The Melee Mage

[Slvr_Stryker]

[[ comes in about a weekend later to look over things after going to an anime convention ]] ...hmm, someone trying to throw me for a loop by trying to correct me. Okay, let's see what I can do with this.

Have I ever set spells on Blue Mage? Yes. Do I know what most all of those spells do to our stats? Yes. Should I have clarified that the base stats were excluding stat boosts through set spells? Yeah, probably. But my above point still remains. Hell, it kinda even strengthens the fact that Square Enix, in their "wisdom" (whether you believe it to be or not) have set up Blue Mage in Final Fantasy XI to be that niche job. I was not lying when I said that their Blue Magic was what brings their uniqueness, because it truly is. From the wide variety of spell effects and damage output we could potentially provide, to the extra bonuses (and penalties, lest we forget) to our primary stats that a *very* large chunk of spells give to us, it is what allows us to become virtually anything. With planning.
And just so you don't think I forget about it, yes, I am incredibly aware of the very *short* range of a lot of our spells. A very large chunk of *all* of our spells require us to be within range of magic damage, with half of that being right next to the nasty thing and be affected by everything the monster can throw at us. But the facts still remain: statistically, without merits or any spells, BLUs have almost identical stats across the board, and in virtually all cases, are either weaker or on-par with the stats of a similarly-raced, non-geared, non-merited RDM.
Oh, and just so you think I'm not pulling all of this out of my ass, here are some numbers for you.
1: I started this game back in 2004. On PS2. Stayed on that system until only recently, likely about 6 months ago. Started Monk, made my mistakes (trust me, I still do from time-to-time), and I never *ever* consider myself the best player.
2: Picked up Blue Mage back when ToAU was first released, due to my like of playing with Blue Mages in previous FF games (granted, I never played them way back when 5/6 were around, but I still enjoyed it), and proceeded to learn its strengths and weaknesses. I'm *still* learning its strengths and weaknesses, and through that constant learning process, I learned my job *miles* better than your everyday BLU. I do still have faults (I'm terrible at tanking as a BLU, trust me. @_@), but it is, in my eye, my second top-tier job. I may not be the best, but I have seen and dealt with much worse.
So before you try and turn my quote around on me, it miiiiiiiiiiight help to do a little research yourself, mister Thelaughingman. I mean, you don't see me trying to attack your WHM, SCH, SMN, and THF based on misunderstood, non-clarified information on your part, do you? Oh, and hey, grats on the Gambanteinn, may you kick all sorts of ass with it. ^^

[Economizer]

Oh, and just so you think I'm not pulling all of this out of my ass,

What job we have leveled on a particular character doesn't make for a very good argument. Good arguments make for a good argument.

But the facts still remain: statistically, without merits or any spells, BLUs have almost identical stats across the board, and in virtually all cases, are either weaker or on-par with the stats of a similarly-raced, non-geared, non-merited RDM.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

This statistic is completely useless because it doesn't give any meaningful information. Nobody reasonably plays Blue Mage without setting spells, wearing gear, or meriting. Those things have more meaning on what Blue Mage is then what base stats it has will ever mean.

Blue Mages set spells. Those change stats. They give job traits. Blue Mage gets more numerous and way better job traits for melee than nuking, and physical spells to match. Those physical spells have their accuracy affected by your melee weapon as well, and are generally cheaper and faster casting then magical Blue spells. Blue Mage gets slapped on good melee gear on a regular basis as well.

Ultimately, if you don't want to be told to learn how to play a job, don't go into a thread with people who clearly know how to play their jobs and tell them to learn their job. And especially don't do it after failing to recognize what Blue Mage is especially good at out of all the things it is good at.

As for talking about White Mage, Scholar, or Summoner, this is a melee mage thread. If you need clarification on anything I've said, I'll give it to you in detail. I'd enjoy actually talking about the thread topic.