FFXIV DAWNTRAIL VERSUS - Black Mage vs Summoner vs Red Mage vs Pictomancer (Caster 7.05)

[@Mrhappy1227]

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[@Larryzaur]

iiit’s SUMMON…PICTOMANCER? 😢 This tragedy… greater even than the seventh umbral calamity

[@Dunker401]

Oh how the mighty have fallen 😔

[@ronioksanen3183]

Still in copium here hoping we get SMN back someday not 4th phy dps with lack luster group utility.

[@kos-mos1127]

@@ronioksanen3183We have a Summoner.

[@lloydlloyd9556]

Such devastation! This was not my intention.

[@kos-mos1127]

@@ronioksanen3183 We have SMN.

[@demored3017]

without looking, its pictomancer

[@mlemlemmlemmlem]

literally lol

[@Killerb567]

Was about to comment the same thing lmao

[@stuckNcloudz]

My thoughts exactly lol

[@IyasuHN2]

every caster knows this and it's a problem

[@demored3017]

@@IyasuHN2 not really, but se needs to choose what they want, make raise role action with the same cooldown as a tank invuln or remove raise for all casters

[@rndm2655]

Casters: The role blessed with the most unique design yet cursed with being the least balanced

[@micman963]

Atleast casters have viable options, range phys has been relying on that 1% stat buff for life support ever since SHB. It's the weakest/underperforming role by far, which is another reason why no one wants to play it anymore

[@davidstubbs2361]

@@micman963hey that party buff guarantees a spot in any party I make.

[@micman963]

@@davidstubbs2361 It's enix's attempt to keep party variety, but in ranged phys's case it's life support. Melee and Casters are strong enough to the point where they wouldn't even need to rely their 1% stat role boost to get a slot. 2 melee is great, 2 casters is great, but if you bring 2 range phys it's a detriment. This was not the case in SB for example. Edit. It's also worth noting that PF is often missing range phys and healers, if range phys weren't so far behind the other roles then more people would play them, and it would reduce the time waiting around for one to show up.

[@Ziggy8750]

@@davidstubbs2361phys ranged is for ppl with disabilities

[@oEXTRA]

Well this is what happens when you make jobs more unique. They're harder to balance. At least all are viable.

[@JustinK0]

pictomancer Pro: not too difficult to learn Con: difficult to learn

[@HeartPliz]

It's not though

[@erwark]

It plays differently from other jobs, so takes a bit to understand, but then relatively easy to master. I'd argue staying inside awkward Starry windows (eg. Valigarmanda, 2S/3S) is harder than learning when to slowcast.

[@daedelous7094]

@@HeartPliz It's intimidating to learn. People who are frantic about tryin gto keep the job rotation optimal are going to be wondering "When do I use motifs, do I store them" etc. Simply because of the insanely long cast times on those abilities and the fact they leave you with a long GCD even if swiftcasted. Once that barrier is broken you can definately see the advantages more but this is a very daunting job.

[@rare9242]

@@daedelous7094 I really dont think its harder than blm, and this is evidenced by the jillion people that play picto and haven't gotten so frustrated they quit. its not as easy as smn, but that isnt saying very much

[@daedelous7094]

@@rare9242 I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone trying to max out their DPS for savage raiding. Maybe it's just me but I feel like there are so many places you feel you could be unoptimal because of those long channel times where I'm used to really busy jobs.

[@blackmagecompendium]

Mrhappy posts blackmage, i click like. Its a simple life, but a fulfilling one

[@VallThyo]

Glad to see you here

[@blackmagecompendium]

@@VallThyo ❤️

[@astrealove1]

I feel like it's an easy choice really. Pictomancer does everything that all other Casters do, but better. It have the damage of BLM, the mobility of SMN & the buffs of RDM, it doesn't really have any major weaknesses.

[@blackmagecompendium]

@@astrealove1 * cries in blm copium*

[@Itachiflameamaterasu]

It doesn't have the saucy lv 100 RDM job gear tho 🗿🍷

[@ThatGuyOverThereEh]

It also doesn’t have Verblind 😂

[@JustinK0]

It cant rez so you shouldnt say "everything" lol

[@SubduedRadical]

It doesn't have a combat raise. Which is relevant to people like me that don't really have a static and have to do things in PF/DF. RDM > SMN >>> PCT >>>>>>>> BLM.

[@DoktorWieg]

