Although Final Fantasy 14 Patch 7.4 is a feature-rich update, it also made some significant changes to the Gunbreaker job that alters how it plays during a burst window phase. Along with the surprising updates to Gunbreaker's rotation, the Red Mage and White Mage jobs received some quality-of-life updates that Final Fantasy 14 players may notice right away.
Patch 7.4, Into the Mist, went live on December 16 following a five-hour maintenance window. The newest Final Fantasy 14 content update serves to bridge the gap between Dawntrail and the game's yet-untitled next expansion. Patch 7.4 added new main story content, the finale of the Arcadion raid series, and overhauled the game's glamour system. As of Patch 7.4, glamour restrictions based on job, level, and role have been removed for most of the game's armor and accessories, though the appearances of all weapons and tools remain exclusive to the jobs they're for. Other new features introduced in Patch 7.4 include new cosmetics based on unobtainable rewards from The Feast PVP mode, a new strategy board for raiding parties to use, and a command panel that can be used to place uncommon actions, emotes, or macros that would otherwise take up valuable space in the game's user interface.
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The Gunbreaker Received Some Surprising Changes
Alongside the raid and story content that arrived in Final Fantasy 14's 7.4 update, the usual slate of job changes saw a popular Tank on the receiving end of some surprising alterations. The Gunbreaker saw a significant change to its Bloodfest ability, as its cooldown has been cut down from two minutes to one minute. After using Bloodfest, the Gunbreaker now gets a 30-second buff that allows them to store up to six cartridges in its Powder Gauge, which is indicated by a golden glow on the Powder Gauge on the UI. Additionally, Gnashing Fang was given a second change, meaning that both the Gnashing Fang and Reign of Beasts combos can be utilized more often than before. Because of these changes, the potency of all the Gunbreaker's weaponskills that depend on cartridges has been slightly decreased to compensate for their more frequent usage.
Wielding a gunblade and a slew of abilities inspired by Final Fantasy 8 protagonist Squall Leonhart, the Gunbreaker was introduced during Shadowbringers. As a Tank, the Gunbreaker is a defensive job that can protect its allies with abilities like Heart of Light, Aurora, and Reprisal. However, the Gunbreaker feels similar to a melee DPS in its offensive rotation due to weaving together weaponskills and abilities like Gnashing Fang and Blasting Zone during burst windows. The Gunbreaker's slight rework was the second one that Final Fantasy 14 undertook in Dawntrail' s post-launch updates, with the Black Mage receiving some significant changes during Patch 7.2 in March 2025.
What Other Jobs Received Changes?
Final Fantasy 14's 7.4 update also gave the Red Mage and White Mage some quality-of-life updates. The Red Mage's Manafication cooldown now allows it's Enchanted Riposte combo to be used outside of melee range, giving the Red Mage a way to take advantage of burst windows alongside other spell casters. The White Mage's lily gauge and blood lily will be available in full when entering an instance and resetting a boss fight, giving White Mages a stronger start during a boss battle. The entire ranged physical DPS role received potency buffs to close the gap with their caster DPS counterparts, while Ninja and Viper saw some changes to their area-of-effect (AoE) damage.
Other Features Coming In Final Fantasy 14's Next Updates
Final Fantasy 14 will continue to receive new content as 2025 winds down, and 2026 begins. Starting Wednesday, December 17, the annual Starlight Celebration returns to Eorzea, with a new quest and rewards awaiting players in the forest city of Gridania. The Starlight Celebration will end on December 31, and quickly be followed up by the Heavensturn event, which is likely to be themed around the upcoming Year of the Horse.
Smaller updates to Final Fantasy 14 will also arrive in the early part of 2026, including the next chapter of the fan-favorite Hildibrand saga, a new Variant and Criterion dungeon called The Merchant's Tale, and the next steps in the ongoing Cosmic Tool and Phantom Weapon relic series. Given that there is at least one more major patch planned for Dawntrail in the first half of 2026, it remains to be seen what other jobs will get some major changes following the Gunbreaker rework.
Final Fantasy 14 Patch 7.4 Job Changes (December 16, 2025)
PVE
All Roles
In Patch 7.4, we increased the action potencies of physical ranged DPS and healers after reevaluating overall job balance. Additionally, in continuing our adjustments of area of attack actions since Patch 7.3, we have enhanced the potency of ninja while tempering that of viper. Gunbreaker and red mage have also seen adjustments to the functionality of multiple actions as we seek to improve rotations under certain conditions.
Dark Knight
The simulacrum summoned by Living Shadow was experiencing an issue wherein, depending on the location of its appearance, it was unable to execute all available actions before retreating from battle. For this reason, we have extended the duration of Living Shadow. Please note that the maximum number of actions available to the simulacrum has not changed.
Gunbreaker
If gunbreaker did not manage their cartridges carefully during burst phases, executing Bloodfest would result in cartridge overflow. To rectify this irritation, we have added an effect to Bloodfest that increases the maximum number of cartridges available.
When battle mechanics required gunbreaker to distance themselves from the target, the recast timer of Gnashing Fang would often become a hinderance during burst phases. We changed Gnashing Fang to a charged action to help alleviate this issue, but also had concerns that executing an optimal rotation while under the effect of No Mercy might overcomplicate the management of recast times and cartridges. In order to maintain a proper balance, we have shortened the recast time of Bloodfest and adjusted the cartridge cost of Double Down.
