Final Fantasy 14's big Dawntrail balance patch is here to "raise the DPS of certain jobs rather than lower them" as Pictomancer mains survive nerf free and Vipers only get sort-of simplified

Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail's first Savage raid is here, folks, and that means we're getting our customary sweep of Job changes to iron out the kinks seen so far. While the MMO's community - and Pictomancer mains, largely - had been braced for nerfs, Yoshi-P and the gang are looking to raise DPS across the board, rather than lower it, for a more even playing field. 

Looking to Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail's 7.05 patch notes reveal a wall of numbers specifying what's changed down to each move, though jumping over to Final Fantasy 14's Job Guide offers the why. 

There, the team explains that the goal of Dawntrail's first big balance sweep is to "raise the DPS of certain jobs rather than lower them, with considerable attention given to Samurai, Viper, and Black Mage rotations." I imagine the new Pictomancer class will feel less menacing when a few other big hitters can match it regarding popping big numbers.

"At present, the DPS of Pictomancer is higher than we originally expected," the devs say. "Because they have a number of actions with long cast times, and no means of reviving others in combat, we intended for them to have comparable DPS to melee jobs alongside Black Mage.

"There is a significant gap in the DPS between these two caster jobs, however, which is why we have increased the potencies of black mage actions. That said, we also increased the potency of actions for the other magical ranged DPS jobs and physical ranged DPS jobs, to ensure there is no large disparity between jobs."

The team goes on to say that they needed to consider the balance between Pictomancer and melee jobs when making changes, especially when it comes to higher-level duties. Caster jobs like the Pictomancer enjoy some distance from enemies when rattling off their moves, though melee class fans have the joy of getting up close and personal and staying on the move as they try and hit attacks with positional requirements.

"Moving forward, we'll continue monitoring job performance,