The aesthetic of the Pictomancer doesn't bother me; in fact, I actually like how original it looks compared to the other jobs' spell effects. It IS quite jarring to first see in action but then, considering that Moogles exists and they pretty much are as silly as pictomancer's spells can be, it fits right in the setting nonetheless. That being said, I don't enjoy the job too much. Sure, it is fun and simple to pick up and then take some time to understand how things flow but regardless, there's a bit of a clunkiness I can't get around when refreshing the muses in the middle of battle. I understand this might be the caveat of the job that makes it less enjoyable for some but I really dislike suddenly being idle just to create a new motif and how even using Swiftcast to make one quickly still has the recast time take forever and unless you have some spendable abilities ready, you're pretty much a sitting duck all the while. Perhaps it is a nitpick but it does bother me that much. As for the other three... well I've always been a fan of Black Mage and while it took some adjustment to the rotation given the changes made, I see them overall as a net positive. Umbral Ice phase now granting MP on cast makes it so you're not dependent on GCD for MP recovery. The change to Umbral Soul freezing (ha!) your timer and recovering all your Umbral Ice resources out of combat was direly needed, if only to not get carpal tunnel from using it all the time between pulls or phases. Thunder spells coming up with phase changes, dealing full damage and applying DoT was a neat choice... but I still do miss those Thunderstorm procs in-between AoE nukes. Manafont basically resetting your Astral Fire phase is great though I still have to fully grasp it as it does slip my mind at times. Flare Star however, as visually pleasing the casting and actual effect looks, feels like it is missing a lot of oomph on the sound department; it is very muted compared to Flare, High Fire II, Fire IV and Foul. I like the mechanic of readying it up to be used but yeah, that audio issue bothers me still. Black Mage is still my go-to caster regardless; it's just too satisfying to play. Summoner... well I wasn't expecting Solar Bahamut. To be frank, I was fully expecting an "Enkindle Carbuncle" ability to make it turn into Proto-Carbuncle from the Pandaemonium raids and wreck faces. IMO, it would have made a much more interesting grand summon and I would have expected that while Proto-Carbuncle would be up, you'd still be able to use Carbuncle-specific abilities. To be frank, SMN feels like it would have benefited better from perhaps adding Ramuh, Leviathan and perhaps even Shiva as alternates between Demi summons. Mechanically, they could have worked the same as Ifrit, Titan and Garuda except with their themed abilities and different potencies. Otherwise, I get the impression that they could have added a trait to turn Physics into a reasonably potent INT-based healing spell each time you either do a regular summon or a Demi summon. Just so it has some use. Red Mage is a lot of the same... mechanically speaking, it didn't get anything unexpected other than perhaps Circle of Thorns. We all expected the full combo to be extended and some new skill tossed in the lot like Grand Impact. Otherwise, it plays like RDM always played and I don't see that as a bad thing... just a very boring thing. I will say that I like Jolt III since it looks like RDM upgraded from a single shot spell to a burst rapier rifle XD Looking forward to your melee DPS Versus. At first, Monk felt a bit jarring but having gotten used to it and its new skills, I love it even more than I did before. Dragoon feels really nice now despite having a DASH as a gap closer instead of... you know... a JUMP; they could simply have made Elusive Jump make you jump forward a given distance and 2 charges with a semi low cooldown and I think it would have been better. Ninja is less stressful with no Huton management and now AoE debuff. Samurai and Reaper suffers the same issue as RDM : more of the same, for better or worst. And Viper, once you figure out how its main combo functions, is satisfying, especially if you wanted to see how a DBZ character would play in FFXIV.

[@Emarella]

As a casual/intermediate RDM main: while the cons are absolutely true, I find most of these points to be elements that add to the challenge and uniqueness (and thus interest) of how the class plays. Many of them require me to be very intentional about when and where I use abilities, which means when I do use them appropriately, it's very satisfying. Melee combo being an all-or-nothing and Sprint removing Dualcast forces me to be very mindful of when I activate them. Especially with the melee combo, I actually enjoy the challenge of keeping an eye on when to use my melee combo and what I weave between skills. It's especially fun and challenging when doing solo Variant Dungeons, trying to figure out just how much damage I can take while weaving in my combo. Same with backflip. It can be a lifesaver (and make you look and feel really cool) when you have your spacing down and zoop out of an incoming tell only to rush back in immediately. It is a little annoying many maps are simply too small to use it, but once you have the mastery of knowing your proper spacing and you can pull it off consistently, it feels amazing.

[@Itachiflameamaterasu]

Picto may have the best dps and utility, but it doesn't have the drip and sauce from the RDM job gear tho. Aesthetics > meta 🗿🍷.

[@CrowToast3]

Picto being soooooooo strong on short burst phases and drawing its motifs on downtime phases where there's nothing to hit will make picto the GOAT in Eden Ultimate. The job has more to show...

[@patrikbatemanx]

who fking cares about dmg... its ffxiv LOL play what you want, unless you world prog

[@NoXiiZz]

@@patrikbatemanx who's gonna tell you that dps check exist and if dps check exist then people care about dmg

[@CrowToast3]

@@patrikbatemanx probably true upto savage cuz its designed to be cleared with any job as long as you keep 2T, 2H, 2melee, 1caster, 1ranged with adequate dps rotations. But ultimates are not designed like that and if there is any dps checks similar to TOP P4? Only picto will be allowed in pfs

[@davidstubbs2361]

@@patrikbatemanxme when both tanks, both healers, and both melees are gray parsing in my reclear

[@theChaosKe]

Picto is cool but i feel like it having a 5% buff is the main issue because it just simply deals way too much to be in that category. Reduce its raidbuff to 3% (so its in the same category as RPR - which it outdamages btw) and the numbers start to make a bit more sense. That would be the easiest fix with the smallest amount of changes.

[@Lilybellmusic]

I think it also needs redistribution of potency. Lower the motif and hammer damage a little bit, and move that potency to slow casts. That should help with balancing pct for fights with downtime

[@tomgroves2567]

Pictos problem is the crit/dth ratios. Remove the buffs it gets to crit/dth and the class will fall to a more reasonable range. Realistically damage-wise it should fall between RDM and BLM. Not as much utility as RDM, significantly more than BLM. Casters problem is BLM honestly since it's so selfish of a class but also no class should be able to compete with it in dps

[@oEXTRA]

It's a pve game (mostly). If something isn't broken, it doesn't need a nerf. There will always be a best and a worst job. As long as they're all viable, that's all that matters. If anything BLM just needs a buff.

