Future job adjustments were announced at the FINAL FANTASY XI Fan Festival 2006 held in North America, and also posted on the special blog found on the Fan Festival website. All of the changes mentioned will not be implemented during a single version update. Please be aware that depending on the results of various testing and balancing, several adjustments may take some time before making their way into the game, and we may even decide against implementing some of the changes.
Warrior
One of the great things about warriors is their ability to use many different weapons. We are planning to add benefits to those who utilize this great variety of weapons. We see the current trend is for warriors to almost exclusively use ninja as their support job. In the future we want to create benefits for players that use support jobs besides ninja. Also, we are thinking about making it possible for warriors to throw their axes in battle.
Monk
A monk's role is fairly straightforward in a party: deal large amounts of damage. We would like to modify monks to allow them to be more flexible depending on party composition. Monks have large amounts of HP and we are thinking of different ways that this can benefit other party members. For example, we're considering adding an ability that would raise the entire party's maximum HP for a short period of time.
White Mage
We want to make it so the white mage remains totally dedicated to keeping their party alive, no matter what. No other job should fulfill this role as well as the white mage. We also want white mages to be able to contribute to the party in a way exclusive to their job, aside from just curing. This may be accomplished by adding an ability where white mages could share their HP and MP with party members. Also, we are considering adding the effect of removing status ailments from the Benediction ability.
Black Mage
We recognize that black mage is a very powerful job. We see that a lot of players are forming parties with just black mages, and we would like to change that. We do not plan to weaken the job, but we want to create benefits for partying with other jobs. We are also considering adding new magic to the black mages’ repertoire.
Red Mage
Red mage is a complex and powerful job once mastered. We are thinking about adding new magic, but the nature of the spells has yet to be decided.
Thief
Thief is one of the more technical jobs in the game, because they must always be aware of the enemy’s position and enmity. We are considering adding a special thief ability that aids not only the player, but all the members of the party. We will be adding a bonus to the Steal job ability and changing the 2-hour ability Perfect Dodge to be more beneficial in offensive situations. When thieves stands behind the enemy while Perfect Dodge is active, they will receive a damage bonus to their attacks.
Paladin
We wish to bring paladins to a level that is equal to the ninja utsusemi method of tanking. We are considering adding the Auto-Refresh job trait to paladin, as well as traits that utilize shields, such as more frequent shield use during battle and bonus TP from blocking attacks.
Dark Knight
We notice a trend of many dark knights only using greatswords in higher levels because of the skillchain possibilities, and we would like to change that. We want to motivate dark knights to return to using their scythes once again. Also, the dark knight-exclusive spells do not seem to be used as often as we hoped, so we are discussing changing them to make them more effective.
Beastmaster
When we changed how monsters would despawn when out of their natural spawn radius, it caused a lot of problems for the beastmaster job class. We know that many players are dissatisfied with this system, and we're working to relieve the problem. The beastmaster is a tougher job than some of the others to balance, so we may be unable to make radical adjustments, but rest assured that we have not forgotten you!
Bard
There is a tendency for bards to only sing particular songs in the party and nothing else. We want to make it so bards have many types of useful songs with which to aid their party. For example, we might add a low-level song that, when sung, would increase party movement speed--like a weaker version of the Chocobo Mazurka.
Ranger
We recently made large changes to the ranger job class, which causes them to deal more damage depending on their distance from an enemy. From now on, we will only make small adjustments to the ranger class. We're sorry we don't have any final details for the future, but please stay tuned. However, the distance-based accuracy adjustments will not be a factor while the Sharpshot ability is active. Also, we'll be adding more stackable ammunition in the future.
Samurai
Samurai is a job that revolves around TP. We would like to modify samurai in regards to the timing of their weapon skills or various other ways to utilize their TP ability. We are considering giving samurai a new ability that will lower an enemy's TP.
Ninja
We know that ninja is a strong job, but we do not have any plans to weaken them. Compared to other jobs, ninja is a complicated job to balance, so we plan to spend a lot of time on testing adjustments.
Dragoon
We recently changed the dragoon's Call Wyvern ability and completely redesigned the 2-hour ability. We are currently collecting data and feedback.
Summoner
Currently, the trend is for summoners to only call out their avatars to use a blood pact ability, but we want to create something that will encourage summoners to keep their avatars out for longer periods of time. Also, we will adjust the abilities that avatars use so that they are based on the summoner's summoning skill. We have no plans to add Bahamut as an avatar, because we would like to preserve his powerful image. We would have to make him weaker if he became a player's avatar, and we do not want to do that. We are thinking about new avatars for Treasures of Aht Urhgan, however, so stay tuned.
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