Blue Mage Ideas and Suggestions

[Vegeta]

I figure this is as good of a place as any to suggest ways to improve on the job Blue Mage.

Idea 1 Azure Lore Improvement
The Blue Mage two-hour ability Azure Lore is probably the most unused ability of its kind. With a 30 second duration and minor impact on most spells, it is really a wasted ability. My idea's to improve it are
(1) After using Azure Lore your spells are instantly available without the 60-second cool-down period.
(2) Under Azure Lore all Blue Magic spells are available for that 30-second window

Idea 2 Job Trait Combos
Allow certain spells to affect multiple Job Traits. So instead of needing 4 spells for 2 job traits, a certain spell can help give both and leading to only needing 3 spells for the 2 traits.

Idea 3 Sneak and Invisible
This would involve creating a creature that disappears for a few seconds and reappears to attack or something along those lines, kind of like the Bloodeye Vileberry. It would be a nice thing to have for obvious reasons.

Idea 4 Widescan
While it's not an actual job trait, it would be nice if some sort of combo of spells unlocked this ability.

Idea 5 Magian Clubs
This isn't so much an idea as a suggested change. Currently the only job on all of the magian club trials is WHM. Blu can use the Perdu Wand which was a nice option for a club weapon back at level 75 but as things scale to 99 the weapon selection is mostly magian. Now, I understand that Blu and Cor cannot use the all-powerful magian staves as they have no skill in the area, however, the club has been the only other weapon Blu has been able to use and it has higher than average skill at it so it would be nice to have the option of making magian weapons for it of that type.



Feel free to add/discuss more ideas.

[Ryaan]

Was having this disscussion a few months ago with another BLU friend of mine. Its realy not fair for BLU to be the only mage job that has to pick and chose which spells they use. That you have to pick only certain spells after having to go through the hassle of learning them. There is never enough points to set what you want and what is needed.

The idea was instead of using points to set spells like you currently have to do. That it would be awesome to have all spells always avaliable and having to use points to set the job traits instead. SE could instead of doing the job traits in relation to what spell you use but have them instead avaliable at certain lvls. So you could cange aound the Traits as neededfor each situation instead of having to move around spells.

This would also eliminate the massive wait time there is when needing to move spells around in Abyssea in order to get the Yellow triggers covered.

[Xilk]

I think its perfectly appropriate for blue mages not to have all spells at the same times. Remember spells are not just spells for bluemage... they are stat bonuses and Job Traits. It would not be appropriate to have all these traits and stat boosts at the same time. If you want to have all of it available... sounds like you might want to play redmage.

I have long wanted a snk/inviz for blu. Its the biggest reason I don't really use /blu at higher levels. I actually think an alternative spell would be fun... one that basically you target a mob and then you 'mimic' that mob so that mob type does not detect you. You basically get selective camouflage vs just that mob type. Its a bit novel, but it feels more appropriate to the lore of the job.

I love the ideas here about Azure lore. As it stands now, its next to useless.. but to have a small window w/ all spells (and possible all traits& boosts) would be absolutely fantastic! (and very versatile)

The club suggestion here also is quite appropriate. club is the only other viable weapon option. I've been looking all over for a decent club to use, and its just not there. I'm not going to belly-ache for hexastrike but Magian clubs would be perfectly appropriate imo.

(other great suggestions mentioned elsewhere include blu having a reraise (raise not needed) and improving the spells bad breath and 1000 needles. The nerf-bat just hit them too hard.

[Rambus]

Azurre lore would barly cut it as a 5 minute abiltiy then a 2 hr. I would say efflux> azure lore -.-
I really have no idea what to make azure lore other then to say its losy. I seen some ideas like acess to full spell list while under it, maybe allow a chain affinity reset.

we do need acess to more clubs, we have the 3rd highest skill in clubs that is tied with war. only PLD and WHM are higher.
Plus it is our only other combat skill. acesss to Magian Clubs would be nice.

We need more set points. We got a ton new spells for 75 so the current cap of set points is based for level 75, not 90, it is not enough. If SE can’t add more set points, or does not want to, you can make a second list of settable spells that can’t be used for casting, but for job traits. For the most part we are suck on tier one traits and that is really unacceptable at level 90 and beyond.

1000 needles:
There is no reason for this spell to cost the mp, cast time, recast time and the resist rate it has. Even at the level to equip at 62, 1000 damage is a joke. the mp to use should be in the 200's for MP cost, around 8 seconds for cast time and maybe 30 seconds for recast. Since it is also a proc spell in abyssea recasting it should not be a chore.

[Kasandaro]

Idea 5 Magian Clubs
This isn't so much an idea as a suggested change. Currently the only job on all of the magian club trials is WHM. Blu can use the Perdu Wand which was a nice option for a club weapon back at level 75 but as things scale to 99 the weapon selection is mostly magian. ... the club has been the only other weapon Blu has been able to use and it has higher than average skill at it so it would be nice to have the option of making magian weapons for it of that type.

One more on this bandwagon. It's our second-highest weapon, we have the third highest club skill, tied with warrior, and have access to respectable wses (Flash Nova is wonderful for getting shadows up). Yet the highest DPS club we get is Perdu, from 75. At that, we only get wands and clubs. (BLU. Mjollnir. C'mon, let's tick some WHMs off! ^^ )

Seriously, though, do with the wands that was done with the staves: six jobs get the elemental staves, but only BLM/SCH/SMN get the physical staves; maybe add BLU and PLD to the Elemental clubs?

Or at least add some high (80+) clubs that are clear DD items, with BLU on it.

[Rambus]

One more on this bandwagon. It's our second-highest weapon, we have the third highest club skill, tied with warrior, and have access to respectable wses (Flash Nova is wonderful for getting shadows up). Yet the highest DPS club we get is Perdu, from 75. At that, we only get wands and clubs. (BLU. Mjollnir. C'mon, let's tick some WHMs off! ^^ )

Seriously, though, do with the wands that was done with the staves: six jobs get the elemental staves, but only BLM/SCH/SMN get the physical staves; maybe add BLU and PLD to the Elemental clubs?

Or at least add some high (80+) clubs that are clear DD items, with BLU on it.

Evil face >XD I said that too! ;p
if you want to add PLD to magain though logic tells you that you have to for war as well since they are tied with us.
war and pld have no practical use out of them since they make use of other weapons like sword, great sword, (PLD), AXE, great axe (WAR) so they have other empyrean choices.
the nice thing with flash nova is skillchain placement and high damage for a bew ws, club ws also cover a lot of skillchain placements that sword misses.

[SandriaBahamut]

Waiting for Big/Mighty Guard and Matra Magic...maybe a level ?? spell or two...also some better accuracy on 1000 Needles would be quite divine

[Kyte]

I think the number 1 improvement I'd like to see at this point is an adjustment for some of our enhancing spells. In particular, I would like to see the cast time for Triumphant Roar decreased to that of Fantod's and/or have its duration increased to 5 minutes.

[Koroma]

!!ELEMENTAL AFFINITY PATHS FOR MAGIAN SWORDS!!

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Magic_Affinity

[Scuro]

I would like to see stronger buff spells for tanking capabilites since our best one is Cocoon, like maybe something that acts like some ofthe PLD abilites would be fun, idk about you guys, but I tank a shit load on my BLU. Sneak and invis would be interesting, but I strongly doubt that one, I just don't see the capability of it, now if you could get a spell like a Mimic, where you have to select a particular mob within the area, and it basically acted as a costume where you assume the form of that mob and have aggro immunity to that particular mob... that would be interesting.

2hrs are meant to be oh-shit buttons, and BLU is a well if I'm going to throw everything at it, I might as well use Azure and see what happens button (thats a long button). Thats really how I use it, it is not a game changer, which pisses me off. SE needs to invest some time in changing this to a game changer 2 hour, but its hard to give it an original 2 hour with out taking from BLM (no mp taken), RDM (casting faster), SCH (being able to cast all spells). Really in the end BLU is going to have to borrow from one, I can't think of many original ideas these days for it.

We don't need a wide scan, I can say that much, thats just too much lol.

[Trefold]

Idea
Level 91-99 Ability that allows use of any spell learned

Personally, I'd like to see this implemented. I think having it on a 10 or 20 minute timer would seem fair and could help retain balance. There are always those times when you feel like you could really use one of your other Blue Magic spells but you're in the middle of battle and you can't afford to wait a full minute to set it.

This would allow you to cast a spell any spell that you've learned but haven't set, and would open up some interesting possibilities when facing against situations you haven't fully prepared for.

[kaht]

One of the coolest suggestions I've seen for BLU was to change azure lore so that every spell cast over the next 30s would be under the effect of chain affinity. This would allow you to skillchain your spells on top of eachother, instead of WS > spell like we're forced to do now due to CA recast timer.

To be honest, 30s might be a bit extreme - maybe the next 3 spells cast will have the effect of chain affinity (making it more like Meiko, but only for spells)

[Kwate]

Idea
Level 91-99 Ability that allows use of any spell learned

Personally, I'd like to see this implemented. I think having it on a 10 or 20 minute timer would seem fair and could help retain balance. There are always those times when you feel like you could really use one of your other Blue Magic spells but you're in the middle of battle and you can't afford to wait a full minute to set it.

This would allow you to cast a spell any spell that you've learned but haven't set, and would open up some interesting possibilities when facing against situations you haven't fully prepared for.

Love that idea, i set Dreamflower and Blank gaze, rarely use them, but an ability like this will free up some set points, from having to set them.

[Rambus]

One of the coolest suggestions I've seen for BLU was to change azure lore so that every spell cast over the next 30s would be under the effect of chain affinity. This would allow you to skillchain your spells on top of eachother, instead of WS > spell like we're forced to do now due to CA recast timer.

To be honest, 30s might be a bit extreme - maybe the next 3 spells cast will have the effect of chain affinity (making it more like Meiko, but only for spells)

that is where i was going with when i said reset chain affinity, if they can't program to allow the next 3 spells to be chained affinity atomically, it could at least reset it so you could do WS >CA spell > AL>CA> spell.

but using 2 ja like that with lag may prevent a sc, but its something depending what can be programmed

[Kwate]

Idea
Level 91-99 Ability that allows use of any spell learned

Personally, I'd like to see this implemented. I think having it on a 10 or 20 minute timer would seem fair and could help retain balance. There are always those times when you feel like you could really use one of your other Blue Magic spells but you're in the middle of battle and you can't afford to wait a full minute to set it.

