Final Fantasy XIV‘s Into the Mist is finally here to fill the downtime during the hectic holiday season. Whether you’re tearing it up in the Arcadion or developing a newfound fear of trains, the new patch brings a smattering of job updates.
While only twelve jobs were adjusted in 7.4, two in particular received major changes: Gunbreaker and Red Mage. While they aren’t total reworks, players will need to know the key changes hitting both jobs. If you’re thinking of savage raiding the upcoming Heavyweight tier, this article’s for you!
GNB Moves to 60 Seconds, With Some Damage Reduction
Two of Gunbreaker‘s core actions have major updates: Bloodfest & Gnashing Fang.
When activating Bloodfest, the Powder Gauge now temporarily increases your maximum number of cartridges to six. Combined with the three charges the ability grants, GNB players effectively no longer need to manage their cartridges as closely. But the bigger change to Bloodfest is its cooldown: reduced from 120 to now 60 seconds.
With this, Gunbreaker has now effectively moved to a one-minute burst in line with Paladin & Warrior. It may be only a matter of time before Living Shadow ends up on a minute cooldown too. As for Gnashing Fang, players no longer need to worry about drifting cooldowns. The action now operates on a charge system, with one charge gained every thirty seconds to a maximum of two.
Of course there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and Gunbreaker‘s damage has been nerfed in accordance with the changes.
All of the job’s burst actions have been hit with damage reductions. In fact, GNB’s Keen Edge combo, Lightning Shot, Bow Shock, and AOE abilities are the only things that haven’t been nerfed. The percentage changes range from around 8% on Continuation actions, to 20% for the Reign of Beasts combo (which had 200 potency subtracted from all actions).
Overall, Gunbreaker is now easier to execute as far as cartridge management is concerned, but deals less damage during burst. While normal instances are not likely to notice, high-end content may see the biggest impact if a fight is heavy on downtime mechanics (I.E. Ultimates). We’ll see how the job fares when Heavyweight Savage lands in January.
RDM’s “Infinite” Sword Range
Meanwhile amongst Magic DPS, Red Mage got a big change without any nerfs. Manafication saw its damage buff removed, but not to worry, it’s now been incorporated into Embolden. In addition, it now grants Prefulgence without needing to spend six stacks of Manafication.
But that’s not all. 😎
When Manafication is activated, it now temporarily increases the range of all enchanted sword actions to 25 yalms. So during two-minute burst windows, Red Mages no longer need to be in melee range to hit the boss. To reiterate, this only applies while Manafication is active.
Outside of two-minutes, Red Mages will still need to use their rapier the old-fashioned way. But similar to Gunbreaker, the job is now easier to execute during burst windows.
Other Job Updates
Aside from Gunbreaker and Red Mage, most of the other jobs received potency buffs for key actions.
Ninja, Viper, Bard, Machinist, Dancer, and three of the healer jobs received some kind of damage increase, albeit small. Aside from that, Astrologian’s Collective Unconscious now lasts ten seconds, but requires players to stand in the ring to benefit from it.
And in the most monumental of changes, Dark Knight’s Living Shadow now lasts 22 seconds. Overall, Patch 7.4 continues the trend of making jobs easier to execute: something players should expect to continue for the immediate future.
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