A few concerns about Pictomancer

[NekoMataMata]

I totally agree that the colors and cartoony nature of what we have been shown is a total shut down for me when it comes to the class. If the brush strokes were toned down and not so cartoonish it would be so much better. As it is now it reminds me of bad 60s kids shows.

This.

It can still be cute and have the same aesthetic without being overkill like it is currently.

Caster gear will probably be fine going forward. BLM is Yoshi P's favorite after all. Even if we do get an expansions worth of more elegant or cuter casting gear, I'd be fine. There's a lot of edgy casting gear out there.

[totalimmortal]

No, we live in a world where ascetics matter and pictomancer doesn't fit the ascetic style of XIV in the least.

do you harbor similar complaints about king moggle mog, or the porxies, or the namazu, or the loporrits, or all the other cutesy and cartoony aspects of ffxiv?

it's always been like this.

[Rikizza]

I hope that with the graphic update it will look much better. The preview was in the old grahics.

[NonBinaryNyan]

fairly certain that anyone that is even semi-serious about raiding has animations set to limited, if not turned off completely
or how to tell me you don't raid without telling me you don't raid

Off topic, but how do you tell where the boundaries of the various friendly AoEs are with that? I had to turn mine back on because I couldn't see where my own Sacred Soil stopped applying in limited view.

[LioJen]

I hope that with the graphic update it will look much better. The preview was in the old grahics.

Why do you think this? It's a brand new asset, and so far all the new assets made for the expansion have been made with the new tools and techniques. They're only "adding" them to the old content, everything they are making now is already up to the new standard from the start. It would make no sense at all to make brand new low quality assets that you just have to go back and fix later.

[LynxDubh]

do you harbor similar complaints about king moggle mog, or the porxies, or the namazu, or the loporrits, or all the other cutesy and cartoony aspects of ffxiv?

it's always been like this.

Your examples are things that are only temporarily interacted with. What we are talking about is the new casting job that your PC (the constant part of your play experience) will be using.

It's been 7 years since the latest Magical DPS, people are going to look at Pictomancer through a critical lens. The job aesthetics are very divisive for a job that's been anticipated for so long, and we may not see another caster for years, if at all.

[Fawkes]

1) The neon is overkill - Remember when you changed the design of the Sage icon because of the concern from people who have a fear of things with small holes in them (I forget the name). I feel like a much larger number of people are going to have a visceral reaction to these bright, garish colors and goofy effects.

The neon is a nice change of pace from the generic shiny effects of every other class. Also Trypophobia is a real thing, I'm not sure fear of just neon colors is a thing, and if it were I'd imagine things like Solution 9 would be a bigger problem for people who have it.

It's going to affect caster gear in a negative way - You know how so much of the aiming gear is tailored toward Bard? You rarely see a dungeon drop that's machinist-themed or dancer-themed. It's always floofy pants or billowy shirts or feathered hats. Caster gear is going to go from robes to mismatched pajama sets (not that we don't already have those in game though...)

Your argument is backwards. We never get Dancer appropriate gear, so we're never going to get Pictomancer appropriate gear. They're going to be stuck wearing black robes all the time.

[Jojoya]

With what certainty do you claim that casting gear will be all about pictomancer aesthetic? Has healer gear been majorly about sage aesthetic in endwalker? Even your own example speaks against you because both mch and dnc released after brd.

SE is clearly starting to change direction with glamour in the game as part of their effort to attract new (and presumably younger) players.

There's also been multiple requests for SE to move away from the usual robed caster looks. The Pictomancer aesthetic helps cater to that request.

I doubt it's going to be all caster gear in Dawntrail but it's probably going to be more than what we've seen with Aiming gear.

[Rowde]

Off topic, but how do you tell where the boundaries of the various friendly AoEs are with that? I had to turn mine back on because I couldn't see where my own Sacred Soil stopped applying in limited view.

'Bubbles' (Sacred Soil, Asylum, Earthly Star, etc.) should still be visible under "Show Limited"
my own bubbles only become invisible under the "Show None" setting

[Colt47]

Pictomancer is definitely a good candidate to try something like a mainstream blue mage. Instead of going around and learning new attacks, someone can get new cosmetics for attacks. At least it would fit the theme of the job.