Let's Make a Deal, SE!

[Tennotsukai]

Orcish Counterstance - from 18 mp to 60 mp; duration increased to 3 minutes; casting time: 2 seconds.

Nature's Meditation - from 38 mp to 64 mp; duration increased from 90 seconds to 3 minutes.

Thank you.

[Olor]

I totally support this. Short buff durations are terribad.

[Tennotsukai]

Also, barrier tusk needs a better casting time/duration.

[Ophannus]

I'd pay 200 MP for a 3min duration Nature's Meditation. I mean we have like 800-900ish MP and we don't really cast anyway, why not?

[saevel]

All our buffs need a duration extension. Unfortunately SE doesn't really read these forums only the Japanese ones. So if someone knows some Japanese, or knows someone who knows Japanese who can post this over there, you might get a response.

[Olor]

I'd also like spells that are essentially useless to get an overhaul. I mean like, Magic Barrier - why would I use this? It can only absorb a few hundred damage. It's utterly underpowered. What is the point of it, especially since it doesn't even stack with stoneskin? It's 100% useless. Now, if it gave immunity to status effects for a few minutes, that would be worth using.

[Tennotsukai]

Well...I'm okay with Magic Barrier (can get up to 500+ dmg reduction), though I don't care for the fact Whm's overwrite it with their cure-skins.

[Camate]

Greetings,

When it comes to adjustments that extend the effect duration of buffs, we need to look into this very carefully because blue mages have access to Diffusion, and there is a concern that the support capability may become too powerful for short battles.

However, as blue mages need to auto-attack and perform other physical attacks, we understand that they are losing out on damage when they need to reapply buffs, especially in the current times where the pace of battle is speeding up. As such, we would like to make improvements.

For example, we’d like to make it so buffs can be reapplied in a shorter amount of time by adding a fast cast job trait that can be acquired through blue magic sets and we would also like to add more equipment for blue mages that has fast cast.

[Draylo]

Derp :( Hope there are more improvements than that. Some of the spells in question are practically instant cast as is.

[Mefuki]

Diffusion is the reason buffs don't have longer durations? Well then, make the appropriate duration changes to buffs (Orcish Counterstance: Duration increased to 3 minutes, Nature's Meditation: Duration increased from 90 seconds to 3 minutes., etc, etc.) but have only half that duration effect other players hit by a Diffused buff. Seems simple to me. I can't understand how that can be the issue. I mean, it's your game, you can make any adjustments to effects, magic, JA, etc you want so to say, "We have to consider Diffusion so we're not doing this." when it's your code and you can make any adjustment you want, to make something balanced, isn't making much sense to me.

[Rubicant82]

Greetings,

When it comes to adjustments that extend the effect duration of buffs, we need to look into this very carefully because blue mages have access to Diffusion, and there is a concern that the support capability may become too powerful for short battles.

Deal part two: Modify Diffusion to no longer be "apply this buff to party members" but "adds 20% duration per merit of next blue made buff".
There problem solved, and then BLU would get a perpetuation like ability on a 10m timer or whatever it is. problem solved.

[Olor]

Greetings,

When it comes to adjustments that extend the effect duration of buffs, we need to look into this very carefully because blue mages have access to Diffusion, and there is a concern that the support capability may become too powerful for short battles.

However, as blue mages need to auto-attack and perform other physical attacks, we understand that they are losing out on damage when they need to reapply buffs, especially in the current times where the pace of battle is speeding up. As such, we would like to make improvements.

For example, we’d like to make it so buffs can be reapplied in a shorter amount of time by adding a fast cast job trait that can be acquired through blue magic sets and we would also like to add more equipment for blue mages that has fast cast.

Please understand, no one invites us to a party to apply 1 buff. Even if the buff lasted 3 minutes, the buff is just "OK" it would still not get us invited to parties. I know the development team is very concerned BLU might become a viable job, but increasing buff duration is going to make us fall behind less, not pull ahead.

[HimuraKenshyn]

Wait wait wait how long is the recast on diffusion???? Ya'll can do better than that please....

