Welcome back to another installment of Eorzea Reborn, adventurers from across the realm!
As most of you well know, Patch 3.2, The Gears of Change, is arriving on February 23. Naoki Yoshida, in a recent Weekly Famitsu, said The Gears of Change is “in front of the climax” of Heavensward
Due to my absence the past month or so – ailing health and all that – I thought to consolidate all the little features and knick-knacks coming to folks with The Gears of Change, along with what’s expected to come slightly after.
We have quite a bit of ground to cover, so let’s begin!
Battle Content
Aside from the main scenario quests, level 60 characters will have to prepare for battle as they face off against new foes.
Four main PVE updates make up Gears of Change: a pair of new dungeons in the form of The Antitower and the Lost City of Amdapor Hard Mode, a new wing to the Alexander raid called Midas, and the Containment Bay S1T7 trial that houses the fiend Sephirot.
Aside from these PVE updates, the Wolves’ Den PVP will be getting a new mode called The Feast, which will become available in Patch 3.21 – some two weeks after The Gears of Change.
The Feast is a competitive PVP game with some form of ranked matches available in Patch 3.25. The objective of The Feast is to defeat opponents and take their medals, though not a lot of the mechanics have been explained as of yet. I expect we’ll learn more about this the closer to 3.21 we get, though it has been said that there are three initial arenas for battle, depending on whether you’re a soloist or a matched party of 4 or 8 members.
Increasing New Player-Friendliness
Two of the new features touted in Patch 3.2 are meant to allow new players to get up to speed faster on the nuances of their jobs, by introducing them to the concepts they’d need to be good at their corresponding tasks.
First off, the Hall of the Novice will allow players to get used to the job they’ve chosen to adopt by engaging in training exercises that will net them rewards pertinent to the role they’ve chosen. In the Famitsu translation linked above, Naoki Yoshida mentions that completing at least 7 of the challenges will allow you to take a graduation test, facing a gauntlet of corresponding difficulty to your role. Clearing the challenge will net you a full set of gear that will tide you over from levels 15 to 20.
Aside from this, a mentoring system will also be put into play, allowing knowledgeable long-time players to have a distinction that will allow new players to learn more from them and be guided by their example. While you do need some hefty achievements to earn the mentorship title, it will allow you to access the Novice Network chat channel, allowing new adventurers to seek advice and assistance from veterans.
Mentors will also get a duty roulette specific to mentorship, which will “assign players to duties that are struggling to fill party member slots.” Being a dutiful mentor for group content will also allow players to earn an exclusive achievement.
Hildibrand and Fluff
Hildibrand’s mysteries will continue as he heads over to Ishgard for a new installment in his adventures. From the looks of things, his stalwart assistant Nashu will eventually find him in Ishgard.
Aside from Hildibrand though, we will also be getting some nifty new content in the form of the Gnath beast tribe questline, the Stone, Sky, Sea training ground (which appear to be an assortment of striking dummies meant to test your strength, and, well… Primal Pigeons, as MrHappy put it on Twitter.
We’ll obviously need to tackle more difficult versions of the primals for those drops, so please look forward to it! In the meantime, why not enjoy the trailer below? Remember: The patch drops next week! Cheers!
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