This would allow you to cast a spell any spell that you've learned but haven't set, and would open up some interesting possibilities when facing against situations you haven't fully prepared for.

This idea is gold.

[Tenkage]

I would like to see stronger buff spells for tanking capabilites since our best one is Cocoon, like maybe something that acts like some ofthe PLD abilites would be fun, idk about you guys, but I tank a shit load on my BLU. Sneak and invis would be interesting, but I strongly doubt that one, I just don't see the capability of it, now if you could get a spell like a Mimic, where you have to select a particular mob within the area, and it basically acted as a costume where you assume the form of that mob and have aggro immunity to that particular mob... that would be interesting.

2hrs are meant to be oh-shit buttons, and BLU is a well if I'm going to throw everything at it, I might as well use Azure and see what happens button (thats a long button). Thats really how I use it, it is not a game changer, which pisses me off. SE needs to invest some time in changing this to a game changer 2 hour, but its hard to give it an original 2 hour with out taking from BLM (no mp taken), RDM (casting faster), SCH (being able to cast all spells). Really in the end BLU is going to have to borrow from one, I can't think of many original ideas these days for it.

We don't need a wide scan, I can say that much, thats just too much lol.

In a different thread i said that they should make v2's of job 2Hs and for blu they should allow us to morph into soulflayers.

[Draylo]

This idea is gold.

Agreed, that would be amazing.

[Scuro]

My problem with this 2 hour idea of Kwate's..... It is SCH's 2 hour, the ability to use white and dark spells by Tabula Rasa, although it is slightly different, it is all too similar. that is the issue with the BLU community and a desire to change the 2 hour. We all can easily agree that BLU 2 hour needs to be changed, not that we want it too, or that it should, its that it NEEDS too be. Its too much of a 2 hour that doesn't change the outcome of a fight.... at all.

While other things like perfect dodge, Invincible, SAM's 2 hour (I don't feel like spellin that shit out), hell even NIN's 2 hour is useful to some extent. These are all things that could be battle changing, and yet our BLU hour doesn't change anything, if your screwed, using your 2 hour isn't going to change that fact, your dead meat regardless. Yet what I can say is that every BLU's idea treads the line of borrowing from another job, rather then actually using something original. People have brought up that we should be able to cast with out consuming MP (BLM), being able to cast spells really fast within 30 seconds (RDM), being able to use all spells with out penalty (SCH).

I mean really the only original ideas I have heard of, is the being able to turn into a soulflayer and use all spells (interesting but again, steals from SCH, and is highly unlikely that SE would give us a soulflayer costume), and this is the first time hearing this one, but being able to use successive Chain Affinity spells with out having to use the ability, now that would make sense and be interesting. One of the key things BLU is identified by, is its Chain Affinity. To use that key defining JA and use it in such succession to be able to create multiple SCs or multi stepped Lights Darks SCs, or hell too even just have Chain affinity affected spells!

That would be awesome! What would only make that even more of a ZOMG! 2 hour! is if you were either given 300% TP that did not get consumed until the affect wore off, or however much TP you had when you started the 2 hour, you would not have erased no matter how much you use the spells that have a temporary chain affinity affect. So for instance I use Azure Lore (Chain Affinity Affect applied to all spells within 30 seconds) and have 200% TP use Disseverment, hit the mob and get to 240%, do goblin rush, and hit the mob again and get to 265%, you get the idea. That you can still build TP while under this affect, but you cannot consume the TP within the 30 seconds. I think that would be a phenomenal 2 hour idea. Still keeps BLU originality, and is actually a spell that could actually change the course of a fight.

[Scuro]

Oh and I understand some people are like, Well Scuro! That is basically a SAM 2 hour! Well it should be a TP% that only applies to spells, or in the case someone tries to just WS or WS + Spell to create skill chains, it will consume the TP rather then eliminate TP cost, or even just drop the effect all together are some ideas to keep this balanced and yet not stepping on the feet of SAMs.

[Draylo]

My problem with this 2 hour idea of Kwate's..... It is SCH's 2 hour, the ability to use white and dark spells by Tabula Rasa, although it is slightly different, it is all too similar. that is the issue with the BLU community and a desire to change the 2 hour. We all can easily agree that BLU 2 hour needs to be changed, not that we want it too, or that it should, its that it NEEDS too be. Its too much of a 2 hour that doesn't change the outcome of a fight.... at all. While other things like perfect dodge, Invincible, SAM's 2 hour (I don't feel like spellin that shit out), hell even NIN's 2 hour is useful to some extent. These are all things that could be battle changing, and yet our BLU hour doesn't change anything, if your screwed, using your 2 hour isn't going to change that fact, your dead meat regardless. Yet what I can say is that every BLU's idea treads the line of borrowing from another job, rather then actually using something original. People have brought up that we should be able to cast with out consuming MP (BLM), being able to cast spells really fast within 30 seconds (RDM), being able to use all spells with out penalty (SCH). I mean really the only original ideas I have heard of, is the being able to turn into a soulflayer and use all spells (interesting but again, steals from SCH, and is highly unlikely that SE would give us a soulflayer costume), and this is the first time hearing this one, but being able to use successive Chain Affinity spells with out having to use the ability, now that would make sense and be interesting. One of the key things BLU is identified by, is its Chain Affinity. To use that key defining JA and use it in such succession to be able to create multiple SCs or multi stepped Lights Darks SCs, or hell too even just have Chain affinity affected spells! That would be awesome! What would only make that even more of a ZOMG! 2 hour! is if you were either given 300% TP that did not get consumed until the affect wore off, or however much TP you had when you started the 2 hour, you would not have erased no matter how much you use the spells that have a temporary chain affinity affect. So for instance I use Azure Lore (Chain Affinity Affect applied to all spells within 30 seconds) and have 200% TP use Disseverment, hit the mob and get to 240%, do goblin rush, and hit the mob again and get to 265%, you get the idea. That you can still build TP while under this affect, but you cannot consume the TP within the 30 seconds. I think that would be a phenomenal 2 hour idea. Still keeps BLU originality, and is actually a spell that could actually change the course of a fight.

Can you please learn how to use paragraphs? It's very hard to read your posts.

[Sylar]

I have to admit I didn't read Scuro's post because I got lost in it, so I'm ignoring that.

Azure Lore can be good if you use it right. The most useful part of it is that it gives a 350% TP modifier to the next spell you use Chain Affinity on. It was pretty trashy for the most part since the old big 3 didn't use TP for damage (although I think Cannonball does), but it can get some seriously nice results with CA/Efflux + Quad Continuum, which is affected by TP. That said, yeah, it's pretty weak for a 2-hour overall, since the duration sucks and it's only really useful for one spell because of the CA restriction. That would be like Chainspell only allowing you to instacast a single spell, or Manafont negating the MP cost of one spell. The idea to let you use any spell you have sounds more appropriate, since there is absolutely no way that BLU should ever be able to cast every spell available at all times. Azure Lore would be better on a 20-30 minute timer.

Turning into a soulflayer sounds like a retarded gimmick. Please don't do that.

Multiple JTs on single spells would be great. Or, at the very least, allow spells to go up a tier when you set more than the base 2 to get them, the way Dual Wield and Clear Mind currently do. Still don't understand why that doesn't work that way. The only way you could get a higher tier of a JT is to neglect the other ones you would be able to get, so it's still self-restricting. It's stupid that the only JT that scales up all the way to tier IV is one of the most useless in function, and requires the most situation (read: useless) spells ever in order to get.

[Scuro]

Post adjusted with paragraphs now @_@

But ya having spells that can work for multiple JTs would be a god send, since there are a lot of good JTs we have to accept not having simple because of the spell list and spell point restrictions =/

[Cabalabob]

a good overhaul for azure lore really would be great i dont think ive ever once used it or at least not as part of a plan/emergency. mabe they culd do wat they did wit DRG u know with how call wyvern used 2 be the 2hr ability? mabe make azure lore a 20 min recast ability and add in a completely new ability as 2hr, i personally like the idea of 2hr ability where all physical spells gain their skillchain properties and magic gains their magic burst properties (but unlike chain affinity and burst affinity they dont double the secondary modifier and physical spells dont use up tp). Make the ability last for 3mins or something so you could self skillchain using only blue magic and magic burst your own skillchains. if 3 mins seems a bit too unbalanced (which i personally believe 2hrs are supposed 2 be slightly) just make it so the ability doubles recast timers or something.

[Kwate]

a good overhaul for azure lore really would be great i dont think ive ever once used it or at least not as part of a plan/emergency. mabe they culd do wat they did wit DRG u know with how call wyvern used 2 be the 2hr ability? mabe make azure lore a 20 min recast ability and add in a completely new ability as 2hr, i personally like the idea of 2hr ability where all physical spells gain their skillchain properties and magic gains their magic burst properties (but unlike chain affinity and burst affinity they dont double the secondary modifier and physical spells dont use up tp). Make the ability last for 3mins or something so you could self skillchain using only blue magic and magic burst your own skillchains. if 3 mins seems a bit too unbalanced (which i personally believe 2hrs are supposed 2 be slightly) just make it so the ability doubles recast timers or something.

I have to respectfully disagree, CA + EFF, keeps the damage intact for us over long periods (especially with optimum gearsets). I think opening up the spells to us, would be a breath of fresh air. This would give us ALL traits active at once as well (hello counter, conserve mp, all killer effects, etc.) and spells, its been discussed numerous times for good reason among various forums.

[renasci]

Hmm, things i'd like to see...

I'll start with my least probable and work up?

I always thought it'd be nice for blu to have acess to G. Sword as a skill, however, in keeping with the 'curved swords' motif, we'd be limited to Falx/Balin's Sword types. I've always felt like the newer jobs were a bit lift out in the skill mastery department. The older jobs have access to a much wider variety of weapon types (even if they have poor ratings).

I wouldn't mind a reworking of Azure Lore to allow access to all of our spell list for a short duration

Long ago I posted a suggestion to the Zam boards that I thought it'd be nice for Blu physical spells to have a minor TP return (on the scale of 1 tp per hit) ...I can't say I wasn't a little crestfallen when that trait came to be in the form of Occult Acumen, and not for BLU.

