Announced at the Las Vegas Fan Fest over a week ago and with more details arriving at the London Fan Fest a couple of days ago we know that the first expansion of FFXIV: ARR will be called Heavensward and it will arrive in the Spring of 2015. Also known as version 3.0, there is still a lot of things yet to be revealed about the content of the expansion. The expansion will feature a storyline revolving around the Coerthas city of Ishgard, Dravania and the Wyrmking.
What we know so far is below:
New Jobs
The Dark Knight (DRK) job will be added. This is a great sword using tank, likely to involve some use of dark magic as well. The job will be the first to not have a class.
A gunner job was also hinted at, to be announced at the Japanese Fan Fest in December. Speculation is that Musketeer will be the base class for this as it already has a guild in Limsa Lominsa.
It is possible that there will be more jobs still to be announced. Rumours are that we will see a new healer. We also know that SMN will receive Leviathan and Ramuh egis as they level up to 60. Yes 60, the level cap is being raised with 3.0.
New Areas and Mounts
The expansion will of course come with new areas. Dravania is the region being talked about right now. This is where the dragons live and is situated to the west of Coerthas. Ishgard will finally become accessible, as well as other areas within the Coerthas region.
We will see flying mounts in 3.0, with a black chocobo said to be one of the first. 7 in total will be ready for the expansion and when Yoshi-p asked the audience if they would like 8 they all said yes, so we may well end up with 8. A single rider airship will be implemented as one of them.
The expansion is being designed with flying mounts in mind, and there will be some areas with floating islands that can only be accessed via the mounts. Indeed such an area already exists in the game north of Outer La Noscea but it is currently inaccessible. Whether this will be in the expansion is pure speculation.
A chocobo forest area has also been hinted at.
New Raids, Primals & Dungeons
The amount of content being released in the expansion is said to be as much as that of the original 2.0, so we can expect new raids, new primals and new dungeons.
Since 2.4 marks the end of the Coil of Bahamut raid series we will see a completely new raid designed for the expansion. This will not require completion of Coil and it looks like they are planning a token type system for loot because the current RNG method just doesn’t belong in a modern MMORPG. Crystal Tower will also end in the near future (2.5), so we will likely see a new casual raid in the expansion too.
Two new primals have been revealed. One of which is called Bismark, which has appeared in the Final Fantasy series in the past. This primal is worshipped by the Vanu Vanu – a new beast tribe. Another primal that has been announced is completely new to the Final Fantasy series – Ravana. This primal is worshipped by The Gnath, which is also a new beast tribe.
The dungeons for the expansion are already being worked on and the team has a plan of what they would like to implement. How many is yet to be revealed, but the game will need enough dungeons to support leveling up to 60 as well as the end-game content that will be there. That alone suggests a minimum of six. How many do you think there will be?
PVP
There will be some additions to PVP in 3.0. A new battlefield will be added to Frontlines as well as the Wolves Den. 8v8 battles will be possible in the Wolves Den and new PVP elements and gimmicks will be added to both.
Other
A new race will be added, with both male and female versions of it available.
FC airship building will be added.
A rank higher than S will be added to the Hunt system.
