The identity of Pictomancer is being destroyed

[Keshigomutsuri]

I’ve been playing since Shadowbringers. I loved how rewarding Summoner felt to play — it was a job with good DPS and a satisfying playstyle.
After its rework, I switched to playing melee.
I kind of slept on Pictomancer at first, since I was focused on melee. But when I finally gave it a shot, I fell in love with how unique it was, especially with its drawing system. And now… they’ve just deleted it.

They turned it into a 1-1-1-1 mage, similar to how Summoner ended up after its changes.
It feels so heartbreaking — this is the first time since I started playing that I’ve felt genuinely disappointed in what the developers have done.

I don’t expect much from them anymore. On paper, DPS is more balanced now, but it came at the cost of losing what made Pictomancer unique and fun — long casts that didn’t deal direct damage but stored up for big oomph (paints).

I’ve also started to dislike the community.
Instead of asking for other jobs to get their own unique mechanics, it seems like people just want to tear Pictomancer down.
It’s like, “How dare your job is fun while mine isn’t? They better make your job as bad as mine.”
And then, once that’s done, those same people will probably complain that all jobs play the same and that homogenization is an issue.

TL;DR: Just stick to melee. They’ll always have the best damage and are unlikely to end up in DPS or rotation nirvana like magical or physical ranged jobs.

[Owyn_Addens]

I’ve also started to dislike the community.
Instead of asking for other jobs to get their own unique mechanics, it seems like people just want to tear Pictomancer down.
It’s like, “How dare your job is fun while mine isn’t? They better make your job as bad as mine.”
And then, once that’s done, those same people will probably complain that all jobs play the same and that homogenization is an issue.

All of the PCT backlash I saw was strictly about numerical tuning and not the kit. PCT at its worst was better than other jobs at their best, and it was a problem. All they needed to do to make people like me happy was shave off a bit of potency everywhere, not mess with the damage profile and mangle the entire job.

[Supersnow845]

All of the PCT backlash I saw was strictly about numerical tuning and not the kit. PCT at its worst was better than other jobs at their best, and it was a problem. All they needed to do to make people like me happy was shave off a bit of potency everywhere, not mess with the damage profile and mangle the entire job.

Though I think it’s also fair to say that people who were more opposed to the nerf were also worried about this sort of thing happening

Between the chance of this happening and the calls for muses to require targets to use the nerfing concept while fully justified was a mine field we all knew if they didn’t get right in one shot the best hope we had to fix it was 7.3

[Rithy255]

7.3 Pictomancer buffs

• Motif Cast time, Cast time now 2s, recast now standard 2.5s, This should allow your hammer motif to not be a damage loss anymore.
• Stone in yellow, Thunder in Magenta, Blizzard II in Cyan cast time now 1.5

I genuinely think this is the direction they will take in "buffing" pictomancer.

[Supersnow845]

Can’t wait for a repeat of WHM playing a glorified disco ball where the motif casts look horrible trying to stuff the animation into 2 seconds instead of 3

I hate that reducing the hammer motif cast time is actually a possible way to fix the wonky muse potency

[Rithy255]

Can’t wait for a repeat of WHM playing a glorified disco ball where the motif casts look horrible trying to stuff the animation into 2 seconds instead of 3

I hate that reducing the hammer motif cast time is actually a possible way to fix the wonky muse potency

You know it will likely be something SE wants too because precious encounter design can't have long cast times.

Obviously you know they could just buff hammer motif, but SE likes to do it in a way that makes no one happy apart from people who don't enjoy the job and will play it for high damage and "pretty spells"

[Dahlinea]

7.3 Pictomancer buffs

• Motif Cast time, Cast time now 2s, recast now standard 2.5s, This should allow your hammer motif to not be a damage loss anymore.
• Stone in yellow, Thunder in Magenta, Blizzard II in Cyan cast time now 1.5

I genuinely think this is the direction they will take in "buffing" pictomancer.

I wouldn't be surprised if they go straight to "Motifs casts are now instant", given how the devs been treating anything that casts in this game for some time now.

[Rithy255]

I wouldn't be surprised if they go straight to "Motifs casts are now instant", given how the devs been treating anything that casts in this game for some time now.

Hmm true, they really seem to dislike cast times so almighty dance fights can have more dancing.

[Keshigomutsuri]

7.3 Pictomancer buffs

• Motif Cast time, Cast time now 2s, recast now standard 2.5s, This should allow your hammer motif to not be a damage loss anymore.
• Stone in yellow, Thunder in Magenta, Blizzard II in Cyan cast time now 1.5

I genuinely think this is the direction they will take in "buffing" pictomancer.

This has me scared…
Ah man, I guess this game isn’t for me anymore.
They fix me up with the Picto release, only to destroy it again and dump me.

[Aco505]

All of the PCT backlash I saw was strictly about numerical tuning and not the kit. PCT at its worst was better than other jobs at their best, and it was a problem. All they needed to do to make people like me happy was shave off a bit of potency everywhere, not mess with the damage profile and mangle the entire job.

There were quite a bit of posts arguing that PCT had too many supporting capabilities and asking for the removal of stuff like the Star Prism heal, literally one of, if not the most, inflexible (and whatever) parts of their kit.

If it had dealt SMN damage from the start, no one would have cared about PCT's utility.