Reraise/Raise would be great to have access to

Spirit Taker...in BLU spell form.
I've been itching to learn Bloody Claw ever since I first saw it

[Rambus]

The only thing i see from getting tp from casting spells is on CA. CA makes a spell like a WS and ill be nice to see how meny hits land ><.

I disagree with AL acting like a 350% on CA, i tried to on sneak attack cannonball, and i actually got more damage from 300 tp ones then AL ones. I think someone said that in a simple explain attempt in what it does.

[Zeargi]

I figure this is as good of a place as any to suggest ways to improve on the job Blue Mage.

Idea 1 Azure Lore Improvement
The Blue Mage two-hour ability Azure Lore is probably the most unused ability of its kind. With a 30 second duration and minor impact on most spells, it is really a wasted ability. My idea's to improve it are
(1) After using Azure Lore your spells are instantly available without the 60-second cool-down period.
(2) Under Azure Lore all Blue Magic spells are available for that 30-second window

Idea 2 Job Trait Combos
Allow certain spells to affect multiple Job Traits. So instead of needing 4 spells for 2 job traits, a certain spell can help give both and leading to only needing 3 spells for the 2 traits.

Idea 3 Sneak and Invisible
This would involve creating a creature that disappears for a few seconds and reappears to attack or something along those lines, kind of like the Bloodeye Vileberry. It would be a nice thing to have for obvious reasons.

Idea 4 Widescan
While it's not an actual job trait, it would be nice if some sort of combo of spells unlocked this ability.

Idea 5 Magian Clubs
This isn't so much an idea as a suggested change. Currently the only job on all of the magian club trials is WHM. Blu can use the Perdu Wand which was a nice option for a club weapon back at level 75 but as things scale to 99 the weapon selection is mostly magian. Now, I understand that Blu and Cor cannot use the all-powerful magian staves as they have no skill in the area, however, the club has been the only other weapon Blu has been able to use and it has higher than average skill at it so it would be nice to have the option of making magian weapons for it of that type.



Feel free to add/discuss more ideas.

I agree, the BLU's 2hr is pretty useless. I can count on one hand the times I've actually used it.

The Job combo traits makes sense seeing how Auto-Refresh has its own point system within itself.

As for Sneak and Invisible + Widescan, not Really needed for BLU, IMO. It'd be nice, but would you really want to set the spells when you could just sub DNC, NIN, RDM, SCH, or WHM to get those. o.o; And personally I enjoy Monster Radar trait anyway, but I guess it could be helpful if you're hunting BLU spells if you did have Widescan.

The break down of who gets what weapons baffles me as is. BLU doesn't get a club, RDM doesn't get the dagger. o.O WTF!?

On topic thought, I'd like to see a job ability similar to the RDM's Composure. My thought was it maybe could have a 3 min recast timer, and act as a single spell effect like Saboteur. If used with an Enhancing Spell or one that bestows an enhancing effect, it doubles the duration and gives a .5 boost to the effect (The .5 is just a wishful thought :3). If used with a spell that has a debuff or enfeebling spell out right, it boost the effect and extends the duration. This job ability can only be used on BLU spells giving possibly an increase to ACC/M. ACC (Not really needed with all the equipment and what not) and has no effect on DMG dealt. Just a thought.

[Scuro]

I think opening up the spells to us, would be a breath of fresh air. This would give us ALL traits active at once as well (hello counter, conserve mp, all killer effects, etc.) and spells, its been discussed numerous times for good reason among various forums.

I have to disagree with this idea for the reasons you just stated, I wouldn't mind all spells being open up, although I feel that would be such a lack in potential for an adjustment to the 2 hour. Yet being able to have all the Traits... that is kinda useless, although some would be nice for situations, if your going to go about it like that, that would mean you get all the Stat +'s too, and idk about you, but gearing spells and gear for stat +'s is better then having all of our spells that have - stats or stats that are not necissary for the spells being cast. In short, our 2 hour would be slapping on a fat GIMP to all spells cast rendering it more useless then the original Azure Lore is. I still have to side with the idea of a 2 hour that makes every spell a Chain Affinity affect and allows consistant high damage or skill chaining.

[xbobx]

Not sure if this was mentioned. Along with any buff it uses, 2 hour could count as a mimic of whatever spell was just used against you.

Maybe dumb idea, but if tp move mob uses is overpowered you are dead anyways, so maybe that woudl be a limiting factor.

Or Azure lore stops mob from ability to use any TP mobs while it is active, a 100 percent guaranteed TP amneisa.

[Djinnrb]

IMO I think AL should be changed aswell. But my idea would have to be this...

When you use AL(lasts 2 mins) when you use a spell you morph into what ever creature you learned it from and its acc/atk ect is boosted a bit.

[Scuro]

Not sure if this was mentioned. Along with any buff it uses, 2 hour could count as a mimic of whatever spell was just used against you.

Maybe dumb idea, but if tp move mob uses is overpowered you are dead anyways, so maybe that woudl be a limiting factor.

Or Azure lore stops mob from ability to use any TP mobs while it is active, a 100 percent guaranteed TP amneisa.

Both of these ideas are pretty interesting, although from a dat perspective the first might be hard, unless its borrowed from the Colibri's ability to reflect spells. Then maybe, but the 2nd idea seems very much likely and would be pretty useful to render a mobs TP attacks useless for even just 2 minutes.


IMO I think AL should be changed aswell. But my idea would have to be this...

When you use AL(lasts 2 mins) when you use a spell you morph into what ever creature you learned it from and its acc/atk ect is boosted a bit.

Thisi s very much unlikely because the amount of dat overhaul that would need to be done for this, would be outrageous.

[Kwate]

A good revision to old spells (a 90-180sec Feather Barrier, for example) would breath new life into BLU, besides Head Butt and Magic Fruit, all spells I set are post 75 (blank gaze situational). Most mages still use their low level spells, via enfeebles (dia, gravity, bio), curing ailments, enhancements etc.

I love BLU, but sux we're so top heavy. Post 75 BLU has done a good job in specializing our role, maybe a tweak will come post 99.

[LilithAngel]

I've always liked the idea of opening up full access to the spells known for a BLU, but only allow the stat changes and job traits of spells set, as a high level (lv. 99 perhaps, "Group 3" Merit) ability. That idea has a viable implementation, and from what I saw in this very thread, I'm not the only one who thought of this (the immediate response apparently didn't read the post, as they ignored the fact that the original person that put forth the idea even mentioned the exact same thing I just said).

A 10-20 minute JA that gives you access to one spell you haven't set, honestly, isn't that much of an attractive idea. If it's a spell you found out you actually need, then it'd be set. If it's a spell that's only situational (to the point it's not viable to set it), but still needed enough to warrant said 10-20 minute JA, then you're going to need it more than once every 10-20 minutes, but not enough to justify dropping another, more important spell, to put it in your spell list. Even moreso if you're already in battle, that cooldown isn't something that's gonna be conducive to you continuing to live. I'd say, if such a JA were to exist, 1-3 minutes, 5 minutes at the most, would be the recast, nothing more, or you're just wasting people's time.

Yes, you have full access to all spells, but not the stat adjustments or Job Traits unless you actually set spells for them specifically. You'd still have to gear for each spell like always, for those of you naysayers that will immediately cry "GAME BALANCE" like it has any meaning by this point, and BLU magic has never been anything so overpowering that it put other jobs out of, well, a job. I still don't see whole Linkshells dedicated to just BLUs because its magic is broken or anything. Opening up the full spell list won't change that, just gives BLU more options to handle situations, and doesn't take away from any other job.

As far as Azure Lore is concerned, yes, I agree, it's a pretty lackluster JA that you actually have to plan for, as you only really get any real use out of it via Chain Affinity. Perhaps give it the same JA reset that Spirit Surge does for Jumps, or change AL to give ALL Blue Magic cast under it the full CA/BA bonuses and effects while it's up. Or, better yet, do something that hasn't been implemented yet in this game:

Azure Lore: While in effect, MAXIMIZES the variable, numeric effects of Blue Magic (damage, duration, accuracy, TP effects, etc.), based on the calculations via your stats and gear, that is possible for each cast.

For example, say, with your gear and atmas and stats (ALL IMAGINARY NUMBERS, MIND YOU), Q. Continuum could do upwards of about, say, 5000 damage max, but your actual range is somewhere in the 3000-3500 range, with some spikes near to 4-5k. Under this new Azure Lore, every cast you make of QC under the duration is guaranteed that 5000 max your gear and the current calculations say you're capable of. The same duration of the current Azure Lore now becomes the "oh-shit!" button BLU needs it to be, and gives BLU something semi-unique to bring to the table: guaranteed maximized damage output, utilizing the full extent of each spell. That sets it apart from Black Mage's 0 mp cost, Red Mage's vastly reduced cast/recast times, and Scholar's free use of Strategems combined with increased access to opposing school magics (contrary to what some here might believe, Tabula Rasa *isn't* only about giving Scholar access to both White and Black Magic at the same time).

[Kwate]

A 10-20 minute JA that gives you access to one spell you haven't set, honestly, isn't that much of an attractive idea.

Of course its a great idea and personally save me BLU points...

I currently set Blank Gaze and Dreamflower, and rarely get any use at all, but feel its vital to have set to an extent since I do EVERYTHING on BLU. That's 5 points I could free up for something else.

[LilithAngel]

In comparison to the idea I gave further into the paragraph you pulled that quote from? No, it isn't.

[Kwate]

Everything else you said in that paragraph has been said numerous times, nothing original about it.

[Zeargi]

SCH's get Enlightenment which grants them access to 1 spell from whichever art they aren't currently using. If we do get a JA that accesses all spells you can expect it to be like this, it's more or less going to boil down is situational need.

The other thing I'd like to see, a reduction to certain spells MP cost. I'd love to use a lot of the BLUs spells but even with Refresh, Auto-Refresh, and Gear Refresh, it's not cost effective to do so. Most BLUs use the same spells just for the simple fact they work, and they're easy on the MP. But honestly.... Who sets 1000 Needles, Bad Breath, Self-Destruct, or Hecatomb Wave and actually uses them outside of Abyssea? We're not BLMs by any means, but we have the chance of producing similar numbers over a smaller time frame, and yes some of the spells cost just as much as those do for us, but they also have access to Clear Mind V and Conserve MP all the time. If we want Clear Mind we've got to set those trait spells while resting, reseting our cast timer which sucks if we need to stand back up in a hurry, but now we've got to switch spells again and cause for an even longer delay.

