CC PCT

[SweetPete]

How are you guys liking Pictomancer in CC? I find it is great in frontlines but in CC the job is very lackluster. Way too much downtime painting and not enough consistent damage output. Kinda low damage too. It just needs more I think.

So anyway, what do you guys think about PCT?

[ThaCa]

Painting mechanic is just bad for fast paced PvP. I think PCT shield is probably one of the better skills due high uptime if you manage to soak with it.

[flowerfairy]

I think they were going for something like RDM with the Palette stance switching but it feels really lackluster. Like I can only imagine two situations where you'd ever want to be on instant casting mode; you want to interrupt someone using a potion or you're running away spamming Recuperate and you want some extra healing from Holy.

Painting feels like a detriment more than an integral part of the job. It's just gates locking some oGCDs that feel really weak themselves until you get to the laser ones.

Just throwing some ideas out there, maybe having a painting stocked should grant you a passive effect to yourself similar to what its oGCD effect is. And I think they should be playing around more with the elementalist theme PCT has going on. For example, Landscape Painting that alternates between "Starry Sky and "Sunny Sky" and have an oGCD that places a ground effect depending on the landscape you painted. Starry Sky's effect increases damage taken against ice, earth, and lightning attacks and Sunny Sky increases damage taken against fire, wind, and water attacks.

[SweetPete]

I think they were going for something like RDM with the Palette stance switching but it feels really lackluster. Like I can only imagine two situations where you'd ever want to be on instant casting mode; you want to interrupt someone using a potion or you're running away spamming Recuperate and you want some extra healing from Holy.

Painting feels like a detriment more than an integral part of the job. It's just gates locking some oGCDs that feel really weak themselves until you get to the laser ones.

Just throwing some ideas out there, maybe having a painting stocked should grant you a passive effect to yourself similar to what its oGCD effect is. And I think they should be playing around more with the elementalist theme PCT has going on. For example, Landscape Painting that alternates between "Starry Sky and "Sunny Sky" and have an oGCD that places a ground effect depending on the landscape you painted. Starry Sky's effect increases damage taken against ice, earth, and lightning attacks and Sunny Sky increases damage taken against fire, wind, and water attacks.

I agree. I really tried to fall in love with it but I just can’t. I hope 7.1 brings some big changes to it for CC since the new season will start.

[SweetPete]

Painting mechanic is just bad for fast paced PvP. I think PCT shield is probably one of the better skills due high uptime if you manage to soak with it.

It’s terrible. Not sure what they were thinking with that one tbh. Yeah the shield is very nice.

[AnotherPerson]

Picto is strong in Frontlines thanks to being able to disengage often.

Picto is strong in Crystalline Conflict but has significant strengths and weaknesses due to the way fast-paced skirmishes work. The ranged burst is very front-loaded thanks to the oGCD portraits and being able to swap with instant cast times, which supports the coordinated burst that Crystalline Conflict is designed for when trying to quickly delete an enemy. Picto is very strong in that regard, but being unable to get an advantage quickly will put them behind since that's the tradeoff you're making with strong front-loaded burst. There's less time to disengage so you have to be smart about using that time to paint. Their wind-up time is mainly knowing how to best manage their weakness between their bursts. When you need to paint, it becomes very rough if the enemy team does notice and focus you down. It requires some good positioning and strategic use with your team to reduce that effect as you can't paint in front of their face unless you know for certain they aren't focusing you or burned their burst on someone else. The shield is very responsive for PvP in both modes. Picto is also fine in the sustain department and support element as you can sacrifice some of your burst for Comet in White to heal yourself /provide party support through Limit Break. The mobility from their dash also gives ways to mitigate some of the downsides of portrait painting.

It also requires your team to be at least somewhat cognizant that Picto's burst work differently than other who only needs to wait for their burst instead of prepping it. I think it's less of an issue at higher ranks in Crystalline Conflict because people just have to know what a job does in order to do well. I like the job, design is better than Viper as far as PvP is concerned. Very straightforward to me but has enough skill expression to hold its own in CC. Will have to play more to get a better measure of it though. I only took it to Silver before doing MSQ. I'll go back to climbing maybe during next season, unless I get bored and decide to play it more in preseason.

As far as Palette stance switching goes, I find it really helpful to wind up stronger palette attacks before swapping over during a strong burst (thanks to being able to hold your palette attack duration during high mobility instances when you can't hardcast paint), so it feels pretty good to me because there's a good amount of choices I can make based on how the fight evolves. The swapping feels more easier/forgiving (?) to manage than RDM's swaps due to the way the skills work, but that can easily be just a skill issue and playstyle difference on my part.

[Vandi]

As a melee, Pct scares me defensively. Smn’s shielding is bad enough, rdm is a damn tree, but Pct feels like hitting a steel wall.

Offensively though. . .it’s down there (talking 20 miles down) with brd. Very little threat. Just. . .stay in the back pew pew annoying.

[Espon]

If they're going to force you to to sit around painting, it would be nice if Living Muse stacked up to two by using Creature Motif twice so you can at least get one combo during combat without having to go paint again.

[Esmoire]

I feel the same way about painting as a pictomancer as I did dancing as a dancer pre 6.1. It worked, but ultimately dancer adapted to the environment of PvP by losing the step actions in 6.1. I don't think pictomancer has to lose that option outright, but maybe let us paint on the go, or have a long CD ability that gives us the same effect to supplement it. It could be tactically interesting if we still had the option of painting to bank resources, but it shouldn't be the only way of unlocking those attacks.

The core mechanic of Subtractive Palette is not bad but I feel like I need better visual feedback to quickly identity it worked besides the buff applying. Maybe something like RDM where we gain an aura?

Lastly, I respect the LB, but it's a waste. To put it plainly I rather drop the fat chocobo dumpy on my opponent's head. It was so close to what I wanted from pictomancer since it was announced!

I get VPR and PCT have rough drafts for their kits and 7.1 is when we will see something with more substance, so in that regard I think this foundation has potential but needs to continue to move away from ideas in PvE to thrive.

[Shikiseki]

I'm honestly not feeling it - I mean I get it you're supposed to swap between palettes for mobility but the cast times are absolutely excessive. I works nicely on blm cause it has a lot of instant casts with its teleport but Picto feels like it's stuck with an awkward lite version of it's pve kit which is absolutely underwhelming. The best part of it's kit is the dash and the flexible shield

The LB honestly is just there for screenshots and memes lol.