There’s lots of talk floating around on Final Fantasy XI servers about the changes coming up in this month’s update to the game. Here’s a quick summary of what’s going to change:

The most interesting stuff:

• New missions will be (finally!) added to the Wings of the Goddess storyline.
• Artifact Armor quests for Scholar and Dancer. These jobs will also be able to “push their limits”, which could mean merit categories [Update: Nope, it means a limit break quest for Level 70 to 71... only needed for those leveling one of these as their first 75 job].
• New changes will be made to Campaign Battles. The technological level of whatever force is controlling an area will determine certain features that will be available, including the ability to call reinforcements from a Belfry or to restore your HP at a Mantelet. These new elements must be defended from Beastmen, or destroyed when the Beastmen control them. Beastmen will own their own strongholds which can be attacked when player forces become stronger in surrounding areas. Beastmen will also get siege turrets — devices that can spawn enemies and launch devastating ranged attacks — when their technological strength reaches a certain level.
• A new EXP ring is being added. The Emperor Band will be added to the Conquest Points purchase menu, as an upgrade from the Chariot Band and Empress Band. How much extra EXP is earned from this ring is unknown. It’s likely that you won’t be able to use your Empress Band anymore if you do switch to this new one, but this hasn’t been confirmed yet.
• Adventuring fellows (NPCs) will get new equipment, and will benefit from party spells like Protectra. They’ll also stop using area-of-effect weapon skills.
• Macros will be able to stored on PlayOnline’s servers, so you can use the same macro set on multiple platforms, anywhere you log into your account.
• New armor and weapons will be added.

Job-specific updates:

• White Mages are getting new teleport spells. Where the new teleport locations are remains a mystery, but they’re most likely in Wings of the Goddess areas.
• Black Mages are getting a new type of Warp spell. The most common speculation is that it’ll be a “Warpga” spell that would essentially cast “Warp II” on all party members simultaneously, as a time-savers for disbanding parties and completed linkshell events.
• Ninjas are getting a new ninjitsu spell that gives the Sneak effect. They’ve had Invisible for quite a while with Tonko, so this is only natural.
• Puppetmasters are getting new weapon skills for their automans.
• Summoners are getting an elemental spirit MP absorption ability… we’ll have to wait for clarity on that one.
• Scholars will get an upgrade in the number of stratagems charges they have available, as well as a reduction in charge time.
• Dancers will have their waltz recast time shortened to six seconds when Trance is active.

Other miscellaneous changes include:

• New icons for some status effects will be added.
• A new reddish-purple colour will be added to the colours for mob names. This will indicate a mob that is controlled by another party in your alliance, while the pink colour will continue to indicate a mob owned by another party outside of your alliance.
• Battle music will play for mages when they start casting magic on the mob or on party members in battle, even if they aren’t engaged to the mob.
• The ongoing problem of getting “stuck” when a cure spell is cast on you will be addressed — with the quasai-bind effect shortened, at least.
• Four new commands, /dance1 - /dance4, will be added. These will allow your character to dance, even when you’re not a dancer. Hopefully these will be a little different than just Dancer moves mapped to emotes, but don’t count on it.
• Two new hats are being added to the Adventurer Recruitment Program.

What I’m most looking forward to: New WotG missions and the new EXP ring. What about you?

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