The identity of Pictomancer is being destroyed

[RiceBall]

This may be dooming but I find the changes to pictomancer being alarming. I do agree that Pictomancer changes were needed as the latest high-end content has shown. The PCT will shine brighter than any other job in a combat encounter where there is no target to cast on, based on their motif system.

A quick glance at the potency changes lowering the muses and increasing the RGB and CYM were an understandable change. However, after looking at the math further there is something that is overlooked. When you take into account the need for the casting of Hammer Motif and the fact that its potential is already capped by it being an automatic critical direct hit, it is actually a loss of potency overall versus simply casting the filler of RGB and its subtractive casts of CYM.

This leads to the conclusion that it is simply better to not paint the hammer at all when there is no downtime. In fact, if it were not for Mog of Ages and Retribution of Madeen, it would be better to not paint the Pom Motif as well.

I believe it was a gross oversight on Square Enix design team to gut the identity of the aesthetic of the Pictomancer job.

Pressing 1-1-1-1-1-1 ad nauseam is stale and not engaging. This job was fun because the idea of being creative and being flexible with the cast order let me press whatever button I felt based on what I was musing without sacrificing damage potential. Now it's more optimal to simply press 1 button like a healer but without all the other abilities that healers have.

Pictomancer was the last fun I had in this game with long periods of stale content. My 12 year account will be unsubscribing at this time.

[nguyentri11]

If an action is a guaranteed critical or direct hit then anything that would have increased the chances will instead increase its damage. This includes Battle Litany, Battle Voice, or your stats in Critical Hit and Direct Hit. Math in the Balance Discord isn't final yet but they say it's still a gain to paint the hammer in uptime.


Came from this patch note - https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...fa9db46a466e6/

[Sarantserel]

If an action is a guaranteed critical or direct hit then anything that would have increased the chances will instead increase its damage. This includes Battle Litany, Battle Voice, or your stats in Critical Hit and Direct Hit. Math in the Balance Discord isn't final yet but they say it's still a gain to paint the hammer in uptime.

From what I've been reading on the Balance, most people that have done the math have come to the same conclusion : hammer is a loss in uptime. It might still be a gain in burst if you're running with specific raid buffs, but that seems to be the one place where the math isn't finalized. Otherwise, even accounting for the guaranteed direct crit, hammer loses out to filler in Potency per second. Even creature motifs are a loss if you're not able to use Mog or Madeen.

PCT might have been broken in fights with lots of downtime, but these changes have fundamentally damaged what the job was supposed to be about : using slow GCD casts with 0 inherent damage in order to stockpile a burst of damage for later. With the filler being so much stronger than the motifs to the point that one motif is not even worth using at all.

Not to mention that hammers was PCT's optimal movement tool. Now, it's only left with Swiftcasting a motif and comet in black as movement tool with no DPS downside and holy and hammer as DPS loss movement tools. And hammer is in such a bad state that you're better off using holy in white if Comet+Swifted Motif and slidecasting isn't enough.

I am not looking forward doing a movement heavy mechanic, like most of FRU P5, without having to rely on the now sub par hammer.

[Valence]

There is a potentially another problem behind the tree hiding the forest from what I've gathered. They tried to nerf the motifs dramatically, which is good to lower burst power (since they're crammed into raid buffs), but on the other hand they balanced it out by dramatically increasing the RGB/CYM filler.
Redrawing motifs in combat or in downtime doesn't mean anything once the muses are on cooldown: you just use them without overcapping no matter when you repaint. Redrawing them during downtime allows for one thing: that time is spent during uptime using the filler instead.

In essence:
- they buffed the job for downtime even more (downtime means more RGB/CYM filler used and less painting, those fillers have been buffed).
- they nerfed it for burst sync (muses less powerful in burst).
- they nerfed it on frontloaded damage (muses).

[Sarantserel]

There is a potentially another problem behind the tree hiding the forest from what I've gathered. They tried to nerf the motifs dramatically, which is good to lower burst power (since they're crammed into raid buffs), but on the other hand they balanced it out by dramatically increasing the RGB/CYM filler.
Redrawing motifs in combat or in downtime doesn't mean anything once the muses are on cooldown: you just use them without overcapping no matter when you repaint. Redrawing them during downtime allows for one thing: that time is spent during uptime using the filler instead.

