Broken/Useless BLU magic

Hi,

After seeing many threads that tangentially talk about this I thought it would be good to have a thread that systematically outlined which spells are broken and or useless, and suggestions about how the development team could make them worth using.

BLU is in a much better position than a lot of the unloved jobs club, but it is really annoying that so many of our spells are completely fail at this point. Worse, the developers seem to think that just adding more spells that mostly suck is some kind of solution.

If people could add their two bits, I will edit the top post to reflect suggestions. If anything I (or others) note about a spell is wrong, let me know so I can fix! I am working off my experience and wikis which may not be up to date.

Please give me suggestions for which spell fixes should be a priority, I will put them up here in the top post.

Sprout Smack

• Slow almost never procs on modern content
• Does essentially no damage (which would be okay if slow procced)

HOW TO FIX:

• Increase accuracy of BLU magic additional effects on ilevel content

Wild Oats

• VIT down almost never procs on modern content
• Does essentially no damage (would be okay if enfeeble procced)

HOW TO FIX:

• Increase accuracy of BLU magic additional effects on ilevel content

Metallic Body

• Caps much too low
• Doesn't benefit from Stoneskin enhancing gear

HOW TO FIX:

• Remove cap/raise cap to be same as normal stoneskin
• allow it it benefit from stoneskin enhancing gear

Head Butt

• Doesn't work on most ilevel content

HOW TO FIX:

• Increase accuracy of BLU magic additional effects on ilevel content

Feather Storm

• Poison doesn't proc on most ilevel content
• Damage is subpar (would be okay if additional effect worked)
• Rapid shot is a useless trait for BLU mage as we can't equip most ranged weapons

HOW TO FIX:

• Increase accuracy of BLU magic additional effects on ilevel content
• Replace Rapid Shot with a Magic Accuracy trait or something else that's useful

Bludgeon

• Does almost no damage at higher levels

HOW TO FIX:

• Better scale the power of physical BLU magic

Cursed Sphere

• Takes too long to cast
• Doesn't do enough damage
  

HOW TO FIX:

• Decrease casting time of magical BLU spells
• Increase power of magical BLU spells

Blood Drain

• Takes too long to cast
• Doesn't do enough damage
• Worst heal ever
  

HOW TO FIX:

• Decrease casting time of magical BLU spells
• Increase power of magical BLU spells

Claw Cyclone

• Takes too long to cast
• Doesn't do enough damage
• Damage scales very poorly
  

HOW TO FIX:

• Decrease casting time of physical BLU spells
• Increase power of physical BLU spells
• Improve damage of physical BLU spells

Reserve Post for future needs

:)

Love this thread!

IMO, the higher priority fixes should go to barbed crescent and tourbillion, since those would benefit us quite a bit as long as they are accurate enough.

I wouldn't mind seeing all of our spells receive some sort of buff since we don't use most of them. I know it sounds a bit weird to give some of these lesser leveled physical spells a buff, but I thought how black magic elemental spells received buffs so should blue magic spells of all kinds. This would also benefit the new patch coming soon to give blu's multiple tiers in many of our job traits. Some spells that need to be equipped for certain job traits are rather useless, but this idea of buffing low leveled spells to affect ilvl content may allow those spells to maybe see the light of day again.

I can't wait to see updates for this post.

In response to some of what Olor said:

Many of the requests are for low level spells not doing enough damage. Bear in mind how little MP cost they all have. Obviously the higher level spells that cost more are going to do more damage!

As for Head Butt not proccing on ilvl content, unless by ilvl content you mean just ilvl 119, I find it works on most mobs in colonisation reives and even WKR bosses as RUN/BLU.

1 thing I would also like to add is, is there a more up-to-date renkai chart somewhere that includes the SC properties of post-75 WS and BLU spells? It's such a pain clicking on every spell to see their properties when you're after something that will SC with a specific WS (most recently Requiescat... anyone know the best spell to combine with that now?)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Babekeke

In response to some of what Olor said:

Many of the requests are for low level spells not doing enough damage. Bear in mind how little MP cost they all have. Obviously the higher level spells that cost more are going to do more damage!

As for Head Butt not proccing on ilvl content, unless by ilvl content you mean just ilvl 119, I find it works on most mobs in colonisation reives and even WKR bosses as RUN/BLU.

