Do you think that Picto needs a nerf?

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

[...]

I'm just gonna leave this with a "fair enough" - maybe my view on how jobs like downtime isn't quite in line with what other players perceive or what may be factual.

I just personally think something can/should be done with PCT directly rather than moving all other jobs around it - and I'd rather not make it change on a mechanical level, like requiring a target for Motif casts because that would just feel awful, just like Bard songs used to. The job doesn't need to be gutted and forced to swim along with RDM/SMN, but the job can also not just go unaffected; the power level it is at is quite real, regardless how we view job balance and what we think is the broken part here.

"Something" should happen.

[Supersnow845]

I'm just gonna leave this with a "fair enough" - maybe my view on how jobs like downtime isn't quite in line with what other players perceive or what may be factual.

I just personally think something can/should be done with PCT directly rather than moving all other jobs around it - and I'd rather not make it change on a mechanical level, like requiring a target for Motif casts because that would just feel awful, just like Bard songs used to. The job doesn't need to be gutted and forced to swim along with RDM/SMN, but the job can also not just go unaffected; the power level it is at is quite real, regardless how we view job balance and what we think is the broken part here.

"Something" should happen.

The other jobs shouldn’t be “balanced around PCT” they should be redesigned around PCT. Basically my general opinion of “if you have to nerf PCT do flat potency nerfs, don’t change its mechanical design” and “I don’t really care that PCT dominates in FRU because that’s where it’s designed to shine not because I main it in dungeons” is entirely borne from the fact that in my eyes PCT has ripped open the thin veneer of job design in this game and shown it to be a stale mess.

People shouldn’t look at PCT and go “it’s out of line nerf it”, they should look at PCT and go “why isn’t every job that well designed”. You don’t have to actually like PCT’s mechanical or visual design to realise that a freeform rotation that balances feeding buffs and doing higher personal damage that actually likes downtime and random cleave is far better designed than the rigid messes that make up the rest of the jobs that only barely function in the one scenario they are designed for (full uptime single target)

Like why do we continue to make ultimates when everyone but PCT hates downtime

PCT’s existence is good for showing off why the rest of job design is so bad. PCT is a crossroads in the game so to speak, we can either embrace PCT’s design and diversify the other jobs, or we can nerf PCT into the same stale mess as the other jobs and go back to complaining about homogenisation. That’s why I support flat potency nerfs that still leave PCT ahead in ultimates over any other fix on raw numbers if you take the stance of “okay it’s design is good and other jobs should follow but it doesn’t need to be top damage in every scenario” which is a fair point and why I’m not opposed to raw potency nerfs

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

[...]

You make good points, and ideally yes we should design jobs to be like PCT - but we also have to be realistic with dev time and how fast they can actually do what we want VS how fast something needs to happen. It simply is not realistic with how much needs to be redesigned to make this work properly, and 8.0 is still a long way off.

I'm basing my suggestions on what can be implemented fast, with reasonable adjustments by the dev team without going for a shot in the dark and reworking everything. The worst thing right now is them doing nothing, the second-worst is just doing a round of buffs to every other job to avoid nerfs (which they might do, much to my dismay) because that simply has a lot of room to upset balance pre-Lv100 for Ultimates.