The first patch of Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is here, bringing a collection of promised new content as well as minor tweaks to fix and fine-tune some of the inevitable release-day inconsistencies.
With patch 7.01, we finally have the first tier of the highly-anticipated Arcadion raid series, a first look at the new raid gear, and some major changes to job actions that mostly streamline enmity generation for tanks and some damage balance for DPS jobs. You may or may not be looking at some notable rotation changes depending on the job you main—here’s all the details in the Patch 7.01 notes for FFXIV: Dawntrail.
Everything new in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Patch 7.01 notes
Arcadion Raid: AAC Light-heavyweight Tier
The big ticket item in the Patch 7.01 notes is the Arcadion raid series, starting with the AAC Light-heavyweight Tier. Taking place in the cyberpunk city of Solution Nine, this neon-shaded tournament arc makes the player a new challenger offering entertainment for the grieving Alexandrian populace.
The Light-heavyweight Tier is composed of four new raids and six quests that can only be started at level 100 after finishing the Dawntrail MSQ. You can unlock the raids and start the quest chain in Solution Nine’s Recreation Zone, right by the Arcadion tower itself. The fights drop Arcadion relics that can be exchanged for Light-heavy gear, which are ilvl 710 and undyeable.
If you like the look of them, the dyeable variants will be available at ilvl 730 from the Savage version of the Light-heavyweight Tier, which is currently scheduled to release with Patch 7.05.
Job action changes: Tank enmity tweaks, Monk buff, Umbral Soul fix
The first update of a new expansion is almost guaranteed to have job action changes, but the ones in Patch 7.01 might not be what players were expecting. Here’s a quick summary:
Tanks:
- All regular AoE GCD actions have been buffed with increased enmity generation.
- Gunbreaker and Dark Knight’s gap-closers now increase enmity generation despite doing no damage.
- Warrior’s Primal Ruination has been buffed by 40 potency, while Primal Rend Ready’s duration has been shortened by 10 seconds.
Astrologian:
- Lightspeed has been buffed to hold two charges, and the cooldown has been reduced by 30 seconds.
- Macrocosmos has been buffed by 20 potency.
- Astral Drawn and Umbral Draw’s cooldowns have been reduced by five seconds each.
DPS:
- Samurai’s Tendo Setsugekka and Tendo Kaeshi Setsugekka’s cooldowns have been reduced by 0.7 seconds each.
- The ranges of each action in Viper’s Death Rattle combo and First Generation combo have been increased by two yalms.
- Red Mage’s Manaification duration has been doubled.
- Multiple Monk abilities—including nearly every regular GCD—have had potency changes for a cumulative damage buff.
- Black Mage’s Umbral Soul is now available at level 35 instead of 76.
Overall, every job has been buffed to allow for more flexibility—as well as better aggro security for tanks—but the most significant change is to Black Mage. Despite it seeming like a small tweak, the huge decrease in requisite level for Umbral Soul is a game-changer for the job. The fact that this MP-regenerating utility ability was locked as high as level 76 has always been a sticking complaint since its implementation.
Now, Black Mages finally have a fast way to regenerate MP and Umbral Hearts while managing the multiple MP-draining abilities learned at lower levels—and considering the major changes made to Ice Phase in Dawntrail, this was a quality-of-life change that was more needed than ever.
However, it looks like Pictomancer remains absurdly powerful while Viper still lacks utility (or enough potency to make up for it). It seems like a strange imbalance to maintain, but players will have to wait and see what patch 7.05 brings to the table for the Savage raids.
Miscellaneous changes
And of course, there’s the rest—aside from the new raid, new items, and job changes, there have been a few tweaks made to the game overall.
- The number of instances in Tuliyollal has been reduced from three to two, while Urqopacha and Kozama’uka have gone from six to three. While the later areas of Dawntrail remain unchanged, they will also likely be reduced in the upcoming patches.
- There is a new enemy status called Directional Disregard, which changes the hitbox ring and nullifies positional requirements.
- The infamous bug where Pictomancers could manually remove their damage burst buffs has been fixed.
Other various issues and bugs have also been successfully patched—you can check out the details in the full patch notes here.
