Final Fantasy XIV ‘Letter From The Producer Live Letter 92’ – Details On Beastmaster, Windurst: The Third Walk & More

Squre Enix has hosted the 92nd Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter, where the studio went into more detail about the upcoming 7.5 patch. Though we now know roughly what will be included in the patch from the previous Live Letter that we have covered on this site, we can now go into more detail, with Patch 7.5’s teaser trailer showcasing much of the new content planned. It also seems to have teased the Ultimate, which will be covered during the Fanfest in North America next week along with the details for the new expansion. Thank you to the FFXIV Reddit for the unofficial translations used for this article during the live stream.

What Does The Key Do?

Though no details were said during the Live Letter, the teaser trailer had us talk about the void, and it looks like a friend of the Warrior of Light will be returning: Zero! This will be the first of two story patches, which will eventually lead into the next expansion. As such, you expect a little bit of a cliffhanger at the end of this patch. I can’t wait to see what we are doing with the key and what it involves with the void in the future. It looks like Zero will be helping us during the trial fight, which is unique, though this might only be for the normal version. There will be Normal (story version) and Extreme variations as always.

Journey To Windurst!

The alliance raid starts in the wonderful area of Windurst, and from the teaser we saw, it looks like Shantotto takes out Absolute Virtue on her own. Anyone who played the game in the past knows how infamous Absolute Virtue was in Final Fantasy XI. The detail shown in the area is stunning, with the visuals showcasing the new graphics engine in Dawntrail to the fullest. You can see the heaven tree in the background, and the entire thing is a beautiful nostalgia trip for FFXI players. I am really hoping we can get the music from the raid, especially Windurst, after completing it.

I played FFXI growing up, and this music is so nostalgic for me. Shantotto looks like she will be the first boss of the alliance raid, and there may be a besieged-style event later on in the raid at the Aht Urghan location. Besieged was when the town would be attacked by enemies, and you had to defend it with the community, or certain key NPCs could be kidnapped. I don’t expect all of that with the alliance raid, but the besieged mobs look fun to fight again. The equipment from the raid will be based on the old FFXI AF gear; Naoki Yoshida showed a few of them on stream.

Time To Study Up And Beat People Up In Archeia Harmonias

With Patch 7.5, players will be getting a new Crystalline Conflict map named Archeia Harmonias. This map will have some unique features from previous maps; after all, Bayside, which was the last new map, didn’t really include anything new. One of the unique features of the new map is a healing glyph. When standing on the healing glyph, the entire team will heal and take less damage for a certain time. The team joked that you don’t want to stand on it for too long, as then you might lose, as the enemy team could just push the objective while you are all healing.

Meanwhile, Aetherometer 1, a new kind of checkpoint located between the centre and your team checkpoint, will stop the objective crystal upon reaching it. If the advancing team remains in the crystal ring, the Aetherometer will begin to charge; when it eventually reaches 100%, the objective crystal will move again. Another new gimmick is the Jump Glyph; stepping on the glyph will allow players to jump to a different specific location. A glyph will appear at the base of the team that manifested it, and when it is active, it will be there for the entire match. One thing I got from the showcase is the map looks bigger than previous PvP maps; there are tons to explore in this void library.

Unleash Your Beast

Beastmaster is a new limited job that will allow you to get up to 50 different monsters, although it’s not dropping with Version 7.5, but slightly later in the patch cycle. You can register multiple monsters to the job, but you can only have one out at a time, but you can have them out in cities. The Beastmaster will start at level one, and is classed as a melee DPS and will use a one-handed axe. The level cap will start at 50, though hopefully it will increase in future updates. You will need a Magic or War job above level 50, complete the base game MSQ, and have Dawntrail registered on your account to unlock Beastmaster.

To acquire Beasts, you must weaken them in the wild before you can attempt to capture them. All beasts can be captured through solo play, so you do not need a party. You will be unable to tame higher-level mobs when you are low level, so you will need to level up before using certain beasts. There are mobs you can capture as a party, but if you wish to go solo, you can go all the way to 50 solo. There will be mobs from the alliance raids, but if you want to solo, it seems you can get them from quest rewards.

Your tactics will change depending on the beasts you bring to the battle; depending on the monster out, your elements will change. Some attacks may stun or interrupt depending on the monster you have out at the time of the attack. The content will have rankings and different difficulties. The entry is part of the job quest and will introduce you to the new feature which is the Crucible of the Unbroken. The basics are shown off during this live letter; there might be a special one later to showcase more advanced content later when the job launches.

