Blue mage is a waste of potential, change my mind.

[Jandor]

It'll keep people from asking them to add BLU because BLU is already in the game in name if not essence. Works as intended.

Not really, if anything we've got even more threads asking for BLU than we did before.

[RadicalPesto]

Not really, if anything we've got even more threads asking for BLU than we did before.

It really feels like if the goal of the developers was to get people to shut up about Blue Mage it has backfired spectacularly since "why can't I run my endgame dailies on this class" is now going to be more or less a perpetual thing as long as Blue Mage is in the game as a limited job.

[MagiusNecros]

It really feels like if the goal of the developers was to get people to shut up about Blue Mage it has backfired spectacularly since "why can't I run my endgame dailies on this class" is now going to be more or less a perpetual thing as long as Blue Mage is in the game as a limited job.

It's k. Now Blue Mages AND Dark Knights can incite the masses to rise up and raise hell against the devs for making poor decisions or the lack of them.

One is clunk city and the other isn't even allowed to properly function in a MMO. Known for party based content. It's absolutely ridiculous.

[Shurrikhan]

I haven’t looked into anything the JP forum has said about BLU. Via hearsay from others, I haven’t heard anything positive about the job itself, but I’d have to actually go to the source to see what they’re specifically saying on it and what their suggestions to improve it would be.
Perhaps I can find some time to do that, though with school it may be difficult. I am just a student studying Japanese; not a native, to be fair. So certain nuances might be lost on me when I delve into the JP forums. X3

Working off only a couple years of Japanese myself, too, but to take some of the highest Like-count quotes from a search for リミテッドジョブ or 青魔道士...

Lv50のリミテッドジョブ＝Lv60の通常ジョブくらいの強さでもバチは当たらなかったように思います。
少なくともLv50の青魔道士8人で蒼天時代の制限解除PTくらいの立ち回りは出来ないと
コンテンツとして全く面白みのないまま立ち行かなくなることは間違いないと思われます。

挑発魔法（もしくはロールアクションフリーで挑発自体をセット可能に）とマイティガードでタンク役を担当したりして
Lv50の青魔道士8人で極蛮神を討伐できる（今でも上手い人を集めた上で工夫すれば可能でしょうが、もっと普通にやれる形に）のが理想です。

青8人で挑めばほぼ100%ラーニング可能にするようにした上でPTにラーニングした人がいた場合に
青魔法トークンのようなものも付くようにすれば後続の支援もしやすくなるのではないかと思います。
現状は旧FF14レベルの一度作り直しが必要な状況というのが率直な感想です。

（３７ Likes)

Even if a level 50 Limited Job had about the strength of a level 60 traditional job, I don't think 『バチ』will have quite hit the mark. (Bachi -> Patch (pachi)? Bee (hachi)? I usually only see this term in CS, for batch filing, and doubt that's what it refers to here.)

If a level 50 party of 8 BLUs haven't at least the prospects in a given encounter that an undermanned party would have had in Heavensward, it will all be utterly without interest as content and I have no doubt it will be unable to sustain itself.

Using skills like Provoke (via enmity spells or by simply allowing us access to Provoke itself via Role Actions) and Mighty Guard and really letting us take up the tank role or the like, I'd ideally like for a group of 8 BLUs to be able to tackle Extreme primals. (It is technically possible already if your members are individually skilled and your party coordination crafty enough, but I would like for this to be much more regularly possible.)

If we get to the point where we can run as a group of 8 BLUs, I imagine we can make it far easier [e.g. less disrupted by job swapping and rotating who gets to benefit from others' sacrificed time on 70s?] for players to successively learn their spells.

カンストさせて一通り遊んでみたので
・不正とPLなしで上げたけど、敵が密集した狩場を確保できればレベル上げは容易だった。取り合いまたは閑散とした場所で移動狩りだけだとやや苦痛
・言うほど火力は低くない、最終装備でガードオファから青魔法連打してるだけで50として十分な火力は出る
・かといってリミテッドジョブらしい強さはない、50キャスとして並レベル
・死んでたらラーニング不可なら青PTで蘇生がないのが有り得ない、引率前提？
・ラーニングはその引率前提のIDが主体なのが苦痛、引率側もされる側も楽しくない最悪のゲーム体験
・マスクカーニバルは悪くないが冗長な部分が多い
・『報酬はマウント速度上げてない勢は嬉しいが逆に言えば終わってたら無意味では？』
・リミテッドにしないと青が入ってきたPTでレベル◯〜で倒されてポカーンとなるでしょ？って発言からのレジスト祭りはなんというかもう…(｀・ω・´)

(40 Likes)

Since I played through BLU in the course of getting (it) level-capped...