[Genralzod]

In all other FF titles that we've seen a BLU style character the absolute #1 spell was Bad Breath. I was so excited when I heard FF11 was getting BLU, as I wanted to get BB asap. in FF10 I used Kimahri's Bad Breath at the start of every boss battle & it was the best shotgun way to exploit a Boss' weakness.
Then I was sadly visited by the most useless spell in the BLU aresenal, way too much MP, way too long cast, waay too many points, and waaay too low effect.
the other useless aspect of BLU (I know its been stated) Azure Lore
so My suggestion is this: get rid of Azure lore, & make Bad Breath the BLU 2 Hour.
Making it an Earth Breath shotgun of Every Enfeeble that BLU has learned thus far.
[level 1 BLU with no spells, it will only be Earth Breath]
For instance at lower levels it will only cause Earth Breath dmg w/ Slow, Poison, VIT Down etc (providing you've learned Sprout Smack, Queesyshroom & Wild Oats)
At BLU90 it will do much much more (also choosing the strongest of redundant debuffs in your spell list example: Disseverment's poison taking top position over poison breath). & like other FF game mechanics, each debuff is still subject to normal accuracies & resists. so only the appropriate debuffs will land on the NM/Boss.
Thus making the BLU 2 hour the best opener for any boss battle returning Bad Breath to its former glory & out of the dumpster.

[Sharnak]

I think the one best thing that can happen to blu is let's Magic Setting just for Trial and stat, while let's blu can access all magic.
Why we need this, since Abys up it's happen that we need to set 3 days element spell for active weakend and in someday it's end upyou not have enough point to set any "Real Use spell" end up you just can stand there try active weakend,
then waste 1 more min to set some useful magic, then again when going to redo nm more need reset magic again, if day change then again all 1 min 1 min of blank =w=.
And this ways of blu make many of magic that we just learn to keep only.
Since some spell is very rare to use or almost no useful "But" when it time come it's become useful but you need reset and 1 min to use it it's nonsense.

I really not see point to limited magic that blu can use each time. blu magic is not that much special than other magic,
it's still more mp to deal more damage, it's got long cast one for some very not worth cast Like bad breath is very nice sample it's drain massive mp for just little dmg with multi debuff that will start to off in 30 sec after cast. or 1000 needle that deal 1000 dmg on quite high mp with super low acc.
Any blu will equip this 2 for real use? or Voracious Trunk 10 sec of casting omg, i nv can real drain any in real fight since when mob buff then dispel or magic final will take it off in 3 sec after.
It's all just "Show off" magic. so it's rottend in magic list, til Abys force us to equip some of them.

pls make blu just can access all magic. let's point just for trial and stat. so blu can enjoy use some rare situation magic to make magic that we hard time learn it useful. =)

[Zeargi]

I think the one best thing that can happen to blu is let's Magic Setting just for Trial and stat, while let's blu can access all magic.
Why we need this, since Abys up it's happen that we need to set 3 days element spell for active weakend and in someday it's end upyou not have enough point to set any "Real Use spell" end up you just can stand there try active weakend,
then waste 1 more min to set some useful magic, then again when going to redo nm more need reset magic again, if day change then again all 1 min 1 min of blank =w=.
And this ways of blu make many of magic that we just learn to keep only.
Since some spell is very rare to use or almost no useful "But" when it time come it's become useful but you need reset and 1 min to use it it's nonsense.

I really not see point to limited magic that blu can use each time. blu magic is not that much special than other magic,
it's still more mp to deal more damage, it's got long cast one for some very not worth cast Like bad breath is very nice sample it's drain massive mp for just little dmg with multi debuff that will start to off in 30 sec after cast. or 1000 needle that deal 1000 dmg on quite high mp with super low acc.
Any blu will equip this 2 for real use? or Voracious Trunk 10 sec of casting omg, i nv can real drain any in real fight since when mob buff then dispel or magic final will take it off in 3 sec after.
It's all just "Show off" magic. so it's rottend in magic list, til Abys force us to equip some of them.

pls make blu just can access all magic. let's point just for trial and stat. so blu can enjoy use some rare situation magic to make magic that we hard time learn it useful. =)

I going out on a limb and say English isn't your first language. o.o;
Are you talking about Job Traits and Status Boosts?

If that's the case, then it could actually be a good idea in the sense I'm following what you're saying correctly. Have all spells usable, but keep the point system the same and choose spells as a "Focus" to continue to create job traits and acquire the status effects we want.

[Sharnak]

I going out on a limb and say English isn't your first language. o.o;
Are you talking about Job Traits and Status Boosts?

If that's the case, then it could actually be a good idea in the sense I'm following what you're saying correctly. Have all spells usable, but keep the point system the same and choose spells as a "Focus" to continue to create job traits and acquire the status effects we want.

Sorry for any bad english. yes it's not my first lanauge. and yes that what i mean ^^. I really hop to see it happen

[Panthera]

Waiting for Big/Mighty Guard and Matra Magic...maybe a level ?? spell or two...also some better accuracy on 1000 Needles would be quite divine

Might Guard is another classic spell that makes Final Fantasy what it is. I would love to see it!

Also, White Wind is another one. There's a Puk in Besieged that uses it. Maybe Puks in future expansions can use it, so Blue Mages can learn it! As a Blue Mage, I can an effort to help keep my party alive, and Healing Breeze has a hard time keeping up with the huge HP pools that people have in Abyssea.

[Ezekieal]

all i can say is TP Drainkiss!!!

[Rambus]

Both of these ideas are pretty interesting, although from a dat perspective the first might be hard, unless its borrowed from the Colibri's ability to reflect spells. Then maybe, but the 2nd idea seems very much likely and would be pretty useful to render a mobs TP attacks useless for even just 2 minutes.



IMO I think AL should be changed aswell. But my idea would have to be this...

When you use AL(lasts 2 mins) when you use a spell you morph into what ever creature you learned it from and its acc/atk ect is boosted a bit.


Thisi s very much unlikely because the amount of dat overhaul that would need to be done for this, would be outrageous.
It would be funny though, finally a reason to use body slam.

give me spike flail so i can be fafnir like that one NPC in campain

[Daydreamer]

"Azure Lore" This is one 2hr i think most agree is in need of a change. Instead of trying to change "Azure Lore" Id say make it a 20 min JA and just come out with something totally different.

I wouldnt mind seeing something similar to what they did for summoner with odin and alex obviously without the pet.
call it whatever ill just use this name for example "Azure Ascension" Cue a 5 second Gathering Charge of Blue Electricty that releases from the blu straight forward MEGA BEAM lol. Depletes blue mage of all HP and MP down to 1, and resets spell timers as if you had changed spells. with that said let it really hurt Non elemental damage that ignores magic def much like a breath spell. Huge enmity gain but let it drop 3500 dmg. If that sounds like to much well ive done 9999 with odin plenty of times granted its at the start of the mob but empyeran ws's can drop 3k + dmg also. It would be a fun Oh darn button and hopefully a real flashy one.

[nobodyhere]

azure gives 300 tp chain affnity affect to multi hit spells it good if ya use it right
azure for magical spells is 100 percent max macc for spell
what more do ya want it a live saver emergency use it with chain affnity it ruins the 2 hour
chain affnity eflux savage blade goblin rush (azure) quad con hystric barrage and i bet youll like the 2 hour after that seeing 3k goblin rush 4k quad 2500 hystric barrage = 9500 damage for 30 seconds 2 hour that alot of damage and that with decent gear
since now i worry about eva my stats and spell change so for you super freaks with all dd you be doing more like 12-13k or more in damage

[Kwate]

azure gives 300 tp chain affnity affect to multi hit spells it good if ya use it right
azure for magical spells is 100 percent max macc for spell
what more do ya want it a live saver emergency use it with chain affnity it ruins the 2 hour
chain affnity eflux savage blade goblin rush (azure) quad con hystric barrage and i bet youll like the 2 hour after that seeing 3k goblin rush 4k quad 2500 hystric barrage = 9500 damage for 30 seconds 2 hour that alot of damage and that with decent gear
since now i worry about eva my stats and spell change so for you super freaks with all dd you be doing more like 12-13k or more in damage

Hmmm.... maybe I'll give Azure lore another shot, I still agree it needs to be changed with the now addition of Efflux.

[Vinceroth]

azure lore doesn't need to be changed. it's a perfectly good 2hr if you use it right.

azure gives 300 tp chain affnity affect to multi hit spells it good if ya use it right
azure for magical spells is 100 percent max macc for spell
what more do ya want it a live saver emergency use it with chain affnity it ruins the 2 hour
chain affnity eflux savage blade goblin rush (azure) quad con hystric barrage and i bet youll like the 2 hour after that seeing 3k goblin rush 4k quad 2500 hystric barrage = 9500 damage for 30 seconds 2 hour that alot of damage and that with decent gear
since now i worry about eva my stats and spell change so for you super freaks with all dd you be doing more like 12-13k or more in damage

like nobodyhere said, the dmg output when used properly is amazing.

[Rambus]

azure gives 300 tp chain affnity affect to multi hit spells it good if ya use it right
azure for magical spells is 100 percent max macc for spell


no it isn't.

for one there is no 100% acc in this game
bad breath is still crap with it.
myth busted.

[Xine]

Funny I've read through most of this thread and a few others and have seen people ask for new abilities that give access to or just flat out full access to Blue Mage's full list of acquired spells, fun as it my be it'd break the job/game to have everything active and being able to use it all. Instead of going that childish route how about just more Blue Magic set points or lowered costs for some of the spells?

Just being given more Blue Mage spells you could more easily utilize the maximum amount of set spells available for your current level, as everyone who has played Blue Mage knows you get access to set 5 more points worth of spells and 2 more slots of available spells to set every 10 levels, course they make the max of set spells from 71+ only 20, but even with maxed Assimilation merits and setting both defensive and offensive spells the 55 Blue Magic point set limit is filled quickly, 1-2 Sleep spells, 3-4 dmg spells, 3~ buff spells, and then 2-4 spells set only to make use of the traits (namely DW while not /nin or /dnc, and Auto-Refresh, DA for melee situations) doesn't feel enough to me, I've dealt with that limitation for the past few years and I'll continue dealing with it if its not changed; however I just think it would be nice to increase the limitations even if at all slightly, maybe a total of 30 spells max at 99, and about 60~70 Blue Magic set points for the current cap of 90. I'll even take them increasing the rate at which you get set points from 91-99, like 91-95 and 96-99 then the new lv99 merits would also be acceptable.

