Q&A from the Letter from the Producer Part X

[Andromeda]

While showing off new content and changes for the upcoming patch 2.1. Yoshida spent time like with the past Letter from the Producer segments answering player questions.

Due to the volume of questions, I'll summarize the topics and a link can be followed to read the details in their entirety. There were questions about the Dragoon and Lancer. The jump for the Dragoon will be improved giving them the chance to move sooner after completing the jump. Many of the timers will be for abilities will be changed as well as a general 10% boost in damage. There will not be an invincibility during jump. As an aside, Monk's Grease Lightning will be getting increased and the bonus for damage from behind will be increased. The cross skills a Bard can use will be changed.

The concern about the lag and location update is going to be addressed in end game areas. They are not able to do it for everything because of how taxing it would be on the servers, but PvP and post-game content will see this change, likely places like the Primal battles.

The Crystal Tower item level requirement will be set to ilvl55, but it will drop ilvl80 gear. There will be loot to be rolled over in the Crystal Tower, but it will only between the party and not the alliance as it looks like the bosses that grant loot will be fought as a party. It will also not currently be possible to go into the Crystal Tower with a pre-made alliance. The other two parties will be found through duty finder. If one of the parties is having trouble in the tower is sounds like it is still possible to help them out, but there may be a mechanic involved that will make it difficult sometimes to do. The Crystal Tower will also drop tomes for Philosophy and Mythology.

The forbidden land of Eureka is being looked at being recreated, but is still off for another update if it makes it.

New items will be added to the armoire allowing it to hold a wider range of gear. The increase to the retainer system did not make it into the patch and may end up in a later patch.

It will cost 2,000 gil to use the beauty parlor to change hair and face decorations. There will not be a limit to the amount it can be used. More content will be made available in later patches with each race receiving a focus in different patches.

The Good King Moogle Mog XII fight is rated as being as difficult a the Garuda Hard Mode fight. The extreme mode versions is planned for patch 2.2, there will be no normal mode. There will not be cosmetic gear from the fight yet, but later patches might have some. The weapons from the fight will be ilvl80.

The kick feature is going to be in the patch for the Duty Finder, but there are some limitations. The Duty Finder will have a large-scale party recruitment feature included which is designed to help players set up a run based on their needs. A MVP like system will be set up for when soloing, which they want used as a way to thank someone. The interest is for it to be to the player that was the nicest rather than the best at the run. The Duty Roulette will not consume your daily token until the player receives their reward, so there is no danger of losing it from disconnects. The Duty Roulette will be solo only. There is plans for later to set up party focused ones as well. The Chimera and Hydra battles are in consideration for the Duty Finder in later patches, while the Binding Coil will not being included and is encouraged to use the new party search feature.

The Pharos Sirius is a four player dungeon. It will drop ilvl60 gear with it being designed for fresh starting lvl 50 players to run with just their job specific gear available. The dungeon will be tied to a story related to the Isles of Umbra. They confirmed the boss will have a Final Fantasy feel, but did not say what.

Haukke Manor and Copperbell Mines will be the dungeons getting hard mode versions. These dungeons will have some changes in paths, boss mechanics, atmospheric and dungeon mechanics. There will also be story related quests to why there are hard versions. The dungeons drop ilvl60 gear. Tomestones will be gained from the dungeons. Some housing specific items will be obtained from the dungeon.

The extreme mode fights are setup for ilvl70 geared players. Story-wise they will be after defeating Titan, so it is likely that defeating Titan Hard Mode will be required before they are unlocked. The extreme mode mechanics look to not change a lot, but add more numbers of AoEs to dodge and enemies like 4 Ifrits during the dash phase or two mini Titans. The extreme mode will be very challenging, it is possible to recover from them, but it is going to be very hard fights. Each primal will drop ilvl90 weapons. They can be done with the Duty Finder like the Hard Modes.

There are housing items that drop from the primal Hard Modes, the drop rate is very low currently, but will increase once patch 2.1 is released.

Source: Letter from the Producer LIVE Part X Q&A Updates