[@theChaosKe]

@@oEXTRA That logic only applies to singleplayer pve. In an online game the jobs are competing for slots and therefore makes balance necessary. This is also why you cant just simply buff BLM to picto lvl because it would make double caster meta and 6 melees would have to compete for one slot, while also rendering rdm and smn jobless.

[@oEXTRA]

​@@theChaosKeI'm sorry but you're simply wrong. Most of the community aren't meta focused, and never will be. For the few that are it simply doesn't matter. As I said, there will always be a best and a worst job. Also there's nothing stopping groups from running double caster now since it's also a good option. Lastly, though damage is king in this game, it's not the end all. Even if BLM and PCT did the same damage, melee have distinct inherent advantages over both casters. The only jobs that would truly threaten a melee slot if they did just as much damage, are phys range.

[@threadscore]

Me, remembering HW/SB SMN and now hearing it called "easy."

[@rare9242]

it wasn't super hard, it was incredibly flexible. long opener doesnt mean hard

[@threadscore]

@@rare9242 Perhaps not "hard" but "daunting."

[@rare9242]

@@threadscore what was daunting about it?

[@thehermitwizard]

Unstated con of PCT: everyone and their mom is currently playing it because it's damage is so drastically overtuned so the odds of getting into a group that doesn't suck as one is lower.

[@MrMadvik]

RIP SMN, hope someday you will return to your former glory 😥

[@amUusTV]

I just started learning red mage and only noticed that sprint used up dual cast yesterday at level 68

[@armandobarioli2787]

It’s been an issue since storm blood and I hate it still :(

[@amUusTV]

@@armandobarioli2787 I've run into it twice and it makes me mad every time I'm so sorry

[@ZaraZela]

probably won't matter while you're leveling but if you ever decide to prog svg/ulti on it you might come across pots eating the dualcast aswell xD

[@LookItIsHope]

Mounting up does as well. Less of an issue compared to trying to sprint in combat, but still sort of jank in some scenarios.

[@charless.3364]

The joy of painting with Bob Ross

[@Channel4comments1]

Man was right. It's another 'Picto dunks on everyone' episode. Just hella overtuned with way too much going on.

[@straysheep4467]

And their response to people complaining about Pictomancer being overtuned was to just buff the shit out of the other jobs without thinking. I am flat-out amazed that they don't test this shit with different sets of potencies to see where the sweetspot might be and have a slightly higher or lower overall balance if players find it too strong or weak. But gotta just give everybody more DEEPS blindly so the handful of players picking up Picto don't whine about it, I guess. I really hope this new Field Op is good because if it bores me, I'm going to look at putting my subscription on hold and catching up on my backlog. And that's probably the end of me playing FF14 because I walked away during 2.2 and didn't come back until 6.2ish.

[@IyasuHN2]

@@straysheep4467 I mean it's not really whining if one job in one role completely invalidates other roles though? Especially casters but even the 1% damage buff from pranged doesn't actually warrant not just taking a picto instead on paper. I love picto but the fact that my 99 parses on other casters is lower than my 60 on picto is just not it.

[@justinjones1475]

For RDM use sprint before you start casting. Less overall sprint duration I know, but it's a workaround I found. I'm sure other RDM's found out other workarounds

[@Adkhean]

There should be a Con for RDM that it can wipe the whole raid with it's LB3

[@PaladinHideka]

fun fact: Summoner has only about double the hard casts per fight, of a reaper. a reaper is almost more of a caster than summoner is.

[@justinjones1475]

Shhhh. We SMN's don't want Yoshi to hear that 😂

[@DefensiveBalloons]

Summoner is a physical dps disguised as a magical dps.

[@grunerkaktus]

What years of WoW, FF14 and other MMOs have taught me is that the player-variable has much more say in the performance of a class/job than you could show with logs. Sure, the top .1% playerbase doing the super high-end content can bring out the differences in damage, but for about 90% of the content (you know, the "normal" one) its usually the players performance that dictates the jobs performance - including the teammates and team comp. Countless times I have topped meters with ungeared jobs that should be low damage just bc others didnt play as well as I did. So all the damage differences only the best of the best players can reproduce on high end content matter very little for anything else in the game. That means: whatever looks cool and feels cool to play is fine for basically everything in the game. That is also true for most Extreme/Savage groups from what I have seen.

[@Koppu1doragon]

As a summoner player I have no issue with Solar Bahamut itself the issue is that it screwed up the rotation, pushing Phenoix to like three or four cycles deep which is Summoner only real way to self heal outside of the single use 500 potency spell you get from solar bahamut.

