BLU Balance

[Urmom]

Yes, they do, but you haven't. Why not play a job you described as being godly?

People also tend to gravitate to preferences

[Shiyo]

Yes, they do, but you haven't. Why not play a job you described as being godly?

I don't understand the purpose of the question or this conversation.

[Numquam]

I don't understand the purpose of the question or this conversation.

This thread lost meaning about 10 pages ago.

[Dale]

Are we not playing a video game when we log into FFXI? This isn't a job. You aren't going to lose your ability to continue playing if you take 15-30 seconds longer to complete a battle on a different job. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're not logging into FFXI to make money as fast as possible with a boss judging your every move.

There are 22 jobs in this game and they will never be 100% equally balanced. Even if that utopian setting was possible (what a frighteningly boring image that paints) you still have to deal with a wide variety of skill levels from one player to the next. That's not a weakness, it's a strength. Why not accept it and take advantage of everything the game offers you?

Agreed.

People obsess over this idea that all jobs need to be balanced to the point it ruins the game for them. They are so worried about another job supposedly being better than them at something that they forget what video games are actually suppose to be about - and that is having fun.

If your job is fun to play then it is basically fine. This game never has been never will be or should be 100% balanced. That would make for a very boring game. And these players who obsess over minutia and refuse to group with jobs they believe to be inferior would find reasons not to group with you even if the game was 100% balanced.

Because their balance argument is just the excuse they use. The real reason is there own sense of elitism - and SE can't fix that.

[Shiyo]

The problem is that bluemage can do everything, and do some things better than everyone. That creates a situation where you have over half your player base on a single job at any given time, as the job is the optimal choice in so many situations.

It's bad for the health of the game.

It's fine to have imbalance, but it is NOT fine for a job that is capable of doing EVERYTHING to be the BEST at multiple things. That ruins the game.

[Urthdigger]

Agreed.

People obsess over this idea that all jobs need to be balanced to the point it ruins the game for them. They are so worried about another job supposedly being better than them at something that they forget what video games are actually suppose to be about - and that is having fun.

If your job is fun to play then it is basically fine. This game never has been never will be or should be 100% balanced. That would make for a very boring game. And these players who obsess over minutia and refuse to group with jobs they believe to be inferior would find reasons not to group with you even if the game was 100% balanced.

Because their balance argument is just the excuse they use. The real reason is there own sense of elitism - and SE can't fix that.

It's a matter of scale. I'm not going to demand that every job be PRECISELY equal, that just leads to bland gameplay. But it definitely needs to be closer than it is today. Back at 75 cap, everyone knew SAM was the best melee, but you COULD still do merits and various endgame events as other melee. Compare that to nowadays, where playing a DD besides BLM or BLU is relegated strictly to LS members taking pity on you. The difference between jobs is so vast these days that for a lot of events people would rather have an EMPTY SLOT than take a lot of the jobs out there.

This isn't just about being "so worried that we forget to have fun." It's about being able to play with people on the job we choose. It's about knowing full well that we're dragging our group down. It's about knowing that this fight that's kicking our ass could be so easily resolved by simply stepping into line and picking the same job as everyone else, that our own stubbornness is making things drastically more difficult. That the promise of all these jobs to play is a lie, and that the list of feasible jobs for any content is so drastically smaller.

[saevel]

Umm BLU isn't the best DPS job anymore by a long shot, it's just able to function in extremely low buff / unsupported situations. Also BLU can't do nearly all the stuff people claim it can simultaneously, there is a huge learning curve associated with the different configurations and modes of play associated. The biggest bonus is that the job can effective remove useless job traits and replace them with useful job traits.

Try for a moment to imagine a Thief being able to remove "Resist Gravity" or "Evasion Bonus" and replace them with "Attack Bonus", "Accuracy Bonus" or "Magic Attack Bonus". Ninja's have "Resist Bind" and "Subtle Blow", both of which are useless in a full on DPS race. Many jobs have JT's and JA's that are extremely situation and rarely will all be used together but the job is incapable of doing anything about it. BLU on the other hand can essentially rewrite it's JT list with a relative small delay (though large enough to not be practical mid battle). This means a BLU only needs to have JT's that it will actually and thus it's capable of playing at 100% of it's potential vs other jobs being limited to 70~80%. To do this requires the player be intimately familiar with each fights mechanics and know how to work that build with their own gear and content. That is why those super BLU's are able to do that crazy stuff, not because of their gil (though that helps) but because they spent a lot of time learning game mechanics.