By reading comments of people here it seems a lot of people do low man situations a lot, esp since Abyssea NMs/mobs/partying can be done easily with less than 6 people who know what they are doing. However my point is, being the backup for sleeping/buffing/healing after being a major DD or for doing procs in Abyssea, it only seems more reasonable to increase the Blue Magic points and max set spells imho instead of just completely giving BLU full access to the entire list of what? 120ish spells they have now? Which with that huge list of spells comes a list of minor job traits amongst many other more major traits like Dual Wield, Double Attack, Auto-Refresh and MAB.

Blue Mage is meant to be an extremely versatile job like Scholar and Red Mage while still having small differences that make it unique from the other jobs, sure RDM and SCH get access to all sorts of Enhancing and Enfeebling magic, thats half of the way the jobs were created, but it just sucks too much to limit what BLU is truly capable of by limiting the spell list as much as they do. But I'm sure someone will come around and say "well any job can be versatile like that" true any job can be given the right gear sets and merits. The difference with BLU from SCH and RDM, is that its spells are taken from felled monsters instead of generic bought spell scrolls found on the Auction House or obtained from killing/farming Beastmen type monsters with the occasional non-beastmen class having a -few- scrolls.

tl;dr version: stop asking for full access to BLU spell list and give us more set points!

Older spells like White Wind and Mighty Guard would be nice to make the job what it used to be previous FF titles, however I don't see half of them being added because of other jobs not following their previous FF title history. An example being that Thief isn't a Thief, its a DD with daggers, high evasion and ability to manipulate hate in party; Steal/Despoil suck and Mug is pathetic as have been mentioned in its own thread. I look forward to seeing how SE will update each job in their own right of their class specific abilities while at the same time keeping everything balanced and not breaking one job over another as they have done so in the past (DRG and PA SAM vs Colibris at old merit camps.)

[Rambus]

tl;dr version: stop asking for full access to BLU spell list and give us more set points!

For me full access to spell list would be a 2 hr change, not something that we should have be a common ability.

are you saying that we should stop asking for more points? we badly need them. we got too meny spells at 75 to be sitting at the first proposed points given to us at 75. furthermore we should be able to get trait improvements, are we still stuck at clear mind IV? why just attack bonus I? MAB bonus I? and so forth.

was fine for level 75, but not fine for 90/99

[Kwate]

I would like to see SE revise the point count for pre 75 spells as our job was implimented with the assumption 75 was the cap and imo a misconception of how BLU's play BLU. Example Plasma Charge 5 points is just ridiculous, i don't need all access to all spells all the time. Not sure if we get anymore points other then next update, but as you read before, an ability that will allow you to cast a non-set spell would be nice and like i stated earlier in the thread, that would save a few points as well (for that crucial dispel or sleep spell you didn't set).

I would like to give SE props, post 75 spells are very catered to most BLU's play-style and lowered point counts on some crucial spells, example...Battery Charge 3 points vs. MP Drainkiss 4, Whirl of Rage 2 vs. Body Slam 4, and the list goes on.

[Xine]

For me full access to spell list would be a 2 hr change, not something that we should have be a common ability.

are you saying that we should stop asking for more points? we badly need them. we got too meny spells at 75 to be sitting at the first proposed points given to us at 75. furthermore we should be able to get trait improvements, are we still stuck at clear mind IV? why just attack bonus I? MAB bonus I? and so forth.

was fine for level 75, but not fine for 90/99

Pretty sure I said this multiple times, more Blue Magic set points because only 55 is NOT enough for the huge list of spells available for Blue Mage.

As far as actually being able to access all 120ish spells Blue Mage has would completely overpower the job, that I could see to be used as a 2hour but if anything maybe have its duration something resembling like SCH's Tabula Rasa where you can access all spells and have unlimited Stratagems charges (tbh it sounds like another copied 2hr.)

Giving BLU more access to higher tier traits would be nice, but would have to follow the traditional means of acquiring Blue Mage's traits by stacking more and more spells, so it would only be worth it to an certain extent UNLESS the amount of blue magic set points are increased which is sorely needed for BLU.

My second job to 90 after the cap increase was BLU, and I was disappointed to see all of these spells require 5 Blue Magic points to set after 10 entire levels of getting exp and 5~12ish new spells ALL requiring 1~5 points to set, a majority of them requiring 3~5 meaning for every 10 levels you can only set MAYBE 2 new spells. Its a joke really how limited they made Blue Mage when they wanted it to be a versatile job, its hard to be that versatile but only being able to use so few points to set the spells, so yea more points would be better. Lowering the cost of the earlier spells would help too but I would MUCH rather see a larger pool of Blue Mage points if they did only 1 update to BLU. But enough of reiterating what has already said time and time again and is actually agreed on by a good portion of Blue Mages.

[Rambus]

Pretty sure I said this multiple times, more Blue Magic set points because only 55 is NOT enough for the huge list of spells available for Blue Mage.

As far as actually being able to access all 120ish spells Blue Mage has would completely overpower the job, that I could see to be used as a 2hour but if anything maybe have its duration something resembling like SCH's Tabula Rasa where you can access all spells and have unlimited Stratagems charges (tbh it sounds like another copied 2hr.)

Giving BLU more access to higher tier traits would be nice, but would have to follow the traditional means of acquiring Blue Mage's traits by stacking more and more spells, so it would only be worth it to an certain extent UNLESS the amount of blue magic set points are increased which is sorely needed for BLU.

My second job to 90 after the cap increase was BLU, and I was disappointed to see all of these spells require 5 Blue Magic points to set after 10 entire levels of getting exp and 5~12ish new spells ALL requiring 1~5 points to set, a majority of them requiring 3~5 meaning for every 10 levels you can only set MAYBE 2 new spells. Its a joke really how limited they made Blue Mage when they wanted it to be a versatile job, its hard to be that versatile but only being able to use so few points to set the spells, so yea more points would be better. Lowering the cost of the earlier spells would help too but I would MUCH rather see a larger pool of Blue Mage points if they did only 1 update to BLU. But enough of reiterating what has already said time and time again and is actually agreed on by a good portion of Blue Mages.

Was skimming your post and quoting the tdlr version, I was saying i was confused because it seemed both should not happen.

getting acesss to all spells is OP on a 2 HR JA? how would you fix it then?


I would like to see SE revise the point count for pre 75 spells as our job was implimented with the assumption 75 was the cap and imo a misconception of how BLU's play BLU. Example Plasma Charge 5 points is just ridiculous, i don't need all access to all spells all the time. Not sure if we get anymore points other then next update, but as you read before, an ability that will allow you to cast a non-set spell would be nice and like i stated earlier in the thread, that would save a few points as well (for that crucial dispel or sleep spell you didn't set).

I would like to give SE props, post 75 spells are very catered to most BLU's play-style and lowered point counts on some crucial spells, example...Battery Charge 3 points vs. MP Drainkiss 4, Whirl of Rage 2 vs. Body Slam 4, and the list goes on.

I agree some cost way too much, 1000 needles... hysteric barrage...

can someone explain why people still use hysteric barrage?

[Randwolf]

Not looking for access to all spells. But, we definitely should have gotten 2 spell slots at 81 and should be getting 5 more set points as well as 2 more spell slots at 91.

In before we're told by S/E that it's a PS2 limitation.

[Xine]

Was skimming your post and quoting the tdlr version, I was saying i was confused because it seemed both should not happen.

More Blue Magic points would be great for access to more spells yes, access to all of them instead is too much, that would be like making Refresh II + Accession work for RDM/SCH, or even Haste + Accession, but to a much lesser scale. Keep being versatile but don't overpower it by giving access to everything at once, just a slight boost like +10~15 more points to set a few extra spells. As a 90BLU/45RDM and 5/5 Assimilation merits I have only 55 Blue Magic points to use for setting spells, however I only have maybe 13 spells set because half the spells set cost 4 or 5 points (QC: 4 points, Auto-Refresh: 9 points, Winds of Promy: 5 points, Disseverment: 5 points, etc.) my biggest issue with the job and its limitations.

Love the job cuz its fun and able to do so much and yes I do occasionally take on the role of 5 other people and occasionally have to sit down and rest and let my mule take over (its a BRD/WHM so it can only help so much and I keep Ballad 2/3 up as often as possible.) So for those BLUs great at their jobs who fill more than just 1 role for endgame more points would be a god send, but at the same time NOT going overboard with giving a HUGE boost to Blue Magic points that would essentially allow Blue Mage to access everything or a huge portion of its spells.


getting acesss to all spells is OP on a 2 HR JA? how would you fix it then?

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Tabula_Rasa

Scholar's 2hr ability, and whats being asked for as an "augment" or "change" to Azure Lore sounds exactly like this, its copying a 2hr thats already been made and issued for another job. Do I have any other ideas for AZ? Not at all, I've never used it anyway cuz I've never noticed a real difference using it.

Out of curiosity what level is your BLU and how often do you play it?

[Lilbitz]

I love BLU sooooo much, I'm BLU/63 atm and my problem is i have so much trouble getting magic and/or help getting it i might never see its full potential. So how about some kind of quests to get magic, i know it will never happin but just a thought.

[Bejiita]

Why not allow usage of all spells, but at insanely reduced effect/damage and no trait/stat bonus, and have only 20 or so spells operating at peak efficiency? Something like 1/4 or even less, just there to throw something out. *cough*procs*cough* Have only the "focused" spells in the available spell list, but still allow the others to be cast from either macros or the comprehensive spell list.

Or on a more simple note, reduce spell point costs.

[Chocobits]

The truth about Azure Lore is - It sucks. Ever seen a NM use it? It's like they're not quite sure what it does either, so they just spam spells that seem to do 20-25% more damage.

Change the current funky formula from doubling the secondary modifiers to a flat % increase of DMG and MACC.

Also, let it enhance the potency of non damage spells like BLU cures, stoneskins and blinks.

BLU's 2 Hour is comparable to the old DRG 2 Hour.. but DRG was fixed after 2 years.. BLU is approaching the ripe old age of 6 years now.