[@catboy_on_main]

Another big boon for Pct v BLM is that it falls in line with RDM and SMN BiS so you dont need two sets of gear anymore. I mean sure there are some universal sets that let BLM share but the sps on it is so low it makes me physically ill to play

[@Lordwhizzkid]

Some of my personal thoughts in terms of the Dawntrail changes: BLM - Honestly it's close to being so fun to play, I just wish Flare Star didn't make the rotation so rigid. It's a hefty loss if you don't get to use it, and any slight positioning change could ruin it for you. Letting stacks stay during Ice phase would improve the job to be the best it has for years imo. SMN - Ehhhhh, there's so much to say here. Solar Bahamut should at the very least have more visually interesting moves, if not a different moveset that varies gameplay. I also feel the main bulk of the kit is already pretty dull and knowing it could be like that for another 2.5-3 years? It needs a refresh and honestly needs it sooner rather than later, but it does not need to be fully reworked again. Just give it a little more decision making in its rotation, and variety in its burst and it'll be a very fun job. RDM - I was a little worried about it going into Dawntrail, but the more I play it the more the charm of this job just keeps on falling out. Genuinely other than the small changes like dualcast taken up by sprint, it's a near perfect job for me. Grand Impact feels like it's been in the class since the very beginning with how smoothly it fits in. Truly no real notes. PCT - So the class is phenomenal, there's no saying otherwise, but I do feel the need to talk about some worries I have in the future. I think fights are going to have to be near full uptime now, because any minor downtime can put a Picto further ahead than every other class since it gets to store damage when no other class can. The best way I can describe this is like if a Monk got to use Six Sided Star to do a mechanic, but the damage of it gets stored for use in the 2 minute burst. It's crazy potential and won't be matched without significant buffs to other classes. I certainly expect Picto to completely dominate the Criterion & Ultimate, which it is already doing at 90. And I do wonder how this'll be reflected, whether it'll be in boss design or balance design, because more downtime is coming in high level instances, so I imagine alarm bells are ringing for CU3 going into 7.1.

[@SomeOne-vh1rm]

Pictomancer atm in ultimate old and newest is broken also because your guarantee to get critical hits and the damage outclasses even melee DPS

[@tonybreeden863]

It doesn't out damage all melee DPS. Both Viper and Samurai does more and after the recent buffs to Black Mage it does more than Pictomancer as well

[@KnightRaymund]

I love how Picto looks. It's different and cool.

[@No0neat]

One thing i abaolutely LOVE to do as a red mage is, during big pulls i use Acelleration + Swiftcast and embolden and just... Shower the enemy mob with grand impact and 3 free insta Impacts. It is.. so damn satisfying.

[@jackofsmalltrade3280]

so many summon to choose from but no, 2nd Bahamut is more interesting to them

[@kos-mos1127]

Solar Bahamut and suppose to be a spoiler friendly version of Hydaelyn but it fails because it uses Hydaelyn’s glyphs and signature attack.

[@Serratiger]

I feel you could have found other cons to SMN that are not opinion based. Boring/unpopular is very subjective, surely there's other objective disadvantages, like how Ifrit phase forces a gap closer and a melee strike, low skill expression, or something among those lines.

[@kos-mos1127]

Most players would categorize Summoner from 2.0 - 5.0 as boring. Whether a job is boring depends on if players like the gameplay. The old Summoner design of spinning plates was as exciting as watching paint dry.

[@justinjones1475]

When you realize Picto can solo Susanoo 😂

[@PraviousFaboule]

I don't know what they were thinking when they designed Picto, all that utility, easiness of use, flexibility in the rotation on top of that amount of dps, what they were expecting it would happen? It's like creating a new job "Shinobi", it has all the ninja abilities but you don't have to press any mudra combinations they are just normal OGCDs and it also has more damage, a shield for the raid and a damage buff. It is a design problem, even if you slightly tweak the numbers the Picto just offers more and better unless you nerf it significantly and then everyone will hate you for it

[@user-ge2vc3rl1n]

It seems to me like they acknowledge that BLM is the sweat class therefore another BLM-like class must be easier so everyone finds their niche. They made it far too easy however, also that aoe dps is crazy,

[@kos-mos1127]

SE does not balance around ease of use.

[@davidstubbs2361]

@@kos-mos1127they should balance around SOMETHING because at the moment there is no guiding philosophy for why the current numbers are the way they are

[@kos-mos1127]

@@davidstubbs2361 They balance the casters around combat raise.

[@davidstubbs2361]

@@kos-mos1127 ​​⁠the applicability of RDM and SMNs raise is different so should they have different rdps? Is the mere presence of a raise the only justification? BLM and PCT both don’t have raises yet PCT has much higher rdps. Why? What about roles that don’t have a raise at all, what is the balancing philosophy inside each of them? Is it the party buff? If so, why again is PCT higher than BLM? AoE is clearly not a consideration in any form.

[@Neptune1009]

Surprised you didn’t mention that SMN’s damage is currently bugged and the trait upgrade you get as you level through Dawntrail doesn’t actually work on the summons attacks

[@IyasuHN2]

@@Neptune1009 eh.. it's 50 potency on the 3 least cast skills in your kit and they don't even happen during buff windows. Even if it had that 150/m potency back it'd still be dog, just like rdm.

[@dilkaranjot]

20:58 he does mention it

[@TheBigCheese930]

Thanks for the chapters

[@crimsonshadow1477]

I'm glad the Dev team said they want to start focusing on buffing up instead of nerfing down, and I believe we have picto to thank for that

[@seanmacisaac334]

Never forgot fellow blackmages, if you fuck up, you can always use flare to refresh astral fire and get an extra 3 stacks towards flare star!

