Love them or hate them, casters are some of the most important jobs in Final Fantasy XIV, especially for prog. One of them deals arguably the most damage, while the other two are easy the play and are loved by healers thanks to their ability to raise allies from the grave. While it doesn’t have as many differences in comparison to the melee jobs, some of the casters have got some sizable additions. We sat down with the three iconic casters in Final Fantasy history to see just what has changed going into the fifth expansion.
This article is based on play of an in-development build of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail, and content in the final version is subject to change.
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Physical Ranged DPS Impressions
One of the original casters of A Realm Reborn, Summoner received a monumental, yet somewhat controversial change in Endwalker, but in Dawntrail, it remains mostly the same.
The major change for Summoner is Solar Bahamut. How Summoner currently functions is that it cycles between a Bahamut phase and a Phoenix phase, with Titan, Garuda and Ifrit fillers in-between. With Solar Bahamut, it separates the two main phases even further. So you will start with Solar Bahamut, move into normal Bahamut, then go back into Solar Bahamut, then finally transitioning to Phoenix before repeating the process. The only difference to the rotation now is simply figuring out how to ensure Solar Bahamut falls under buffs if there’s downtime, especially considering it’s more powerful than Bahamut and Phoenix.
Outside of this, Solar Bahamut also comes with an AOE heal, which will undoubtedly be valuable in prog and the upcoming Ultimate. Fester has turned into Necrotize, which is simply a stronger, upgraded version. And finally, Searing Light has a follow-up attack called Searing Flash.
It would appear Square Enix feels Summoner is in a good spot right now as there’s little done or changed to the rework from two+ years ago. It almost entirely plays the same.
Black Mage
The other original caster of Final Fantasy XIV, Black Mage has picked up a lot more changes than we thought it would, being the most modified caster of Dawntrail.
The most beneficial feature to Black Mage is Retrace. Retrace is the long awaited and desired movement of Ley Lines. No longer will Black Mages rage when they put down their Ley Lines only to have to move for a mechanic; now they can take it with them, at least for a single instance. This does take away some of the challenge of anticipating mechs or knowing a fight down to the tee, but it’s no doubt a change that will go over well with Black Mage players.
On top of that, you may notice a new gauge outside the standard Umbral Gauge. This is the Astral gauge which receives accumulates Astral Souls through Fire IV. When six souls are collected the gauge is full, Black Mages are able to unleash the level 100 skill, Flare Star, which oddly enough is only a bit more powerful than Despair, but does have splash damage. The challenge is fitting the six Fire IVs under the window as this will reset when going into your Blizzard downtime.
Outside of this, there’s new Thunder DoT abilities (High Thunder and High Thunder II) which is just more powerful, Sharpcast has been removed entirely and Paradox now only is available under Astral Fire, with its use under Umbral Ice being taken out.
It has been almost seven years to the date since Red Mage was released with Stormblood and we’re all better for it. In Dawntrail, Red Mage doesn’t see a lot of alterations, with quality-of-life changes being the highlight of the job, but there are elements that make it more appealing.
The major update to the job is in regard to Manafication. In Endwalker, it was changed from simply doubling the gauge to adding 50 to it. In Dawntrail, it has removed that entirely and simply allows the use of a full melee combo, foregoing the gauge requirement. This has been put in primarily to ensure players don’t overcap their gauge, making it a little more approachable. We do wish there was an effect or visual indicator, maybe around the gauge HUD, that showed this mode was activated, even though it’s likely that using this will require the immediate use of a melee combo regardless.
I fully expected Square Enix to just simply add to the already lengthy melee combo, but what they’ve done is a little more compelling. Instead, the three new attacks that have been introduced are tied to existing skills. For starters, after using Acceleration, Jolt is turned into an instant cast ability called Grand Impact. Upon using Embolden, it will change into an OGCD weave skill called Vice of Thorns. And finally, Manafication will become Cineration when using up all six stacks. These are smart changes that don’t extend Red Mage’s rotation, but instead make it a little busier during bursts.
Outside of this, not a lot extra has been done outside of Jolt being upgraded to Jolt III at level 84. Overall, Red Mage seems like it’s in a good place with even more instant-cast and OGCD abilities added to the kit.
