During the keynotes of Anaheim Fan Fest in April, Final Fantasy XIV director “Yoshi P” revealed the upcoming Evercold expansion (due out in January 2027), plus a ton of other news that was exciting for Warriors of Light across the globe. From a cross-data-center Party and Duty Finder to a new method of accessing high-end gear outside of your main class, FF XIV is receiving much-needed love from its developers across the board — likely in no small part due to the team receiving a bit of extra funding, as admitted by Square Enix CEO Takashi Kiryu on the Fan Fest stage.
While most of the news was met with enthusiasm online, there was one announcement that received much closer scrutiny: a new combat system. Dubbed “Evolved Mode,” this feature would join the previous combat structure (“Reborn Mode”) as an option for all classes except the two newly teased ones. The devs promised that Evolved Mode would not be a simplification of combat: Rather, it would bring FF XIV in a new direction by reducing button bloat while making the decision-making process behind button inputs much more meaningful.
Players were immediately interested, but skeptical. The brief glimpse we got of Evolved Mode sure looked like it was just reducing the number of buttons for each class. Thankfully, Yoshi P promised more information and even a short demonstration at the Development Panel a bit later in the day. Everyone was ready to take notes and walk away either fulfilled or screaming in rage.
Let’s look at the examples in a bit more detail.
The Development Panel
The team on stage, including the combat designer and mastermind behind Evolved Mode, Mr. Prime, did another re-explanation of their goals of Evolved Mode: to bring difficulty away from knowledge of how 30+ buttons interact with one another, and instead to show mastery of around 16 to 20 that are more heavily contextual depending on the fight. They showed four classes as a thesis: Paladin (a tank), Dragoon (a physical melee), White Mage (a healer), and Bard (a physical ranged class).
Paladin (PLD)
The Paladin is the team’s example of a “Main Tank,” a new designation provided to Paladin (and the upcoming, currently unannounced tank) about the future direction of tanks. Where Main Tanks have a counter mechanic and are better at tanking auto-attacks, “Off Tanks” (Warrior, Dark Knight, and Gunbreaker) will be better at area-of-effect mitigation, reducing the damage the party takes.
As the example Main Tank, the developers showed that when a Paladin properly protects themself (or an ally) against an attack, they have access to a counterattack that deals substantial damage. They also have a new dash, during which they rush to an ally and “Cover” them (taking all damage the target would take) for a few seconds. This is a departure from the current Cover mechanic, which is a ranged tether that lasts a while, but with a massive cooldown.
Otherwise, the Paladin has become simpler, with fewer buttons on their damage rotation while keeping their Physical to Magical rotation. The team also showed that Paladins would be getting additional effects to protect their party, such as an area-of-effect heal called “Round Table.”
Dragoon (DRG)
Dragoon might be the best messenger for Evolved Mode. It’s been overhauled entirely: Where the DRG was once a build focused on maintaining a five-part combo with two variations while weaving through a series of Off-Global Cooldowns (buttons you hit between buttons that share a cooldown, or Global Cooldowns), it now has a very basic three-hit combo. Instead, it has attacks that deal more damage and apply new effects when striking from the right, left, and behind your foe. After doing so successfully, you unlock a devastating Jump attack. Then, once you do enough of that extension, you receive a unique combo which ends in an even larger Jump called Sky High, during which you take significantly less damage from all attacks (the devs wanted the DRG to be immune to damage, but that’d mess with too many mechanics).
The Dragoon is likely the perfect direction for the Evolved mechanic. It’s dynamic, requiring you to plan ahead and decide when you can sneak in the Left, Right, and Rear attacks or when to use your Vengeful Jump, which lets you ignore a single position-based bonus. It has utility, where you can use Sky High to potentially tank a mechanic that was intended for a group all by yourself. And it lacks the 30+ buttons that Dragoons used to have, meaning you can focus on optimization without staring at your ping.