[@DacianGradaMusic]

As much as I like Picto and is my new "brain off" job because of the extra dmg, I'll still like BLM a lot and even after some of the weird changes alongside very welcome ones (MP Blizzard was my wish ever since we got that G'raha duty where it worked that way lol) I'm still enjoying it quite a lot. I'm now curious to see how they will manage to add to the caster identities in 8.0 since they're all pretty "unique" already. Maybe it's time for some reworks...

[@GarnetDust24]

Same! I didn’t want to like picto but it’s super fun and kinda brain off but I always go back to black mage.

[@themagicalcat6828]

Personally, I would argue that black mage’s position in the ranking has to take into context the job’s role in play, as a greedy dps it’s exclusive benefit to a fight is it’s damage, since pictomancer is beating it out on the damage front, thats a huge hit black mage, and picto is bringing more to the table as far as party utility goes. I would put Red Mage at #2 since, despite it’s much lower damage, it still is the best at filling the support caster role, it’s by far the strongest raiser, and since summoner got entirely shafted, it dosn’t lag much behind SMN in damage either, so there is no reason not to run Red Mage when filling that role. It’s fair to say that, yes BLM does more damage than RDM, but PCT does more damage than BLM, RDM atleast isn’t meant to be a high damage caster, so it is fulfilling the role it was designed for better currently than black mage is.

[@siinuxxblume5123]

Without body checks like in endwalker, it is hard to even make up a scenario where picto isnt the best caster. Sure, you dont have a raise, but it doesnt make up for more than 4k dps if the raise doesnt matter outside of raise sickness. It has more utility than blm, works better in different comps (good adps + raidwide), has an extra party mit and is easier to play. The amount of stuff it has going for it is beyond just "big damagage go burr*. It is just better than every other caster at basically anything.

[@JustinHiryu]

Imagine if Summoners also got a Lunar Pheonix.

[@TotalMilesPS]

Funny how I could predict the order before even watching the video. 4th summoner (lowest DPS / skill expression), 1st pictomancer (highest dps / skill expression).

[@nubchaos]

RDM got shafted in Endwalker, then Dawntrail just casually gives it OVER TWO THOUSAND POTENCY in opener. Strongest it's ever been and I'm happy to be maining it again after dropping it early in Endwalker, but it's still RDM :P

[@Sx2Kirby]

Surprised my man even wasted his breath making this video instead of getting more reps in at the gym.

[@daedelous7094]

I'm going to stand by RDM even if it's damage isn't so high, because it's a very safe and stable job to play. BLM is powerful and as you say in the right hands it's devastating but it feels like one screw up on it seriously bones your groove thanks to the very tight astral flare requirement not to mention mobility can be a bit cumbersome unless you setup your UI properly to let you jump to party members quickly without button fumbling. RDM's only main point of contention is the melee combo and some awareness needed of your backflip range, the rest is pretty easy to handle, and it's damage is still nothing to scoff at if you play well.

[@Emma-rr6kf]

Black mage is still my absolute favorite ^~^ picto and red mage are fun to

[@lyconxero457]

One thing that it would be nice to see with these videos is an upgrade to 4k quality. The graphics engine of the game has been updated and while a 4K video isn't perfect, it does go some towards towards combating KZbin's compression. A lot of the video is just you hitting a striking dummy anyway so surely it wouldn't be that hard to simply turn up your graphics settings for like an hour to capture some higher quality footage if you don't normally play that way.

[@VarriskKhanaar]

*Madge* Where's Blue Mage?! ;-P

[@Shadowlar]

To quote the great JoCat, "50% of the Blue Mage experience is asking the question 'What about Blu?'"

[@MaydaTiger]

that moment when you're here for the biggest loser instead of the biggest winner

[@lyconxero457]

What's interesting is that this expansion I actually find it painfully difficult to play a few of the casters; with those being Red Mage and Summoner. To me, Red Mage feels like it has a ton of potential and just needs to evolve. To me, there's no reason why it's so cool in PVP but so utterly boring in PVE. Summoner, by comparison, just needs to push more variety with it's summons. I'm not even mad at the basic idea and the revamp but I personally think it'd be cooler if you basically were a constant stand fighter and you were more like a Blue Mage directly wielding attacks from your various summons for pretty much ALL of your attacks paired with the idea that we should be cycling through different sets of summons by this point at lvl 100. Past that, I absolutely LOVE Pictomancer and I literally use it every day along with Viper as I feel like SE has really nailed these brand new jobs. I'm almost done leveling Black Mage at this point as I waited until they had done significant patching to it before I even attempted to use it this expansion and it's...okay? To be honest, I've never really been a fan of Black Mage as the job is just really boring to me. I don't like casting the same spell over and over again on healers so why the hell would I want that to be peak gameplay on a DPS?!? I don't think that Black Mage will ever be my jam unless they change it to be more visually diverse in its gameplay. I would hope that they take a page from Pictomancer's book where even though your basic combo is just on one or two buttons the spell effects keep changing so it's less visually boring. Viper has also shown me how effective 2-3 buttons can actually be in this game as it's incredibly satisfying going back and forth between just a few buttons so if they design a job around this functionality they can make something really fun and engaging that doesn't fill up all of your hotbars. I really do hope that ALL of the jobs get this treatment in 8.0 as many jobs are absolutely maxing out my bars and it'll likely take a complete overhaul of their core systems to address this.

