Picto makes the game less fun

[Sequora]

This is what I said, yes.
I'm not for nerfing PCT utility.
I'm for nerfing PCT damage as it doesn't fit SQEX's goal.
Do I need to be clearer?

As for your second remark, are we already going into a strawman?




I'm not, you can simply remove it from the equation since all casters have it, I just felt it was redundant to mention that SMN, RDM and BLM have addle, it's a role action after all.
You can just remove it from the equation of caster mitigation since they all have it.

And where should PCT fall in the DPS lineup? It has similar utility to MNK and RPR.

[Lyth]

Hello, Mr. Enix here. We at CBU3 have heard your complaints and decided to rework the Black Mage into a two minute burst profile job to allow it to achieve greater parity with the Pictomancer. After the great success of the Paladin rework in Endwalker, we are confident that this design decision will provide the strongest sense of player satisfaction moving forward. The Xenoglossy and Flare Star actions will now become available after the preliminary action Leylines is used. Please look forward to it, and remember to provide feedback (which will only be read after the changes go live).

Why hello, Mr. Enix. Longstanding fan of your work, especially Dragon Quest VII. I can see all the turn-based gameplay inspiration positively oozing from your PCT design. I know that you don't want to give away all of your secrets in one go, but you left out some of the most exciting changes:

• Amplifier is now a 3s cast spell with no recast that can be used instantly outside of combat.
• Foul/Xenoglossy have been merged into a single action (Kupoglossy) that now hits multiple targets for 300k damage every 120s.
• Leylines reduces spell cast times using a charge system instead of a set timer to improve accessibility. It also grants the effect Flarestruck.
• Flare Star is now instant cast and hits multiple targets for 300k damage, while healing everyone in a 30y radius.
• Scathe is replaced by a one button mallet combo that is guaranteed to Crit/DH.
• Spells no longer cost MP.
• BLM now has a one button Ice combo. Paradox converts your Ice combo into a one button Fire combo. All spell cast times have been reduced to 1.5s. Completing your combos grants you you either stacks of Umbral Thunderhead or Astral Thunderhead.
• None of this matters because all of your damage is done using instant casts at the two minute mark anyways, to allow you time to brew a cup of coffee in-between the relevant bits. The filler rotation functions like the SFX command, in homage to FFIX.
• BLM now has Sprint as a permanent trait. AM has been replaced with Shukuchi on a 20s recast.
• Getting hit with Manafont up activates the trait Manafont Grassa, which grants the effect Shake it Off to all teammates within 30y.

For the longest time, EW SMN mains dreamed of being able outperform BLM players in the caster slot. With the release of PCT in Dawntrail, you finally gave them the job they needed to achieve this. Now with these potential BLM changes, not only will they be able to surpass BLM, they can conceivably claim to be BLM players as well.

Mao sad. Is PCTs just that much betters than BLMs?

Don't be sad Mao. Just burninate the bad guys.

[Carighan]

Of course Picto is better than BLM.

Picto is essentially the job stone you get once you levelled the base class (BLM) far enough. You're finally done playing the drudgery that is Black Mage, you can play the glorious pew pew powaaaah that is Picto.

Kupo!

[Eraden]

Of course Picto is better than BLM.

Picto is essentially the job stone you get once you levelled the base class (BLM) far enough. You're finally done playing the drudgery that is Black Mage, you can play the glorious pew pew powaaaah that is Picto.

Kupo!

Mao is just gonna go hide in Mao lair and cry little bits....

[Carighan]

I think when I jokingly say that "of course Picto is better" is that you can notice how Picto is one of the newest jobs in the game, and has a huge mechanical headstart in that by now the devs have finally understood that just having 20-30 buttons means nothing if there is 0 depth in the combat gameply and hence you might as well have auto-combos for them. Less RSI, same mental involvement.

Meanwhile BLM is one of the oldest jobs in the game, which also got evolved by simply stapling more and more stuff onto it each expansion on an extremely outdated core. It's useful, but also you can feel retro feeling, constantly. So we're comparing a pure-DPS job that is utterly outdated in design and also heavily overloaded with ideas while each individual one is severly undercooked to a job that has some utility, equally hits hard, but is also super modern, refreshingly flexible and allows you to focus on the gameplay over the UI and hotbars. It's an unfair comparison, in particular because both Red Mage and Summoner have evolved since then, while Black Mage only gut further bogged down.

[Mondodo]

I agree with the sentiment above as a newer player to the game who has played all of the disciple of magic jobs. RDM, SMN and now PCT feel very smooth to play with chances to make clever uses of my utility and optimising aligning ability cooldowns. BLM meanwhile felt ok at first, the niche was MP management and being less mobile than the others, doing big damage if I get to sit in my leylines and cast with a big hitter I'd use at low MP before going ice phase, that was good. Then fire IV arrived and as more abilities and moving dials joined the rotation it was hurting my eyes staring at the umbral ice/fire/xenoglossy gauge and my action bars. I don't think PCT is making the game less fun, in fact it's so much fun it reveals glaring problems in the design of older jobs. I think that BLM needs to have contingencies so it doesn't drop off in damage at different points in modern fights or the pay off should be absolutely fantastic for all the work the BLM goes through to do good rotations rather than whatever flare star is meant to be because right now the old design just can't keep up.

[Ramiee]

PCT is a burst job designed from the ground up BLM is a sustained damage job forced to burst. BLM only feels outdated because CBU3 decided every job should be a burst job.

[Supersnow845]

PCT is a burst job designed from the ground up BLM is a sustained damage job forced to burst. BLM only feels outdated because CBU3 decided every job should be a burst job.

Even then they also designed VPR which is the flattest damage profile of a new job since like SB SAM

They can obviously make flatter job profiles, they just suck at retrofitting old jobs into the new meta

[Ramiee]

Even then they also designed VPR which is the flattest damage profile of a new job since like SB SAM

They can obviously make flatter job profiles, they just suck at retrofitting old jobs into the new meta

Even then Viper does have bursts it's just that reawaken doesn't do absurdly high damage compared to other bursts like PCT. For as brain dead Viper is the one thing I really like about it is that it's not a job with a burst but a job that can burst, reawaken is great because it doesn't break the flow of the job like how MNKs and RPRs do. It reminds me a lot of old SB SAM where your flow just didn't break often.

BLM has no bursts and instead damage priority so it'll never work as a burst job and stuff that can be used as movement tools (Xeno/Triple) have to be used during burst because of how the raid buff meta works. It would have to become Summoner or RDM to work in the current meta as burst job.

[Supersnow845]

Even then Viper does have bursts it's just that reawaken doesn't do absurdly high damage compared to other bursts like PCT. For as brain dead Viper is the one thing I really like about it is that it's not a job with a burst but a job that can burst, reawaken is great because it doesn't break the flow of the job like how MNKs and RPRs do. It reminds me a lot of old SB SAM where your flow just didn't break often.

BLM has no bursts and instead damage priority so it'll never work as a burst job and stuff that can be used as movement tools (Xeno/Triple) have to be used during burst because of how the raid buff meta works. It would have to become Summoner or RDM to work in the current meta as burst job.

BLM does technically have leylines and amplifier, it can burst, it’s just not very good at it compared to almost any other job

But still they can make relatively flat damage profiles like VPR even if they still have a defined burst phase simply by the difference in the damage of the “burst phase”. They also retrofitting this into jobs like WAR

BLM could still work with a flatter profile and tools that work for both burst and movement but it needs to have some level of baseline burst as a baseline which they have really struggled to give to BLM