Final Fantasy XIV players have been waiting impatiently for the Paladin rework to finally hit the patch notes to see what changes are coming in Patch 6.3, and not only did they get them, but they also got a surprise Machinist buff to go with it.
The two jobs have been the topic of heavy debate for a while now, especially Machinist. The physical ranged class was often discussed as the lowest DPS class in the game, and not by a close margin. Unless you were an exceptional Machinist, those that made it were side-eyed or even straight-up turned down for harder-level content.
Paladin has been the topic of discussion from Yoshi-P, who told players in Live Letters that the job was getting a complete rework to deal with a few issues the team sought to remedy, including the lack of burst damage and the difficult use of its defensive abilities.
Final Fantasy XIV’s Paladin gets a massive rework
Out of all of the patch notes for jobs, Paladin’s was certainly the longest. Gone are the DoTs, and in come the oGCDs, damage increase, and slightly easier defense rotation.
Some of the skills have simply received a buff in damage, such as Fight or Flight. Instead of a physical damage increase, Fight or Flight now just has a straight damage increase, making the skill slightly more versatile. The combo skills have been made less potent, but with Royal Authority granting the next Holy Spirit or Holy Circle to be cast immediately with increased potency, the combo received a fairly nice buff. Both Holy Spirit and Holy Circle got a buff in potency when used in combo with Royal Authority.
Some straight damage skills have been reduced, but with the DoTs removed, players now have a little more damage in their back pockets in the oGCD category. Goring Blade has been added as an oGCD, giving players an attack with a potency of 700 in their off-cooldown rotation.
The biggest change to the kit is Divine Veil, which now creates a barrier around the player and all party members nearby, and absorbs the equivalent of 10 percent of the players’ maximum HP. This removes a large hoop that players needed to jump through to get this effect to trigger. Before, players needed HP recovery for it to trigger, and now the effect is a straight cast.
Machinist got a surprise buff, something players have been asking for
Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida has had players so concentrated on Paladin’s rework that it distracted everyone from Machinist’s lack of DPS or party buffs, something other physical ranged jobs had.
Now, Machinist should be a little more widely accepted by the player base since it got a straight damage buff. It even got a little bit of party support with the addition of Dismantle, which lowers the target’s damage dealt by 10 percent for 10 seconds with a 120-second cooldown.
Gauss Round, Ricochet, Heated Slug Shot, Heated Clean Shot, and Marksman’s Mastery all got straight damage buffs, giving a much-needed boost to the job’s damage output.
Other jobs got some changes too
Other jobs got some really nice but small changes that made people pretty happy. Bard got a pretty huge change to Nature’s Minne, which now affects the entire party instead of just one party member. Dancer got a great quality of life update where they can now use Curing Waltz and Shield Samba while dancing, which is a small but very nice change.
White Mage and Sage also got some pretty sweet changes. White Mage’s Assize, one of the best skills in the kit, got a cooldown reduction which helps bring it into the buff window of other jobs, and Sage also got reduced recast times on all phases of Phlegma. They also got additional stacks of Addersting which are given when the barrier added by Eukrasian Prognosis to themselves is completely depleted.
To read the full patch notes and see exactly what was changed about each job, head to the Lodestone which contains every change included with the patch, or the job guides which will show new and updated skills per job.