1 thing I would also like to add is, is there a more up-to-date renkai chart somewhere that includes the SC properties of post-75 WS and BLU spells? It's such a pain clicking on every spell to see their properties when you're after something that will SC with a specific WS (most recently Requiescat... anyone know the best spell to combine with that now?)

---

I do Req -> Barbed Crescent for Dark but most of the time I just stick with CDC -> Amorphic Spikes for Light.

I rather SE just leave those lower level spells since it's pointless to set/use most of them and rather look at giving us better utility combo spells that gives us the Job Traits that most of us desired the most.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Babekeke

In response to some of what Olor said:

Many of the requests are for low level spells not doing enough damage. Bear in mind how little MP cost they all have. Obviously the higher level spells that cost more are going to do more damage!

As for Head Butt not proccing on ilvl content, unless by ilvl content you mean just ilvl 119, I find it works on most mobs in colonisation reives and even WKR bosses as RUN/BLU.

1 thing I would also like to add is, is there a more up-to-date renkai chart somewhere that includes the SC properties of post-75 WS and BLU spells? It's such a pain clicking on every spell to see their properties when you're after something that will SC with a specific WS (most recently Requiescat... anyone know the best spell to combine with that now?)

---

In terms of cost, how much does stone 1 cost? Yet BLMs etc can spam that for massive damage now. I think its not reasonable for most of our spells to be lucky to hit more than 100 damage. If BLM can use stone 1 at level 119 why shouldn't blu have a use for sprout smack? Foot kick scales when rabbits use it - why is ours stuck at negligible damage?

Anyway i was planning to go through each of them in order and suggest what needs to happen for them.

You'd save yourself a lot of posting space by simply saying "uncap D values for all Blu spells." Nearly every spell below what, lvl 80-85ish is capped? idk, no Blu expect, but know that the damage values cap quite early.

yeah I was thinking that as I went through, ha ha. That said, I'd be happy to trade damage on these spells if the effects actually procced (and let us know whether it did or not before it wears off or doesn't cause it didn't land)...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Olor

In terms of cost, how much does stone 1 cost? Yet BLMs etc can spam that for massive damage now. I think its not reasonable for most of our spells to be lucky to hit more than 100 damage. If BLM can use stone 1 at level 119 why shouldn't blu have a use for sprout smack? Foot kick scales when rabbits use it - why is ours stuck at negligible damage?

---

Probably due in part to the fact that BLU can set it's own Job Traits and so do plenty of damage to mobs just by dual-wielding with TA set and /WAR. No point fixing spells that aren't used in the decent JTs as far as I'm concerned as they'll never get set anyway.

Seeing as how we're receiving more blue magic spell points, more stackable traits, and new spells, I wouldn't mind equipping some of those older spells for their traits and stats. However, it would be nice to still utilize them somehow by having them somewhat effective in end game content.

Some additional effects and different damage types from our older spells could be rather handy if they scaled more to our level.

One of the core design concepts for blue magic is based around the fact that as you level up, more powerful spells will become available. Due to this, the development team would prefer to focus on adding new blue magic at the higher-level tiers rather than to adjust low-level spells. However, they are aware that there is a limited variety of single-target physical blue magic and support-type blue magic in the high-level tier so they are planning to add more, but it will take some time until they become available.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bayohne

One of the core design concepts for blue magic is based around the fact that as you level up, more powerful spells will become available. Due to this, the development team would prefer to focus on adding new blue magic at the higher-level tiers rather than to adjust low-level spells. However, they are aware that there is a limited variety of single-target physical blue magic and support-type blue magic in the high-level tier so they are planning to add more, but it will take some time until they become available.

---

Can you at least make sure unique blue mage buffs remain relevant, and consider adjusting magical blue magic to suck less? Currently the only reason I equip magical blue magic is to get a trait or for voidwatch. It all takes too long to cast, does little damage, and has additional effects that rarely proc.

Thanks for responding!

Please add more point-economical spells for acquiring important traits. We need to spend most of our points just setting Auto-Refresh, Dual Wield III, and Triple Attack, and we need those traits in most situations. If you add high-level spells we can set to acquire those traits while only spending half as many points, we'd have a LOT more freedom to put our other spells to use. It'll also provide a way of getting around the 20 spell limit since we'll be able to free a lot of slots along with those points.

