Puppetmaster

Let’s talk about Puppetmaster. All are welcome to share their hopes and expectations for this fan favorite job.

Puppetmaster is a latecomer to the Final Fantasy franchise with its first named debut in Final Fantasy XI. In that game, Puppetmaster was proficient in hand-to-hand combat and was accompanied by an automaton that could be customized for a variety of combat scenarios.

The way I see it, Puppetmaster’s representation in FFXI was just one of many possibilities. I see the presence and involvement of a puppet companion as the most important aspect. What weapon the job uses and how it functions are areas open for exploration.

Puppetmaster as a Melee DPS

The version of Puppetmaster that most people are likely familiar with is the version that appeared in Final Fantasy XI. In that game, Puppetmaster was a melee DPS who was proficient in hand-to-hand combat. However, due to hand-to-hand already being covered by Monk (including variations like “claws”) it is likely that Puppetmaster would require a different melee weapon.

Looking at past Final Fantasy titles as inspiration, Luca from Final Fantasy IV can be considered a Puppetmaster. Luca is known to use a hammer as a weapon which is an option that could work. Having a hammer as a primary weapon could also serve as a clever nod to Serendipity and Gigi, as Goldsmith also uses a type of hammer.

My main concern with Puppetmaster as a melee DPS with a one-handed weapon is that it may feel too similar to Beastmaster, assuming SE intends to implement both. Although the two jobs are distinct in FFXI, due to the way job design works in FFXIV, it’s much more likely that there will be overlapping elements. This also assumes that Beastmaster would be a one-handed melee DPS which feels like a safe assumption given certain evidence that has surfaced.

Puppetmaster as a Physical Ranged DPS

There are multiple ways in which Puppetmaster can operate and one of those is the possibility of Puppetmaster wielding a physical ranged weapon. In FFXI, the Sharpshot frame came equipped with a crossbow. Puppetmaster could be armed with a crossbow themselves, or a variation like Rinoa’s Blaster Edge from Final Fantasy VIII.

Rinoa could serve as an inspiration for Puppetmaster as a physical ranged DPS. She has access to a coordinated attack that involves her Blaster Edge and her companion, and although it is rather comical, it may seem more practical with a puppet as a projectile. That inspiration is a foundation that Puppetmaster could be built upon which could lead to a result that is fun and a little whimsical.

Puppetmaster as a Magical Ranged DPS

To help imagine Puppetmaster as a magical ranged DPS, let’s look at a well-known character from Final Fantasy X. Lulu. In FFX, Lulu is a black mage, but she uses a unique weapon known as an animated doll. Translating this to Final Fantasy XIV, the puppet itself could be considered the weapon of the Puppetmaster. If that proves to be too demanding from a development standpoint, then a more sophisticated version of the animator that was used by Puppetmaster in Final Fantasy XI could serve as a weapon, except treated as a magical item used to command the puppet.

Regarding the type of spells Puppetmaster would cast, it would be refreshing to see a job use unaspected magic to a greater degree than what we’ve seen thus far. Alternatively, they could focus on the core elements that appeared in FFX, those being fire, ice, water, and lightning. Considering Black Mage already heavily utilizes fire and ice, it would be nice to see focus placed on water and lightning.

This interpretation of Puppetmaster would be very compatible with existing job design for FFXIV. With Lulu as a key point of inspiration, that could be used as a means to emphasize the master over the puppet, though even if that turned out to be the case, it’s likely that the puppet would be involved to a greater extent than dolls were utilized by Lulu in FFX.

Adding credibility to this approach, if one were to read the journal description of Wind-up Lulu, she is referred to as a “powerful mage and master of puppets.” SE themselves have nearly outright called Lulu a Puppetmaster. They seem quite aware that there is a similarity. All they would need to do is draw a line that connects the two dots.

Closing Thoughts

Out of these options, Puppetmaster as a magical ranged DPS is my personal favorite. I feel that it has the strongest identity and that it puts the greatest emphasis on the puppet as the central focus of the job.

But what do you think? Do you have a favorite? Would you prefer something entirely different? Share your thoughts.

