Square Enix gives a showcase of FFXIV Dawntrail’s newest mage, the Pictomancer

With Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail on the horizon, it’s about time for the final DPS trailer to drop. During Final Fantasy Festival 2024 in Tokyo, Japan, the splashy and colorful Pictomancer made its first-time appearance on screens as the second and final class added to the newest expansion.

Since the Viper’s trailer dropped in October of last year, FFXIV fans have been ravenous about what magical addition to FFXIV would make their appearance during Japan’s FFXIV Fan Fest. The most popular theory was that the small amulet Krile picked up would belong to the Green Mage class, a class from FFXIV Tactics which was well-known for debuffing. Fans ruminated on how a traditionally supportive class would be transferred into the pure DPS role that all magic damage casters in FFXIV fall under.

However, on Jan. 6, 2024, the Tokyo Fan Fest kicked off with a new trailer for the Pictomancer—FFXIV’s newest magic DPS coming in Dawntrail. The splashy trailer showcases a bubbly new class with a gigantic paintbrush and a palette, a hilarious new weapon type for the newest member of FFXIV’s DPS ensemble, which will grow to 13 with Pictomancer’s addition.

As usual for the gameplay reveal of a class, not much was revealed in the trailer. However, it’s clear enough the Pictomancer will serve a role as a pseudo-summoner who paints reality with their brush, creating spells of their own. We get recreations of fan-favorite attacks, such as Stone and Blizzard, alongside new attacks like paint stroke slashes and painting a large Moogle who shoots a beam.

We also got a hint of new mechanics to come when the Pictomancer depicts a sky full of falling stars, but no explanation for what the scene could mean or what it does for the Pictomancer’s game plan. As usual, we’ll have to wait until Dawntrail creeps a bit closer to see how the newest caster’s kit rounds out.

The Pictomancer reveal rounds up the new class count for Dawntrail, with Square Enix’s promised melee and magical DPS both accounted for. As Dawntrail inches ever closer, we look forward to seeing how these two classes fall into their new niches in the gameplay cycles and story of the new Tural storyline.

As usual for DPS classes that are part of DLCs, we expect to be able to play as the Pictomancer and Viper once it is possible to reach Tural for the first time. The minimum level to pick up these classes will almost certainly be 80, and both classes will likely come with level 80 gear—as long as Square Enix continues to follow patterns from their previous class releases. Fingers crossed that they don’t make things more tedious.

That’s not the end of the content stream from the Fan Fest, though. Alongside the Pictomancer, we received the briefest of glimpses at the Beastmaster, a limited class like the Blue Mage. Players can soon play as a female Hrothgar as well, in line with the Male Viera addition to Endwalker. Truly, a Fan Fest to remember.