[@FhtagnCthulhu]

I love the picto aesthetic, I really really love it. I was sure I would main it. I just found that I hate playing the job? That was really disappointing to me. It doesn't ever flow for me so far. I do not like the Canvas system. Back to RDM... and BLM when I feel like being a liability.

[@madambutterfly1997]

You already know how I feel about Summoner it's incomplete

[@Koppu1doragon]

I disagree with completely ignoring Scathe, its purpose is allowing you to cast on the move, any time you are moving you should be casting Scathe.

[@HannachiMariachi]

While you could do that during movement, pretty much every other movement tool in your kit has infinitely more priority to be used instead of scathe if at all possible and a good run of a duty doesn't include any scathe casts at all. The exception are dungeon pulls during movement and lower level duties when your smaller supply of movement abilities runs out

[@Mrtll]

Red mage has to be #2 screw it's dps jobs is a absolute blast to play

[@abdelhadimersoul88]

For sure RDM has to be 2nd, he said "RDM overall desirability in endgame is kinda not there" ? Almost Half parties that progged savage week 1 had a RDM

[@RainbowLizardOne]

@@abdelhadimersoul88 Mr Happy hates red mage for some reason

[@Mrtll]

@@RainbowLizardOne definitely biased

[@Itachiflameamaterasu]

Facts

[@IyasuHN2]

in an endgame raider environment I'm expecting 0-1 death(s) so you have to understand he's not playing with garbage from PF and as a rdm main even I have to say we fall off there. Used to be acceptable when we were the only caster with a 5% buff but now we've got Graha mage in the game because it can do literally everything in the role except raise. Actually the worst balanced role in the game and it just ruins the role i love

[@scullzomben]

Still absolutely wild to me that SE has acknowledged the SMN bug but literally said "just wait a few months until 7.1 for a fix lol". Any other dev would be eviscerated for this.

[@Xukerino]

8.0 summoner is probably gonna be so jacked.

[@kos-mos1127]

Summoner will live in the gym for until 8.0.

[@Teramoix]

I did not watch the video yet. It's pictomancer. Edit: It was pictomancer

[@Bobuliss]

You shouldn't discount aesthetics. I don't often DPS, but when I do, I always pick SMN, simply because it is by far the coolest looking job in the game. Nothing else comes close aesthetically. Numbers aren't everything😅

[@magnusaber1]

Summoner is at the bottom in both gameplay and damage, no amount of visual flair is gonna remedy that.

[@Bobuliss]

@magnusaber1 *if all you care about is numbers lol 😆

[@johndelanie3649]

Considering picto is absolutely mogging every other class for damage right now I'm gonna guess picto lmao

[@AyeeSkippy]

Not even SE is safe from making whatever the newest playable character style the most overpowered

[@kasaioni7680]

It's still weird to me with the combat in this game being designed the way it is, it still ends up with balance problems like every other mmo.

[@IyasuHN2]

This role (my favorite role by the way) now feels like its the personification of 3 dark knights and a warrior. Why bother picking anything but the warrior.

[@TNobody0214]

RDM is only 3rd cause BLM got buffs in the 7.05 patch. BLM has plenty of issues in DT and for once i dont think its the top, even if I exclude PCT. RDM just has so much use for almost all content in the game, just cause the dps is lower naw i think it deserve the spot over BLM who doesnt even have its one good trait of being highest dps caster

[@TenchiSawada]

I would say redmage is in a better spot than blm. IE it has more of an identity and style. BLM whole thing was it's damage and rotation. Now it's worse damage off and doesnt bring utility. Picto does both :/

[@bowiebazinga2019]

I think it's important to have jobs like BLM and PCT with no raise. Otherwise, when your playing a caster, players would expect you to raise no matter the job. Instead, we have jobs that if someone sees, they'll know that they don't have a raise and can let them do their thing

[@guffels]

might be the most obvious versus of them all. Healer is pretty close too.

[@romandgtl]

I want solar bahamut removed, I hate it so much. Its this random ass thing you never even seen before and I feel it takes away from both bahamut and phoenix which are much more iconic. Rework the job (they can repurpose the skills they have) and remove solar bahamut its just shit...

[@steelclackers2611]

Larryzaur speculated of its origins and if he's right then it fits in thr lore quite well. I'd recommend watching his video.

[@crosssquirrel4293]

And what about blue mage? Why no one remembers blue mage? Poor blue mage ;)

[@mimosdamicrosoft3272]

only red mage

[@montious1]

Apparently happy's been completely oblivious to the BLM discourse over the past couple of months and ignoring the fact that it is the least played job in Savage currently according to recorded parses on FFLogs. No idea how you can put BLM ahead of RDM considering RDM's actually not in a bad spot at all right now + utility options. Clearly just ranking these based on DPS.

[@IyasuHN2]

@montious1 BLM has always been the least played caster though? Monk has often been the least played melee and yet very many times was the highest deeps in the game (and has sick utility). Ultimately dps most important contribution is...dps. When you think about savage raiding you're talking re-clears not prog. At that point, raise isn't even really part of the equation. Blm deals more damage than rdm even after the utility therefore is superior by the metric of damage per second, the very namesake of DPS.

