Final Fantasy XIV’s Patch 6.21 is live, bringing some balance changes to raids and jobs, and a series of fixes for known issues.
Balance changes have come for the Paladin and Marauder/Warrior, with these classes getting a tuning pass to boost them. For the Paladin, Potency has been increased for multiple actions. Confiteor, for example, has seen it boosted from 900 to 1,000. Marauder/Warrior also got Potency boosts for a few actions, and some of those also came with Combo potency increases.
The major changes in the update are to raids. Abyssos: The Eighth Circle (Savage) gets a change to the boss HP in both phases of the battle. With the Savage modes, the goal is, of course, to make the challenge tough and rewarding. Yet, the team admits in this week’s patch notes that this change is coming due to a form of distraction.
They intended to create a more challenging encounter than Asphodelos: The Fourth Circle (Savage), and in trying to get this battle designed and implemented, the balance was thrown off by too much testing.
Normally, a DPS entering this encounter will be the base that determines the boss HP with the idea that this will result in clears within the time limit, but giving the team a challenge. yet, because they spent as much time as they did testing this encounter, the testing team performance was higher than usual so the base values were too high. The boss is HP is reduced in this patch to be more in line with the initial balance projections.
This patch also introduces the power of the Echo in Pandaemonium Asphodelos (Savage). Once you enter with your team, you will have an Echo take effect that will boost your maximum HP, the damage you deal, and your healing potency by 10%. These bonuses won't increase if your party members are all incapacitated, unique to this encounter.
For the full patch notes, including all of the known issues that were fixed in the update, head over to Final Fantasy XIV.