Final Fantasy 14’s new jobs bring a splash of Splatoon and Pokémon to its Dawntrail expansion
Pictomancer returning from Final Fantasy 6, while second limited job revealed as Beastmaster
Final Fantasy 14 has revealed the second new job arriving in its upcoming Dawntrail expansion. The Pictomancer is a new-oldie, bringing back the magical artist class from Final Fantasy 6 - albeit with some colourful new powers for magical ranged DPS players to enjoy. Meanwhile, we now know that the MMO's second limited job will be the Beastmaster.
Revealed over the weekend during Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival event in Tokyo, Pictomancer joins Viper - revealed at last year’s Fan Fest in London - as a brand new playable job in Dawntrail, which is due to release this summer as the MMO’s next major expansion.
While Viper is completely new to the entire Final Fantasy series, Pictomancer was originally introduced back in Final Fantasy 6 - although beyond FF6 character Relm’s appearance in spin-off games, it hasn’t popped up in another mainline Final Fantasy since.
The Pictomancer is essentially a magical artist, equipped with an oversized paintbrush and palette. In an expansion of the job’s abilities from FF6, characters will apparently be able to paint landscapes and weapons as well as enemy monsters, casting various associated spells and effects as a result. In action, it’s a bit like the illustrative summoning of Scribblenauts, combined with the colourful paint splashes of Splatoon - at one point in the job trailer video, the character summons a moogle that blasts a beam of magical energy at a foe.
While painting up more powerful spells will understandably take time (you can’t rush art!), the Pictomancer will have some instant-cast options in their hotbar, too. FF14 director Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida confirmed that while some of those spells will include support options such as buffs, Pictomancers won’t have the power to rez fallen allies - unlike the likes of Red Mage.
Pictomancer will be available from Gridania and will start at level 80 for those who pick up Dawntrail. If you’re not interested in playing Pictomancer yourself, lalafell pal Krile will take up the brush and be on hand as an NPC companion for Duty Support.
Alongside the main jobs of Viper and Pictomancer, the 7.X patch series that Dawntrail kicks off will introduce a second limited job to join Blue Mage, newly confirmed as the long-awaited Beastmaster - returning from its past appearances in Final Fantasy 5 and previous MMO FFXI. We don't know loads just yet, but there will be some aspect of collecting monsters involved and using their abilities in battle, Pokémon-style.
Also expanding character options will be a new race, said to be the last new species coming to the MMO for the foreseeable. It’s actually not so new, either, but a female counterpart to the previously male-only Hrothgar, Eorzea’s faction of cat-like people. A female Hrothgar will also be part of Dawntrail’s story, as the daughter of the ruler of the new Mesoamerican-inspired region of Tural, and is due to be introduced in the second part of patch 6.55, arriving next week on January 16th.
Dawntrail itself is yet to get an exact release date, with the expansion currently planned to be due out this 'summer' - Yoshida said that a date would be announced in due course, but was yet to be revealed to avoid a delay similar to last expansion Endwalker.