Hi, I've been playing 14 since 2.0, I love this game so much. Since I started, the one job I've been more passionate about than nay other is Black Mage. It's a wonderful job, ridiculously fun to play and extremely rewarding when done well. However, through the years a negative stigma has built up around the class because many of the people who attempt to play it are unable to effectively contribute with it. Which is to say, going into DT it was already a bit rough for Black Mages to find people willing to take them. And then 7.0 dropped. And Along comes Pictomancer.

Honestly, I have tried since launch to wrap my head around the balance decisions regarding this Job, and I simply cannot. Was the intention to phase out Black Mage altogether? Because In case it hasn't been brought to your immediate attention, the class outperforms black mage on every level and requires substantially less effort to utilize. Is this intentional? Because it feels awful to see pictomancers outperforming me when they play worse and have worse gear but mathematically it doesn't matter because they will do more damage anyway, IN ADDITION to providing buffs to the party.

Now, pretty much every time I boot up the game I have to hear some meme teasing me for not swapping to picto over black mage. I feel like the solution is simple, why does black mage not simply do more damage than picto? Its harder to play, has no raid buffs, less mobility, and a stricter rotation. Not to mention its just always been in that role, its singular function is to do the most damage. So why now has a support class usurped that role?

I am out here for two things; 1.To give my honest feedback. Picto has made this game less fun to play as someone who loves black mage and wants that to be their job, and more difficult to find a space in the community since I now have to not only justify my playing Black Mage but I have to also outperform every other picto which simply becomes impossible after a certain point. 2. I am BEGGING for ANY information here, that can help me understand why these balances choices are the way they are, and hopefully some assurance that there is an awareness of this problem which, admittedly, only matters to a small portion of the player base, but i know I'm not the only black mage that feels this way. I want everyone to be able to have fun and have equal opportunity to play the game; Pictomancer does not accommodate for this in the current meta.

Also, I didn't want to post on here at all but it's the only place I could find that maybe would have a slimmest chance of someone who might be able to do something about this travesty. I'm sure there's gunna be some ridiculous comments too but I'm just so beyond done. Literally begging Yoshi-P and the devs here, please don't let Black Mage just become obsolete.