What Do We Know About Heavensward? - Final Fantasy XIV

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The trailer for Heavensward, Final Fantasy XIV's FIRST expansion, has been released courtesy of Yoshi-P at the Las Vegas Fan Festival! Of course this has led to some already massive hype. We know that there will be a new race, a new job/class, and new primals... but just what could these be? What is Heavensward even about anyway?

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The plot for the expansion will follow the events of the Dragonsong War, a thousand year old conflict between Dravania and Ishgard. The players of Final Fantasy XIV must help the war come to a conclusion. As well as the main overarching plot of Heavensward, there will be side-quests to take part in as well as more new content to interact with.

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I'm excited to see how the airship system will work, and what it will be used for. I am wondering if these 'unreachable' areas of Coerthas will need to be traveled to via airship. Of course we can expect lots of new gear as with most patches so far. I'm hoping for some really special stuff from the expansion though.

As for raids, I'm thinking more 'tower' raids like the popular Crystal and Syrcus Tower raids. These both have some really good gear up for grabs so hopefully the raids in Heavensward will let us get even more fantastic loot. Personally, I'm hoping for really decorative, dragon like armour which would really match the theme of the expansion.

In terms of primals, I have to say I'm less excited for them than I am for new jobs and a new race. I'm hoping we could see Alexander and even summons that were maybe only featured in one Final Fantasy, for example, the Minotaur Brothers of Final Fantasy VIII.


New Race
My Theory - Gria
Why? Why are we suspecting the new race will be Gria? Well, we first need to take a few clues from story quest character Yugiri (pictured below) to get the idea that the dragon/hume race Gria will be the next to be added to Eorzea. Yugiri is completely covered in cloth but her tail and something on her head are the clues here. Her tail appears to be very scaly, and on her head are some weird shapes that could be ears, but are most likely to be horns.

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As well as this, Yoshi-P himself has said he would love a more draconic race to be added. Also, the Heavensward expansion is all about the Dragonsong war. I'm hedging my bets on the new race being Gria.

New Job/Class
My Theory - Dark Knight
Why? Just this piece of awesome dialogue from Yoshi-P and Gondai. This is pretty much not a theory, but confirmed.

Quote:

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Yoshi-P: "Any...new information about new jobs?"
Gondai: "Well, I was going to wear a Batman T-shirt but couldn't find one."
Yoshi-P: "Oh yes, I really liked the second Batman film that Nolan directed."

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New Primals
My Theory - Alexander
Why? One of the new locations confirmed for Heavensward is The Holy See of Ishgard. Goodness knows what that's going to be like to explore, but it is said to be a huge city - and which Final Fantasy summon is a large city-like being that is full of Holy power? That's right, Alexander. Yoshi-P has also said that Final Fantasy XIV will get a primal which is completely unique to Eorzea too, as well as a few more to hit the expansion. Who would you like to see?

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Of course, there are to be many new locations added to the expansion also, check out these pictures from Fan Fest to wet your appetite and further your hype mode.

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This is a very picture-heavy article, as we're still running mostly on speculation until Yoshi-P and co give us further details during the London Fan Festival. I mean, he can't give EVERYTHING away at Las Vegas. I'm really hyped for this expansion, which is set for Spring 2015. I don't want to wait that long! I want it now! I suppose we have Dreams of Ice to tide us over, however.

Keep your eyes peeled for more Heavensward news next week!

They actually showed concept art for dark knight way back in 1.19 when they first announced the job system. It was originally teased alongside paladin when they first discussed the possibility of classes specializing into two different jobs (both Dark Knight and paladin were provided as the example coming from gladiator). A lot of people in the fanbase have focused on the Final Fantasy XI version of dark knight which had the highest skill cap in both sycthe and great sword and so dismiss the probability that dark knight will be likely come from gladiator and wield sword and shields. FFXIV has focused a great deal on throwbacks to previous Final Fantasy titles (such as FFIII and the none-to-subtle references to FFVI Fernhawles made when discussing the new floating continents). Dark Knight has appeared far more often (and more in more iconic roles) as a sword-and-shield damage dealer.

