During two live Q&A sessions at the Tokyo Fan Festival, Final Fantasy XIV Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida announced several adjustments for version 8.0 and future updates. Changes are coming to Black Mages, gear exchange, fishing, and the housing system.
The Black Mage's Enhanced mode will remove the current Triplecast, replacing it with a different mechanism. Black Mantra will no longer require the character to remain within its area for 30 seconds; players can place it, cast spells, leave to handle mechanics, and then return to continue using it for a certain number of abilities. The new ranged physical DPS job, Viper, can submit dyes to specific NPCs to apply dual colors to their bird companions.
Allagan Tomestones of Poetics, long used to exchange for older gear, will be phased out. The team will provide alternative methods for players to exchange gear for secondary jobs or obtain past rewards. Version 8.0 will also simplify the fishing system: once bait is unlocked through leveling, quest rewards, or purchase from an NPC, it will be added to a selectable list, eliminating the need to carry physical items and allowing for reuse.
The housing update is expected to allow nearly all furniture to float without exploiting glitches, with some lighting fixtures possibly being exceptions. Personal loot will not prevent players who have already cleared the content from helping those who haven't cleared it that week; the latter can still receive rewards. A system for claiming missed rewards from previous seasons is also in development.
Updates to Island Sanctuary will be considered after version 8.0 stabilizes. Character customization is still being fine-tuned, and the expansion of weapon idle poses has entered production. More details regarding jobs, gear progression, and character creation will be revealed in future live streams.