(カンスト, contraction of "counter stop") can refer to the level cap, reaching level cap on a class (カンストする）[most frequent], to having all classes at level cap, or to all classes of a given discipline to level cap, so it's a bit ambiguous for now.)

• Though I was able to level without powerleveling (*being powerleveled), leveling seemed easy so long as you could secure a mob-dense area of your own. Having to move due to player competition was a bit frustrating, though.
• Our firepower isn't as low as some have said. With final [BiS, or at least level 50] gear and after casting Off Guard, our damage per hit seems fine for a level 50.
• That being said, we don't have the firepower one would expect from a "limited job", but merely that of an average Lvl. 50 caster.
• It makes no sense that BLUs both cannot learn skills if dead [when the learning would otherwise be received?] AND all-BLU parties have no access to resurrection spells. Change this to a reduced chance to learn instead of zero chance?
• Masked Carnival isn't bad per se but they are too many redundant rooms.
• 『I'm glad we're not rewarded/compensated for with any increased mount movement speed, but on the other hand it feels like there's no real meaning to completion? 』[Not sure what was meant by "mount speed" here. Perhaps that was a suggestion others made?]
• We get a lot of resistance along the lines "If BLU weren't limited everyone would be left gaping as a the party *is crushed* [or, crushes the content?] the moment a BLU joins" but I really don't know what to make of that...
  [It's hard for me to make out the grammatical subject here -- if refering to us in general as the omitted pronoun (note PT is followed by で、and is therefore just an adverbial element) or the content/encounter itself -- to verify who/what is being defeated.]

I'll edit it more as I get more time; there's another 8 or so big ones. Heads up: the rest don't seem as positive as the second.

[Alleo]

You did a great job so don't take it as a swipe but reading your effort gave me some serious "I miss Reinheart" feels lol. Again I greatly appreciate you helping out, just had that thought as I was reading it. Hope the guy is having a good time right now :3

Can I nominate you? haha (workload x100 XD.....). In your opinion does the Japanese and English match up very well? From google translate (LOL) it looks like some people on the Japanese forum would like to see blue mage stronger and more solo-powerful, I wonder if they respond to this specific line in a similar fashion as people do to here.

Anyway, thanks

I did not look at the JP forum myself but someone on twitter posted how they are just as salty as us about this, asking what they should do now with it, asking why this was not a normal job. So seemingly they are also not really that happy with it there.

[Zeromon]

As blue mage currently stands I also feel it severely lacks power and use. If the job had actually powerful, fun abilities then I feel like limiting it to 50 content wouldn't be a problem. Using available skills to figure out a way to solo trials or dungeons can be fun if the tools given to us are useful. But blue mage cannot solo much better than a normal lvl50 job (don't know if this is strictly true but the point stands) other than carnival of course.

I think there's still some hope when they unveil lvl60 spells but if SE doesn't show actually op spells (emphasis on the plural) by the next expansion (that don't require a party to obtain in the first place) I really don't understand the point of blue mage and all of it's restrictions. I'm just wondering what is the point of a solo job that can only kill overworld mobs. At least enable creative skill combos that amount to something.

[VictorNCroix]

BLU is still garbage in 2020. Thank you SE

[dustdjinn]

I really wanted Blue to be my main job. I know it would compromise some parts to make it a real job but I am positive it would have made more fans than it is now.

[Payotz]

Honestly, the only big problem with BLU is that its content needs people, and it's because of how much time you need to grind to have it set up. (Which imo, is fine. But the playerbase hates grind so...)

BLU with all the spells is actually a very fun job, and is pretty much the most fun synced down job in the game (cause you're not losing skills).

On paper, it pretty much gave the game a bunch of things that the game needed:

An incentive for doing old content synced, and even min-ilvl no echo.
Literally something to do and grind for, which the game needs a lot more of.
Completely different playstyle for all 3 roles, Tank, Healers and DPS.