Also, I wrote in a thread on another forum about 4 years ago how BLU's 2 Hour, set point cost and set point distribution should be changed. I worked out the average cost of spells and the average number of spells available per level and showed how it was woefully inadequate. People told me I was crazy and that BLU would be overpowered if that happened.

Well, it didn't happen and we got overpowered anyway :) So we might as well have a decent 2 Hour and and a decent point distribution system.

Also, fix the spell setting lag (not referring to the cooldown, which should also be lowered). I've been saying for 5 years that setting spells is more like trying to check an overloaded Delivery Box in Lower Jeuno than grabbing items from your Mog Sack.

And finally, a full 60 seconds? Really? But zoning fixes it? Just make it a reasonable 20-30 secs. And fix that dang lag!

[Chocobits]

By the way, the average spell set cost is about 3~ (I haven't redone the average in quite some time).

So I proposed 3 set points every 5 lvls, starting at 10. The 5 points every x1 level really sucks.

And now that level capped battles have been pretty much phased out, it's not going to unbalance us to get our extra points at x5 and x0 levels, starting at 10.

If I've done my math right, we would only end up with 9 extra spell points at 95 (let's round that up by 1 to a nice neat number), but with a much more balanced distribution throughout leveling.

Here's the breakdown on spell points currently, and how I propose it be changed:

Level Set Points Spell Slots

01-10 10 Set Points 06 Spell Slots
11-20 15 Set Points 08 Spell Slots
21-30 20 Set Points 10 Spell Slots
31-40 25 Set Points 12 Spell Slots
41-50 30 Set Points 14 Spell Slots
51-60 35 Set Points 16 Spell Slots
61-70 40 Set Points 18 Spell Slots
71-80 45 Set Points 20 Spell Slots
81-90 50 Set Points 20 Spell Slots
91-99 55 Set Points ??? (Probably still 20 Spell Slots)

Here's my proposed changes:

01-09 11 Set Points 06 Spell Slots
10-14 14 Set Points 07 Spell Slots
15-19 17 Set Points 08 Spell Slots
20-24 20 Set Points 09 Spell Slots
25-29 23 Set Points 10 Spell Slots
30-34 26 Set Points 11 Spell Slots
35-39 29 Set Points 12 Spell Slots
40-44 32 Set Points 13 Spell Slots
45-49 35 Set Points 14 Spell Slots
50-54 38 Set Points 15 Spell Slots
55-59 41 Set Points 16 Spell Slots
60-64 44 Set Points 17 Spell Slots
65-69 47 Set Points 18 Spell Slots
70-74 50 Set Points 19 Spell Slots
75-79 53 Set Points 20 Spell Slots
80-84 56 Set Points 21 Spell Slots
85-89 59 Set Points 22 Spell Slots
90-94 62 Set Points 23 Spell Slots
95-99 65 Set Points 24 Spell Slots

You'll notice with this system:
We end up with a maximum of 10 more points at 95. Not really overpowering.
Spells are distributed better throughout leveling, allowing more customization of stats/traits.

Pre-80, we have the exact same number of Spell Slots, but they're accessible 1 lvl earlier.
We continue to gain spell slots in increments of 1 after 80, to account for the extra points.

Slightly higher starting Spell Point Count, which increases our versatility for Dunes and Qufim level parties (if anyone still does those?).

Also, this will allow some people to reconfigure their merits. They may possibly want to change Assimilation to MACC or something.

Doesn't this just scream "reasonable"? I think so my friends. I think so..

*Edit*
And my final reasoning behind this change:

With the increase to level 80, we were able to pull far ahead of some DDs.
With the increase to level 85, we were able to hold our own against some DDs.
With the increase to level 90, things began shifting dangerously in the other direction.

At this rate, at level 99, we will be relegated to "Crap, it's Death Ray, who wants to go change to BLU?" *general murmur of discontent* One unlucky person says "I guess I'll do it.." The leader says "Nah it's ok. We'll just kill it quick and move on." Unlucky guy says "WEWT! Thanks! I almost had to come lolBLU!" *entire LS chuckles*

We need every edge we can get to stay afloat at 99. Being able to keep offensive stats/traits in while still having room for proc spells is vital!

[Raitaro]

can someone explain why people still use hysteric barrage?

undead<blunt damage

[Randwolf]

I'm somewhat suspicious that S/E may have screwed up with the spell slots. Especially considering there was no increase at 81. Wondering if based on the PS2 limitations, the slots were calculated to match the max slots the PS2 could handle at 71.

[Chocobits]

I'm somewhat suspicious that S/E may have screwed up with the spell slots. Especially considering there was no increase at 81. Wondering if based on the PS2 limitations, the slots were calculated to match the max slots the PS2 could handle at 71.
I hope it isn't, but I'm somehow growing fearful that this is the case: SE introduced the level cap increase for no reason, but due to PS2 limitations, they couldn't implement it in any meaningful less than half-assed way while maintaining game balance.

When they realized their error, they added terrific new gear as eye candy and hoped the crisis would be averted for another year or so.

I'm kind of sick of Abyssea, and if it's taking that much of a toll on the PS2, undo Abyssea, roll back levels, refund our expansion money, put real content back into the game for the level cap the game was designed for. :) (But let us keep the Magian stuff!)

[Rambus]

undead<blunt damage

we have enough blunt damage as is..

we lost a high end spell for slashing though

the top is still VC i think?


I'm somewhat suspicious that S/E may have screwed up with the spell slots. Especially considering there was no increase at 81. Wondering if based on the PS2 limitations, the slots were calculated to match the max slots the PS2 could handle at 71.

yeah just seems SE should of let 75+ be without ps2 or get rid of it.

really shocked when se said they would raise the cap.

I was shcoked because all I hear was ps2 limitation this ps2 limitation that.

[Chocobits]

Hopefully this is all a scheme by SE to keep adding spells and level ups until all the PS2s in the world overheat and melt.
Then they'll overhaul the game.

[Kwate]

Have a hard time believing its PS2 limitations when every other mage job can use ALL their spells, I'm sure an extra slot or 2 won't make or break those glass machines.

[Raitaro]

we have enough blunt damage as is..

we lost a high end spell for slashing though

the top is still VC i think?


Vertical Cleave? It worked well with CA -> Exipacion -> VC for Dark SC back at 75
tho, if your not fighting the mob 1 on 1, blu/thf with SA and TA would probably still cause stupid damage.
CA efflux exipacion SA (possibly TA) VC SC dark
plus... some boosts. SC bonus trait, etc

[Randwolf]

Have a hard time believing its PS2 limitations when every other mage job can use ALL their spells, I'm sure an extra slot or 2 won't make or break those glass machines.

Actually, I'm wondering if the problem is that BLU can't use all of their spells. It may load them differently than a job that gets access to all of their spells. Since I don't know how it is coded, and we have to actually 'load them,' it may move them to a separate area of the memory. Just wondering if the lack of the 2 new slots at 81, although we were given the extra 5 set points, wasn't an oversight but couldn't be done.

[Kwate]

guess we'll see with the next update. While I do think SE has treated us well post 75, points and slots are becoming a major issue here. I really hope SE surprises us with something. 15 levels....5 points....ouch!

[Randwolf]

guess we'll see with the next update. While I do think SE has treated us well post 75, points and slots are becoming a major issue here. I really hope SE surprises us with something. 15 levels....5 points....ouch!

Abyssea proc's rape my spells, set points, and traits, if I load them prior to the fight. I always have to ask my party "Do you want me to load proc spells before we get an elemental hint? I will be able to quickly try the spells. But, i will be worthless if we get aggro from other mobs. Or, do you want me to wait for the elemental hint, load only those spells, and be without magic for 1 minute?"

[Kwate]

Abyssea proc's rape my spells, set points, and traits, if I load them prior to the fight. I always have to ask my party "Do you want me to load proc spells before we get an elemental hint? I will be able to quickly try the spells. But, i will be worthless if we get aggro from other mobs. Or, do you want me to wait for the elemental hint, load only those spells, and be without magic for 1 minute?"

yeah i know what you mean, i have ninjutsu spells since /nin can proc those as well, so i cast those and it drops me a hint then i change accordingly.

[Randwolf]

yeah i know what you mean, i have ninjutsu spells since /nin can proc those as well, so i cast those and it drops me a hint then i change accordingly.
I do the same if I'm the only one who can cast nin spells. But, any spell will give you a hint. It's luck. I often hit the mob with Delta Thrust to attempt to inflict Plague to try to reduce TP moves as soon as it gets to camp. If it has a lot of hit points, I follow up with an immediate Benthic Typhoon. I often get a hint off of one of those 2 spells.

[Chocobits]

No comments whatsoever on my point distribution post on page 6?

[Kwate]

No comments whatsoever on my point distribution post on page 6?

More points are always good a thing, however I think a point revision of pre-75 spells are in order (which might revise Headbutt, magic Fruit, disseverment, etc.). A trait set would save most BLU's 5-10 points off the top (ex. Double Attack, which I never use either of those spells), with the added perk of having those nice traits without being penalized, like counter, fast cast, conserve mp, etc.

[Chocobits]

More points are always good a thing, however I think a point revision of pre-75 spells are in order (which might revise Headbutt, magic Fruit, disseverment, etc.). A trait set would save most BLU's 5-10 points off the top (ex. Double Attack, which I never use either of those spells), with the added perk of having those nice traits without being penalized, like counter, fast cast, conserve mp, etc.

Under this system, at levels 10-29, the numbers fluctuate from slightly more points at some level ranges and slightly less at some (but with only 5 levels in between point additions instead of 10). Beginning at exactly lvl 30, we would consistently have more set points.

As far as the spell point value of spells, I say just change all 5 point cost spells to 4 points. 5 points represents 10 full levels under the current system, and most of the spells that cost 5 points are completely underwhelming and don't warrant squandering 10 levels worth of points.

If you go about making major revisions to the spell point values, you would need to greatly increase the number of spell slots to accommodate the changes, which would greatly unbalance BLU pre 75. My method doesn't offer more than a minimal impact on pre 75 gameplay, but offers great benefit in the 90s. It spreads out the distribution in such a way that the game balance is preserved.

[ThaiChi]

can someone explain why people still use hysteric barrage?

we have enough blunt damage as is..

we lost a high end spell for slashing though

the top is still VC i think?





