Pictomancer Appreciation Post

[Valence]

Ah but that's assuming encounters are training dummies. Or that we live in the fabulous world of DDR encounters.

[Supersnow845]

Wasn't replying to you.

I will though, rotation based difficulty is just worse than encounter based difficulty. If the main form of difficulty is in rotations, then content becomes boring and stale permanently after you grind the training dummy enough and make your rotation muscle memory. Because once your rotation is muscle memory, doesn't matter how complex it is, you're not having to think about it at all. The content is still going to be balanced around the complexity of the rotations though.

When difficulty is primarily from encounters, it only becomes boring or stale after you have grinded the content enough. By that time there is either new content, or you are playing a new game while waiting for new content because you no-lifed the game too hard.

So yes, the game has become harder where it counts, and easier where it should be easier. They couldn't make encounters engaging enough with old job design.

You’ll be shocked to learn there is a middle ground between “the boss just looks at you while you do your memorised rotation” and “your rotation plays itself while you run around like Mario kart”

Somehow the pre ShB encounter/job balance (which every day you remind us you have no frame of reference for) figured this out because encounters weren’t easy, but they also weren’t 99.9% of the total difficulty either

[HikariKurosawa]

You’ll be shocked to learn there is a middle ground between “the boss just looks at you while you do your memorised rotation” and “your rotation plays itself while you run around like Mario kart”

Somehow the pre ShB encounter/job balance (which every day you remind us you have no frame of reference for) figured this out because encounters weren’t easy, but they also weren’t 99.9% of the total difficulty either

If your rotation is playing itself, just uninstall the third party mods. Not complicated.

edit: I actually think this is probably shockingly common in this community. People tell themselves that the job design is so far gone that it's pointless to engage in, then they say that content design has become too complicated, and they use these two factors to rationalize cheating.

"If I don't like the job design, and I think the content design is too hard, why wouldn't I just cheat?"

The problem is, once you use third party mods, you are not allowed to have an opinion on the job design anymore since you've stopped engaging with it completely.

[Valence]

I feel like reviving the allegory of the cave by Plato at this point.

Good strawmen though.

[fulminating]

If your rotation is playing itself, just uninstall the third party mods. Not complicated.

edit: I actually think this is probably shockingly common in this community. People tell themselves that the job design is so far gone that it's pointless to engage in, then they say that content design has become too complicated, and they use these two factors to rationalize cheating.

"If I don't like the job design, and I think the content design is too hard, why wouldn't I just cheat?"

The problem is, once you use third party mods, you are not allowed to have an opinion on the job design anymore since you've stopped engaging with it completely.

Were you not vocal about disliking the state of dragoon before your 2024 uwu clear? This just seems like an awfully strange tangent to take us on if you’re not trying to say anything.

[HikariKurosawa]

Were you not vocal about disliking the state of dragoon before your 2024 uwu clear? This just seems like an awfully strange tangent to take us on if you’re not trying to say anything.

Yeah and now I think it is way better. Dealing with eyes was annoying for my uwu clear too. What is strange about my perspective? Look at my position in the dragoon thread currently.

Gonna need you to elaborate on what you find inconsistent about my position.

[Hesitate89]

I honestly very grateful for state of Picto & the Balance of FRU.

1. It's saving me millions gil on pots esp. for Ultimate, allowing me to help people in PF prog more, without worry of gil spent.

One of the biggest reasons i've noticed or felt others would slowly surely tilt during prog of a fight, esp. in Party Finder, during Prog there's a underlying Gil requirement per pull, now some of you may feel like gil is nothing, sure if you played for long time, even for me who has been around for while, eventually... the gil adds up over time, we have many new players jumping into the game recently, and the time it takes to gather the gil to prepare for this Ultimates requirement to prog an Ultimate outside of a static, is tremendously high.

This job & Ultimate fixed this subtle key issue, letting me help others for Free, that is massive QoL improvement from DSR & TOP prog.

During DSR and TOP i was spending millions gil per Week on pulls, sometimes up to 5mil per week just to help others get through phases and filling parties, this Job is going to save me so much time, and gil, and I will finish leveling it just so i can help people save gil as well. Honestly sincerely grateful for the decisions they made for this balance.

2. Provides flexibility, not only is the job fun but it provides flexible comps, during DSR and TOP there were many times where as a Caster main i would have to wait hours, or even days just to find specific phase to work on a raid or helping others due to limited Caster slots in PF, but now due to state of Pictomancer and Ultimate Balance, i am able to join more Double Caster comps WITH a Prange as well to prog this ultimate FREQUENTLY, with possibly spending gil as a Option to see later phases, thankful for this possibility.

This increases the potential for me to join more parties and spending less time waiting for fills during my brief periods of availability between work, with restrictions on DCT as well, allowing me to spend more quality time on RL, support others, and study before i sleep, and allowing me to plan my schedule easier, knowing it will take less time, now with Chaotic otw I can gear more jobs to help fill parties faster?! looking forward to update in couple weeks! Devs are cooking dude, they fixing many issues with prog, and gearing with these changes making game more fun and enjoyable without question.

I sincerely hope they change NOTHING, maybe give SMN a little love, as RDM main I don't mind RDM being lower on DPS than them, RDM rotation for this ULT already feels amazing as is, even better now with Picto. I feel like every time i open PF i can easily find a slot to join as Caster, Fake Melee or even swap to DNC to assist Picto further even joining as Double Caster comps with SMN or BLM. The DPS check in FRU can be rough without Picto, but it's really not that bad either, it's tight, but due to state of the boss enrages in FRU compared to TOP being more responsive to seeing P2, this allows more possibility of seeing later phases more frequently providing well needed buffer that is better for all levels of players. As well as allow players like me to hold damage and drop my DPS in order for others to build resources, win win!

Going to level picto soon just to help more people in FRU i got the weapon and gear from RDM, please don't change it, i can help so many ppl save gil and time with its current state, i just need lil more time.
Devs, and who ever designed Picto and FRU Balance together, i want to say thank you!!!!! hope you have amazing Holiday you all made incredible decision that's healthy for prog, and makes Ultimate more enjoyable for me, and others.

Fru prog may be my favorite prog and possibly fav Ult, hopefully clear it soon!

[MrJPtheAssassin]

You’ll be shocked to learn there is a middle ground between “the boss just looks at you while you do your memorised rotation” and “your rotation plays itself while you run around like Mario kart”

Somehow the pre ShB encounter/job balance (which every day you remind us you have no frame of reference for) figured this out because encounters weren’t easy, but they also weren’t 99.9% of the total difficulty either

God I miss SB fights honestly...omega raid is still my fav raid by far. The fights were fun and had so many unique mechs. Like Ghost Train is still one of my fav beginning a tier savage fights. Kafka was so much fun aswell and I had such a great time progging Omega twins and finally omega as smn in SB. Like SB had its own issues but its fights IMO was so much better than the stuff we get today.

[Valence]

I feel like SB fights get unnecessarily remembered by people as awesome when in reality they do follow the exact same model than the current ones, just toned down. They definitely still retained some of the good stuff like preys on players other than tanks, or ranged dedicated mechanics, but otherwise.. they were mostly carried by the jobs that were still in a relatively pristine shape.

Phantom Train however, will always hold a special place for me. Best encounter even designed and blows out of the water any other fight.