And Another Pictomancer Thread!

[Lyth]

One of the main benefits of adding new jobs is that they have the potential to be disruptive to the status quo. It gets incredibly boring when the same jobs dominate from expansion to expansion.

I think one of the biggest culprits for this is when there's a mindset that a particular job ought to always be 'the best' at a particular performance attribute. The worst offender was when WAR's 'identity' involved being the 'dps tank' across several expansions.

The one downside of a pure rDPS balance is that it generally doesn't take into account the hidden groupwide benefit of playing a 'selfish' DPS job under raid buffs. I think if you place SAM and BLM as the 'measuring stick' for selfish DPS, you risk giving them a free ride in raid balance into perpetuity. One of the reasons why I'm interested in seeing what happens with VPR is because the job may just turn out to be a selfish DPS with a personal buff window. If you introduce a second sword job alternative to challenge the 'selfish melee' position, you split the playerbase and get more diverse comps. I hope they make the job unambiguously harder in terms of positionals and APM, because we always see the same knee jerk reaction to new threats within a given role. Deny the naysayers a leg to even stand on.

I hope that PCT likewise has a chance to genuinely challenge BLM's position, at least from an rDPS perspective. I know that BLM will always tend to exist within a somewhat privileged position within the game's development given Yoshi-p's preferences, but there should not be such a disparity within the caster role group. I personally don't think utility should ever be used to argue in favor of a dps discrepancy. If raises are that big of a deal, give them to more jobs and restrict their uses per pull. Doing more damage should never be a job or subrole identity.

[Sequora]

Im kind of scared for what PCT might do to caster balance. Hopefully not what RPR did to melee which also bled into other roles.

I think if anything it simplifies it. There are two types of casters. We have support casters in RDM and SMN with multiple support abilities, including Rez, and lower personal damage. Then you have BLM and PIC which deal more damage, with fewer defensive utility including Rez.

[SweetPete]

Xenosys made a short vid about this topic I recommend checking out because he says it better. This is all assuming the balancing decisions align with EW with melee doing significantly more damage than ranged. Also it only considers high end content because that is the only content stuff should be balanced around. Job balance means absolutely nothing in dungeons/alliance/EX. PIC could do as much damage as a BTN and people would still play it in casual content with no repercussions.

In short, if SMN/RDM keep rez then PIC and BLM compete for the same caster slot and BLM will automatically be the better choice. It would not be good in a prog environment (like BLM) as it has no raise but wouldn't be good for parses/speeds because it wouldn't do high damage (like BLM). It won't be a go-to choice for hardcore raiders because of above issues and would not be a go-to choice for midcore/casual raiders because it wouldn't have the raise safety net.

If PIC is very easy like SMN and competes with BLM within a close DPS margin, then BLM becomes the screwed over job. BRD is currently in this situation where it barely pulls more damage than DNC but it's so much more difficult to play that there is zero reason to bring a BRD besides one-tricks (and people don't bring it - its the least played job in the game).

Unless changes are made to the role's balance as a whole, one of them is going to be the clear loser and will be purely a preference pick like BRD is now.

I watched Xenia video and Arthas video on pictomancer and I must say they have their opinions but I do understand they are speaking from a hardcore high end like savage and ultimate. I still believe that SMN will lose its Rez which will then boost summoner behind blm. I guess we will see. I just don’t see pictomancer being close to blm in damage. Again, I could be wrong but hey I guess in the coming months with the media tour and the job actions trailer with dev explanations we will know more of how PIC will rank within the caster role.

[MagiusNecros]

I watched Xenia video and Arthas video on pictomancer and I must say they have their opinions but I do understand they are speaking from a hardcore high end like savage and ultimate. I still believe that SMN will lose its Rez which will then boost summoner behind blm. I guess we will see. I just don’t see pictomancer being close to blm in damage. Again, I could be wrong but hey I guess in the coming months with the media tour and the job actions trailer with dev explanations we will know more of how PIC will rank within the caster role.

The raiders opinions are premature. If Picto turns out better then expected they will backpedal. It all depends on Picto's full toolkit. Until the big keynote showcasing the every classes new actions it's too early to make a informed decision. Besides Arthars mains Ninja and Xenosys mains Tanks(mostly Warrior) so they aren't what I would consider the high authority on casters.

Same case with Viper really. Arthars mentions Viper and his praise for it amounts to if Viper sucks you at least have the same gear and can swap to Ninja. Which says more about Ninja then Viper.

[Palladiamors]

I don't mind the lack of battle rez. One less thing I'll have to worry about. Like BLM I can just go "not my problem".

I have saved so many runs, dungeon and raid, with that rez. But maybe removing absolutely everything from the corpse would make it easier to let go.