After fans held their breath for months, the Final Fantasy 14 team has announced the new class for the upcoming Dawntrail expansion: the Pictomancer.
This new caster (or technically, “magical ranged DPS”) class can paint a variety of things—not just other creatures or people. The ‘painting’ of the brush like one would on a canvas invokes different spells, almost like a wand. It’s described as not being so DPS-heavy, but it’s not entirely a support class (assumedly like, for instance, Dancer or Bard would be).
Officially translated, the Pictomancer: “Works in the medium of mixed aether, wielding a specialized brush to render their imaginings reality. These creations include not only creatures and weapons, but landscapes as well. As evoking such wonders takes time, the Pictomancer also keeps insta-cast abilities and spells at the ready.”
Presenting the new magical ranged DPS arriving in #Dawntrail: Pictomancer!?? https://t.co/w0qYhoCeIs pic.twitter.com/UefHaSc1K3
— FINAL FANTASY XIV (@FF_XIV_EN) January 7, 2024
In the trailer, Krile, a Scion of the Seventh Dawn adapted from Final Fantasy 5, shows off the colorful magics in the crowds of what looks to be Tuliyollal, a capital of the game’s new region. This is all shown as pretty lively and upbeat, with colors erupting into the sky, though there’s no combat shown in this trailer. Director Naoki Yoshida mentioned that Krile had little role in previous expansions in combat (even having been kidnapped in one), so it’s definitely a pivot for her.
Technically, Pictomancer isn’t a new job to the Final Fantasy universe, though it seems like the FFXIV version will have its own spin on it. In Final Fantasy 6, the Pictomancer specifically only drew foes, recreating them in reality for allied forces. We can also assume from this that there’ll be a lot of FF6 references in Dawntrail, as this is a pretty deep cut.
The Pictomancer will be available to players with Dawntrail at level 80—meaning you can dive into the Dawntrail story with it if you’d like. The other class, Viper, was announced at the European FanFest in London this past October. This “scouting” class will be a dual-wielder with blades that combine into one, and is the featured class for “Meteor,” the default FFXIV warrior of light shown on cover art.
Both Pictomancer and Viper classes in FFXIV will be playable when FFXIV: Dawntrail launches this summer.