In line with that, it would also be nice to add higher tiers of traits like Attack Bonus which currently provide too weak of a bonus to be worthwhile.

Also while Nature's Meditation was nice, we need a longer duration than 60 seconds. How about 5min duration like Battery Charge/Animating Wail. If that's too powerful then at least 3 minutes or give it a higher MP cost.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Puck

In line with that, it would also be nice to add higher tiers of traits like Attack Bonus which currently provide too weak of a bonus to be worthwhile.

---

You know that they already announced that this is coming, right!? May update.

Quote:

---

Blue Mage
The applicable job trait gained when setting a blue magic spell will display in the help text along with its accompanying value.

The following job traits will become incrementally more potent depending on the total of set blue magic job trait values displayed in the help text.

Physical Attack Bonus / Defense Bonus / Evasion Bonus / Accuracy Bonus / Magic Atk. Bonus / Magic Def. Bonus / Conserve MP

---

Oh yeah, totally forgot we were getting something this update. But still, it's pointless without giving us more freedom to set spells. What good is Attack Bonus III if I have to set 4 useless spells just to get it? We need spells that will let us set important traits at much lower point costs.

I'm very happy you were able to reply to this thread, Bayohne. In light of the reassuring news of more blue spells, I ask that you guys please stay away from Breath Damage Type Spells. They are awful. On another note, I'm somewhat saddened SE decided to go the easy route of fixing blue mage via new spells as opposed to fixing older ones, so I have high hopes that these newer spells will kick blue mage in a higher gear.

As usual, I would also like to remind you guys again that Tourbillion and Barbed Crescent are still broken. I really hope you all haven't forgotten :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Babekeke

In response to some of what Olor said:

Many of the requests are for low level spells not doing enough damage. Bear in mind how little MP cost they all have. Obviously the higher level spells that cost more are going to do more damage!

As for Head Butt not proccing on ilvl content, unless by ilvl content you mean just ilvl 119, I find it works on most mobs in colonisation reives and even WKR bosses as RUN/BLU.

1 thing I would also like to add is, is there a more up-to-date renkai chart somewhere that includes the SC properties of post-75 WS and BLU spells? It's such a pain clicking on every spell to see their properties when you're after something that will SC with a specific WS (most recently Requiescat... anyone know the best spell to combine with that now?)

---

Quad Continuum

I'm probably against the grain with this one, but this reply is disappointing to me. I feel like we have to be grateful of anything we get for Blue Mage simply because it took years to even be noticed. So any news is like: "Better accept it or they could just ignore the Blue Mage community all over again."

I don't think that it is fair that elemental magic gets this huge overhaul and focus to make all of it work with modern day FFXI. Yet all other classes of magic continue to fall behind, and the answer now is basically "Our concept is you will only use the high level spells and eventually we'll add more spells." Leveling is now so quick, this message basically says ignore learning those spells and use high level ones. That is disheartening to me. Besides my personal feeling on that concept, I fear almost all of this doesn't fix the problems most wrong with Blue Mage.

Additional Effects: A lot of spells have been broken for a long time, some of them since their creation. We know they are capable of working, because they work just fine on the Test Server. So it seems like it is just ignored. Blue Mage has amazing utility through these enfeebling and enhancing effects that made them whole. It would be nice, necessary in fact, to actually use some of these spells on Delve Megabosses and High Level Battlefields and they actually stick consistently.

Job Traits & Set Costs/Max Spell Space: It was certainly a unique idea to have equippable spells. However, if they won't expand the max set points/spaces considerably or consolidate traits to take up less space then what's the point of having freedom to choose? Spells aren't the same thing as weapons and armor. It shouldn't be one clear list of spells you have to use just to gain traits you need to balance themselves to have decent damage over time while not casting costly spells. The fear of Blue Mage having too many traits or attributes at once is unfounded. Most of the traits don't interact with each other, it simply makes them a highly versatile class as hybrid classes should be.

Low Base Damage, High MP Cost & Casting Time: Without Azure Lore, Chain Affinity and Efflux; damage over time is rough on most Blue Magic both Physical and Magical. When you look at the damage capability of Elemental Magic currently, Blue Magic doesn't even come close without receiving boosts from places such as Abyssea. In Adoulin content, Elemental Magic outpaces Blue Magic by a large margin. Not only is it much more devastating in damage dealt but also in MP conservation. Done correctly, you can go on forever without ever a concern for running out of MP.

