Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.3 will contain the next chapter in the history of the Shadowbringers. When is he coming out? Good question.
In an April 9 Lodestone article, FFXIV's producer and director Naoki Yoshida explained that 5.3 will be delayed due to isolation measures taken to combat COVID-19. The move to home offices has pushed their development and QA teams back, so the launch date for Patch 5.3 is in the air.
Originally scheduled for mid-June, the patch could be delayed for two to three weeks, or even a month. Yoshida has promised to host a live letter if possible, so we'll learn more about 5.3 in due course.
What we know about patch 5.3
While we don't know the timeline for Update 5.3, there's a lot to look forward to. The FFXIV development team loves models, so players who have followed the game for a few expansions can tell you what an X.3 patch will contain.
A new Alliance raid of 24 men
Patch 4.3 gave us The Ridorana Lighthouse, and patch 3.3 included The Weeping City of Mhach, so it's more than likely that 5.3 will have a 24-man alliance raid that continues the YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse questline.
Resistance weapon upgrades
It is also likely that there is a new step to upgrade the item level of the Resistance Weapon introduced in 5.25, as previous X.3 patches offered Relic upgrades.
A new trial
A new trial is almost guaranteed, and following in Tsukiyomi and Nidhogg's footsteps, it is likely to be linked to the main storyline quests. It's too early to speculate who we might face in this battle, but hopefully the dev team will stick to their model of having an absolute banger of a soundtrack for the X.3 trial. .
Other new content
Previous X.3 patches gave us Heaven-on-High, Aquapolis, PvP changes, new Hildebrand quests, and other new content vectors. It's hard to predict what we can see in 5.3, given the development delays.
We will update this article as more information develops on Patch 5.3.