I would enjoy Puppetmaster best as a caster dps. Lulu is one of my favorite characters from FFX and I would love to see if that job could get an outfit similar to hers. What I will note is that I will absolutely not interact with the class at all if it turns out to be a limited job.

I would adore any job that lets me have my own Medabot regardless of what form it takes.

Prolly end up the way of a limited job unfortunately. Pretty much any job that requires you to do more than just simply level will get the limited job treatment and yeah puppet parts/pieces will likely be why. They could turn it into a regular job easily by giving them some prebuilt automatons, but yeah would draw far too much similarities to mnk and mch.

The issue is that what you want falls into the limited job categorie.

So either they make it a limited job with all the proper fantasy around it sg the cost of not being usable in current content, or they make a fake similinlike RDM for instance which can do current content.

By that I mean, ff14 RDM is a red mage just in visual, (white and black offensive magic). It has 1 heal ... For the sake of having it and can spam rez.. but usually RDM are much more versatile. They can dps and heal. Ff14 RDM can dps and rez... And maybe do a bit of single target heal for emergency.... But beside dungeon and Ex trial you're not gonna keep more than 1 person alive with vercure..
RDM is a DPS, and nothing more (fine rez is useful). And it is a main job because they cut all the white magic aspect of it, beside the offensive spell

So compromise has to be done somewhere. For BLU they went full fantasy route and made it limited. I believe they'll do the same for Beastmsster and Puppeteers. But if they don't, well don't expect much beside cool visual. It will be 24 skills with a fixed rotation and that's it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sylvain

The issue is that what you want falls into the limited job categorie.

So either they make it a limited job with all the proper fantasy around it sg the cost of not being usable in current content, or they make a fake similinlike RDM for instance which can do current content.

By that I mean, ff14 RDM is a red mage just in visual, (white and black offensive magic). It has 1 heal ... For the sake of having it and can spam rez.. but usually RDM are much more versatile. They can dps and heal. Ff14 RDM can dps and rez... And maybe do a bit of single target heal for emergency.... But beside dungeon and Ex trial you're not gonna keep more than 1 person alive with vercure..
RDM is a DPS, and nothing more (fine rez is useful). And it is a main job because they cut all the white magic aspect of it, beside the offensive spell

So compromise has to be done somewhere. For BLU they went full fantasy route and made it limited. I believe they'll do the same for Beastmsster and Puppeteers. But if they don't, well don't expect much beside cool visual. It will be 24 skills with a fixed rotation and that's it.

---

RDM has been pretty well received though. To myself and others it is a red mage in the sense of 14's world. It uses white magic (earth, aero, holy, cure, and raise), black magic (fire, thunder, and flare), and utilizes sword attacks. I do wish there was more melee gameplay to it but it does fit the definition of red mage.

To those of us against limited jobs, yes there's blue mage content in the game but we still desire there to be a proper job we can play the game with in the same manner as we can with the combat jobs. We understand that some things will have to be changed but still desire that core fantasy of the jobs. I'm assuming this point will fall flat in your eyes but that's the same with the point you are making.

I will take a Puppetmaster that I can use in current content over the ability to tinker with the characteristics of the puppet. If the puppet is just a visual or a weapon that we swap out for different dolls like Lulu in order to act as a conduit for magic, I'd be happier with that than a limited job.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

I will take a Puppetmaster that I can use in current content over the ability to tinker with the characteristics of the puppet.

---

And personally, I'd rather get a more robust and involved puppet system than, just, earlier access to content I'll ultimately be able to run anyway.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ItMe

And personally, I'd rather get a more robust and involved puppet system than, just, earlier access to content I'll ultimately be able to run anyway.

---

I shouldn't have to wait 2+ years to run current content when a *new* job is released. Limited jobs are scarcely active outside of their 2 week post-update period and during content lulls when they bring out the moogle event. Assuming you don't already own those rewards from just playing the game normally with the other jobs. There is no reason to gate a Puppetmaster class to...only overworld levelling and preformed parties. It just does not make sense.

