Final Fantasy’s XIV’s 6.18 patch is released today, with the most significant changes including new worlds for both the RPG’s Japanese and European servers, and the added ability to travel your characters between data centres.
Two new chaos and two new light worlds have been added to the European servers, along with Meteor, a fresh data centre, being added to the Japanese region. The long-awaited data centre travel system has also been implemented, allowing players to travel to other data centres, and play with friends who are native to them. Players visiting other centres will have “traveller” added to their nameplate, and be subject to various restrictions.
Legendary and unspoiled gathering nodes are inaccessible to travelling players. Similarly, retainers cannot be summoned or hired, and you cannot put up items for sale at a foreign data centre’s marketplace. Linkshells cannot be formed or joined, neither can PvP teams. There is also the possibility that your chosen data centre is not accessible – as stated on Final Fantasy XIV’s official Twitter, if your target world is oversubscribed or “congested”, it will be temporarily disabled as a destination.
🧳 Regarding Data Center Travel
If the target World is congested (e.g., due to login rush after maintenance or when logins are concentrated), that World will be temporarily disabled as a destination.
— FINAL FANTASY XIV (@FF_XIV_EN) July 5, 2022
Patch 6.18 also introduces some PvP rebalancing. The base potency of the Dark Knight’s bloodspiller action has been increased from 4,000 to 6,000. Similarly, the Gunbreaker, has their burst strike potency bumped up from 6,000 to 7,000.
Other classes have been marginally weakened. The Ninja’s unsealed seiton tenchu action is now only effective for eight rather than ten seconds, and the Black Mage’s barrier potency is down from 16,000 to 12,000.
Square-Enix says in the patch notes that it is planning “a number of adjustments for patch 6.2, including further changes to the rate at which the limit gauge fills for each job, as well as damage modifiers”. They have also posted the full details of all PvP changes for 6.18.
Patch 6.2, titled Buried Memory, is scheduled to arrive in late August, and will introduce the new Island Sanctuary where players can gather materials, build houses, and care for animals.