White Mage (WHM)
Where Dragoon is the class that gives me a lot of hope for Evolved Mode, White Mage is the argument against it. For all intents and purposes, White Mage is a strictly easier class than it once was. It’s lost several healing tools and its damage no longer requires you to stand and cast, firing instantly instead. It also no longer needs to keep Dia, its damage-over-time effect, active to maximize damage. Whenever you heal with White Mage, you gain a buff that increases the damage of Holy Sanctuary, its big-damage payoff.
This changes so little of White Mage. Right now, when White Mage casts a Lily, it gains a stacking effect that eventually allows you to cast Afflatus Misery, a massively damaging attack. This is essentially the same thing as the current iteration of Evolved White Mage — just replacing the three-stack requirement with an instant payoff. White Mage also has a damage reduction effect, but unlike Paladin, it doesn’t get rewarded for proper mitigation.
Honestly, this is the only Evolved job that I dislike the look of. The developers constantly reminded the audience that this job is supposed to be the easy one. But I think they can make an easy healer that also feels rewarding to master in a way beyond what Evolved White Mage seems to do at the moment.
Bard (BRD)
Bard is a fascinating creature. Outside of its basic ranged combo with a bow, the Bard has access to three distinct songs: something familiar to a lot of FF XIV players. Every 20-ish seconds, the Bard can play one of the songs, giving the party a defensive bonus while unlocking new attacks for the Bard: an area-of-effect focus, a damage-over-time focus, and a damaging but partially stationary focus. After playing all three songs, the Bard unlocks an encore that deals a ton of damage before they start again. In addition, they now have three stacks of a mobility tool, a custom dodge that changes based on the input beforehand.
I like this design of the bard, though some have noted that it’s pretty similar to the Summoner, a class that hits Summon buttons to unlock two attacks. I’m personally pretty excited, but I hope to see some minor adjustments to give it its own personality. It’s definitely not terribly designed, but it needs a bit of extra oomph.
What I Want To See From FF XIV’s Evolved Mode
Before I give feedback, I do want to underline that these examples are from an older devkit, and we’re still nine months away from the release of Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold. They are likely already quite different from the presentation shown, and the devs have plenty of time to add or subtract from them. But, by posting constructive feedback, I hope to help make Evolved Mode more interesting to me, a player who enjoys current FF XIV combat enough but wants the extra complexity Evolved Mode has shown so far.
General
- The classes shown did not have a generic area-of-effect attack (outside of the White Mage’s Holy). I do hope they get an area of effect, as that’s required for dungeons, and being able to choose between doing a generic area-of-effect attack or single-target damage to tear through a high-priority target seems important enough to get its own button. This was almost certainly due to the limits of the dev tool, though: I’m not super worried.
- I think something has to be done about the buff/debuff limits. For those out of the know, FF XIV has a hard-stuck limit of 30 buffs or debuffs applied to a single entity at a time. That includes enemies, which is a major part of the reason why we’ve witnessed the death of so many classes’ debuffs.
- The current Evolved Mode is kinda samey between jobs. Each one shown in the Fan Fest examples has a bar that fills/gains stacks over time, and it seems like the current damage rotation for the DPS hovers at 60 seconds. This is an improvement over the current “two-minute meta,” but maybe there’s some room to either shorten or lengthen this duration.
Paladin
- While I like how Paladin looks generally, I do hope for a tiny bit more interaction between the physical and magical sides of things, similar to what we have today. Currently in Evolved Mode, finishing a combo gives a combo ender, while Reborn Mode would give you a charge of an instantly cast Holy Spirit attack. I’d like to see that return to give the Paladin a bit more flow and something they can store and utilize as needed.
White Mage
- At the moment, the Evolved WHM regains Lillies, a resource that allows for extra healing and health over time, by just waiting in combat. I’d like for them to instead regain Lillies when they deal damage with spells like Glare. This makes a cycle that’s really good for new players: If I deal damage, I’m better at healing, and when I heal, I’m better at damage. I’ve run through dungeons with White Mages who do nothing but cast Cure, so a little meter that grows whenever they deal damage could be nice.