[Olor]

Wait wait wait how long is the recast on diffusion???? Ya'll can do better than that please....

OMG BLU might be able to apply an okay buff every 10 minutes PANIC. PANIC.

Seriously - worst excuse ever. None of our buffs are gamebreaking even if they lasted the full 10 minutes. Making us set EVEN MORE SPELLS to get another tier of fast cast when that's not the main problem is not a solution. Stuff like Nature's Meditation casts pretty fast already - the JA delay still kills us.

[Mefuki]

Making us set EVEN MORE SPELLS to get another tier of fast cast when that's not the main problem is not a solution.

And, again, fat lot of good that does for us when our traits gained by spells set starts at Fast Cast .5 AND the spells we DO have to set to try(and I DO mean, try) to over come it are mostly useless. Which, according to the other BLU thread, SE seems OK with and they'd rather scrounge around for new spells to make up for the large amount of potentially useful spells already present in the game but are just broken or not "high level spells"...

[Rwolf]

I agree with Mefuki, that's a lame reason not to give Blue Mage decent duration on buffs as Mefuki stated you can just impose a duration penalty on Diffusion to balance it out. And can they stop trying to fix Blue Mage through new spells and traits. New spells and traits are awesome and all but they should be supplemental and interchangeable. Not to mention there's no space for all of this currently. They need to focus on fixing things like spell damage, MP cost, set cost, magic accuracy, and buff duration. Then it frees them up to think about what supplemental additions could be added through things like job points and new traits/spells.

I feel like this is just piling stuff on top of a rug with stuff swept under. It isn't making anything better, all it's going to do is eventually cause more issues as the game expands.

[Mirage]

Yes, Camate, it is very dangerous to let a BLU give a whole party one single buff. That's why no other jobs can do this.

[Raydeus]

Yes, Camate, it is very dangerous to let a BLU give a whole party one single buff. That's why no other jobs can do this.

Let's get nasty, and for the next update allow Blue spells to be affected by Composure.

/yepImadangerousrebel

[Tennotsukai]

Greetings,

When it comes to adjustments that extend the effect duration of buffs, we need to look into this very carefully because blue mages have access to Diffusion, and there is a concern that the support capability may become too powerful for short battles.

However, as blue mages need to auto-attack and perform other physical attacks, we understand that they are losing out on damage when they need to reapply buffs, especially in the current times where the pace of battle is speeding up. As such, we would like to make improvements.

For example, we’d like to make it so buffs can be reapplied in a shorter amount of time by adding a fast cast job trait that can be acquired through blue magic sets and we would also like to add more equipment for blue mages that has fast cast.

Thanks for the reply, Camate! Though, on to what you were saying about Blue Mages getting a fast cast job trait, we already have one. It's horrible to say the least. Just to obtain tier 1 normal fast cast we need to equip 15 points of blue magic points into our already completely filled spell slots. I know what you're thinking...that's a tier 2 fast cast for us. Unfortunately, our fast cast is equivalent to half of a rdm fast cast so we're only getting red mage's fast cast 1 by setting 15 points worth of spells.

Next, maybe we could strike a different deal on top of the previous deal. Change Diffusion back to what it was before. Every merit reducing recast time on Diffusion. That way if you guys do decide to let us merit that more it will be so much better than putting more merits into it now.

Also, it is true casting times are rather poor for most of our buff spells. Nature's Meditation is the only one exception to this, but when we are in the pace of an expedient battle and receiving buffs from bards/cors the duration of Nature's Meditation becomes an issue then.

Fast cast has not and will never fix our poor durations of our spells. Please, ask the Dev team to simply make adjustments where they absolutely have to in order for these spells to have better durations and maybe even casting times. Durations are more important to us though.

[Mitruya]

A job other than PLD, MNK, or RNG becoming overpowered? Imagine that ...
I can see it now, inviting a couple BLUs for an alliance and doing the party swap thing for our uber buffs! Well, we can dream...

[Olor]

I mean, you folks just gave BRDs (I am one, full disclosure) easy access to 3 songs - while I supported that because it was getting ridiculous in terms of getting an invite as a normal BRD - I don't see how it's even conceivable to worry that our buffs would somehow be overpowered (especially comparatively) if they lasted a bit longer.

