Blue Mage - Thoughts on how it could fit in normal groups

So Blue Mage was added to the game as a Limited Job. This made a lot of people very happy, and a lot of other people very upset.

I've been enjoying it, but I'm also saddened that it can't be included in normal groups. I have noticed other people share similar sentiments. Others openly hate it.

There's been a lot of back and forth on why this was done, and we now have the Blue Mage Log, but many people say this didn't address the problem.

My thoughts are this: Why can't we just keep everything that Blue Mage currently is, all the current design of learning spells and the Carnivale...
But then also include a pre-set "Duty" loadout of spells that specifically is designed for group play? Take a number of the spells that we collect, place them in this list, and tweak the spells so that they function differently in Duties so that Blue Mage can function in party content like a "normal" Magic DPS Job alongside them. Any spells not on this list cannot be used when in a Duty. Each spell is made available at certain Blue Mage levels for syncing, but you still have to collect them yourself for the level appropriate for a Duty before you can queue for it.

None of the theme or fun of current Blue Mage is lost, and the "other people" get what they want, too.

The lore explanation: whereas aetherical interference prevents Blue Mages from working with others, Martyn has discovered a discrete set of Blue magic spells that, through careful and tactical usage, still work! The results of the spells are altered, but a clever Blue Mage can adapt.
He could say this came about through careful study of Blue Mages working together (via the Blue Mage Log).

For the design of the Duty loadout, look at how things work in Carnivale. Most of the encounters are about you taking advantage of enemy weakness. So the "Duty loadout" could be designed around making one element more effective and then taking advantage. Add in some randomization for fun.
Example: you start with Water Cannon, but three casts causes a random element to have increased potency. You then have to switch to using that element's spell combo/rotation.
Then casting that element a set number of times (different for each element) causes a different random element to be empowered, causing you to cycle through elements randomly.
Each element's set of spells could be designed with a slightly different type of combo or rotation.
There's plenty of potential for more/better spells from the current cap of 60 up to 80, so there's plenty of room to make this work.

Obviously - that's all just me spitballing. What I suggest is probably dumb. There's other designs that could be unique and fun.

The core idea is simple: I love learning spells the way Blue Mage already does, but if we had a pre-set "Duty" loadout of spells specifically to use in Duties, this would allow Blue Mage a place in normal party content with other Jobs. Perhaps even Raids.

having the pre-set skills be required to advance the BLU class quest is a mechanic that already exists, and could help facilitate that as well (as presumably you should have the skills unlockedfor the pre-set by the time you're at-level for a roulette unlock)

The Randomization does sound fun, but not all spells are equal or have the same selection without a few new ones. For example, Water Cannon is the only long-ranged Umbral spell (Primals don't count) we have and its weaker than most of the single target Astral and Physical spells. Likewise, a good portion of the spells require you to be within close-ranged. Personally, I'd just make it so that if you pick a role, you select one spellbook and it has to have certain spells activated: Tanks need The Look, Cactguard, Mighty Guard, etc. That way the other spells can be free form. But I'd also lock it so you can only have 1 instant kill spell.

it's not designed to fit in the game as a normal job, that's the entire point of the job. it's made for solo. that was clearly said when it was announced....

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Originally Posted by TR_RA

it's not designed to fit in the game as a normal job, that's the entire point of the job. it's made for solo. that was clearly said when it was announced....

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and yet the bulk of its spells come from party-only content (that you have to assemble at gunpoint, because duty finder isn't allowed outside of a full party which gives them nothing if they're not also a BLU who is also lacking the spell).

i actually like how blue mage is right now. it being so overpowered at lower levels makes it quite nice when running old or overworld stuff even if youre not doing it for blu log.

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Originally Posted by QooEr

i actually like how blue mage is right now. it being so overpowered at lower levels makes it quite nice when running old or overworld stuff even if youre not doing it for blu log.

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Actually, I'm curious: could you explain why you feel BLU is overpowered? Since I personally feel the class is pretty heavily underpowered I'd love to hear your perspective on things.

On my end, at early levels you're right--you're a 1k needles one-trick pony of epic proportions (which is soulcrushingly boring). after about level 35 or so when that stops being effective, you find that all your other skills are rather horribly weak unless you have elemental advantage against the target (a mechanic that doesn't exist outside of carnivale anymore, since they specifically removed all elements and corresponding materia an entire expansion previous to prevent titan-egi from tanking ramuh EX--or was it TWO expansions before?). at which point your options are either a long slog chipping at the enemy with drill launchers or your two flavors of "please kill yourself", as status effects are three-and-done-forever due to resistance mechanics, and everything on earth is immune to death/missile/not-charybdis (which the devs have specifically cited as reasons why BLU can't be allowed near "real" classes)

I'll note that even so hobbled a class would still be my dearest favorite in this if there was some way to actually network with other BLUs for skills or clears that wasn't by-hand and at gunpoint--a BLU-specific roulette, or a party matching option for "BLU party/open role" when queuing for things (like we have for undersized party, etc), ANYTHING. I'm sick of having to track down a BLU discord to get anything done.

blu openers do insane amounts of damage. the fact they keep their high potency rotation makes them great in things like moogle tome farming you can clear aurum vale in like 5 minutes with blue mages

Plus, a group of Blue Mages just outright trivializes some challenges. For example, there was this Fate called Special Tarasque Force.

A group of six Blue mages sync'd to level with two using Perpetual Ray just stunlocked the guy while the rest proceeded to alternate between Moon Flute Openers with Primals and Sharpened Knife and took him down in a few minutes. Honestly, it took longer to fly through the map and clear out the other FATEs to possibly speed up the timer.

I'm honestly not really a big fan of what amounts to making an entirely new job just to fit it into the normal system. It's better the way it is currently I feel, even with that loss.