Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter 33 Summary; Patch 3.5 detailed, part 1 in Jan 2017

Letter from the Producer Live #33 is a wrap, and we’ve got a summary of all the juicy details below. Director/producer Naoki Yoshida and global online producer Toshio Murouchi (along with special guest: Garuda/Kan-E-Senna voice actor Rie Tanaka) returned to reveal the newest patch The Far Edge of Fate, which will release in two parts similar to the Before the Fall pre-expansion patch. Part one will release in mid-January, and part two will release in March. In today’s stream, the team will be going over the new content and features.

The Far Edge of Fate

  • Patch 3.5 The Far Edge of Fate will release in two parts, the first will be in mid-January.
  • The Far Edge of Fate Part II will release in Mid-March.

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Scenario

  • New main scenario quests continuing where the story left off in Patch 3.4 “Soul Surrender”.
  • New Warring Triad quests will continue the side story, including an encounter with Zurvan.
  • New quests involving the Saint Endalim’s Scholasticate will continue in Ishgard.
  • New quests with Hildibrand, Agent of Inquiry will debut.

Dungeons, Trials & Raids

  • New dungeon Baelsar’s Wall is located in Gridania, and exists to keep Eorzean primals out of Garlean-controlled Gyr Abania to the east.
  • New dungeon Sohm Al (Hard) will have us travel down the mountain rather than up.
  • New alliance raid Dun Scaith will conclude The Shadow of Mhach storyline, but there might still be loose ends!
  • New trial The Containment Bay Z1T9 (plus an Extreme version) features a battle against Zurvan, the Demon for its finale.

Other New Content

  • Zhloe Aliapoh
    A new NPC that will send you on crafting/gathering-based quests to curry favor with various NPCs. By completing them you will raise their satisfaction level. As the patch continues on, there will be more clients other than Zhloe, and they will focus largely on glamour items. The content itself is intended to be geared towards glamour.

  • Exploratory Missions
    This content won’t be released right away in Patch 3.5 Part 1, but a bit later on. Its a huge overhaul to the previous Exploratory Missions content that sent you to the Diadem. The story is that a cataclysmic event takes place that renders adventurers unable to enter in Patch 3.5 until the content reopens in a subsequent patch.

    The map hasn’t changed much, but there will be differences in where you can and can’t go — including your objectives. Hunting and gathering missions have been separated. You may run into bosses battles that will use the entire map, or bosses so difficult you’ll need to request the aid of four parties. Don’t worry about achivements, you’ll still be able to earn the same ones in the new version.

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Party Finder Update

  • The Party Finder will undergo significant changes so that players can be drafted from other world servers in your data center group. The UI will be updated so that you can tab between party requests from the same server or all servers. If you host or join a party that has members from different servers, you will still be able to chat. Deep Dungeon will need some extra work to be accessible with this feature, so that will come later. Gold Saucer content will not be possible with this system.

    You’ll be able to use new filtering features, as well as password-lock your parties. A blacklist and friend list are also in the works.

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PvP Update

  • Players will have the option of being matched in Duty Finder without regard to Grand Company affiliation.
  • Dueling will now nave an item level sync 150, the same as The Feast content. Gear below this threshold will not be synced. You’ll also be able to item level sync to your host’s item level. Recast timers will now reset at the start of a duel.
  • A new map will be added to The Feast (seen below) after the end of season three. It’ll be part of a new pre-season in which the team will gather feedback on the new map. Chat will be disabled, but new auto-translate functions and communication options you can add to a hotbar will be added.

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Companion & Egi Glamour Update

  • At long last, it will now be possible to queue for a duty with your chocobo companion present.
  • To accomplish this, chocobos will now be treated as pets are in the party. You’ll need to click on someone’s chocobo to see their HP now, though.
  • Summoners and Scholars will still be able to use their Carbuncles and Egis.
  • It will now be possible to have a Full Party of 8 players, with 8 chocobos.
  • An Egi glamour system has been added so you can change the outward appearance of your Carbuncle, Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan-Egi. Right now only Carbuncle can change its appearance to three variations. You’ll be able to do it by completing a quest and entering text commands (like an emote) to change colors. This information is stored locally, so it will persist on logout, but if you log in from another system, you’ll need to toggle glamours accordingly. More variations will be added in subsequent patches.

Miscellaneous Updates

  • The Novice Network will have a prompt to either accept, wait or decline an invitation to a chat channel.
  • Returning players who have been gone for 45 days or more will be able to flag themselves as a returning player, and will get access to the Novice Network if they so choose. You’ll gain extra experience points by teaming up with a member.
  • You’ll be able to preview dye variations from the equipment screen.
  • Paintings will be added as a housing furnishing — some will be unlocked via the Sightseeing Log.

Mechandise

  • A music video for Duality, a new Final Fantasy XIV arrangement album, debuted.
    Catch it here.
  • A wide swath of merchandise was revealed, including blankets, hoodies, underwear, plates, mugs, and more. Many of this merchandise will be available for purchase at the Fan Festival in Tokyo next month. Check out the gallery below:

We’ll be learning more about Patch 3.5 as well as the Stormblood expansion at the next Fan Festival in Tokyo, December 24-25th.

As always you can hit up the full digest over on the official Final Fantasy XIV forums. Check out more of our Final Fantasy XIV coverage here.


About the Author

Tony Garsow Tony joined Nova Crystallis in 2015, and has spent more than a decade writing in the Final Fantasy community. He also contributes to the Nova Crystallis Twitch and YouTube channels, where you can watch select gameplay highlights, previews, and streams.

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