[Ophannus]

How about traits that BLU receives normally that do not require setting spells which increase the duration of blue magic enhancing on yourself. So at 99 spells last double duration on yourself but obviously wouldn't extend that double duration to others when you Diffusion. A fast cast trait sounds terrible because what if the spell that has the Fast Cast trait attached to it is terrible or not good? If it's weak or useless, we won't bother wasting 6-7 Blue Points to set it for a measly 5% Fast Cast which is what it will probably be.

If they gave Blue Mage tier'd traits that extend the duration of Blue Magic enhancing spells on ourselves, it would serve to both extend Blue Magic duration for ourselves while having no effect on the duration others receive when we use Diffusion. Also having a 3-5min duration could not possibly be overpowered for Diffusion since Battery Charge and Animating Wail are 5 min in duration, Diffusion is a 10 minute recast and only affects our party.

[Darwena]

So what? We have iLv119 but OMG, don't let them be a little more powerful, players will maybe happy and we don't want that...

[Ravenmore]

Greetings,

When it comes to adjustments that extend the effect duration of buffs, we need to look into this very carefully because blue mages have access to Diffusion, and there is a concern that the support capability may become too powerful for short battles.

However, as blue mages need to auto-attack and perform other physical attacks, we understand that they are losing out on damage when they need to reapply buffs, especially in the current times where the pace of battle is speeding up. As such, we would like to make improvements.

For example, we’d like to make it so buffs can be reapplied in a shorter amount of time by adding a fast cast job trait that can be acquired through blue magic sets and we would also like to add more equipment for blue mages that has fast cast.

OMG wouldn't want blu to be wanted for anything now would we. It is total BS when schs and brds can already do this for short fights and be more effective then most blu buffs. You know and we know excuses when we hear them.

[Sasaraixx]

Does Diffusion work with UL spells? Perhaps that is what they are afraid of. It still seems like a non-issue to me and apparently everyone else.

It's also baffling because if they are worried about BLU's support side becoming too powerful (let's pretend for argument sake that this is a valid concern), there are so many ways they could counter this. They could add a duration penalty to diffusion, create a trait that extends duration for self cast blue magic, or add a piece of gear that doubles duration of blue enhancing magic received (reforged Mavi anyone?). There are so many options.

Adding more tiers of fast cast or more fast cast gear is definitely NOT the way to go. Some of the spells already cast very quickly and the job already can't equip all of the traits and spells it needs to.

I don't think a corresponding post was made in the JP forum (I'll check), but I have a feeling no one would be I favor of this adjustment over longer duration.

[Lithera]

What is a short fight these days? I doubt most people would be defusioning for a fight that wouldn't be worth having to wait out the recast timer.

[evanwimbish]

Giving blu fast cast is the worst idea ever! Fix the spells completely ! Don't add more fast cap equip because we already have fast cast armor for every slot except ammo.....
Add armor like bard "increases blue effect duration" or give us somthing like composure or perpetuance.. Not armor...
Unless your gonna give us new enhancing blue magics for 6 point equip which add tier 3 fast cast or higher (which would piss off redmage) then fast cast would do nothing more than what it's currently doing now...

Give us more blue spell slots
Get rid of the 1 min cool down
Give us more Eco system spells with xhits

Fix that first!

[Olor]

I don't think a corresponding post was made in the JP forum (I'll check), but I have a feeling no one would be I favor of this adjustment over longer duration.

JP BLU forum is deader than dead. No wonder this job gets so little love.

[Tennotsukai]

I had a JP friend post the Tourbillion bug on there once. It was immediately put on the multiple bugs category.

[Sixtythree]

How about traits that BLU receives normally that do not require setting spells which increase the duration of blue magic enhancing on yourself. So at 99 spells last double duration on yourself but obviously wouldn't extend that double duration to others when you Diffusion. A fast cast trait sounds terrible because what if the spell that has the Fast Cast trait attached to it is terrible or not good? If it's weak or useless, we won't bother wasting 6-7 Blue Points to set it for a measly 5% Fast Cast which is what it will probably be.