Expanding set points was a start in the right direction but it's attached to such an arduous system. Yes, job points are getting a boost and I can't speak to how fast they will accrue after the update. However, a fix should just be a natural addition to the job. As Matsui just stated in his May Update post, Job Points is a method of growth. I don't see the concerns of the Blue Mage community as growth, but fixing issues that keeps Blue Mage from being desirable in new content. While I thoroughly welcome the eventual addition of new Blue Magic as we should get some from more families, I don't think it's fair to ignore over a hundred spells you can already do something with.

I'm actually with Rwolf. When setting spells to solo the Rem's tales battlefields, I noticed a trend: I didn't have anything that didn't suck that was strong to the monster family in question. Wildskeepers are the same, as is pretty much any "you need to take this seriously" content. My options are set a bunch of traits that will either have minimal impact or set useful spells that won't be receiving any kind of monster correlation bonus OR elemental weakness. If BLU is to be taken seriously in end-game, then this doesn't fix the problem. Fixing the problem would be having at least 1 spell of every family that's physical that doesn't suck and a couple magical of most-common elements that don't suck.
Brothers D'Aurphe is a great example. There are no light-based Arcana spells, and the only fire is Self-Destruct. Our only real contender for physical is Smite of Rage or Bludgeon; which suck.

Not to mention by the time I've killed just 1 shadow, even with auto-refresh, 3 refresh in gear, and battery charge I'll probably be bone-dry AND waiting on recasts. That's broken. Let's also not forget that all the adoulin spells that were recently added have no WSC. ... Still. If you're going to add new spells I'm all for useful ones, or more enhancing/healing ones, considering we still don't have pixie, mantid, heartwing, leafkin, sandworm, and a great deal of other families. But make sure they're complete spells, not sort-of spells. I don't want to sort-of carry around 8+ sets of gear for stats and HP+ and sort-of deal damage that a WAR not trying very hard could achieve while stoned. That's sort-of unfair.

It's not just "sort of unfair" its purely unfair. Frankly, I'd rather they just allow our magic to scale like all other mages' magic has scaled - again if BLM can cast stone 1 at level 119, I'm not sure why I need a 5 point spell that costs 189 MP to do any kind of damage. We need low cost, quick casting magic that actually does damage or has enfeebles that land. We don't need 1 minute buffs and spells that do 200 damage max, which is most of what we got last time we got "new" spells.

Upgrade 1000 needles and Bad breath! :)

I agree with all of you. It would be awesome to make monster correlation part of strategy again. Not only for Blue Mage, but Beastmaster as well. I thought with Adoulin being so specific with elements and types of monsters. That elemental offense, defense and monster correlation would become more strategic than currently used. I also agree with the low duration buffs. If Red Mage can Temper and Phalanx themselves for 3 minutes with no job abilities or gear. I don't see why we at least can't get 3 minute duration on things like Cocoon and Nature's Meditation. 1000 Needles doesn't need the MP cost, set cost or the inherent magic accuracy down. 1000 damage is a drop in the bucket for any job capable of damage now.

I feel like some of the ideas to fix Blue Mage is shot down as overpowered without even really considering what makes it so.

Honestly, if my BLU had about 50 slots to set spells and about 200 BMP to set them, I could maintain having a Dispel, a Sleep, a few elemental nukes and debuffs, a cure and -ga, an Erase, and a handful of "you NEED to use this to solo a double-darkness during azure lore" abilities. Hell, I wouldn't even mind if I had to unbridled wisdom some spells in that list. But then, I'll also need to keep Magic Hammer and Animating Wail and Battery Charge and ...

do you see the problem here? Now let's go ahead and add in attack bonus for +10 attack, skillchain bonus so I'm not laughed out of events, magic burst bonus so I can foam at the mouth when someone interrupts my skillchain during azure lore with a Flat Blade for stunning the boss, aaaand a bunch of other job traits that will all be outclassed by anyone subbing BRD at 49. Then we'll butcher blue magic physical accuracy -- which we have as yet not gotten an increase for, and even with a buramenkah and the ilvl119 Artifact and Relic sets with swap pieces for the still-80s-Mavi set, -maybe- I won't miss 1 out of 20 hits on a physical spell. Don't believe me? Go ask any BLU who has done Colkhab 20+ times for Droning Whirlwind, wearing blue magic skill gear at ilvl119.