Goblin Rush is Blunt.
Vanity Dive is Slashing and does decent damage, no notable skillchains to make though.

[Kwate]

Delta Thrust is seems to be the most consistent in terms of slashing damage compared to VC and VD, but I guess a 3-hit attack would be.

[Trangnai]

I figure this is as good of a place as any to suggest ways to improve on the job Blue Mage.

Idea 1 Azure Lore Improvement
The Blue Mage two-hour ability Azure Lore is probably the most unused ability of its kind. With a 30 second duration and minor impact on most spells, it is really a wasted ability. My idea's to improve it are
(1) After using Azure Lore your spells are instantly available without the 60-second cool-down period.
(2) Under Azure Lore all Blue Magic spells are available for that 30-second window

Idea 2 Job Trait Combos
Allow certain spells to affect multiple Job Traits. So instead of needing 4 spells for 2 job traits, a certain spell can help give both and leading to only needing 3 spells for the 2 traits.

Idea 3 Sneak and Invisible
This would involve creating a creature that disappears for a few seconds and reappears to attack or something along those lines, kind of like the Bloodeye Vileberry. It would be a nice thing to have for obvious reasons.

Idea 4 Widescan
While it's not an actual job trait, it would be nice if some sort of combo of spells unlocked this ability.

Idea 5 Magian Clubs
This isn't so much an idea as a suggested change. Currently the only job on all of the magian club trials is WHM. Blu can use the Perdu Wand which was a nice option for a club weapon back at level 75 but as things scale to 99 the weapon selection is mostly magian. Now, I understand that Blu and Cor cannot use the all-powerful magian staves as they have no skill in the area, however, the club has been the only other weapon Blu has been able to use and it has higher than average skill at it so it would be nice to have the option of making magian weapons for it of that type.



Feel free to add/discuss more ideas.

Azure Lore is perfectly capable 2hr we really don't need to redefine the entire ability in order to make it worthwhile. Its perfectly capable of doing damage well, its just A) the damage isn't that noticeable except for the first big bang so long as you have CA up. and B) its too short. even fixing one of these two issues would be a great improvement. The biggest issue is its too situational. Most 2hrs are designed to help you in a pinch. to get the most out of AL you need at least 100% TP, Chain Affinity, Efflux and a Boat Load of MP available and be able to Unload most of it into dmg within 30 seconds. Something which really isnt a pinch, and when your in one won't really change the tide.

Job Trait Combos I can go ether way, combinations of spells would be nice for our setups but its not as much a necessity, one thing i feel needs to change is our job traits need to be stackable. getting only one tier of everything but clear mind is moot as it is. plus if they think its broken keep in mind that blus would only really set the best spells to fit there role. we wouldn't place weak spells just to enhance job traits, unless of course the role called for it. which is highly unlikely.

Clubs are one of the things I feel are a definite need for blu, blu is one of the strongest club DDs in the game but has no clubs to utilize it. I honestly don't know what SE was thinking when they only gave us access to "spoons" anyway. giving us more weapon options then sword at high levels (heck even at low ones) wouldn't hurt.

[Kyokaku]

Call me a fangirl, but i had an idea for Blue Mage's 2hr.

I liked what they did with astral flow, giving summoner access to things they couldn't do before.
So i think the 2hr should be split into 2 different abilities, and please forgive the rediculous names;

Azure Dreams
Azure Hope

Dreams changes the player into a soulflayer, giving all magical based spells 200% damage increase and Macc Mcrit and MP bonuses to help the player cast. Also, in soulflayer mode, Mighty Guard, White Wind, Thunderbolt And Maybe other Nuking type spells we normally dont have access too can be added.

Azure Hope turns the player into a gnole, making all physical spells do 200% damage increase, with Acc Crit hit Rate, and HP bonuses added. Spells that could be added are Spike Flail, Tortoise Stomp, etc

Of course both would share a timer, 2 hours, and they would each last 1 minute.

I want Mighty Guard and White Wind to be avilable without a gimeck though... its so nostalgic for Blue mages... but they gave it to NMs, and NMs only.

Sorry if this is a stupid idea, just kinda talking out of my dream world :p

[Randwolf]

Call me a fangirl, but i had an idea for Blue Mage's 2hr.

I liked what they did with astral flow, giving summoner access to things they couldn't do before.
So i think the 2hr should be split into 2 different abilities, and please forgive the rediculous names;

Azure Dreams
Azure Hope

Dreams changes the player into a soulflayer, giving all magical based spells 200% damage increase and Macc Mcrit and MP bonuses to help the player cast. Also, in soulflayer mode, Mighty Guard, White Wind, Thunderbolt And Maybe other Nuking type spells we normally dont have access too can be added.

Azure Hope turns the player into a gnole, making all physical spells do 200% damage increase, with Acc Crit hit Rate, and HP bonuses added. Spells that could be added are Spike Flail, Tortoise Stomp, etc

Of course both would share a timer, 2 hours, and they would each last 1 minute.

I want Mighty Guard and White Wind to be avilable without a gimeck though... its so nostalgic for Blue mages... but they gave it to NMs, and NMs only.

Sorry if this is a stupid idea, just kinda talking out of my dream world :p
I posted up an idea similar to Azure Dream. It was more powerful but had 2 catches, you no longer control your character and after the mobs are killed, if you're still alive and in this state, you turn on your party. It's somewhat based on our storyline where we go insane if we become too aligned to the monsters we hunt.

[Kyokaku]

Wow thats actually really cool,

remembering the AF cutscenes and yeah, that would be fun :p

[Randwolf]

Wow thats actually really cool,

remembering the AF cutscenes and yeah, that would be fun :p

It would give us the most unique ability in the game.

[Fyreus]

I would seriously dislike scrolling through all those spells to find one that stuns, heals, or can CC an enemy. This is the appeal of blu spells:

Nice clean selection you can choose from in a pinch.

[Fyreus]

How about we change Azure Lore to allow phy spells to open or close SC vs each other and MB anything (provided it doesn't have an amazingly sucky cast)? It sounds like sam but think of the possibility of bursting too in there. Each spell has a recast to deal with so multiple SC with whatever we have equiped would be pretty sweet imo... There really isn't much room here to work with unless CA stays active for the duration of AL once AL is activated. Maybe we can use the mobs moves against themselves by setting 'Mob attack' and 'Mob defend' spells that are only active during our 2 hour.

[Fyreus]

It was rather genius tbh. Most people won't always grasp it so it's understandable to post this question. The problem here is that SE may want you to feel like you can't use the spells you'd like to and would somewhat force some sorta claustrophobia onto the user when setting spells. If i had an extra 10 slots i'd set in uppercut, stinking gas, MP drainkiss, or possibly an attack boost in place of uppercut unless i'm going for stat stacking on something. As far as ps2 limitations on spells... maybe i misread what was said about load time etc but they should remove the load time nerf.

When blu was released we could swap spells without any issues but suddenly SE paniced and nerfed the timer without real cause. Swaping in things mid battle takes away from our response time which means there's an up and down to it (you guys like this, no?) and there's nothing broken about it. Also, they didn't throw us any eye candy if you accidentally referred to AF3 body/hands/feet/head model. Part of it is clean and the other part is pretty dirty.

[Tennotsukai]

I wonder if blu was to have 2 JAs like NIN has, Yonin and Innin, but for physical and magical blu spells. Raising the dmg for physical spells and lowering dmg for magical and the other way around. Who cares about accuracy...maybe change up the recasts but that might mess things up with our debuffs if on the physical. Idk...just something I thought would be interesting to happen.

[Octaviane]

I am fairly new to BLU, but, I do have a suggestion and a question.

Suggestion to SE: Could you please allow BLU's to select and store different macro sets for spells, the selection might not always be perfect but would help somewhat with the cooldown to change spell sets, especially in mid-battle.

Question: I was trying to learn Tail Slap from Lamian Fatedealers last night, BLU magic capped, level 70 BLU. With Hysteric Barrage, the sword has to be knocked out of the mob's hand with crits before she will use the spell. I checked the "How to Obtain" section for Tail Slap and there are no edits. I attempted to learn the spell with sword removed and equipped, never learned it in 2 hours, which is not a huge problem. However, can someone tell me if the sword has to be equipped or unequipped to learn this spell please?

In conclusion, I would like to see more points slots for BLU. It takes 5 spells to create the auto -refresh job trait at a cost of I think 13 or 14 points to get the 8 set points required for it to be activated. At the moment, I will wait until I can use my Mirage Jubbah.

[Prothscar]

We need a buff to the way that our spells scale based on monster level. A Blue Magic Attack bonus for certain spells on higher level monsters is in order.

[Cdryik]

I think we got to much modifier depending on spell, something nice could be a new merit set, that let you change the modifier of certains spells, by exemple, a spell based CHR will be if merited a spell based INT, so if the mod for a spell is let's say: STR: 20% CHR: 60% instead it will be: STR: 20% INT: 60%

And there could be some merit like:

Swap AGI for DEX
Swap VIT for STR
Swap CHR for INT
Swap MND for INT

And so our primary modifier could mostly be INT / STR / DEX, that will let us have more free inventory space and more power to the spells with gear that have terribly low stats .

[Vegeta]

Another spell suggestion:

Some sort of movement speed spell for Blu along the lines of smn/dnc/brd.

[Zagen]

I would seriously dislike scrolling through all those spells to find one that stuns, heals, or can CC an enemy. This is the appeal of blu spells:

Nice clean selection you can choose from in a pinch.
Macros say hello >.>

[Tummie]

Blue Job Ability Idea, based on stances

Cognizance
Level 50
Duration: 5 minutes
Recast: 30 seconds
Description: Reduces casting and recast time of Blue Magical Spells while adding magic accuracy. Physical spells receive a penalty while under the effect of Cognizance.

What it does: Grants the user +5 INT/MND/CHR and -10 STR/DEX/VIT/AGI (Stat bonus/penalty increases in level increments)
Blue Magical Spell cast/recast time -10% Blue Magic Accuracy +20
Blue Physical Spell cast/recast time +20% Blue Physical Accuracy -20


Intensity
Level 50
Duration: 5 minutes
Recast: 30 seconds
Description: Reduces casting and recast time of Blue Physical Spells while adding accuracy. Magical spells receive a penalty while under the effect of Intensity.

