Second Nature

Every class now carries an innate ability it never has to pay for, and twenty-one new skills land across the roster — the thinnest kits get depth, the deepest get something with an opinion. Behind them sits a full balance pass over all 190 spells: 182 numbers moved, three rows retired, and every status duration finally states itself instead of inheriting one.

Every class has an innate

• All eighteen jobs carry one support for free, on top of the slot they equip. The Chemist has always thrown items and the Ninja has always dual-wielded; now the Knight always draws from the shield pool, the Arcanist carries its own mana reserve, the Windstrider never misses for want of a support slot, and the Samurai's blade cannot be broken.
• The point is that your slot is now a CHOICE, not a formality. A Dragoon that already fields polearms can spend its one slot on Undying instead of on being a dragoon.
• An innate weapon support WIDENS what you can draw; a slotted one still replaces it. Spending your slot on Equip Guns is a trade and it makes you a gunner. Getting a weapon family for free should not quietly delete the rest of your class's table — so the Monk still finds a Fist sometimes, and the Bard can still turn up a staff.

Twenty-one new abilities

• Sworn Knight — Sword Wind, a cut that travels down a line, and Rampart, Protect for the knight and everyone standing beside them.
• Windstrider — Pinning Shot puts them through the boot: they can still swing, but not step. Volley fires straight down a lane at range 6.
• Ninja — Substitution. Trade places with an ally, instantly.
• Chronomancer — Time Warp, the same trade from six tiles away, with a turn of warning. And Borrowed Time, so the time mage can finally contribute damage while doing its job.
• Arcanist — Spell Echo. Say the last word again, quieter: re-casts whatever you last landed, at half power.
• Eidolon Caller — Phoenix, the only ability in the game that raises more than one fallen ally at once.
• Apothecary — Vial of Acid eats armour, Vial of Venom settles on everyone standing too close together. Both thrown, like the rest of the kit.
• White Seraph Consecrate (strip an enemy's blessings), Cursebrand Blight (poison that spreads), Geomancer Fissure (the ground opens along a line), Bard Battle Chant (the attack song the songbook was missing), Orator Second Wind (argue somebody back onto their feet), Iron Fist Pressure Point, Dragoon Skewer, Shadowblade Steal Breath and Blinding Dust, Samurai Iaido Step, Squire Shield Rush, Dancer Yielding Step and Hushing Round.

Abilities that say what they do

• Shield Bash has stunned a quarter of the time since it was written, and never told you. That 25% was a number in the source and nowhere a player could read it. Riders are registry data now, so the tooltip, the battle log, the Codex, the reveal card and the website all state them: Shield Bash stuns 25% of the time, Bleed Strike always bleeds, and the Samurai's Muramasa leaves Confuse behind one target in five.
• Impale goes under the plate, ignoring the target's Defence entirely — which is what makes it worth a slot beside the basic attack it used to resemble. It is a 40% swing against a knight and almost nothing against a mage, so it has an opinion about who to point it at.
• Your rolled Jump reach shows on the line you read it from. The card said "Jump"; the level was five rows further down under GEAR. It now reads Jump 3 where the ability is listed.
• Kits are sorted by rarity — in the command menu, on the number keys, in the Codex and on the website. Your commons first, your ultimate last.

The balance pass

• 182 edits across the spell list. Costs, charges, durations, ranges and rarities, all from one hand-checked pass over every ability in the game.
• Every status duration is now stated per ability. Two thirds of them used to inherit whatever the status registry happened to default to, so one edit silently re-priced every ability sharing that status — Guard, Kiyomori and Song Without Name all buy the same Defence buff at three different prices, and they are three decisions now.
• Three rows retired, each one another row wearing a hat: Tailwind was Inspire with a Wind element nothing read, Lance Thrust was Impale for 4 MP and 3 power, and Insult was Rabble-Rouse's Confuse — which is now the Orator's ultimate, thrown wide.
• Reraise lasts until it is spent. It was already single-use; a clock on top made a 36 MP spell a gamble on when you would die.
• The Mage gets its first free spell. Magic Bolt costs no JP — every other class started with something and the Arcanist did not.
• Quickening covers the tile you aim at and its neighbours rather than half the field, and Judgment can no longer be dodged.