Elsewhere, you’ll get to use the gauge action to see if that monster can be captured. Once you know the monster can be captured, you must hit it and weaken it; depending on its hit points, the chance to capture will increase. Obviously you then have the worry about killing the enemy if you get a critical hit when it’s low on health. Once the monster hits an HP threshold, use the catch command, and then you will need to knock it out, and it will be added to your Bestiary. When it is added to the Bestiary, you are then able to summon it.

The bestiary will have lore information on the monster you have captured. You will be able to borrow skills from the monster, for example, Beast Skin, which is a defensive CD. You are able to place the Bestiary on your hotbar for easier access to the menu. Within the Bestiary you can set up to three beasts to the battle horns. Once it does its strong attack, it will return and go on cooldown, which happens when you can use a different battle horn. When in a sanctuary, there is no cooldown on the beast summons. You can change the display size of the beasts summoned, either one by one or all at once. To apply the size change, you do need to resummon them.

Use Your Monster’s Actions!

Each beast will have some standard actions that, depending on the beast out on the field, will automatically change. These actions are:

• Finisher: Perform a powerful attack with a large area of effect; the beast will leave the field.
• Trick: Instinctual attack by the beast
• Tempered Release: Perform an action unique to each beast.
• Nature’s gift: The Beastmaster will perform a unique action based on the beast out.

The icon for trick will change depending on the beast out, so with the Dodo shown, the attack is a six-hit cut. Square Enix mentioned that the Dodo’s tempered release will be a buff against Earth and Blind. It is not always an attack for the Tempered Release action. There is a menu which shows what your current lineup has, and you can check your balance in this menu. To unleash your instinctual attacks, you must have a gauge that will increase over time from attacks; the gauge must reach 100 or more, and then it will be consumed to do the action. The gauge seems to increase with every auto attack performed by both the user and the Beast that is out. This system reminds me of the TP system used for weaponskills in FFXI.

If you use certain actions in the correct combo, you will deal increased damage. This system again reminds me of the skill chain system from FFXI. As you level Beastmaster, you will learn abilities that fill the gauge instantly, allowing for more combos. When you combine two elements, you will get a light or dark combo; these elements have to be used quickly or the effect will run out. The Live Letter also confirmed that the Chimaera will have an AoE freeze, mentioning that now you can annoy enemies like it used to annoy you. It is important to remember which Beast has which element.

Players will also be able to get new gear for Beastmaster from doing unique content. You will be able to level up without doing job quests, so if all you wanted to do is collect beasts, this is an option you can do. And in the solo instances, you can level up and train your beasts. At the end there might even be an extra subspecies, like different skins or designs for beasts you have captured. When Beastmaster is close to release, there will be another stream to cover more details.

Quality Of Life

Update 7.5 will also implement a number of improvements to the sightseeing log; the log message will now display the emote that you will need to use to complete the log. If the location has a specific time or weather condition, this will now indicate if these conditions have not been met. This is some nice quality of life information for the sightseeing log. Meanwhile, an update for glamorous gear from dungeons added from 3.0 will now be eligible to be stored as outfit glamours. This means rather than using multiple spaces in the dresser, you can now use oen slot and put the whole outfit. You can remove individual pieces, though, once the outfit is stored. Though not an overall increase in space, this will help condense items to make more item space depending on what you have stored in the glamour dresser.

For crafters, an update while on standby, with the crafting log open, will enable you to change class/job, consume food/potions, move items in your inventory and join or leave parties along with sorting out linkshells. It seems companion Chocobos will be getting new animations based on companion rank; Chocobos will now react to the “pet” and “poke” emotes. More updates are planned for the Chocobo companion, which is interesting as it’s been a very long time since the system previously got updated.

There’s also new window colours you can set, including pink and clear grey (the new pink setting is very bright but also pretty cute!) When a realm reborn launched, they focused on simple UIs, but as the game has evolved, they have been able to be more creative with designs.

7.5 will also have the next stage for the phantom weapons; these weapons are designed around the AF gear that drops from the alliance raid. So, it’s a good idea to pair them up together. There will obviously be new mounts, minions and other things dropping with patch 7.5; one of the more unique mounts seems to be a giant flying fist.

If you want to learn more about the upcoming Fanfest, and information on when we might see the details for the next expansion, please check out this previous article.