Physical Ranged DPS
Across Patches 7.2 and 7.3, the attack potencies of magical ranged DPS jobs have been increased to address casting difficulties experienced during unique battle mechanics. As physical ranged DPS jobs may attack while in motion and possess damage reduction actions, they seem to boast an advantage over magical ranged DPS jobs. However, in terms of offensive power, physical ranged DPS jobs are lagging behind their magical counterparts, so we have increased the overall potency of their actions.
Red Mage
Red mage's firepower often suffered when distancing themselves from a target due to battle mechanics. For this reason, we adjusted Enchanted Riposte, Enchanted Zwerchhau, and Enchanted Redoublement so they may be executed at a distance while under the effects of Manafication. Furthermore, we have removed Manafication's magical damage increase effect to prevent potential stress resulting from entering burst phases with Manafication still on cooldown. To ensure red mage's offensive contribution is not negatively impacted by this change, we have increased the potency of Vice of Thorns and enhanced the effects of Embolden.
Healer
We have increased the action potencies of white mage, scholar, and sage in order to improve healer role job balance.
For white mage, we have improved the usability of actions dependent upon lilies and the blood lily by granting full stacks at the beginning of duties. We have also added a damage reduction effect to Plenary Indulgence to strike a better balance with astrologian. In light of this, we have adjusted the duration of damage reduction applied by astrologian's Collective Unconscious to match that of Plenary Indulgence.
PVP
Adjustments made to the MP cost of Recuperate and Purify since Patch 7.31 have created an ideal environment for all team members to focus on a single target until they are eliminated. As a result, we have noticed that actions that diminish the defensive bonus of Guard, such as paladin's Shield Smite, and actions that reduce recovery, such as dark knight's Plunge, impact matches greatly. For this reason, we have adjusted actions with similar effects across the board, thereby allowing greater strategic freedom when deciding a team's job composition.
Adjustments to job balance were made largely according to usage and win rates in ranked matches, and special attention was paid to jobs with particularly high win rates and jobs that are currently struggling.
Furthermore, we have reassessed the ability of supportive area of effect actions, such as pictomancer's Tempera Grassa, to extend past field obstructions. Additional changes in this area may occur depending on the results of job balance adjustments.
Paladin
We found that Shield Smite was too effective against Guard, so we have made adjustments to ensure that targets under the effect of Guard cannot accrue status ailments that increase damage taken.
Dark Knight
We have adjusted the healing reduction of Sole Survivor, a status inflicted by dark knight's Plunge. When the target is suffering from multiple instances of the same ailment, we have ensured their ability to heal is not overly hampered. Additionally, we have reduced the amount of HP and MP gained upon the KO of an afflicted target, so as to curtail any excessive advantage after an already beneficial victory.
Furthermore, while Salted Earth is one of dark knight's signature moves, we found its abilities to be somewhat overpowered, so we partially reduced the damage and HP restoration that was increased in Patch 7.31.
Gunbreaker
Compared to other tank jobs, we found gunbreaker to be somewhat lacking in offensive capabilities, so we increased the damage dealt by each hit of the limit break Relentless Rush.
Dragoon
In order to increase dragoon's efficacy during damage burst phases, we have increased the potencies of Geirskogul and Nastrond.
Ninja
We increased the potencies of Hyosho Ranryu and Goka Mekkyaku to allow for a more aggressive use of Three Mudra.
Samurai
To facilitate ease of battle on the front line, we increased the barrier absorption of Ogi Namikiri and Kaeshi: Namikiri.
Viper
In order to increase viper's efficacy during damage burst phases, we have increased the potency of the limit break World-swallower.
Dancer
While Honing Ovation can deal great damage, we decided to increase the potency of each hit dealt by Honing Dance in order to increase its efficacy in the steps leading up to its finishing move.
Pictomancer
We have adjusted the healing reduction of Clawed Muse, and ensured that the target's ability to heal is not overly hampered when suffering from multiple instances of the same status ailment. Furthermore, we reevaluated Tempera Grassa and Star Prism's areas of effect, allowing their support to extend past field obstructions.
Healer
As Haelan is not used as much as other role actions, we have decided to reduce its MP cost to 2,000 to match adjustments made to Recuperate in Patch 7.31.
White Mage
To bolster white mage's performance across all tiers, we have reverted reductions made to Protect in Patch 7.25. Furthermore, we have reduced the recast time of Aquaveil to strengthen white mage's ability to swiftly deliver aid, in this case, by nullifying status afflictions and erecting a strong protective barrier.
Scholar
We reevaluated Accession's area of effect, allowing its support to extend past field obstructions. Additionally, we found that Chain Stratagem was too effective against Guard, so we have made adjustments to ensure that targets under the effect of Guard cannot accrue status ailments that increase damage taken. Lastly, we have adjusted the healing reduction of Biolysis and ensured that the target's ability to heal is not overly hampered when suffering from multiple instances of the same status ailment.
- Released
- August 27, 2013
- ESRB
- T for Teen - Language, Mild Blood, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Engine
- Originally the Crystal Tools engine, but currently it's a custom engine using parts of the Luminous Engine.
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- MMORPG
