Final Fantasy XIV Will Be Tuning Down The Now-Overpowered Black Mage
The Final Fantasy XIV dev team rolled out a patch earlier this week that included a PvP balance pass for several jobs, including the Black Mage. The Black Mage saw a significant boost to casting time, damage output, spell effect duration, and survivability to a point that made it extremely overpowered. Executive Producer Naoki Yoshida acknowledged the fact and announced that they will be reverting the changes in Patch 6.15.
“We have received a great deal of feedback regarding these changes, and in hindsight, I believe we went too far with our adjustments,” said Yoshida. He also explained how they decide which jobs get adjustments as far as PvP is concerned, which involves monitoring win rates and usage rates or each individual job and going in to investigate when they fall below a certain average.
Apparently, the Black Mage had the lowest usage and win rates in early May which prompted them to make the recent adjustments. After looking into player feedback, however, in addition to hands-on experience with the Black Mage, Yoshida admitted that they went a little over the top when it came to the changes.
“What should have been minor changes were released as major changes, which ultimately resulted in an overpowered black mage,” he said. “By adding a heavy effect, giving Paradox multiple charges, and otherwise decreasing casting times, the black mage was granted an undeniable advantage, which we intend to revert in a future patch.”
“In the hands of a skilled PvP combatant, the black mage has more than enough potential to excel in battle,” he added.
Patch 6.15 is slated for release on June 7th and will come with even more job balance adjustments, particularly to Frontline PvP. More information can be found on the Final Fantasy XIV official site.
