FFXIV Finally Removing Class-Specific Glamour, Savage Raid Dated

Every few months, Naoki Yoshida and Toshio Murouchi direct the Final Fantasy XIV community live, debuting what they have planned next. While most of them are broken up into two parts, the first sets up the major changes we can expect in the upcoming patch. For today, the two talked about the highly anticipated 7.4 update, which brings not only a new story to the Final Fantasy XIV universe, finally moving past Dawntrail, but also has some big news regarding the upcoming Savage Raid, along with some surprises.

Final Fantasy XIV 7.4 'Into the Mist' Patch Date: December 16

New Story Content

As you might expect, while there are some surprises in this Live Letter, it also comes with some of the standard content. This includes a new story, dungeon, trial and Unreal update. The first part is the most exciting as, while Final Fantasy XIV is well known for its story and storytelling, Dawntrail has been heavily criticized since its arrival 15 months ago. It has improved in its post-release content, but fans have definitely wanted to move past the expansion.

Thankfully, that is the case with Into the Mist as this sets up a new story that will slowly merge into the next expansion, which is expected to be revealed at the North American Fan Fest in April. As you might expect, this will come with the standard dungeon and a trial tied directly to the new story. On top of that, the Unreal Trial will shift to Tsukuyomi’s Pain, which continues with the Stormblood fights.

Criterion / Variant Dungeons

Something a lot of players have been waiting for ever since Dawntrail launched is a new Variant Dungeon. While there were a lot of complaints about Endwalker’s post-release content, one positive aspect has been the Variant and Criterion dungeons.

These were challenging four-player dungeons that players have been striving for, and Square Enix certainly delivered as the content was incredibly entertaining. There was a bit of a problem though: the rewards were terrible and the Savage version of Criterion was the same, but you couldn’t die. Thankfully, the latter was at least improved upon with the last dungeon, having appealing cosmetic rewards.

Square Enix announced a new Variant dungeon called The Merchant’s Tale. It looks to have a similar format as past dungeons, as we go through a new dungeon with an NPC, unveiling different information based on choices made inside. Best yet, the difficulty will be adjusted based on how many party members go into the dungeon.

The developers have also added an “Advanced” version that’s more of picking and choosing three bosses to face in whatever order you prefer without having to explore the dungeon. On top of that, Criterion has been changed to now not include any trash mobs in-between fights. It becomes less of a dungeon and more of a boss rush.

Savage Raid Avoids Christmas

Players have been able to piece together release schedules for most of the post-release patches based on previous expansions and what Square Enix has said is their desired release schedule, and a lot of hardcore players were concerned about the final series: The Arcadion: Heavyweight.

This is because, as many expected, Into the Mist would hit mid-December, leaving players scrambling. If Square Enix followed their standard format, it was either going to release on 7.4’s release or two weeks after, but considering those times are just before Christmas and into the holidays, it was less than ideal. Thankfully, Square Enix heard the concern and has addressed it by delaying the release of the Savage version of the Heavyweight raid tier by an additional week.

This means that the Savage version of the Heavyweight tier will now release on January 6, 2026, giving players extra time to prepare and ensuring it doesn’t fall into an inconvenient time frame for many.

Glamour Improvements

By far the biggest and most surprising announcement at the Live Letter was the removal of class-based glamour. Ever since glamour was introduced, classes have had their own skins. So, for example, only tanks could showcase tank gear while casters could only present themselves with the casting gear. There’s also class-specific sets, such as artifact gear, but these are primarily restricted to near the end of the expansion’s story.

Regardless, Square Enix made the big announcement that glamouring gear, except for weapons, will no longer be tied to a class. This means that anyone can wear the hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of clothing and armor that’s currently available in the MMORPG. This means a Dark Knight can wear a White Mage’s attire while a Pictomancer can equip a Warrior’s.

This is a huge step for the MMORPG. While Square Enix has been slowly removing gender restrictions for most of their older gear, having anyone wear anything is monumental, especially considering Final Fantasy XIV’s biggest userbase is more casual and focuses on looking good in the world.

...the Savage version of the Heavyweight tier will now release on January 6, 2026, giving players extra time to prepare and ensuring it doesn’t fall into an inconvenient time frame for many.

Other Big Improvements

Strategy Board

While Square Enix didn’t go into significant detail about the raid planner, this feature has been promised for a long time. This is the equivalent of many of the different browser-based raid planners players have been using for years now, but finally, Square Enix is implementing their own version.

Command Panel

This is a pretty exciting bit of news for those who hate screen clutter. The Command Panel is a new UI that allows for upwards of 25 slots commands to be placed into. It’s something you can minimize and bring up with a click of a button. No longer will players have to go through various macros and methods to essentially go through various folders of hotbars, and it will create a much cleaner UI experience overall.

Miscellaneous

• A third Cosmic Exploration moon to explore.
• Mystic Knight, Gladiator and Dancer Phantom Jobs will be added to Occult Crescent.
• Hildibrand quests will continue.
• There will be a new Frontlines Map called Worqor Chirteh.

Final Fantasy XIV patch 7.4 will be available starting December 16, with updates 7.41 and 7.45 coming throughout the following months.