In any case customization at the cost of class balance brings with it all the problems WoW continues to face with its designs and if they add a customizable puppet a meta will be found and people will adhere to it. There is no reason for Puppetmaster to be limited to party finder only because its not like they have an increased chance of learning a spell just because other Puppetmasters are there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

Limited jobs are scarcely active outside of their 2 week post-update period and during content lulls when they bring out the moogle event.

---

Maybe in your neck of the woods, and I'm sorry to hear that.
My FC has been having fun doing BLU stuff together almost bi-weekly all throughout ShB.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

Assuming you don't already own those rewards from just playing the game normally with the other jobs. There is no reason to gate a Puppetmaster class to...only overworld levelling and preformed parties. It just does not make sense.

---

It's because that's the form I would have the most fun with.
Your dislike of limited jobs has been thoroughly noted, but I'd enjoy Puppet Master more like that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

In any case customization at the cost of class balance brings with it all the problems WoW continues to face with its designs and if they add a customizable puppet a meta will be found and people will adhere to it. There is no reason for Puppetmaster to be limited to party finder only because its not like they have an increased chance of learning a spell just because other Puppetmasters are there.

---

K, and that's a bad thing?
Considering the incredible balance the rest of the game has, limited jobs are more interesting to me because they have a meta about abusing broken stuff.
Like Hildebrand, they're a breath of fresh air for me.

Best you'll get for doing current content as PUP plus expounding upon having different automaton models is to make it a EW SMN clone where you swap between the various models as you go through your rotation. FFXI style PUP will end up like FFXI BLU, the best, interesting and most expounded upon iterations of the jobs that won't be found anywhere else unfortunately. Hopefully with XIVs newly added resources they can do something with meatier limited jobs, like make them limited with their own systems but then also give them a trinity defined version of the Job alongside of those unique systems and styles of play, so that BLUs PUPs and BSTs can have their cake and eat it too. That would amount to a large amount of work but assuming they'll be able to spare no expense going forward, it will hopefully manifest in being able to hire more Devs to make moonshot ideas like that happen.

I wouldn't mind more limited jobs as I see them as side content. I'm not going to raid with more than a couple of my favorite jobs anyway so more normal jobs don't do much for me unless I like them more than what I currently play.

Puppetmaster would be a great option for limited, they could do a lot with how parts are obtained and used. Collecting those would be plenty of fun on its own imo. Then if we do get more limited jobs would they be able to party together? That could be cool.

If it were to be a normal job I think it'd be a good opportunity to break some boundaries rather than having it be a somewhat different version of what's already available. It could be an All-Rounder able to fill any role based on how the puppet's set up and still have some degree of part collecting (mostly through job quests) though once it's in an instance it'd be more or less like any other job just heavily focused on the puppet. Which sounds like a nightmare tbh lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jon041065

RDM has been pretty well received though. To myself and others it is a red mage in the sense of 14's world. It uses white magic (earth, aero, holy, cure, and raise), black magic (fire, thunder, and flare), and utilizes sword attacks. I do wish there was more melee gameplay to it but it does fit the definition of red mage.

To those of us against limited jobs, yes there's blue mage content in the game but we still desire there to be a proper job we can play the game with in the same manner as we can with the combat jobs. We understand that some things will have to be changed but still desire that core fantasy of the jobs. I'm assuming this point will fall flat in your eyes but that's the same with the point you are making.

---

I'm not saying it hasn't been well recieved.
I like the job (although I wish it were a bit faster paced)
But all it has as red is as you said, the use of white and black, but this is restricted to only offensive skills with one weak heal for the sake of having it.

It does fit the definition of red mage, but a lot has been cut.
That's my point.

You could make BLU as a real job, select around 24 iconic skills, maybe more as some would turn into different one like some sort of combo sequence.(like Bahamut > Pheonix) Make it so that your job quest would be to go around and kill monsters to get more spells and voila.
You have a BLU. Ff14 style.
I mean it got bad breath ... BLU right?

