FFXIV dev Yoshida promises to revert recent PvP changes following backlash

Final Fantasy XIV’s Producer and Director, Naoki ‘Yoshi-P’ Yoshida, apologized and promised to roll back recent changes to PvP following negative player feedback to Black Mage class buffs.

For those who may not be familiar with Yoshida, he has been at the forefront of both the development of Final Fantasy XIV Online and the game’s massive community.

Yoshida is quick to address the various controversies and player feedback surrounding changes to the MMO, which has done much to increase FFXIV’s popularity as of late.

Now, Yoshida has apologized to fans for the recent changes made to the game’s PvP mode, specifically surrounding major buffs to the Black Mage class.

FFXIV’s Yoshida apologizes for recent PvP changes

Square Enix

Prior to the 6.11a patch, the Black Mage had the lowest usage and win rate across all classes in PvP.

Yoshida made a post on the official FFXIV Lodestone blog addressing the strong player feedback the team recently received.

“We have received a great deal of feedback regarding these changes, and in hindsight, I believe we went too far with our adjustments,” Yoshida said. “For this, I apologize.”

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FFXIV’s 6.11a update massively buffed the Black Mage class, essentially doubling the strength of casted spells and doubling the length of time spells last.

When players read the patch notes, concerns immediately arose claiming these changes would make Black Mage entirely too strong in PvP.

Naoki Yoshida / Square Enix

Naoki Yoshida’s main class in FFXIV is the Black Mage, which led to speculation of favoritism.

Additionally, other fans were worried this was a sign of favoritism on the developer’s side since Yoshida’s been known to be a Black Mage main.

Yoshida assuaged these fears in the blog post, “I would like to emphasize that the Black Mage is experiencing no preferential treatment by being specially mentioned here; we evaluate action balance for all jobs with a similarly scrutinizing gaze.”

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After recognizing that the recent PvP changes were too much, Yoshida said a patch rolling out on Tuesday, June 7 would reverse the Black Mage adjustments.

While many Black Mage players were likely pleased with the buffs the class received, the overall balance to FFXIV’s PvP mode should be in a much more stable place after patch 6.15.