New changes are coming to FFXI to ease various difficulties for players.

In the upcoming March version update of Final Fantasy XI, several changes will be implemented to help ease the difficulty of various aspects of the game and just provide a more streamlined experience. Players will now be able to gain combat and magic skills in Reive battles, the amount of Merit Points required to buy certain battlefield Key Items will be reduced, and the respawn times for the three Beastmen Kings for Aht Urhgan will be reduced.

For those not as heavily interested in battle, a new option to exchange unwanted job-specific Adoulin capes for more sought after ones will be added, as well as a new bid history option for the Auction House.

Share your thoughts with us on these upcoming quality of life adjustments over on the ZAM forums!

From the official Final Fantasy XI forums:

[dev1192] Quality-of-Life Adjustments

With the March 2014 version update will come many adjustments that should make adventuring easier for Vana'diel's inhabitants. Some have already been touched upon in previous posts, while those below are being revealed here for the first time.

• Combat and magic skills will be able to increase during Lair, Colonization, and Wildskeeper Reives.
  
  
• The number of merit points needed to obtain the key items that allow entry into certain high-tier battlefields has been reduced in the following manner.
  

  Merit Point Reduction: 20 to 15

  Key Items:
  Celestial Nexus phantom gem / Stellar Fulcrum phantom gem / phantom gem of apathy / phantom gem of arrogance / phantom gem of envy / phantom gem of cowardice / phantom gem of rage

  
  Merit Point Reduction: 30 to 20

  Key Item:　
  Pentacide Perpetrator phantom gems

• Players may now peruse the bidding history of posted items before submitting their own to the auction house.

• Makel-Pakel now occupies the Celennia Memorial Library, waiting for adventurers to trade him job-specific back equipment.
  Makel-Pakel will grant adventurers an item of their choice from the list below in exchange for three other items from the list:
  
  Applicable Items

  Mauler's Mantle / Anchoret's Mantle / Mending Cape / Bane Cape / Ghostfyre Cape / Canny Cape / Weard Mantle / Niht Mantle / Pastoralist's Mantle / Rhapsode's Cape / Lutian Cape / Takaha Mantle / Yokaze Mantle / Updraft Mantle / Conveyance Cape / Cornflower Cape / Gunslinger's Cape / Dispersal Mantle / Toetapper Mantle / Bookworm's Cape / Lifestream Cape / Evasionist's Cape

• Respawn times for the following notorious monsters have been greatly reduced.

  Gulool Ja Ja / Gurfurlur the Menacing / Medusa