- I’d also like White Mages to get a reward for properly mitigating, a bit like Paladins do. Aquaveil is a fun ability, so getting a little “ding” and being able to do a bunch of damage could be a nice reward structure. Maybe their damage-over-time effect can hide here.
Dragoon
- I really have no major complaints here — maybe just a little bit of extra action to break up your positionals to Sky High combo pipeline? The DRG shown at the Development Panel actually had the lowest number of abilities out of every class, at 14. It can probably afford to get a few additional commands to make Sky High more interesting.
Bard
- The main thing I’d like to see from Bard is a clear throughline of the songs. The best-case scenario would be to create a “melody” from the music, where each song creates a unique attack that’s based on the previously played song, alongside the standard attack you’d expect. For example, if you played Mage’s Ballad and then played Wanderer’s Minuet, the second attack created by Wanderer’s Minuet could apply a damage-over-time effect (the unique effect from Mage’s Ballad) while requiring a cast bar (the unique effect of Wanderer’s Minuet). That’d let the Bard player who masters music better personalize their rotation to match the fight.
- Given this’d be a lot more work, I’d like each song to buff the future song’s damage-dealing potential, which’d let the Bard player who knows how a fight is choreographed better plan when to use each song. Alternatively, if they use their song’s mitigation effect successfully, that could buff their damage.
Miscellaneous Changes Announced at Fan Fest
- The removal of Synergy Actions. The “two-minute meta” was a controversial part of the history of FF XIV. All classes and most combats were designed around doing a gigantic burst of damage every two minutes and then a relaxation period where you do damage, but much less. Everything was crafted around being able to do that burst, so the removal of it opens flexibility for class and encounter design.
- Everyone gets a kit by level 50. This is a compromise between the crowd screaming that you should get all of your buttons no matter what dungeon you get put in, and the current method, where you are dropped down to the effective level of the content you’re in. This will help make joining a leveling dungeon much easier, as even early game encounters will feel complete. Nothing bad here.
- Main Tank / Off Tank. One of the more controversial announcements, outside of Evolved Mode, is the dedicated split between “Main Tank” and “Off Tank.” We’ve touched on it briefly, but I do want to specify that this difference will likely be very minimal. Paladin, in the dev panel, still has all of its party mitigation tools (and a brand-new one), so I’m assuming Off Tanks will also be very much able to take damage. Main Tanks will likely just have a block chance that makes taking damage consistently easier, as well as the counter mechanic.
I’m Really Excited for Evolved Mode
If you can’t tell, I’m a huge fan of the direction that Evolved Mode can potentially take Final Fantasy XIV. The focus moved from “do you have a healthy amount of ping for execution barriers?” to “how can you use a relatively simple moveset in the best possible way?” which is the best direction the game could theoretically take. I can see the Machinist utilizing different tools depending on how far away from the enemy they are, the Dark Knight risking their own health to deal damage while also tanking blows, or the Astrologian having a more dynamic deck of cards that they have to assign to targets at a moment’s notice.
However, I don’t want Evolved to be a simple mode, like it seems to be for the White Mage. The development team is able and willing to put complexity into the actions, making it so anyone can press them, but only a master gets the most out of them. I see so much potential in this system, but only if the devs dedicate themselves to a comfortable mixture of accessible buttons with underlying complexity, like with the Dragoon.
Want more Final Fantasy XIV analysis? Check out my past FF XIV articles here.
Jason graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in English and Game Design. For him, video games are not just an art form, but one of the greatest mediums to tell a story.
When not perpetuating the game journalist stereotype of being awful at a game and blaming the game for it, Jason likes writing short fiction novels that never get past chapter two, and playing Dungeons & Dragons.
