Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward’s Benchmark Lets You Make Au Ra Avatars

Square Enix and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn producer Naoki Yoshida recently held a Super FATE event during the NicoNico Chokaigi 2015 event, where they shared more on the upcoming expansion and future updates to come.

During the Q&A session, it was revealed that all the jobs will get many skills as the level cap increases from 50 to 60. Previously, skills were acquired through quests and leveling, for every five levels, but this won’t be the case from 51 to 60.

There will be a good number of skills, and the current hotbar and cross hotbars won’t be enough to fit them all comfortably, but Square Enix have some plans for that. Additionally, it was mentioned that players will need to relearn rotations once they get all the new skills.

After the Heavensward expansion releases this June, the next major update, version 3.1, will include various new features, such as the next 24-man raid and Gold Saucer attractions. There will also be new quests similar to the Zodiac Weapons in the 3.1 update.

Yoshi-P previously mentioned that they’ll prepare something for players that currently have the Zodiac Weapons that they worked hard on getting, but for the moment, they’ve yet to announce anything for it. The new jobs of Dark Knight, Machinist, and Astrologian won’t have Zodiac Weapons, but they will have Primal weapons.

Alexander is going to be the next raid similar to The Binding Coil of Bahamut, but it will come in Normal and Hard modes, as previously mentioned. The Normal mode will be easier for players to be able to relax and enjoy the story, while the Hard mode will be there for the challenge.

Depending on the clear rates and request from players, Square Enix will add even harder difficulties later on, so it’ll be similar to a trial for the moment being to test how the players fare.

Finally, they showed bits on the new benchmark with a trailer, which you can check out in the above video or download, here.

The benchmark also lets you make your own Au Ra character, which can be saved for now, and loaded once the expansion releases. Here’s a look at some samples:

Hairstyles:

Eyes:

Scales:

Tails:

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’s Heavensward expansion will release on June 23, 2015 with an early-access on June 19th for preorders. You can read about the new flying mounts and more from the expansion in our earlier report.