With all those set spells and all those utility spells, it doesn't really matter where I try to cut corners. I could sub WAR for double attack, DNC for skillchain bonus and dual wield, RUN for anything I need to solo, or RDM for the not-nerfed fast cast (which is BS by the way). It really won't make a difference which job you sub to not "NEED" to set some worthless blue magic in order to have a balance of traits. It won't make a difference because right now I *DO* have 70 blue magic points but even with that the entire job grasps at straws for what any 109 ranger can do with a single flashy shot using eminent bow and old arrows. Item "old arrows," not pejorative old arrows.

Something, I feel, is wrong here. I'm supposed to be able to at least occasionally be useful to do stuff. Not stand around Jeuno and watch as countless hours learning blue magic go to waste as I sit there with windows calculator open trying to figure out how many blue magic spells I can squeeze out of 70 points with a less-than-ideal subjob simply because I'll get dual wield III if I just move a bunch of stuff around.

And no, increasing blue magic points to 90 over the course of another year in updates raising the job point categories to 30 a piece is not equivalent to "we fixed it!" -- and neither is "we added tiers for traits." Great, now I can open my handy calculator and figure out how on earth I'm supposed to fit Attack Bonus IV into the mix and still be able to do ANYTHING ELSE WORTH DOING.

/endrant

It be better if blue traits stacked with traits from subs too

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bayohne

Due to this, the development team would prefer to focus on adding new blue magic at the higher-level tiers rather than to adjust low-level spells.

---

Well, that doesn't make much sense. Why would you want to make such a robust spell list(BLU spell list) as shallow as possible? Every single spell should have a function. There should be some situation where I'd say to myself, "I might want to use X for now. It's probably the better option while fighting X, given the circumstances." And between monster correlation, elemental affinity, whether a spell is physical or magical, whether the physical spell is blunt, piercing or slashing, etc, you can make that happen. Doing that is what gives battle depth to a game. Not saying, "Here's 5 spells. They're the only ones worth using at your level." That makes for a really shallow battle experience.

That's not even getting into the fact that the VAST majority of spells had NO function even at the level you learned them(Ice Break, Death Ray, 1000 needles, Mortal Ray...there's seriously too many to name) aside from the traits they gave you. Which, again, doesn't make any sense.

You're saying, "They are aware that there is a limited variety of single-target physical blue magic and support-type blue magic in the high-level tier so they are planning to add more"...but do they not see we have them already. We have a ton of physical BLU spells and various support abilities. All we need is a spell that does X that isn't heavy penalized right out of the gate. WE HAVE THEM ALREADY BUT they're content with keeping them not worth casting while trying to scrounge around for spells from monsters that can replace the things that already barely work. That's a really obtuse way to fix this problem.

No, the solution is to make every spell useful but in different situations. Am I saying that even Foot Kick should serve a function at 99? Well, yes. You can't just look at spells and say, "This is a single target physical spell. Just replace it with another." Great, now we've got a grand total of 1 spell that's worth bothering with(or at least it would be if BLU magic was worth casting on targets you'd want to use non-autoattack solutions on) instead of 2 that can both be useful if given the ability to be so. What should be happening is:

*Your opponent is a Lizard who's weak to slashing. You want to deal single target physical damage. What do you do?*
"Oh, use Foot Kick."
*Now you're fighting a Plantoid who's weak to blunt. You want to deal single target physical damage. What do you do?*
"Power Attack, probably."
etc.

Instead, what IS happening is more like:

*Your opponent is a Lizard who's weak to slashing. You want to deal single target physical damage. What do you do?*
"I swing my sword."
*Now you're fighting a Plantoid who's weak to blunt. You want to deal single target physical damage. What do you do?*
"...I swing my sword"
etc.

Make no mistake there's a way to make every spell in our spell list useful but the Devs have to be willing to actually make them useful.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dragmagi

It be better if blue traits stacked with traits from subs too

---

That'd be sweet! I really hope they implement these newer spells in one of these next few months. I feel like they are beating around the bush with them.

I'd like +50 new spells please! This would help alleviate the worthlessness of our 100 other spells.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tennotsukai

That'd be sweet! I really hope they implement these newer spells in one of these next few months. I feel like they are beating around the bush with them.

