FFXIV‘s Anaheim Fanfest kicked off with the earth-shattering announcement of Evercold, the game’s next major expansion launching in January 2027. But alongside the reveals of expected content like new hub areas, dungeons, etc., Yoshi-P announced equally enormous changes coming to XIV’s job system. Patch 8.0 will introduce “Evolved Mode” to jobs — a new parallel system of playing your character. What does it look like? We got an early preview of how the new system works at today’s Developer Panel:
Why Change How Jobs Play?
One complaint that has circulated in the XIV community for years is the homogenization of job design. While rotations between jobs are technically different, in many respects, they play about the same. Each one has a gauge you build resources on before spending it. Oh, and don’t forget your two-minute buffs. Beyond aesthetics components, most jobs across XIV can feel interchangeable in their current states.
Evolved Mode looks to shake things up in a major way. Battle systems planner Hikaru Tamaki, a CBU3 veteran of 13 years, provided the details during the dev panel on Day 1. Evolved mode focuses on two main components: streamlining actions and job identity. But if you do prefer the way the current jobs play, fear not. The current system will exist as “Reborn Mode” for the 21 existing jobs. Reborn Mode jobs will also continue to receive updates throughout Patches 8.x and more, though likely not as extensive as before.
Streamlining How You Play
One of the first things that stands out in Evolved Mode is the number of actions available. The system is designed to focus around 16 total actions, meaning across the board, abilities are consolidating. Paladin‘s 1-2-3 main combo, for example, has been transformed into one action that changes with each use. You can see this consolidation currently when you use certain actions in any PvP mode.
Further consolidation exists where different actions have different targets. For example, in Evolved Mode, Shirk and Provoke have combined into Scales of Enmity, which has different effects when targeting an enemy versus an ally. On an enemy, it serves the same function as Provoke; on an ally, Shirk. A job-specific example of this for PLD is the combination of Holy Spirit and Clemency into Divine Judgement.
Another major note is that in some cases, decreased buttons can mean increased potencies. For example, tanks will have fewer mitigation abilities, but those remaining have increased effectiveness. A 16-button focus also means the consolidation of many damage-related abilities, so many damage abilities will see buffs to compensate. This is especially so with the changes to two-minute buffs, but we’ll get to that later.
Improving Job Expression
To directly address the complaints of homogenization, Evolved Mode is intended to give jobs more “personality.” This is easily demonstrated looking at Bard, where the job’s songs have more utility effects. For example:
- Mage’s Ballad now increases party regen,
- Army’s Peon increases movement speed, and
- The Wanderer’s Minuet provides a barrier.
Songs can be sung in any order to match the combat situation. In this way, Bard’s job identity becomes more coherent as a utility-focused physical-ranged DPS option.
An even more drastic change from Reborn Mode is how Dragoon plays in Evolved, where the job is based around positioning. In this version, Dragoon has a Dragonsbane gauge that naturally builds and allows access to powerful direction-based attacks. Sinister Drive deals more damage when executed on the boss’ left, Dexter Drive on the right, and so on. To compensate for this added complexity, Dragoon has a new jump, Vengeful Jump, that negates directional requirements for the next attack.
Vengeful Jump also provides stacks of Blood of the Dragon, leading to yet another powerful combo based on Stardiver. And using that gives you access to Sky High, which sends your Dragoon into the air for a few seconds before coming down to deal massive damage. Oh, and you get 90% damage reduction. Sounds like a lot, right?
Yoshi-P clarified on the panel that Evolved Mode is not intended to be simpler compared to Reborn Mode. Even though buttons are consolidated, the new system aims to provide plenty of complexity in how jobs will play in Evercold. While Evolved Mode is still in its early stages of development and heavily subject to change, it looks to be a step in the right direction for players who want jobs to feel unique. 👍
More Changes: Tank Roles and the End of the Two-Minute Meta
When looking at the new Evolved Mode and how jobs will play starting in Patch 8.0, Yoshi-P said that much thought was given on the two-minute meta FFXIV is currently based around. Much like complaints about job homogenization, the two-minute party buffs are timed around has led to a very formulaic-feel for many fights. The party goes nuts every two minutes, and the rest of the time is just filler. To better improve how the game feels to play, and to allow greater creativity in encounter design, most, if not all, two-minute damage buffs will be removed or changed in both Reborn and Evolved Mode.
Another massive change is the clear definition of Main Tank (MT) and Off Tank (OT/ST) as a different roles. This sub-role Tank identity is pretty inspired from what we currently have for Healers, with regards to Regen Healers and Shield Healers. Here’s the breakdown.
Main Tanks are still expected to focus around taking direct damage and countering enemy attacks. Meanwhile, Off Tanks will focus on reducing outgoing damage from bosses and providing mitigation for allies. Paladin and the new tank job for 8.0 will be classified as main tanks; Dark Knight, Gunbreaker, and Warrior as off tanks.
Level Rebalancing
Finally, action availability by level will be adjusted to better fit the new system. The intent is to have the majority of a job’s toolkit available by level 50. Beyond that, new actions will focus on additions to existing abilities versus adding completely new ones. If you end up in Praetorium again, at least you’ll have a more engaging rotation with Evolved Mode. 😎
Tamaki said that the intention is to “create a system so even more players will enjoy for years to come!” These upcoming changes are still unknown to many players, and more than a few things will likely change between now and January 2027. However, CBU3 is clearly ambitious about changing the way players currently play FFXIV. We’re likely to see more details at the next Fanfest in Berlin this July. Until then, keep checking back with Icy Veins for more news about FFXIV Evercold.
