During the Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival in Toky over the weekend, Square Enix reveal a brand new job coming in the expansion Dawntrail called Pictomancer.
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail Gets New Job Revealed the Pictomancer
A new job is coming in the new expansion Dawntrail was revealed during the Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival held over the weekend. Pictomancer takes inspiration from Yoshida’s favourite cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which he wore a t-shirt of at the last Las Vegas Fan Fest. He was hinting at the two new jobs coming in Dawntrail, the first being Viper and the second the loveable Pictomancer. As each TMNT is named after a famous artist, the Pictomancer takes the same inspiration adopting a paintbrush as a magical DPS.
New Job – Pictomancer Unveiled
The ranged class comes from a similar job in Final Fantasy 6, Relm was able to illustrate enemy techniques. In this FF14 rendition, the job will possess much wider abilities, painting creatures, weapons and even landscapes. The video teased shows the Pictomancer effortlessly casting paint abilities and more fantastical effects. The Pictomancer can even summon a Moogle. This job can help support the party with a buff but is not strictly a support class.
In the main story of Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail the Pictomancer will be represented by the Lalafell Krile who joins in Duty Support. However, there will be no required class for this Job, beginning at level 80 in the major city of Gridania. Don’t worry if you can’t draw to save your life, it will require no artistic abilities to actually play. This isn’t the first artist styled character we’ve seen in games of late, as there was Liu Huo in Tower of Fantasy and the advanced class Artist in the ARPG Lost Ark. Pictomancer looks to be another great job to take on, with plenty of colourful splashes to made with the flick of a giant paintbrush.
Players can expect the vibrant job to appear in the graphical update expected in Update 7.0 which marks the release of Dawntrail.
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
Graphics Upgrades & New Specs
The update was first announced during previous Fan Fest events. Yoshida showed fans what to expect as each playable race gains some improvements. Not overly flashy, but noticeable with better textures and lighting, shadow as well as muscle definition. Armours also gain duo dye channels so players can enjoy even further customisable to the wealth of already available options.
Female Hrothgar
Finally, players will get to play as female Hrothgars. Previously they were only available as male due to female Hrothgars being a rarity. Yoshida also added this will be the last new race to be added to the game for the time being.
A new NPC will introduce the female Hrothgar, represented by the daughter of the current ruler of the land of Tural. This NPC will pop up in Patch 6.55 part two, set to release on January 16th.
New Lands
Also unveiled was the area where Dawntrail will take place. Previously the western region of Tural was announced to be the setting of the expansion, however, Yoshida revealed even more locations. The northern part of Tural and the southern part will have a story split into two arcs. These have bright tribal settlements, exotic jungles, lush forests and more barren-looking mining towns.
This is starkly contrasted with a futuristic-looking city called Solution Nine which could be straight out of Cyberpunk 2077‘s Night City. This will act as a new player hub, developed by a different civilisation which is assumed to be Tuliyollal.
Another city teased was the Heritage Found, pulsing with lightning energy, purple hues and stormy clouds covering the sun. The concept art also shows a steam train and some rather sci-fi buildings in the background.
More to Look Forward To
There will also be some other updates coming to the game including improvements to the job Blue Mage, more Hildibrand shenanigans to look forward to, new plans for Deep Dungeons, more Gold Saucer, a PVP update and new Variant Dungeons. As well as the jobs Viper and Pictomancer announced, another job Beastmaster is expected at the later end of 7.0.
Comic Exploration is a new lifestyle feature which will allow players to venture to different planets in both solo and co-op. Alliance Raids will also be coming in patch 7.1 inspired by FF11. A new 8 player raid called The Arcadion will arrive a month after the expansion launch.
An open beta is expected for Final Fantasy 14 on Xbox on February 21st. The crossover questline for Final Fantasy 16, The Path Infernal will be expected sometime in early April. This could be hinting at when we can expect the Action-RPG’s DLC The Rising Tide or even a possible PC release time, but nothing is known yet. In the meantime check out our Final Fantasy XVI Review.
Yoshida ended the presentation by unveiling new artwork for Dawntrail which features new characters including the Lalafell Pictomancer wielding their paintbrush.
Dawntrail’s New Trails and Trials
In case you missed it, it was revealed in August that the MMORPG would be finally coming to Xbox Series in Spring 2024. This will be the debut of the game on an Xbox system. Along with this news was the announcement that the free trial would also undergo an update, extending the experience all the way up to the Stormblood expansion with level 70.
Since the MMO requires you to play through previous content, that’s quite a generous amount of free content to access. Of course, the free trial does have some limitations on interactions and level cap, but that’s not bad considering.
With the anticipation of the next expansion Dawntrail coming in Summer 2024, it is teased as “the very best summer vacation a hero could possibly have”.
It marks the first steps into a new story for the game taking place in a “New World” known as Tural. It will be up to the Warriors of Light to help assist in the succession of the next ruler of Tural. But there may be some upheaval over it, ultimately dividing the Scions into two factions.
The expansion promises a new hub, new level cap going from 90 to 100, new skills, new jobs which are confirmed to be new DPS roles a melee and ranged magical DPS. New Dungeons, raids, enemies, gear, lifestyle content, raids and a PVP update.
Final Fantasy 14 is currently available on PC and Playstation. It will be coming to Xbox Series X|S in spring 2024.
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