It really just needs more people trying out and doing BLU content, especially during content droughts like this one.

[Shougun]

Honestly, the only big problem with BLU is that its content needs people, and it's because of how much time you need to grind to have it set up. (Which imo, is fine. But the playerbase hates grind so...)

BLU with all the spells is actually a very fun job, and is pretty much the most fun synced down job in the game (cause you're not losing skills).

On paper, it pretty much gave the game a bunch of things that the game needed:

An incentive for doing old content synced, and even min-ilvl no echo.
Literally something to do and grind for, which the game needs a lot more of.
Completely different playstyle for all 3 roles, Tank, Healers and DPS.

It really just needs more people trying out and doing BLU content, especially during content droughts like this one.

Really disagree on only big problem.. But I also like nearly nothing they did with the job so hey, perspective lol.

Also the three things you listed that the game needed could have been done in other ways without 'killing' blue mage (imo).

Greatly dislike what was done, and how it was done even under their own vision. Coming from someone who was actively asking and hoping for blue mage previously (for context).

The job, as you said yourself, get's fun after you grind in PF- which I believe is a huge flaw and a glaring example of what is wrong for multiple reasons. Some of them here:

• It means once people get theirs you have reduced to less and less likely chances of actually getting the good part of blue mage as less groups will be running for things that they've no value for. If you don't take part in the rush, then your drought build time to enjoy blue mage is drawn greatly, and some spells that would have increased your enjoyment just wont be achievable. Unless of course you have dedicated group, but I think it's terrible fate to put an entire job around "works not so bad in the patch rush and if you have friends on demand". If they had really wanted this they could have done so much better with a different content, like magitek battalions- add magitek combat suits into the game and get people building their own mech. Which would have cost no job and brought something entirely new- something that could have done all three things you thought the game needed without actually hitting a job's prospects. It was entirely uncessary to claim blue mage's crown for this... 'content'.
• It devalues collecting other spells when pretty much all except for specific spells are just terrible, or are at least different colors, perhaps even different colors of terrible.
• That other spells are so devalues the whole 'we made blue mage this way so we could give it the real spells' but wait we totally didn't because we wanted to balance it around PF exclusive content, and we designed the whole job in a way that you have the least interesting possible mechanics if you don't do PF only content which of course will only be most feasible at launch of each content. All the generic color + damage spells blue mage has that are pretty much useless outside of needing a specific element in the carnival, Fire Angon staring me in the face as a perfect example where they were either wrong about their statement and made an accident or were dishonest- the spell doesn't do what the spell does for the monster (and we can tell it was for the sake of balance in their 'only vaguely as good as other jobs mechanically after PF exclusivity'). And again for more context this is someone who enjoyed leveling ALL the other jobs (they're all at 80 now)- blue mage has been the worst leveling experience and it takes the least amount of time because once you get past the novelty of spamming on spell (which a job shouldn't have been built around, that's a sad fate) then you're stuck with a not very well designed job UNTIL you farm out every piece in PF. Your potential of a job that is actually drawing near conventional job fun relies strictly on getting people together, no other job has that issue and blue mage didn't need to have that issue and be limited either. They could have actually made it.. I dunno.. a solo job.. In which case you could have built to your fun more reasonably.
• It means that you will play the poor uninteresting BLU until you get to the built version, unlike all the other jobs which are interesting much sooner. Which means they drew out the time, indefinitely for quite a lot of players, where the job is just dull and only because the novelty of casting monster spells is it not entirely dead (spamming 1k needle, neat for a while, but entirely boring mechanically). Level 50 job vs level 50 blue mage that doesn't have the PF only spells, the level 50 job has a way more engaging kit. Once you get the PF only skills your kit while a bit silly in potential doesn't even significantly play more interestingly than an actual job. (obviously synced down job vs blue mage sync, blue mage goes faster). Mind you if you let a level 80 job sync down to 50 content with it's whole kit that it too would go a lot faster (as you pointed out blue mage has a full spell list unlike some other jobs that sync down). Which is to say when it's good it's basically nearing other jobs and when it's bad.. it's just really bad and the only thing that makes it not feel dismal is that you get to use monster spells (hinging entirely on the novelty).
• That the job doesn't use all the monster spells 1:1:, that the job is at it's most interesting (your words and the words of others who liked the blue mage after PF content) when it has the most shape and form and is most like an actual 'real job', just to me makes the entire reason blue mage the way it is now as experience with a metal bristle brush and salt.

