Picto makes the game less fun

[GoatOfWar]

I agree with not changing motifs, that's way overboard. But people were responding like this to the mere suggestion of some number adjustments. Apparently the fun of a job comes from dealing big damage and nothing else to quite a lot of people.

I think people need to get over themselves.
Nerfs are necessary sometimes, because if you keep buffing everything then you start to powercreep the content and you'll disfigure the class design.
Look no further than Warrior shitting out the highest heals and doing the same dps as phys range on ultimates because of endless waves of completely unnecessary buffs.
There can't be a job identity if jobs are made into unstoppable murder machines without any flaws.
All the tanks have become borderline immortal over the years, and we still have a discrepancy in their survivability and utility. Yet, people are STILL asking for buffs rather than nerfs.
I just don't see a way forward for tanks anymore which is why i've quit playing them.

I don't really see this happening any time soon within the dps role though, but i do think Picto and Viper were balanced pretty poorly in respect to the rest of their role.
I'd argue that Picto is the lesser evil here, mainly because it actually does not have a tool that is essential to half of it's role (res). And it is actually a fully designed job.
But it does have some other utility pieces. I'd argue it's on even grounds as a Reaper in terms of utility.
Viper just shits out damage, gets free uptime as a melee because of an overpowered ranged attack with multiple stacks, has no job mechanics or resources to manage, the dps rotation of a tank and is straight up the highest dps job in the game. You could play Vpr in the phys range spot in any fight just fine because of uncoiled. I'd say it's a complete mess of a job design, but there is hardly anything there. It utilises 12 buttons in it's dps rotation, which is the exact same as the tanks. Except you spend 80% of your time pressing the same 2 buttons and don't share any of their responsibilities.

[Carighan]

Nerfs are necessary sometimes, because if you keep buffing everything then you start to powercreep the content and you'll disfigure the class design.
Look no further than Warrior shitting out the highest heals and doing the same dps as phys range on ultimates because of endless waves of completely unnecessary buffs.
There can't be a job identity if jobs are made into unstoppable murder machines without any flaws.

Thank you. Exactly this.

In fact, nerfs should be the de-facto default choice. Because chances are if something is imbalanced, it's one job that is grossly imbalanced, not "all but one".

Picto for casters, Warrior for tanks, that kinda stuff. Those are easy, just nerf them. In particular because in both cases the problem is trivial to see:

* Warrior is insanely survivable while bringing the most group support of the tanks. Considering their job fantasy and the existence of Paladin this both feels weird, while the high damage would not necessarily be. Not a straightforward nerf, but removing group support in particular from a "Warrior" isn't exactly a big, we ain't GW2 Warrior here with their banner spec.
* Pictomancer is not a raw damage-only caster. It brings high personal mobility, a self-shield, optionally a group shield and a group damage buff. Just straight-up nerf the damage, logically it needs to be below the three damage-and-nothing else jobs Samurai, Viper and in particular the also-fairly-immobile Black Mage.

This is not rocket science. You can right a sinking ship by counterflooding, but eventually you run into a problem if you try to keep doing that and never go back and do actual repairs. Buffing ad nauseum can only prop up job balance so long, in particular because as the base average power level from continuing buffs increases, any future imbalance has bigger effects (as the underlying numbers all went up).