What it does: Grants the user +5 STR/DEX/VIT/AGI and -10 INT/MDN/CHR (Stat bonus/penalty increases in level increments)
Blue Physical Spell cast/recast time -10% Blue Physical Accuracy +20
Blue Magical Spell cast/recast time +20% Blue Magical Accuracy -20

[Kwate]

Not a bad idea, too scholarish, since we have a damage JA (Eff CA), I would like a enhancement JA as we have a ton of enhancements, like haste, refresh, occultation, cocoon and the list goes on.

[Habiki]

Blue Job Ability Idea, based on stances

Cognizance
Level 50
Duration: 5 minutes
Recast: 30 seconds
Description: Reduces casting and recast time of Blue Magical Spells while adding magic accuracy. Physical spells receive a penalty while under the effect of Cognizance.

What it does: Grants the user +5 INT/MND/CHR and -10 STR/DEX/VIT/AGI (Stat bonus/penalty increases in level increments)
Blue Magical Spell cast/recast time -10% Blue Magic Accuracy +20
Blue Physical Spell cast/recast time +20% Blue Physical Accuracy -20


Intensity
Level 50
Duration: 5 minutes
Recast: 30 seconds
Description: Reduces casting and recast time of Blue Physical Spells while adding accuracy. Magical spells receive a penalty while under the effect of Intensity.

What it does: Grants the user +5 STR/DEX/VIT/AGI and -10 INT/MDN/CHR (Stat bonus/penalty increases in level increments)
Blue Physical Spell cast/recast time -10% Blue Physical Accuracy +20
Blue Magical Spell cast/recast time +20% Blue Magical Accuracy -20

Being that our magical spells and physical spells have a wide assortment of modifiers this would kill the effectiveness and damage outsput of some spells.
Heres a list of some of the spells it would negativly effect, I put some of the more common ones Blue mages set in bold.
Head Butt, Mandibular Bite, Screwdriver, Ram Charge, Whirl of Rage, Frypan, Terror Touch, Sub-zero Smash, Charged Whisker, and Thermal Pulse

[Scuro]

Blue Job Ability Idea, based on stances

Cognizance
Level 50
Duration: 5 minutes
Recast: 30 seconds
Description: Reduces casting and recast time of Blue Magical Spells while adding magic accuracy. Physical spells receive a penalty while under the effect of Cognizance.

What it does: Grants the user +5 INT/MND/CHR and -10 STR/DEX/VIT/AGI (Stat bonus/penalty increases in level increments)
Blue Magical Spell cast/recast time -10% Blue Magic Accuracy +20
Blue Physical Spell cast/recast time +20% Blue Physical Accuracy -20


Intensity
Level 50
Duration: 5 minutes
Recast: 30 seconds
Description: Reduces casting and recast time of Blue Physical Spells while adding accuracy. Magical spells receive a penalty while under the effect of Intensity.

What it does: Grants the user +5 STR/DEX/VIT/AGI and -10 INT/MDN/CHR (Stat bonus/penalty increases in level increments)
Blue Physical Spell cast/recast time -10% Blue Physical Accuracy +20
Blue Magical Spell cast/recast time +20% Blue Magical Accuracy -20

Idk about anybody else, but I find these to be a complete and utter waste of time, imo. For starters, this is 2011, and we are in the age of Abyssea.... Nobody cares about Magical accuracy.... As much as SE loves giving us garbage items (Mavi earring) to increase our Magic Accuracy.... nobody cares about it. I can tell you right now any one in their right mind would rather wear a moldavite then a mavi earring, or hell even a hecates. While this seems swell, if your dying for magic accuracy that much.... Merit into Convergence, it helps with magic accuracy and use your burst affinity. Problem solved.

Also reduce Casting time and Recast time? Really? Have you played BLU? Any BLU knows that our casting time is mostly if not always .5 seconds.... how much more faster do you want it to be? .1 second? And recast? Ok... I guess you could shorten it, but why? So you can pull even more hate then we already do and get yourself killed.... Go right on ahead. But I can say right now, if you want a faster recast, then go get your Mavi +1/+2 Bazubands. They reduce Blue magic recast times. While I admire that some thought is being put in for some new JAs. I would personally be disappointed that out of all the great suggestions in this forum, that these would be chosen.

[Kwate]

Scuro you have to keep in mind JP play BLU a whole different way. Its all about magic accuracy with them, hence all those MACC sticks you see them with :(

[Kasandaro]

For starters, this is 2011, and we are in the age of Abyssea.... Nobody cares about Magical accuracy....

Um. Done Voidwatch yet?


Also reduce Casting time and Recast time? Really? Have you played BLU? Any BLU knows that our casting time is mostly if not always .5 seconds....

Charged whisker, probably our best AoE nuke, has a cast time of 5 seconds - a full order of magnitude above what you listed. Thermal Pulse is 6 seconds.

Now, this is nothing compared to BLM's 10+ second casts (though they've their own ways to pull that down). I could care less about cast times that low. But both spells have 1 minute or longer recasts. Those, I wouldn't mind seeing decreased at all.

[Fyreus]

Scuro you have to keep in mind JP play BLU a whole different way. Its all about magic accuracy with them, hence all those MACC sticks you see them with :(


418 skill (missing af2 head and those blu skill hands) and the ability to get atleast ~+25 m.acc in other slots is enough tbh. Getting 175 in m.acc ontop of 12 from merits and such... lol... its hard to really resist with 418 and 15m.acc so i'm going to look into this.

[Aedair]

To me, the most intriguing part of this conversation is the discussion of what to do with Azure Lore. I like a number of the suggestions, but I have a modification to one of the most reasonable I've seen.


Azure Lore -- Duration: 30 seconds. Recast: 2 hours.
Consumes all TP currently possessed and stores as TP modifier for the duration of Azure Lore (minimum modifier of 100TP). TP Gain is negated for the duration of Azure Lore.

All Physical Blue Magic spells cast under the effect of Azure Lore are cast as if Chain Affinity were in effect. Skillchain damage halved. Recast of Physical Blue Magic spells doubled.

All Magical Blue Magic spells cast under the effect of Azure Lore are cast as if Burst Affinity and Magic Burst Bonus are in effect. Cast and Recast time of Magical Blue Magic spells are halved.

Reasoning: We all agree that Phys Blue Magic is mostly where it's at. This version of Azure Lore would allow us to make very effective use of our Physical spells for a short duration, with a bonus for having been frugal with TP before the Ability's use. Skillchain damage is halved so as to not make this ability too godly. (Consider a 300TP Benthic Typhoon > 300TP Quadratic Continuum > Darkness under Abyssea conditions...) Also, Physical recast doubled to force the user to make certain choices. (See below.)

Magical Blue Magic isn't very well liked by most, but this makes them a little more attractive. Faster casting, recasting, and higher damage output would make for some interesting possibilities. Also, cutting the casting time by half would make it far easier to land a few Magic Bursts during your all-blue-magic-self-skillchains. (Why would I want to do this? Again, see below...)

THE CHOICE:
Most 2-Hours in the game are used for one of two purposes: The "Oh, s#!t" button and the Zerg button. This 2hr has both options, depending on how you prep for it.

As an "Oh, s#!t" button, you're most likely going to be low on TP from trying to burn down the mob already. This rewards you with a reasonable boost in damage per spell, plus skillchain damage. Also, since your spell set will most likely be geared toward XP/soloing--i.e. a few damage spells and the rest support/stat-boosters--the benefit to popping the 2hr will be quite noticeable, but not "zomg overpowered!" As you spam your physical spells, you'll quickly find yourself out of options, due to the increased recast timer. This gives incentive to make use of the Magic Burst capacities granted.

As a Zerg button, a BLU could choose to set a wide array of Physical Blue Magic spells, sacrificing certain stat bonuses/job traits for quantity of spells and, thus, damage output. It would also behoove the Zerg blu to build to 300TP before using the 2hr, requiring a certain level of planning/restraint.

---

Is it perfect? No. Is it better than current Azure Lore? I believe so. It's unique to us in many ways, doesn't require much in the way of coding of new functions within the game, (ergo, easy to implement,) and fits with the existing lore of the Immortals; to eschew mortal combat methods (wiping TP and preventing its gain) for the pure use of their magic is to embrace the Beast Within.

Anyway... that's my two gil...

[Kwate]

418 skill (missing af2 head and those blu skill hands) and the ability to get atleast ~+25 m.acc in other slots is enough tbh. Getting 175 in m.acc ontop of 12 from merits and such... lol... its hard to really resist with 418 and 15m.acc so i'm going to look into this.

That your main gear setup? I understand you CAN set it that high, but do you actually play with what you described just now? Point is our way of playing BLU is not everyone's way, we consider BLU a DD, JP consider BLU more of a stunner and support role, not DD. Don't know how many times i see the MACC sticks with magic attack earrings and gear all out of whack on some of them, again their style.

[Scuro]

Idk about you, but I have no problem stunning with or with out MACC, its just pointless to add more of it. What is needed is magic attack, who cares about accuracy. And yes I have done Voidwatch, and that gives even more fuel to my statement of "F*Ck Magic Accuracy SE, gives us Magic Attack" Now that we don't have Ultimate to rely on, our damage is severely reduced with magic spells for BLU. Not to mention Magic Attack direcly effects Charged Whisker, unlike Dex and such. So again, Magic Attack is the better version. Getting a MACC staff is just over kill really and a blatent waste of time. How many times do you have stun actually miss (unless the mob is highly resistant)? I can tell you right now the reason they took off Blitztrahl on our proc'n spells is because the stun proc'd frequently. So again.... Why? Besides to wast everyone else's suggestions for better things, why would you blatently waste time for MACC?

Also, I personally think the timer on those spells are acceptable, and if anything are greatly reduced with the gear alone. You don't need more, or else you will pull more hate then the Tank can tank Anyway, and die. Death isn't exactly worth the couple seconds off your casting. Thank you.

[Prothscar]

Perhaps a job trait.

Azure Attunement
Grants an attack bonus to Blue Magic spells.
Lv. 30/45/60/75/90
I - +25
II - +50
III - +75
IV - +100
V - +125

Would begin to help with blue magic attack debt on higher level NMs and NMs with higher DEF. Since we don't have any reasonable sources of attack for our spells, +125 is hardly asking for much.