To example building your kit and it being fun as you progress, and something I've referenced quite a few times already, is something like Diablo 3's spell and legendary affix system (post launch, way post launch lol). Here you get a job that has mechanical enjoyment, and then you get affix that take your job and does hand stands with it- there are many ways to play each feeling quite different (different affix builds) and it's amazing to collect them. Not every affix in that game is that special, but there are quite a few builds that even if not the most OP are still just ridiculous fun and an entire game changer on your normal mechanics. Rather than that, rather than a job with form that can continue to build out in crazy ways our Blue Mage is without form until you get lucky / spam content at rush, our's is incredibly simple and mechanically disinteresting until then, and once you finally get there that's the build you need. "Oh but you can switch roles now!11!" - ah yes you mean when your decision tree and build becomes even more narrow.. The role switch while vaguely novel doesn't add mechanical value to the job if anything it takes away from it.

At every turn for a reason they gave it feels wrong or was only partially followed, and quite a few times just seems like misdirection, mistake, or dishonesty (why is the job balanced with spells being stripped down occasionally, fire angon, when the reason given for this state is 'real spells'- why are you saying balance is why they can't be in PF and yet still balancing them?), and at the point nearly every single person for and against blue mage agrees the job is at it's best is just when it's most like an actual job. . . . . So what you mean to tell me is the most enjoyable blue mage would have been a complete job..? Color me shocked.

"but blue mage has to collect 10000 spells, so even though it plays best when it's most like a real job it just can't- it can't" What? You mean the like 10-15 spells that blue mages usually had before? In the games where blue mage had a billion spells (pretty much just FFXI) there were other jobs with a billion things to do too. So besides that being not true it doesn't even require blue mage to be limited. They could have done other things, like giving blue mage rotating spells in their kit like a drawing card mechanic (not all of them just some, playing with that carnival magican theme), they could have had blue mage be both limited and normal (like a pvp kit vs a in the wild just be silly kit), etc.. So much could have been done, and for 1000 spells where 95% of them are either the exact same + color or just purely worse choices than the 20-30 you're supposed to have? Not worth (imo).

Clearly, I do not like what they did, with a passion, and think it was a mistake at every major point. To add the above is hardly a comprehensive against statement.. Just some general concepts. Because I've other jobs I enjoy it's not like I feel the need to quit or anything, a dream was entirely mauled by something I think looks like a mess but I still love playing things like Paladin.

I think this would be one of my more aggressive posts I've ever made.. so perhaps I should apologize to SE as I mean no hurt to whoever designed it, as a person and I'm sure it's likely they've made something I've loved. Yet I certainly dislike this idea to it's core - the lack of communication on the job, the presence of miscommunication (either accidental or intentional), the decisions themselves being very disappointing (vaguely outlined above), to a job I had really wanted to play, to a content type I've pretty much universally enjoyed (jobs, I've played every single one to 80), now excluded exclusively to either being a very poor shadow or content rush/wait for others PF content, and the potential gained vs lost seems like a big "but why, take all my salt" lol.

Like I said believe they could have done everything you had wanted (what you felt FFXIV needed), with a much better logical and mechanical progression, doing something else- like magitek combat.

I believe they could have done much better, but they didn't, and imo they didn't even do average to expectation, it was below expectation, and so I find it all disappointing. And not just like "I think I could make it better, me in my back seat position with no money to lose", I mean it as in I think THEY could have done it better- that I expect greater things from them, that even if they had wanted to make a PF exclusive content that they could have done a better job than what it is. Of course I have my own ideas of what, but I don't have to worry about budgets or finely tuning things over many years, I've nothing to lose except time typing so everything is way easier on this side of the fence (though because of that I do try to spend a lot of time suggesting potential solutions, as well as complementing things I find clever/fascinating/good, as I dislike things being just pure criticism- which is also why I tend to add my perspective and feelings as well, so they can see where someone is coming from and not just "no").