[@voistar5387]

Because he has extreme bias about Red Mage and Black Mage and refuses to acknowledge the flaws with Black Mage. Honestly Happy has sort of been going downhill in his content quality lately, with his biases seeming to take priority of objective reality. He is one of the most prominent examples of high-end player disconnect from average-player community when it comes to opinions on content and other stuff. Big example was the recent raid series which most of the community loved since it focused on fun mechanics over super hard difficulty but Happy felt like they were lacking and acted like it was the common concensus among the community.

[@TGMasaka]

Makes no sense for picto to have all that utility but out damage a black mage,

[@ashtorith]

Picto>redmage>summoner>blackmage

[@straysheep4467]

I love RDM most but you people are high. BLM still places second under Picto for ranged DPS overall and still beats melee depending on skill level.

[@kos-mos1127]

Summoner is dead last and it’s not even close. Summoner was never going to use raise for anything outside of the healer dying.

[@ajsario6804]

Redmage is badass skills lol why they remove BLM high fire ,high blizzard skills😅😅

[@taco_sensei]

wHeRe's bLUe MaGE

[@InsanityReborn]

Blue Mage best caster.

[@TheIceLurker]

Why pretend that other casters had a chance?

[@Illumas]

Sprint eats your dualcast?!?

[@straysheep4467]

Yes, and it always has. So SMN gets to act like phys ranged and BLM gets to teleport all over the fucking place, but RDM for some reason cannot use Sprint and keep their Dualcast. The caster originally designed around its mobility is essentially the least mobile now. Make it make sense.

[@jacobie1010]

Us Blue Mage mains would like a word with you! >:C

[@PaterFabian]

3553 Dusty Dam

[@gunxswordification]

you havent gone back over redmage have you? engage has the same level requirement, recast, and potency as disengage without the backflip and similar to alot of classes they only fall behind if you dont account to them having a raid buff. not sure why black mage not having a buff for the team isnt a con its why they get to have their high solo dps. you mess up your combo and your useless to the party

[@maikatase]

Oof, been playing rdm since StB, I removed vercure off my bar very early on since I assumed it worked like Physick on SMN.

[@crimsonshenanigan1854]

@@maikatase someone don't read their actions it literally has a bigger heal potency

[@JayDayX116]

Picto is so overtuned its stupid.

[@SubduedRadical]

I'm going to give it a wile guess that your order is Pictomancer winning, then probably BLM > RDM > SMN? Possibly swapping the last two, but probably not? Damage >>> all as a viewpoint means nothing else matters, and I know you don't like RDM or SMN's gameplay (I like both and dislike BLM and PCT).

[@IyasuHN2]

@@SubduedRadical 7 year rdm main here. Even if he was being completely objective, we suck. Our most useful talent involves someone else screwing up and if that doesn't happen then black mage and ESPECIALLY picto are leagues better.

[@SubduedRadical]

@@IyasuHN2 Nah, RDM is amazing. The only thing that sucks about it is the penalty is too heavy for the raise tax. The rotation itself is fun and enjoyable, easy to pick up but with room for growth and optimization, and all of the utility is neat. It probably should have a personal barrier (at the risk of Caster homogenization), and while Vermedica would be fun, it'd also be stupid, lol RDM, unlike BLM/PCT, is actually fun to me. That's what matters to me.

[@IyasuHN2]

@@SubduedRadical THAT I agree with. I still play it even when it's not optimal however I'm very objective about its performance because we shouldn't settle for being so much weaker than the counterparts because eventually people WILL start to exclude jobs from PF.

[@polowbornfly3862]

these videos are not for any new players cause he says a bunch of words and things that only exp players would understand so sorry newer players lol

[@coaster1235]

for me i dislike pct’s sfx much more than the vfx, the visuals are fun but the sounds it makes are annoying

[@MiTsul2U]

Why Summoner has lowest dps now because it has a serious bug, the Arcane Mastery at lv94 didn't work as intended. That why every skill that should be deal more 50 potency, is now less.

[@IyasuHN2]

@@MiTsul2U Imma keep it real with you that bug literally makes such a laughable difference. It only affects 3 abilities so you're gaining 150 potency a minute. That's not even a full ruin 4 of damage

[@furo822]

pet potency*

[@erwark]

They said they balanced based on current DPS with the bug active. There is a chance they will cut potency if they fix the bug.

[@Jake38nine]

I like Picto, but this was NOT the expansion for it. Its aesthetic does NOT mesh well with the surrounding areas and story. It somewhat fits halfway through the expansion once you make it to the Dome, but even then it doesn't 100% mesh well. I was excited to play it and did play it all throughout the entire expansion. However, I always felt like I wasn't fitting in as a Pictomancer and there's a reason why Viper got the WOL spotlight in the trailers and Krile got Picto because you aren't going to a notice a Lalafell casting her paints as much as you would any other race. I'm not sure where Picto would fit in later on in expansions, but even expanding on Alexandria would make it fit in more appropriately.

[@sportmotor181]

None of this makes me want to get into the game, this is all so much "shop talk" lol

[@BazzFreeman]

AS a ranged main, I quite like Picto apart from one thing - The audio. I really, really hate the sploosh splosh sounds.

[@runnerisfree]

Picto wins lol

[@TCChavez]

Team picto!