If they gave Blue Mage tier'd traits that extend the duration of Blue Magic enhancing spells on ourselves, it would serve to both extend Blue Magic duration for ourselves while having no effect on the duration others receive when we use Diffusion. Also having a 3-5min duration could not possibly be overpowered for Diffusion since Battery Charge and Animating Wail are 5 min in duration, Diffusion is a 10 minute recast and only affects our party.

Neat idea but I can't imagine them allowing double duration because you'd have 10 minute Refresh and Haste. They could introduce a couple of percentage based traits like so:

[Insert Job Trait Name] Tier 1 - Increases duration of enhancing effect received by blue magic spells by 12%
[Insert Job Trait Name] Tier 2 - Increases duration of enhancing effect received by blue magic spells by 20%

Except spells that grant shorter duration enhancements would gain far less. N. Meditation would go from 1 minute to 1 minute and 12 seconds.

There's a small group of spells that fall under the same tier... N. Meditation, Triumphant Roar, Saline Coat, Plasma Charge, Barrier Tusk etc..

Just manually adjust these spells to last longer, and please be liberal.

[Tennotsukai]

Neat idea but I can't imagine them allowing double duration because you'd have 10 minute Refresh and Haste. They could introduce a couple of percentage based traits like so:

[Insert Job Trait Name] Tier 1 - Increases duration of enhancing effect received by blue magic spells by 12%
[Insert Job Trait Name] Tier 2 - Increases duration of enhancing effect received by blue magic spells by 20%

Except spells that grant shorter duration enhancements would gain far less. N. Meditation would go from 1 minute to 1 minute and 12 seconds.

There's a small group of spells that fall under the same tier... N. Meditation, Triumphant Roar, Saline Coat, Plasma Charge, Barrier Tusk etc..

Just manually adjust these spells to last longer, and please be liberal.

That's not a bad idea. I would rather a straight 30-60 seconds though. I don't think small percentage boosts like that would fix the problem blu has with short lasting spells. It helps though!

[ErwingKilara]

Disclaimer: I'm a new-FFXI newbie and old-school vet so my opinion doesn't really matter in the 'new' FFXI, but I can say I was totally disappointed by pretty much every BLU buff except hastes and refresh because 1-1.5 min duration is too damn short to do anything with, and I've only played solo and done none of the 'real' end-game content yet. I'd be all for completely removing Diffusion in favor of making BLU buffs useful, even though I LOVE the concept of Diffusion.

[Babekeke]

Diffusion actually has a use even without being in a party, assuming you have 5/5 merits in it, and either augmented relic feet, or the ilvl variants, you can get +45% (I think) duration.

Only really useful for the likes of Battery Charge or Erratic Flutter though (assuming it even works with EF, but it worked with the other 2 haste spells), but increasing 1 of them to 7:15 duration is handy.

[Gekuz]

If a buff last 3 minutes we could become too Overpowered? Excuse me but i think there is a big mistake here. A SAM With tachi Fudo against a MOB of high level could reach damage of 10+k without using mythic or relic or empy. To reach a similar amount of damage with blu i must have Tizona with tons and tons of equip, and even in this case is still difficult.

Diffusion and duration of buff is an issue? well really easy to solve:

Animal ConcentrationDuration 1m or till next buff spell / Recast 7s Double the cost of your next buff spell to grant a bonus on duration effect / Impossible to stack with Diffusion and Unbridled Wisdom/Learning

It will work similar to pianissimo with the recast time to allow us to get buffed
i don't think for many spells that making them during twice is enough on the other hand buffs like refresh or haste could reach a peak of 10m of duration, if you think it well there will be no difference since the ratio MP/Duration will still be the same.

Nature's Meditation Boost ->3M
Orcis Counterstance Boost ->4M
Cocoon boost -> 3M
Barrier Tusk ->4M

Battery Charge ->10M
Haste's Spells -> 10M

Here we are, we have solved the problem of BLU magic Duration and diffusion.