[Shiyo]

No, blue mage players are not "just more skilled than everyone else".

Afania has also posted that spreadsheets show bluemage wins in a lot of situations as the #1 DD.

[Vae]

Umm BLU isn't the best DPS job anymore by a long shot, it's just able to function in extremely low buff / unsupported situations. Also BLU can't do nearly all the stuff people claim it can simultaneously, there is a huge learning curve associated with the different configurations and modes of play associated. The biggest bonus is that the job can effective remove useless job traits and replace them with useful job traits.

Try for a moment to imagine a Thief being able to remove "Resist Gravity" or "Evasion Bonus" and replace them with "Attack Bonus", "Accuracy Bonus" or "Magic Attack Bonus". Ninja's have "Resist Bind" and "Subtle Blow", both of which are useless in a full on DPS race. Many jobs have JT's and JA's that are extremely situation and rarely will all be used together but the job is incapable of doing anything about it. BLU on the other hand can essentially rewrite it's JT list with a relative small delay (though large enough to not be practical mid battle). This means a BLU only needs to have JT's that it will actually and thus it's capable of playing at 100% of it's potential vs other jobs being limited to 70~80%. To do this requires the player be intimately familiar with each fights mechanics and know how to work that build with their own gear and content. That is why those super BLU's are able to do that crazy stuff, not because of their gil (though that helps) but because they spent a lot of time learning game mechanics.

Youre describing how blu is on paper. Which is true.

The point you're neglecting is blu isn't played that way. pretty much at all. Blu is played 95% of the time, in FULL DD spec. And suffers no penalties what-so-ever. The mass majority of the time you (need) zero utility spells.

Also, we're not allowed to talk negatively about other players, but Afania, isn't someone worth listening to. He's usually half-right, at best. Too many opinions, his scenarios are just that, fictional scenarios.

[saevel]

Youre describing how blu is on paper. Which is true.

The point you're neglecting is blu isn't played that way. pretty much at all. Blu is played 95% of the time, in FULL DD spec. And suffers no penalties what-so-ever. The mass majority of the time you (need) zero utility spells.

Also, we're not allowed to talk negatively about other players, but Afania, isn't someone worth listening to. He's usually half-right, at best. Too many opinions, his scenarios are just that, fictional scenarios.

This is highly incorrect and spoken from someone who doesn't know how the job works. There simply aren't enough set points to equip everything you need and you always end up needing to leave things out. Which exact things you leave out is extremely situational and that's where the massive difference between a "bandwagon" and a "real" is.

I'm an absurdly well geared BLU and I have long since stopped bringing my BLU to melee burns. It's not nearly as powerful as people make it out to be. This is like all those people who complained RDM was "SO OVERPOWERED" because Avesta went around soloing HNM's. And Shiyo your on Asura, speak to me if you need demonstrated that BLU isn't anywhere clear to the #1 DD. The spreed sheets were incredibly wrong because they had CDC listed as 2.25 fTP per hit when it was really 1.63 which is about ~35% error.

To compare
CDC 3 + 1 hit 80% DEX critical, 1.63 copy fTP, with Belt + Gorget your looking at 1.83 per hit for a total of 7.32 with any Multi-Attack procs adding 1.83 per hit.

Vorpal Blade 4 + 1 hit 60% STR critical, 1.375 copy fTP, belt + Gorget gives you 1.575 per hit with a total of 7.875 and MA's giving you +1.575.

The real advantage BLU's have is that they can self cap haste via Flutter + MG which means you don't need to both with Indi-Haste or March's. In a low man situation that is invaluable. BLU can also set several defensive abilities like Occultation, Erasega, Restoral / W.Wind / M.Fruit and Cocoon, which means you don't need as much healing and they are less likely to be insta-murdered by something big and nasty. Overall this makes BLU the absolute king of low man / low buff groups. As far as pure offensive power goes, there are better jobs. Of course THF and MNK aren't among those jobs which is where most people are crying over. If you happen to have a certain overpowered DD in your party then CDC isn't even BLU's best WS anymore.