I'd like +50 new spells please! This would help alleviate the worthlessness of our 100 other spells.

---

I need more spells slots if the newer spells dont offer allready avialable traits in a condensed form, because right now after the job point grinding, that I can set more traits, BUT i am limited because of the spellslots avialable... and thus underuseing my max spell points available :/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bayohne

One of the core design concepts for blue magic is based around the fact that as you level up, more powerful spells will become available. Due to this, the development team would prefer to focus on adding new blue magic at the higher-level tiers rather than to adjust low-level spells. However, they are aware that there is a limited variety of single-target physical blue magic and support-type blue magic in the high-level tier so they are planning to add more, but it will take some time until they become available.

---

That doesn't address the problem of broken spells there are several spells that have basically never worked. They were unlandable on anything worth fighting and that includes higher level spells too. Really should fix them since it's been idk what 5 years now they have been broken

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mefuki

You're saying, "They are aware that there is a limited variety of single-target physical blue magic and support-type blue magic in the high-level tier so they are planning to add more"...but do they not see we have them already. We have a ton of physical BLU spells and various support abilities. All we need is a spell that does X that isn't heavy penalized right out of the gate. WE HAVE THEM ALREADY BUT they're content with keeping them not worth casting while trying to scrounge around for spells from monsters that can replace the things that already barely work. That's a really obtuse way to fix this problem.

No, the solution is to make every spell useful but in different situations. Am I saying that even Foot Kick should serve a function at 99? Well, yes. You can't just look at spells and say, "This is a single target physical spell. Just replace it with another." Great, now we've got a grand total of 1 spell that's worth bothering with(or at least it would be if BLU magic was worth casting on targets you'd want to use non-autoattack solutions on) instead of 2 that can both be useful if given the ability to be so. What should be happening is:

*Your opponent is a Lizard who's weak to slashing. You want to deal single target physical damage. What do you do?*
"Oh, use Foot Kick."
*Now you're fighting a Plantoid who's weak to blunt. You want to deal single target physical damage. What do you do?*
"Power Attack, probably."
etc.

Instead, what IS happening is more like:

*Your opponent is a Lizard who's weak to slashing. You want to deal single target physical damage. What do you do?*
"I swing my sword."
*Now you're fighting a Plantoid who's weak to blunt. You want to deal single target physical damage. What do you do?*
"...I swing my sword"
etc.

Make no mistake there's a way to make every spell in our spell list useful but the Devs have to be willing to actually make them useful.

---

I can't express how much I agree with this. I think foot kick and power attack etc, all our low cost spells should be just as useful as stone 1 is to black mages. We have the makings of a really interesting magic system already - the spells we have should be fixed.

I want all the time I spent learning blue magic to be respected - the way to respect that time and effort is to make EVERY SPELL USEFUL. There is no flexibility possible if 99% of our magic is left broken.

Basically, if you use a low level spell, correctly with monster affinity/damage types - it should do similar damage to stone 1 used by a sch or rdm at the very least.

We also need more gear with blu magic skill on it, or the effects of the blue magic skill we already have need to be boosted significantly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dasva

That doesn't address the problem of broken spells there are several spells that have basically never worked. They were unlandable on anything worth fighting and that includes higher level spells too. Really should fix them since it's been idk what 5 years now they have been broken

---

I have given up on this dasva, really I dont give a shit anymore if they ever fix barbed crescent, tourbillion etc... including metatron torment and various other WS add effects. Its a shame but I have given up that those things will ever get fixed

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Olor

I can't express how much I agree with this. I think foot kick and power attack etc, all our low cost spells should be just as useful as stone 1 is to black mages. We have the makings of a really interesting magic system already - the spells we have should be fixed.

I want all the time I spent learning blue magic to be respected - the way to respect that time and effort is to make EVERY SPELL USEFUL. There is no flexibility possible if 99% of our magic is left broken.

Basically, if you use a low level spell, correctly with monster affinity/damage types - it should do similar damage to stone 1 used by a sch or rdm at the very least.

We also need more gear with blu magic skill on it, or the effects of the blue magic skill we already have need to be boosted significantly.