[@SuperSnivMatt]

So ignoring. Picto. My thoughts are vaguely this BLM - I think besides Flare Star feeling not great, it’s really fun and engaging. I think it’s damage is respectable enough but Picto is just such an outlier SMM - idk why people want to Change your primal phase into a new primal phase with like Shiva, Ramuh, etc. when the problem is that all the Demi’s are the SAME. It’s fine to be simple though I don’t think it needs to be complicated. But I think it does need a damage buff (the bug w/ pets is whatever since the buffed it’s damage to where they wanted it) RDM - it’s super chill and feels easily the most smooth of the casters. I think the issue stems from Res Tax which they actually finally mentioned in the patch notes by name in .05. Because I think RDM and SMM should be equal to one another, maybe a lil higher due to demand of less movement and needing to be in melee for longer and more often.

[@kos-mos1127]

Changing the trio after Pheonix to Leviathan, Ramuh and Shiva has more impact on the rotation than changing the Demi-Summons. The Demi-Summons are the big hitting one minute ability while the lesser summons are more frequent.

[@chrisanderson6353]

I am honestly sick of this PCT vs BLM nonesense. Just rebalance the two jobs and make BLM just as much of a threat as PCT.

[@crimsonshenanigan1854]

It is however Blm is outdated just like DRK all bc it's mobility it's literally a glass cannon device say the balance fights around all jobs but you got apes hitting the entire stage with rng mechs m3 n the bosses lariat comes back to back tell me how a blm do that mechanic without dmg fall off

[@selectioncrescimento]

Picto chads stay winning

[@DrakeFury1]

PCT needs a nerf.. Black Mage mains unite. Our job is being laughed at by everyone. I hate PCT with a passion, the fact that it has better damage as well as a raid buff is an insult to the caster role. Nerf PCT, buff BLM. Problem solved.

[@Qorani_VT]

PCT is fairly close to where it should be in the current DPS standings in that it should be near the top as a long caster but realistically should be second to Black Mage. BLM just needs a massive buff and RDM needs a mediumish one.

[@kos-mos1127]

Summoner needs a massive buff.

[@crimsonshenanigan1854]

If Picto gets nerfed then Sam and Viper or Mnk and Rpr needs one I like both Rpr and Viper but if Picto gets nerfed then the hammer must come down on those jobs as well

[@DrakeFury1]

@crimsonshenanigan1854 PCT should also be below SAM and VPR. It has no place competing with dpss without raid buffs. It should stand along with RPR, DRG, MNK, NIN, a good step below BLM, SAM and VPR.

[@Qorani_VT]

@@DrakeFury1 honestly, if it's below VPR, SAM, and BLM but pretty much at/next to the top of the jobs with raid buffs if be fine with that. Job is easier than BLM but does require a reasonable amount of careful upkeep and longer cast times.

[@varmintx0]

SMN and RDM don't need their damage buffed, all the other non-phys ranged need their damage nerfed. But, they won't do that cuz the community will whine, cry and throw a temper tantrum.

[@PaladinHideka]

Difficult to learn? PICTO? get the f out lmao. its literally push lit up button simulator, and know when not to use your hammer simulator.

[@NaohMkS]

For blm, transpose this expac has some crazy optimizations. Like, as an example, you can squeeze a little bit more potency by saving your firestarter proc to re-enter fire phase but cast transpose right before it to cast it under astral fire 1. There are so many applications for transpose it's crazy

[@SniperYanda]

A really niche but fun optimization is if you triplecast to catch despair, flare star, and then transpose and blizzard 3. The extra damage you gain from instacasting that B3 when not in astral fire 3 is more than you'd gain from instacasting a fire 4.

[@McNoobySon]

???? Are you new? If you played black mage in endwalker, you would know how much transpose actually had to offer. In dawntrail they killed the transpose play style, leaving this shell of an optimization option.

[@KascGoobbue]

There is so little you can do with transpose now compared to what you had in endwalker simply due to the way mana regeneration works now. There are very few applications of transpose to what it used to be. If you look up the Black Mage Endwalker Book and go to page 37, you can see how much stuff you were able to do that is completely removed now.

[@davidstubbs2361]

This has been a thing for longer than youve been playing. This is not a “cubrazy opti”. Neither is transpose>swift> ui1b3, this basically normal gameplay.

[@ABadZoroark]

Without even needing to analyze, bottom 4 is BLM. I would have been fine with it having literally no benefit over the 2/3 other jobs if they didnt't implement that garbage change to Thunder in DT. Holy hell did Square Enix NOT cook by killing player expression with the job. Is Yoshi P okay? Because I am genuinely curious what is going through his mind as a BLM main with these changes.

[@h4rdtr]

Blm is fine rn. They should allow you to hard cast thunder should you not have the proc, and they shoud buff thunders initial hit damage. Other than that minor inconvenience the job is fine. Even the damage has gone way up in parses as ppl have gotten used to playing it. It's just picto is obviously broken and needs nerfs

[@IyasuHN2]

@@ABadZoroark Blm is actually fine after the 7.05. It's the other casters (and by extension all other ranged jobs) that can't compete

[@paz8723]

Summoner isnt a caster. Yeah the game *says* its a caster but come on its not a caster.

[@steelclackers2611]

If you want to be constantly held into place then only use ifrit phase. Or play blm. When I picked smn during SB I did it because it had already good mobility so it isn't my gripe with this job.

[@crimsonshenanigan1854]

Pictomancer dps doesn't make it the best in the tier its their performance huge difference