In essence:
- they buffed the job for downtime even more (downtime means more RGB/CYM filler used and less painting, those fillers have been buffed).
- they nerfed it for burst sync (muses less powerful in burst).
- they nerfed it on frontloaded damage (muses).

I think for that to actually become an issue, they'd need to make fights with several downtime lasting exactly long enough to paint 2 or 3 motifs. Because as it is right now, most downtime are long enough that you start losing out on filler cast and more power being crammed in the filler means PCT is losing out on damage in long downtime. PCT still benefits from long downtime compared to other jobs atm, but that's only because it has the best tools to stock potency in downtime for later use in uptime.

[Aelin_Ashryver]

Hopefully they fix this rather glaring error they have made. The PCT is very enjoyable and it shouldn't feel bad to paint as a painter.

[Exmo]

If you have to scrutinize potencies and get your team of accountants to run the numbers to check if there's a dps loss in certain circumstances, I think your idea of job identity might be a little too strict

[Supersnow845]

If an action is a guaranteed critical or direct hit then anything that would have increased the chances will instead increase its damage. This includes Battle Litany, Battle Voice, or your stats in Critical Hit and Direct Hit. Math in the Balance Discord isn't final yet but they say it's still a gain to paint the hammer in uptime.


Came from this patch note - https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...fa9db46a466e6/

The maths on it is mostly settled now

There is a particular optimisation system for PCT called “magenta skipping”, since aetherhues 2 (buff) has a 30 second duration if you cast stone in yellow then wait 30 seconds by doing other things (hammer, comets, creature muses etc) that buff will drop off returning you to blizzard in cyan. If you do this you generate gauge faster because magenta doesn’t generate any gauge

If you use hammer to facilitate a magenta skip the you can make hammer a gain in uptime (simulations of a vacuum max DPS rotation involve using hammer to magenta skip, if you exclude magenta skip then hammer is just a straight loss) otherwise hammer is only a gain using a very specific combination of buffs and only 2 and 3 will go into the starry muse window

So for everyone below the pink parsers hammer is now basically a dead button because if you just need to move and don’t care about trying to magenta skip (which itself is a nightmare to facilitate because it can throw off your aetherhue alignment) then holy in white is actually less of a DPS loss than hammer

So now hammer is next to useless, creature muses are only a gain because of mog/madeen. Each part itself is a pretty significant DPS loss and star prism no longer is worth using a hyperphantasia stack on

They’ve buffed filler so far at the expense of painting it’s barely a DPS loss to just never paint at all

If you have to scrutinize potencies and get your team of accountants to run the numbers to check if there's a dps loss in certain circumstances, I think your idea of job identity might be a little too strict

That’s exactly the problem, with the potency changes it is now incredibly opaque as to what is and isn’t a gain when it used to be obvious……painting=gain

[Keshigomutsuri]

Yes, i feel the same way.
i 100% agree nerfs were needed.
But i would have rather seen a slight nerf to motifs and a huge nerf to RGB / CYMK Combo.
i had ALOT of fun casting motifs 4 seconds doing no dmg, for a big POP reward after.
It was very unique and much fun.
now it feels like mostly 1-2-3-4 with occasional OGCD (paints)
Core feeling of the job is mostly gone for me....
Motifs feel like a wet noodle and are barely optimal to cast only if you get Mog/Madeem out of it.
Why do i wanna sit and cast 4 seconds doing nothing if simply casting 1-2-3 combo gives me more dmg....
Hammer is useless in full uptime.

Note: Hammer might get a hotfix to be actually worth casting.
But they will most likely never go back to nerfing filler and pushing motifs ever again.
No matter how many ppl will ask for it.
Kaiten was also never brought back and the outrage on that one was way bigger.

[MrJPtheAssassin]

Well, this isn't very pleasant to hear...I've been on a break, but I was thinking about coming back to look for a new static and do the raid. I main PCT last tier and loved it bc I could cast again since they decided to kill SMN for me(RIP SB and ShB SMN). Now Im coming back to a PCT that doesn't even seem to be a pantier anymore. I knew they were going to end up nerfing the job since everyone and their mother complain about how strong it was in FRU but I was really hoping for once they wouldn't nerf the job so much where it changes its identity...

I guess Im going back to RPR or just play boring SMN...Im really sad about this. RIP casters...