Beyond Dark Knight, some people caught a screen grab during the music panel which showed a folder labeled "Samurai" on Soken's laptop. In recent conversations and interviews, Yoshida has repeatedly mentioned that a new tank and healer class are also coming (usually in response to concerns that they added rogue and ninja, an additional DPS class before a new tank or healer). The musketeer guild has also been in the game since the original 1.0 release and before E3 they openly discussed a gun-wielding class alongside a dagger-wielding class. We only got Ninja announced for 2.4, so we've been left hanging on musketeer. All we know is that the associated job is "not what we expect," which has led some people to speculate we might get some variant of chemist as a TP-using and gun-wielding healer.

I also think it's likely that Alexander will appear in some capacity, but I think probably as an elder primal like Bahamut and Odin rather than a regular primal. Some have suspected Alexander will have some relation to the Allag Empire believing that the term Allag may be a corruption of "Alex". I'm not holding my breath on that account, but I do think that eventually Alexander will have a fairly large role to play more similar to his role in Final Fantasy IX or XI.

Yeah I've read a few theories that Alexander could be the next big one like Bahamut once that's done. If so, that will be really interesting to explore.

I'm not sure what to think about the Samurai thing, but that could be very cool too! :D Hmmm, wasn't the Alchemy class in X-2 a weird gun/chemist variant? Something similar to that maybe? I'm going to stop thinking about it anyway until next week when we hear more about it! Eeeeeeeh! :D :D :D

Yeah, alchemists in FFX-2 had guns and the mix ability. Chemists in Final Fantasy Tactics were also one of the only classes that could use guns. While alchemist already exists as a crafting class, I think adding chemist as a battle class would allow for a healer that differentiates itself from scholar and white mage pretty dramatically in play-style.

There are a lot of different ways they could go with it, although I think the major rule would be that it could not actually require consumable items. They could do a charge-based ability system similar to scholar's aetherflow or warrior's defiance. It might also be interesting if they do a Mix action that is similar to the upcoming ninja's mudras. For example, as they level they could get access to different reagents that they could combine for different effects.

What I really want out of 3.0 is second jobs for each of the existing classes that occupy a different role from their current ones. I'd love to see gladiator get dark knight as a DPS alternative to paladin. Similarly, I'd love to see marauder get viking or berserker as a DPS alternative to warrior. Geomancer as a magic-based DPS for conjurer. Templar would make a great deal of sense as a tank for lancer, especially since the temple knights are part of Ishgardian lore already. Ranger as a pure DPS alternative to bard (which, as the level cap rises, should become increasingly focused on support).

Second jobs for puglist (dancer or puppetmaster?), rogue (...dancer?), and thaumaturge (...time mage? red mage?) become increasingly difficult to imagine, especially given the limitation of the holy trinity of healer, damage dealer, and tank. It becomes even more difficult if you want to make sure each second job has a different role from the first.

Speculation is too much fun.

I would be happy if the Brothers someday appeared in this game. They're a fun summon duo.

I would love Brothers if only because they would require two tanks from the start through to the end. I can't think of any fight off the top of my head that has two major bosses of equal stature at once. It would add something different, I feel.

Despite that, I don't think they'll be in there any time soon.

I can see three new jobs being added. Samurai, Dark Knight and a healer role - I don't think Chemist is the answer, personally, but would be interested in (and here's a non-fantasy shocker) a role similar to an actual medic. Give them much higher healing powers, but extremely short range healing - melee-healing, if you like. I think this, like a potential future Brothers fight, could allow for a different dynamic to a team.

Looking forward to the London FanFest already. :) Still need to catch up on a lot of the Twitch stuff from Vegas, though.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

I would love Brothers if only because they would require two tanks from the start through to the end. I can't think of any fight off the top of my head that has two major bosses of equal stature at once. It would add something different, I feel.

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Leviathan and his Tail. ;)

Yeah... not quite the same though!