If you consider ff14 RDM to be a proper RDM then you can't argue it wouldn't be a BLU mage as it would have monster smells. , but the core aspect of collecting spells and making your weird mix would be lost specifically because it has to fit all the"true job" restriction, the first being "balance"
For the same reason you can't have medica on your RDM

We could still hold the "go around and collect spells" but that would fall flat very fast. Once you're done collecting your 24 mandatory spells you're in to wait for 2 years before you can go collect your 2-3 new shiny spells.

However, due to its limited nature BLU brought a form of unexpected content. There are a lot of BLU enthusiastic which properly raid as BLU. And these are far more exotic and memorable things to do than if BLU were a regular job specifically because you're playing as a group of 8 clunky mess.

With the current system at least each new addition brings more. (Altough they need to stop with the 220 potency spammable spell ...)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jon041065

RDM has been pretty well received though. To myself and others it is a red mage in the sense of 14's world. It uses white magic (earth, aero, holy, cure, and raise), black magic (fire, thunder, and flare), and utilizes sword attacks. I do wish there was more melee gameplay to it but it does fit the definition of red mage.

To those of us against limited jobs, yes there's blue mage content in the game but we still desire there to be a proper job we can play the game with in the same manner as we can with the combat jobs. We understand that some things will have to be changed but still desire that core fantasy of the jobs. I'm assuming this point will fall flat in your eyes but that's the same with the point you are making.

---

I'm not saying it hasn't been well recieved.
I like the job (although I wish it were a bit faster paced)
But all it has as red is as you said, the use of white and black, but this is restricted to only offensive skills with one weak heal for the sake of having it.

It does fit the definition of red mage, but a lot has been cut.
That's my point.

You could make BLU as a real job, select around 24 iconic skills, maybe more as some would turn into different one like some sort of combo sequence.(like Bahamut > Pheonix) Make it so that your job quest would be to go around and kill monsters to get more spells and voila.
You have a BLU. Ff14 style.
I mean it got bad breath ... BLU right?

If you consider ff14 RDM to be a proper RDM then you can't argue it wouldn't be a BLU mage as it would have monster smells. , but the core aspect of collecting spells and making your weird mix would be lost specifically because it has to fit all the"true job" restriction, the first being "balance"
For the same reason you can't have medica on your RDM

We could still hold the "go around and collect spells" but that would fall flat very fast. Once you're done collecting your 24 mandatory spells you're in to wait for 2 years before you can go collect your 2-3 new shiny spells.

However, due to its limited nature BLU brought a form of unexpected content. There are a lot of BLU enthusiastic which properly raid as BLU. And these are far more exotic and memorable things to do than if BLU were a regular job specifically because you're playing as a group of 8 clunky mess.

With the current system at least each new addition brings more. (Altough they need to stop with the 220 potency spammable spell ...)

To le pup is more a matter of when than if.
But I would be extremely surprised to see it as a real job

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sylvain

The issue is that what you want falls into the limited job categorie.

So either they make it a limited job with all the proper fantasy around it sg the cost of not being usable in current content, or they make a fake similinlike RDM for instance which can do current content.

By that I mean, ff14 RDM is a red mage just in visual, (white and black offensive magic). It has 1 heal ... For the sake of having it and can spam rez.. but usually RDM are much more versatile. They can dps and heal. Ff14 RDM can dps and rez... And maybe do a bit of single target heal for emergency.... But beside dungeon and Ex trial you're not gonna keep more than 1 person alive with vercure..
RDM is a DPS, and nothing more (fine rez is useful). And it is a main job because they cut all the white magic aspect of it, beside the offensive spell

So compromise has to be done somewhere. For BLU they went full fantasy route and made it limited. I believe they'll do the same for Beastmsster and Puppeteers. But if they don't, well don't expect much beside cool visual. It will be 24 skills with a fixed rotation and that's it.

---

Agreed, ffxiv red mage is a red mage visually but not a real red mage, red mage is supposed to be very versatile, being able to heal or dps or tank if needed

I feel that xiv red mage is the worst red mage in the final fantasy series


I enjoy FFXI red mage, they heal, rez, strong enfeebling magics, can use a sword, staff, shield, knife, club,strong support and debuffing magiks

FFXIV red mage cant hold a candle to the other red mages

I wish red mage was a red mage and not just a dps but thats what happens when you simplify the jobs to the lowest common denominator

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sylvain

I'm not saying it hasn't been well recieved.
I like the job (although I wish it were a bit faster paced)
But all it has as red is as you said, the use of white and black, but this is restricted to only offensive skills with one weak heal for the sake of having it.

