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Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail continues the age-old tradition of introducing multiple new jobs (usually two per expansion with the exception of Heavensward) for players to check out. In the case of the fifth expansion, the new FFXIV jobs are Pictomancer and Viper. While certainly different from one another, if I had to pick one as the better job, I would go with Pictomancer every time.
To be clear, both jobs are actually quite good and fill some necessary niches in FFXIV. But I understand that not every player is going to want to take the time to level up both jobs over 20 levels each (40 in total) to max them out. Plus, that doesn’t take into account the time it takes to master each job, which is a tall order since they start at level 80. With that in mind, if I had to pick one of these new FFXIV jobs to recommend to most players, I would go with Pictomancer. I believe it is the slightly better and stronger job.
To be clear, I started out as an Arcanist and eventually Summoner/Scholar main in this game when it first came out, but my secondary job for the longest time was Ninja. As such, there are some fascinating parallels between Pictomancer and Viper for me. The former is the latest ranged magical DPS job. Meanwhile, Viper is the long-awaited armor companion to Ninja and a fellow dual wielder. Both jobs also have some similarities to existing ones, so they are pretty even in that regard.
As such, Pictomancer narrowly beats Viper due to how much more it stands out. I would describe Pictomancer as a fascinating mix of Black Mage and Ninja in some regards, under an artistic perspective. It has the usual elemental magic Black Mage owns and some similar spells, but it also has its canvas to paint on. This reminds me of Ninja in a way. You can queue up spells and unleash them in certain orders. These will result in different moves in the process.
On the other hand, Viper is also similar to Ninja. It is a dual wielder and it focuses a lot on combos as well. The difference is it relies too much on combos. It is actually unbelievable how many different combo options exist with Viper. There are different branching options depending on the scenario and skills are constantly turning into other ones.
If you don’t like combos, Viper is certainly not the FFXIV job for you. In addition, it can be a bit overwhelming to jump into at first. But the main issue with Viper comes from once you actually learn it. I find that Viper ends up a little boring and almost too repetitive once you get the hang of the role. Meanwhile, the Pictomancer never stops being fun with instantly drawing outside of battle and buffing the party.
Overall, I would almost say Viper is a bit one-note. However, to its credit, the diversity in combos leads to some of the best visual effects for a job. I would even say it is possibly the flashiest job in the game currently. But it doesn’t stand out as much as it could, nor is it as necessary in the meta as Pictomancer.
If you are a skilled Pictomancer, you can almost deal too much damage in FFXIV these days. There are times I have full-on pulled and seen others pull aggro from a skilled, not amateur tank, especially in lower-level content. Any other job and that wouldn’t have happened. Beyond the damage, Pictomancer also has some excellent buffs late-game with Starry Muse and Tempera Grassa. It isn’t quite the true support job hybrid I was hoping for, but it comes close enough.
In the end, both Viper and Pictomancer are excellent job additions in FFXIV Dawntrail. That said, if I have to recommend one as the “better” job, I would go with Pictomancer. It isn’t quite as one-note as Viper can be, while also almost filling a neat niche for the meta. I expect Pictomancer to only gain in popularity and success as time goes on, barring any nerfs, so if you’re looking for a new one to spend your time with, this is what I recommend.
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is available right now for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