---

you DO know that tier 1 nukes of the mages are basicly their normal "melee swings" (since they sit in the backline) and their "WSs" are basicly the tier 3-5 nukes right? BLU has decent melee swing power they dont need a equivalent to tier 1 nuke of mages.
This is also the reason why magic damage has a significant higher impact on T1 and T2 spells then on T3-T5 spells. They were designed that way. Besides in a fully buffed (capped haste etc).situation your BLU will do more dmg auto-attacking then any mage constantly nukeing T1 spells with zomg uber gear.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Damane

you DO know that tier 1 nukes of the mages are basicly their normal "melee swings" (since they sit in the backline) and their "WSs" are basicly the tier 3-5 nukes right? BLU has decent melee swing power they dont need a equivalent to tier 1 nuke of mages.
This is also the reason why magic damage has a significant higher impact on T1 and T2 spells then on T3-T5 spells. They were designed that way. Besides in a fully buffed (capped haste etc).situation your BLU will do more dmg auto-attacking then any mage constantly nukeing T1 spells with zomg uber gear.

---

The thing is, if people want straight melee damage BLU is a really really crappy job to bring. What BLU brings to the table (or should bring) is flexibility of damage types - as Mefuki noted - we should be able to tailor our spell list to hit the weaknesses of our prey. We should be the ideal job for NMS like say Calydontis (which switches damage type reduction shields)- but that only works if we have real T1/T2/T3/T4 spells for every ecosystem and damage type, as well as better magic based spells. Currently, we don't - so BLU loses the ONE MAJOR ADVANTAGE it should have against straight-up heavy DDs.

Why bring a BLU other than maybe for absolute terror? No reason whatsoever. Auto-Attack damage is a really #$%%y reason to bring a BLU to a party given so many other jobs do it better and don't have their damage gimped by having to constantly babysit their MP.

As for things which demand switching to magic damage only - we get screwed there completely since our only USEABLE spells are physical magic. We need at least 1 usable magic spell from every element - and we should have several tiers of every ecosystem/damage type as well. Otherwise parties really have no reason to bring a blu outside of the occasional need for something gimmicky like terror.

Well, at least we have requiescat. Oh wait, monks have formless strikes, nvm.

At least we have nature's meditation, dang nvm that, 60 seconds.

Oh! We have enfeebles we can use... but those usually don't ever land. Hmm...

Cocoon? Other jobs can sub and use.

Breath spells? Wtf is wrong with those!? Why are they so bad?

Okay, so most of our spells are terribad except a few that end up being worthless in high buff situations.

Honestly, I don't care for the fact they are going to neglect all our spells just please give us a significant amount of new spells with reasonable costs, job traits we'll use, and a reason to use (not broken).

Thank you.

Well, at least we have requiescat. Oh wait, monks have formless strikes, nvm.
same applies to nukers, if you want to change it, you have to nerf formless trikes (which is imho a good thing to do)

At least we have nature's meditation, dang nvm that, 60 seconds.
because adloqium, phalanx matter so much nowadays...

Oh! We have enfeebles we can use... but those usually don't ever land. Hmm...
you mean like all those resists RDM WHM and SCH get when yours resist? If the fight allows to stick all mage debuffs, BLU debuffs work too. Those fights tough exist rarely, and mostly mages can only stick 1 TOPs 2 debuffs (not counting in dia), because everythign else insta resists on anything remotly hard. (and dont get me started on hardmission battles on D+)

Cocoon? Other jobs can sub and use.
yeah because so many melees are subbing BLU to up their defense... only for RUN would this make sense and thats pretty situational

Breath spells? Wtf is wrong with those!? Why are they so bad?
nukes on D+ Hardmode mission battlefields, wry are they so bad!!!!! because of fucking innate 50% MDT and like obscene amounts of INT the mob has!!! nuuuuuu

Okay, so most of our spells are terribad except a few that end up being worthless in high buff situations.
EVERY spell/neglectable ability you cast in high buff situations is BAD, because you sacrifice that more DPS due to lock animations etc etc. that accounts for all jobs across the board

Honestly, I don't care for the fact they are going to neglect all our spells just please give us a significant amount of new spells with reasonable costs, job traits we'll use, and a reason to use (not broken).

Thank you.


Now dont get this the wrong, I am all for fixing jobs, but your rant sounded like a crybaby that doesnt see that NOT only BLU is suffering, there is quiet a few of other jobs that suffer the same or worse. I think actually BLU has atm the better end of the stick compared to other jobs (nukers(BLM GEO), THF, DNC, RUN, Pet jobs etc).