It does fit the definition of red mage, but a lot has been cut.
That's my point.

You could make BLU as a real job, select around 24 iconic skills, maybe more as some would turn into different one like some sort of combo sequence.(like Bahamut > Pheonix) Make it so that your job quest would be to go around and kill monsters to get more spells and voila.
You have a BLU. Ff14 style.
I mean it got bad breath ... BLU right?

If you consider ff14 RDM to be a proper RDM then you can't argue it wouldn't be a BLU mage as it would have monster smells. , but the core aspect of collecting spells and making your weird mix would be lost specifically because it has to fit all the"true job" restriction, the first being "balance"
For the same reason you can't have medica on your RDM

We could still hold the "go around and collect spells" but that would fall flat very fast. Once you're done collecting your 24 mandatory spells you're in to wait for 2 years before you can go collect your 2-3 new shiny spells.

However, due to its limited nature BLU brought a form of unexpected content. There are a lot of BLU enthusiastic which properly raid as BLU. And these are far more exotic and memorable things to do than if BLU were a regular job specifically because you're playing as a group of 8 clunky mess.

With the current system at least each new addition brings more. (Altough they need to stop with the 220 potency spammable spell ...)

---

Well in your post on the first page, you said that 14's rdm was just rdm in visual so I was attempting to counter that point. I do agree with what you said here though of wishing that rdm was more. Still, the fact is that it is a rdm job though just using the definitions for white and black magic as they are in 14's world.

To myself and others, a blue mage just needs to use enemy skills. How you learn them isn't too important since there's been various methods in the franchise. You could keep the current method or just have full blu unlock after completing a certain stage of the carnivale.

You have a point that future expacs would mostly be blue mage going out and learning a few new spells that would function as the updates many jobs are seeing now. Functionally the same ability/spell but with higher potency or becoming AoE with fall off damage. Those of us asking for full blue mage understand that and still desire to be able to main the job in the content that we want to do.

That's fine that there are people that enjoy blue mage as it is. There are not many on my side that want limited blu to receive no future updates or be scrapped entirely. Right now we have blue mage "side content" in the game and we would like to have blue mage "the combat job". Some of us would engage more with the current blue mage content if it didn't come with the price tag of the job we want to play as being used as the delivery method for that content. We want to see that be changed. That could be some kind of toggle to switch between the two modes, a completely separate job stone, or just have the full version of the job be unlocked through some completion of the limited content.

Like if beast master was added as a limited job in 6.4 and they also announced that completing the limited bst content up through say level 80 would allow a balanced version to be used as a full job come the 7.0 expac then you would have many on my side say that we can accept that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jon041065

To myself and others, a blue mage just needs to use enemy skills. How you learn them isn't too important since there's been various methods in the franchise.

---

But to many it is important, to many having the current implementation of the BLU is really important, above being able to do current content.
I'd rather have a full job too but many don't. Many just want the flavor above all else and it matters a lot because it is the very reason why they implemented BLU as limited instead of not at all.

Quote:

---

that could be some kind of toggle to switch between the two modes, a completely separate job stone

---

well, if that were to happen, it won't be before LONG because there are so many jobs that already could be implemented, if they were to add "BLU" as an actual caster (or tank, or heal... probably tank or dps tho). Altough the animation would already been done, designing an engaging rotation would still take nearly as much time as creating a new job from scratch.

Heck, perhaps it would even be harder simply because BLU is just a mess by design. Making a cohesive dps rotation with a bunch of random spell might actually be harder than designing something from scratch like the Repear.

Then the issue with doing such thing would be, what about the other jobs? what about RDM? BST, PUP, what about any other job that could fit that limited job fantasy?

To me that's a can of worm they simply won't open.
At least I wouldn't.

We can agree or disagree with their choice of making limited job.

