Dawntrail, the subsequent enlargement for Closing Fantasy XIV, is simply across the nook with a July 2 launch date. Forward of its launch, Sq. Enix pulled the curtain again on the job adjustments gamers can count on to see in the course of the developer’s newest reside letter, which included our first in-depth have a look at the new Viper and Pictomancer jobs. However it was the adjustments to the Astrologian job that caught my eye and, people, it isn’t trying good.
Let’s first unpack how Astrologian presently works in Closing Fantasy 14. Centered round a cosmic tarot aesthetic, Astrologian is a healer position (considered one of 4 within the recreation) whose equipment focuses closely on drawing playing cards from a deck to carry out actions. Every card has a specific buff that solely prompts when utilized to a celebration member of a selected position. The randomness of card attracts and the necessities for enjoying them offers Astrologian a specific sense of improvisation because it retains gamers on their toes. You may’t simply hit a daily rotation of expertise if the sport randomly offers you your subsequent motion. In comparison with different healer roles, which might really feel stagnant and a bit “set it and neglect it”, Astrologian lets me get extra concerned as a participant.
At the very least that was the case—as soon as Dawntrail releases all that can change. “The cardboard system will not be random,” reads the official change as proven in the course of the reside letter, “and can as a substitute concurrently draw playing cards with offensive, defensive, and healing results.” As well as, gamers will now be capable to draw 4 playing cards inside a 60-second window that they will play relying on the given scenario (gamers can presently draw one card each 30 seconds). Every card pulled could have healing, harm, or buffing talents. The massive difficulty, a minimum of on this Astrologian’s opinion, is that these adjustments take away the perfect a part of the job—the randomness.
For some time, there was a sluggish, however regular, shift with lots of FF14’s jobs in direction of making them easier. Healers have confronted the brunt of this shift, a lot in order that the neighborhood has recognized it as a significant drawback. It isn’t a problem of whether or not FF14 is simply too onerous or needs to be extra pleasant to newcomers— it’s superb at onboarding new adventurers, nevertheless it’s a query of job complexity. For healers, that complexity has felt missing resulting from how comparatively easy common healer gameplay is, which is usually decreased to spamming assaults with one or two buttons and therapeutic off the worldwide cooldown with expertise as wanted. For brand new gamers, that simplicity could be useful for studying the opposite many methods of the MMORPG however after tons of of hours, it turns into boring.
Astrologian’s randomness has been a treatment for healer boredom. Whereas different healers have a reasonably outlined rotation, Astrologian has a built-in unpredictability that makes it thrilling. For my first three expansions I performed as a White Mage, however modified to Astrologian once I wanted a job that gave me extra to do in moment-to-moment fight. Making split-second choices based mostly on regardless of the deck supplies whereas in encounters makes therapeutic a way more fascinating affair and a much-needed various to different therapeutic jobs. Taking that away seems like a significant loss.
Though it t wasn’t a wholly sudden one. Forward of Dawntrail gamers knew that Astrologian could be getting a rework, however have been frightened that it could be oversimplified, just like the Summoner adjustments of Endwalker that sought to scale back the fabled two-minute rotation of the job into one thing simpler to select up. And truthfully, it seems like our worries have been legitimate with this erasure of card randomness. It’s half of a bigger dialog about job simplification that even director Naoki Yoshida has stated could have gone too far in current updates.
This doesn’t must be an either-or scenario although. That’s why we have now a number of jobs, for a number of types of play. There needs to be some jobs that permit for a extra complicated rotation for gamers who need that. Because of this the approaching adjustments to Astrologian really feel like a loss.