FFXI has gigantic flaws that need nerfing if you want to balance the jobs across the board:
1. Formless strikes, it reduces the needs for nukers or magical WSs, makeing them almost redundant
2. The miriads of buffs people can get from brds and cors swaping in and out. For ally content swaping for buffs shouldnt be possible (auto loose buffs)
for PTs: BRD should have never gotten more then 2 songs.
Reason: with the potent buffing BRD has now, there is no reason to bring other jobs that can grant different buffs, or unique debuffs to help the battle (debuffing is for me reversed buffing)
3. base dmg raising after ilvl weapon introduction was flawed, reason: mnk got a 80% base dmg increase going from 99 to ilvl 119, the rest is howevering around a 50% increase AT BEST.
4. haste, its the most OP buff, and its the reason why anythign mage like will NEVER be good enough for content unless the mage starts farting nuclear bombs out of his ass while nukeing/casting any offensiv spells. The more haste melees have the more exponential their dmg goes up. There is no buff that allows that to happen for mages or jobs that cast spells...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bayohne

One of the core design concepts for blue magic is based around the fact that as you level up, more powerful spells will become available. Due to this, the development team would prefer to focus on adding new blue magic at the higher-level tiers rather than to adjust low-level spells. However, they are aware that there is a limited variety of single-target physical blue magic and support-type blue magic in the high-level tier so they are planning to add more, but it will take some time until they become available.

---

I really dislike this statement. But then again it could also be why I don't pull out blu much anymore. You could say "well better spells are obtained as you level up" for any caster class. One of the unquie traits of blu, was that you could build your spells to fit the role you are trying to play. The cost however is the point requirement on the spells, having no native traits until spells are equiped, and a rather low starting stat pool, that can be pushed to numbers that rival those of primary class roles.

During 75 cap (where most of our formerly good single target Magical spells are), I could reach nuke numbers on par with blms of the time. and while that may still be possible in some situations all of the good magical spells are AoE, and all of our magical spells regardless of level, with exception of a few heals and Poison Breath, maybe a few support spells like Fantod and Cocoon etc have insanely long cast times, and the damage doesn't scale well, debuffs are resisted most of the time, etc.

I feel blue magic needs scaling fixes across the board, even more so for magical spells, we also need more single target magical nukes, and ones that don't have long cast times. Backline blu isn't really much of an option anymore. Thought most people probably won't use it anyway, I would like the option for the role to be there.

Also, can you change are heals to be Alliance target able please? I'm sure this has only been asked 1000 times. It would be nice to be able to play a support/healing role as well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Damane

Now dont get this the wrong, I am all for fixing jobs, but your rant sounded like a crybaby that doesnt see that NOT only BLU is suffering, there is quiet a few of other jobs that suffer the same or worse. I think actually BLU has atm the better end of the stick compared to other jobs (nukers(BLM GEO), THF, DNC, RUN, Pet jobs etc).

---

Not really. I mean my BLU is marginally more useful than my BST but not enough to get me an invite. A zero percent invite rate is a zero percent invite rate, even if my BLU is 15% more powerful than my LOLBST or my LOLTHF.

Crikes, they even made TH not matter even 1 bit in all the new events, poor THF... but really all jobs excluded from content are equally screwed.

Lol breath attacks were always lulz on the player side of things. They're just even more lulz now.

I think the first step to bettering the feedback community is to stop playing triage with suggestions/feedback. Just because X job is currently worse than Y job doesn't matter regarding feedback. The development team has shown with these quick bountiful updates lately, they can push things out quicker. And even if they couldn't, we should give feedback unbiased and not based on what we think they will or will not do with it. I think that defeats the purpose in and of itself.

It's counter-productive of them to try and produce new spells to make up for large amount of spells already present in the game. Blue Mage's power is in their utility and that's what the job needs to shine again. Utility comes through diverse spell setups and choices allowing quick adaptation. Having the ability to target a monster's physical, magical, and ecosystem weaknesses while also having decent hard to resist breath-type (it's not magical) damage is a huge boon. Also it is a unique form of play that shouldn't be diminished in this recent bout of keeping job identity with the count now at 22. Blue Mage is a weak auto-attack choice over other jobs and I don't agree with continuing to emphasize on that aspect. Auto-attack was meant to be supplemental and slid into being more and more dominant because of spells falling behind.