Personally I'd rather have them as limited than not at all, which was their stance when asked during HW. Same goes for BST PUP and whatnot.

There are things that I wish blue did better, more specifically more interaction with spell and less "220 spammable ST/AoE spell with 50% falloff".
But overall the addition of new skills make it all the more fun to play in older content.
But that's a different topic.

I'll stop here but my bottom line is, I don't think it is realistic to expect the BLU to become an actual job, I mean not in a near future anyway (and by near I mean anything before 8.0 at this point). When it comes to PUP and BST I could be wrong, they could be released as full job, but Y.P hinted that they'd be nice Limited, I would also pick those as new limited for the same reason they have chosen BLU (because you can't have the fantasy and full job at the same time, you're gonna have to cut somewhere).

There are a million "what if they'd do that" or "they could do that" to make BLU or PUP or BST as real job, but in the end, they probably won't because they've make up their mind. BLU is limited and will always be, BST and PUP will probably be limited (BST is almost confirmed from an interview) so it's more a matter of when than if and that's it.

If anything proposing new ideas to enhance blu as a limited job will be more productive. But that's just me.

All I know is I'm glad we got Summoner and Red Mage added before limited jobs became a thing, since the limited job crowd would rather find ways to make jobs limited than to have cool jobs for normal group play. Now it feels that anything that slightly diverges from the norm "can only!" be added as a limited job in their eyes instead of finding a reasonable compromise.

"Red mage isn't a red mage" please. Red mage is one of the more thematically on point jobs in this game and it's widely regarded as extremely fun to play. A Blue Mage that learned its abilities through job quest battles would have been so much more enjoyable than the minigame we got instead. As stated previously some us of would like to actually play Blue Mage -the job- not the minigame.

Just like some of us would prefer Puppetmaster or Beastmaster -the job- not the minigame locked to doing old content we've already beaten.

Learning blue mage though quests just so it can fit in this homogenized role that the other basic, boring rotation jobs have?

Blue is made to be gimmicky , random, use every spell it knows and be unbalanced. If blue mage was shoehorn into a regular job, it wouldn't be a blue mage but a boring generic caster

Also its odd that red mages in other ff games get cure really early but ffxiv gets cure very late in game

Red mage is fun but pressing the same boring rotation over and over again isn't

But i guess thats why ffxiv is a theme park mmo

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jkap_Goat

Learning blue mage though quests just so it can fit in this homogenized role that the other basic, boring rotation jobs have?

Blue is made to be gimmicky , random, use every spell it knows and be unbalanced. If blue mage was shoehorn into a regular job, it wouldn't be a blue mage but a boring generic caster

Also its odd that red mages in other ff games get cure really early but ffxiv gets cure very late in game

Red mage is fun but pressing the same boring rotation over and over again isn't

But i guess thats why ffxiv is a theme park mmo

---

Every other job is built off pressing the same "boring" rotation over and over again. That is literally the point. This is a group game. It is not a solo game. Even Blue Mage has a meta rotation, though I suppose one has the option to be *unique* and ignore it, likely to the rest of the party's detriment. What you have in Blue Mage is the illusion of choice, just like in WoW, where they give you a lot of options but at the end of the day there is one better way to optimize your character.

And yes, a Blue Mage regular job would have been used exponentially used more by the general playerbase because Blue Mage -the minigame- is built off of fomo. You have 2 weeks to learn the latest spells. After that? Good luck. Everyone else will have already moved on. Then you can only use them in carnival fights (which they are running out of ideas for) or moogle events. To get rewards a huge chunk of people already own.

Gacha limited time events last longer than Blue Mage updates. We do not need to shackle another job to a system that proves just how ephemeral it is time and time again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

Every other job is built off pressing the same "boring" rotation over and over again. That is literally the point. This is a group game. It is not a solo game. Even Blue Mage has a meta rotation, though I suppose one has the option to be *unique* and ignore it, likely to the rest of the party's detriment. What you have in Blue Mage is the illusion of choice, just like in WoW, where they give you a lot of options but at the end of the day there is one better way to optimize your character.

