demanded parry actions in XIV, that’s my head canon

[Lokus]

That's nothing new though, that was a thing back in ARR with Shield Swipe which eventually got removed.

[Anoat]

I'm trying not to get TOO hyped because most of the time that ultimately leads to disappointment, but I'm absolutely thrilled with everything they showed us today. The only thing I am kinda iffy about is the weekly battle pass system, but I think any concerns I might have had are alleviated by the highest ilvl reflecting to other jobs.

[Lokus]

I'm gonna be the downer in this thread cause I really didn't like a lot of what they showed in the dev panel. It has potential to be fun sure, but I'm dreading how the changes are gonna feel. I absolutely hate pvp buttons so that's already a big downgrade for me.

[Vaspinne]

Luckily the OG Reborn mode will still be there for that.

It doesn't seem like there's been a reduction in overall abilities or WS's, but an efficiency in button bloat. A lot of changes make sense, like Shield Lob and Shield Bash on Pld being on the same button, but changing which one is active depending on your distance from the mob. Something like that just makes sense as far as eliminating bloat. And getting rid of the 2-minute window is such a nice gift. Some jobs like Rpr feel so bland even at 100 when you're not bursting, so I'm exciting for that.

I think the biggest thing is going to be retraining muscle memory, which I'm looking forward to. It'll make the game feel fresh again. For a while anyway lol

Edit: I'm also really really curious to see the changes to how the caster DPS jobs will play. Rdm, Blm and Smn have such distinct identities. Drg and Brd looked way faster paced, so I'm curious how they'll handle the casters. I haven't touched Picto so I can't really comment on it. If they finally give us Shiva, Ramuh and Leviathan for Smn, I will be very very pleased

[Kaisha]

It’s kind of nuts they announced PS4 end of service and Switch 2 launch when the Switch 2 is only slightly more powerful than the PS4 lol

Switch 2 has more toys at its disposal to deal with XIV's kind of workload that I figure PS4 is struggling more with after the Dawntrail upgrades.

Notably, Switch 2 budgets 9gb of shared memory for devs, over PS4's 5.5gb. Switch 2 also has SSD read speeds as the default, while PS4 games have to be functional on its stock 5400rpm drive, which ain't great for a game that's constantly loading effects/models on the fly. Switch 2 can also cheat the resolution lower without degrading image quality too hard, since it has hardware DLSS.

I'm mostly curious to see how it'll stack up against the Xbox Series S version.

I absolutely hate pvp buttons so that's already a big downgrade for me.

I'm also in the same boat with what I last played of PVP (Endwalker), but I'm probably never touching XIV again, so I'm not the target audience here.
I don't know how to feel about the devs also pulling a Healer with the Tanks, and making an actual main vs. off-tank role within the role, like they did with HoT vs. Shield healing. Unless they start forcing it with the cooldown requirements to survive hits, you're probably going to see players ignore it and go with whatever tank combo outputs more DPS.

[brozy]

I think it's done in AI or someone drew it a long time ago but whatever someone posted it lol

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It's not NSFW but if you know the context then it sort of is. lol

Man its even more disturbed than i thought itd be lol

Evolved mode honestly looks like it could be pretty fun but waiting to see what they do with RDM, overall cautiously optimistic about the expansion giving i bounced off DT pretty quickly.

[arus2001]

I have no delusion they'll give me the RDM I actually want, and frankly, unless they get rid of the whole white/black meter, I can't see how they'd change the job much unless it's Jolt > Lowest Bar Verspell > Cast Proc > Repeat. Then making the melee 1-2-3 one button and perhaps the finishers included. All the other abilities are just too situationally specific.

[Anoat]

I think they’d keep RDM dash and jump off the condensed combo at least because sometimes you want to use them outside the combo to avoid enemy mechanics

[Kaslo]

However, the contextual skills kinda sound like trouble for people with higher ping

It sounds like just how TBN works now. I don't see why people are jizzing over it.

[Kaslo]

[Lokus]

The contextual skills, while nice, aren't really gonna save button space in some situations. Provoke/Shirk for example, is still going to be 2 separate buttons for me. I macro shirk to target the offtank so I don't have to mess with targeting while dpsing, so that button is staying the same. Divine Justice/Clemency is still gonna have to be 2 buttons as well because if I wanna heal myself in a pinch, I don't wanna be fumbling with targeting myself while also trying to keep my damage going. I'm not a fan of the Shield Lob/Shield Bash change either because there are niche situations where I just wanna lob for enmity while being up close to not drag the boss.

Ultimately, the new fights are what's gonna make or break the evolved jobs so it's just a waiting game. Over the years, I kept reading that PvE jobs should be just like the PvP jobs cause they have so much more identity but if you spent anytime hitting big ice in Shatter, you would know how fucking boring that shit is.

[Gokulo]

https://twitter.com/i/status/2048135491254472958

[Lucavi]

Its smart. If you have the space, always keep the old alongside the new in situations like these. Its better than having to roll it back later due to crazy fan outcry. More options generally = better.

[Kaisha]

It starts to become a dev burden having to design skills with both methods in mind though, and programming the client to be aware of combo'd/smart vs. manual versions of a given thing. I'd fully expect them to make everyone migrate in another expansion or two for their sake.

[Vaspinne]

The contextual skills, while nice, aren't really gonna save button space in some situations. Provoke/Shirk for example, is still going to be 2 separate buttons for me. I macro shirk to target the offtank so I don't have to mess with targeting while dpsing, so that button is staying the same. Divine Justice/Clemency is still gonna have to be 2 buttons as well because if I wanna heal myself in a pinch, I don't wanna be fumbling with targeting myself while also trying to keep my damage going. I'm not a fan of the Shield Lob/Shield Bash change either because there are niche situations where I just wanna lob for enmity while being up close to not drag the boss.

Ultimately, the new fights are what's gonna make or break the evolved jobs so it's just a waiting game. Over the years, I kept reading that PvE jobs should be just like the PvP jobs cause they have so much more identity but if you spent anytime hitting big ice in Shatter, you would know how fucking boring that shit is.

Again, this is why they kept the legacy mode lol

[Vaspinne]

It starts to become a dev burden having to design skills with both methods in mind though, and programming the client to be aware of combo'd/smart vs. manual versions of a given thing. I'd fully expect them to make everyone migrate in another expansion or two for their sake.

Unless the new mode really really flops, no way Reborn mode is sticking around beyond the next expansion. It'll give the player base like 2 years to make the transition and if the majority of the players have, why would they keep an old system that's just a resource drain?

[Lokus]

They are purposely making Evolved do more damage so it's not really a matter of just play what you want. I'll wait till we actually get to play it in January but from what they have showed so far, I see a lot of issues that I hope are looked at.