And yes, a Blue Mage regular job would have been used exponentially used more by the general playerbase because Blue Mage -the minigame- is built off of fomo. You have 2 weeks to learn the latest spells. After that? Good luck. Everyone else will have already moved on. Then you can only use them in carnival fights (which they are running out of ideas for) or moogle events. To get rewards a huge chunk of people already own.

Gacha limited time events last longer than Blue Mage updates. We do not need to shackle another job to a system that proves just how ephemeral it is time and time again.

---

I never played that game , WoW and I never will so I don't know what your talking about but anyways, blue has the options to choose what spells to bring, what stance it wants to do ( heal, tank, dps) it's much better than these boring homogenized jobs xiv has and these boring rotation

I swear xiv will give me carpal tunnel syndrome pressing the same boring rotations over and over and over again

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jkap_Goat

I never played that game , WoW and I never will so I don't know what your talking about but anyways, blue has the options to choose what spells to bring, what stance it wants to do ( heal, tank, dps) it's much better than these boring homogenized jobs xiv has and these boring rotation

I swear xiv will give me carpal tunnel syndrome pressing the same boring rotations over and over and over again

---

Ok then.

So in WoW, you have talents that you can choose to get new abilities or passive upgrades. You also get to choose 1 of 4 factions to get a general covenant ability, and an ability specific to your class. The result? A meta was found immediately since some abilities were clearly better than others and anyone who did not choose the correct abilities gets excluded because up until recently changing covenants was an enormous hassle.

Classes in WoW get to choose their spec, sometimes with all 3 roles just like Blue Mage. However, for obvious reasons some specs are better than others, because their continuous stacking of abilities and passives on top of each other make it so that there is a very optimal way of doing things, or a very inefficient way. At least in WoW you get your abilities through levelling for the most part but Blue Mages have the added bonus of having to wait hours in party finder until someone takes pity on them to carry them through old EX fights for their primal spells and ones from obscure Hildibrand trials that no one ever does anymore.

Blue Mage's "options" are about as optional as WoW's broken covenant system. There is a meta. Follow it (just like how one would properly play any other class) and you do ok. Choose to not follow it, and Blue Mage is suddenly reduced to a pile of copy-pasted abilities with little to no difference in potency, with rewards most of the playerbase already has or isn't interested in.

I will gladly take being able to play whatever homogenized job that comes with a complete toolkit as opposed to something that only gives the illusion of that. There was no need to place such a high barrier to entry to Blue Mage and on top of it limit to ancient content. What I would have done? Place the spells that make up the rotation in the overworld or in story dungeons with 100% learn success rate so as to not waste people's time and to allow them to progress through the game normally. As opposed to being carried by a max level player killing things for a Blue Mage that at that point would still be stuck with Water Cannon.

Eeh as much as I agree with you regarding the illusion of choice .. Blu really doesn't need any carry to get his spells.
I finally decided to level it beyond 50 a few days ago and in one afternoon I completed all trials with parties full of BLU. At some point one party stuck together and we basically chained trials and raid boss.
So... It took me something like 5h to go from 30~ spells to all but the 3 last totem spell...

I'm not saying your wrong regarding meta or anything, but getting those spells takes hardly any time....

If Puppetmaster were ever introduced, I'd want it to be the "Monk" of the magical ranged DPS. Your automaton would have some ground target move option and would stay in that position until its cooldown is refreshed so you'd hit positionals for higher potency attacks. These would have cast times so you'd also worry about mechanics as a mage vs. melee DPS. I'm not sure how the new SMN is but maybe this could be the new "DoT" job. I haven't really thought this through but I like the idea of actually "puppeting" something and this kinda plays more to that fantasy.

Considering they gave Machinist its own Automaton (Queen), that Mammets look very similar to FFXI's automatons (which could be a good thing though, I don't think we saw them in really serious combat aside from some dungeons and Lord of Verminion) and the dev team is kinda averse to pet jobs, I'm not sure Puppetmaster would come in this game as is. They would probably prefer renaming it and giving it different abilities, but I'm not sure that will happen, if they don't already believe Machinist is this game's Puppetmaster already.

That would be neat if it happened,though!