BLU spells that could use a rework

A lot of BLU spells since its introduction have had very niche use or even been completely useless outside of certain carnivale stages and a lot of them are spells that could be very useful or at least viable with just minor tweaks. So I’m going to go over some of the spells I think need another pass to make them more useful.

I'm going to ignore most of the spells that are just different elemental versions of the same thing as they are specifically meant for the carnivale and other than that just offer different flavour for us to set as a filler spell.

Loom: this spell should be changed to an instant cast ability with a cooldown, as it is right now it’s faster to walk the distance you can travel with loom with its cast time, it could be a great movement tool for BLU but as it is it’s worthless outside of the carnivale.

Toad oil: evasion just isn’t a stat in this game so this spell basically does nothing but buff self destruct beyond level 30, it should be changed to just give you a static 20% chance to evade attacks to make it a useful tanking option in any content.

Diamondback, Chelonian gate and dragon force: cast time should be lowered to 1 second, mitigation in this game is very reactive and I personally find the mitigation BLU spells simply take too long to activate and while yes you can swiftcast them, it just feels to me like they should be overall faster.

Malediction of water: …this spell is just encouraging trolling… I can’t think of a single practical use for this…

Both ends: recast should be lowered to 60 seconds, by sharing a recast with nightbloom this spell is basically useless. Nightbloom has twice the potency and while yes, it comes out over the course of a minute, if the target is going to die in less than a minute why are you wasting a 2 min CD on it? If both ends was a 60 second CD it would be the same potency as nightbloom over the course of 2 mins but dished out in 2 lots of instant 600 potency.

Right round: Malediction of water but physical and worse.

Wild rage: lower the cast time to 2.5 seconds. It’s already pretty limited by the HP cost and it would be a somewhat decent spell if not for that insane cast time. Alternatively they could buff the potency to 1000, making it half a final sting for twice the cast time.

Ruby dynamics: I assume this is used in the carnivale at some point because I can see no reason why this spell exists in its current state. Buff the potency to 250 and it would at least be viable as an AoE alternative to rose of destruction.

Force field: same as the other mitigation spells lower the cast time to 1 second, but also mitigation that isn’t reliable is useless, this spell should be changed to give 20% of one type of mitigation and 30% of the other so you’re getting decent mitigation no matter what damage type and if you get the right one it’s just a bonus. Even if it’s an aetherial mimicry: tank effect that would be better than nothing.

And that’s all I have right now. Are there any spells you think could use another look from the devs?

Maybe Moon Flute? It's a spell that completely warps BLU's DPS rotation around it. So a change to it might open up the meta.

...Ruby Dynamics is already a better AoE alternative to Rose of Destruction tho?

They both share a recast, so it's down to the content/role you're running, but in a straight comparison, Dynamics is doing more dps that Destruction on 2+ enemies. It's an AoE with no fall-off, and you don't get that many of those. Not really seeing how 30 extra potency really changes anything here.

Yeah, Ruby Dynamics is pretty nice: 30 second recast, 220 potency to all (none of that -50% to additional junk)

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

...Ruby Dynamics is already a better AoE alternative to Rose of Destruction tho?

They both share a recast, so it's down to the content/role you're running, but in a straight comparison, Dynamics is doing more dps that Destruction on 2+ enemies. It's an AoE with no fall-off, and you don't get that many of those. Not really seeing how 30 extra potency really changes anything here.

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So my thinking is more in terms of the fact that the majority of content involves single target, it’s pretty much non-existent that we get purely AoE content and in most situations the single target dps is going to be more important.

As it is, ruby dynamics is fighting with rose of destruction for a spell slot and most of the time you’ll rather have the single target dps increase. In single target ruby dynamics is the same strength as a filler spell so it loses any value. If it had slightly higher potency it would still be a viable move in single target, if not as viable as rose of destruction, while being a great option for AoE. So if you were to fight a boss that spawns adds for example you’d have a move that can be both good for clearing the adds AND still be good when there aren’t adds. While rose of destruction would still be better for purely single targets. As it currently is, it’s ONLY useful for AoE so for the boss with adds example it’s only good for the adds and for the rest of the fight it’s worthless.

Malediction of Water/Right Round: make them only push enemies
Eerie Soundwave: Let this actually remove something on an enemy or an incurable status on a party member, give it a long cooldown

It's a hot take because everyone seems to love this spell as it is: Moon Flute.

I know why it's designed that way. I know how to use it properly. I don't mind that it forces a 2minute burst phase on BLU...

But I can't in good faith say that spending 15 whole seconds doing nothing but running around is a good design in a game like XIV.

I would instead, design a Waning Nocturne phase with the Blue Mage temporarily transforming into a Kappa, with an underpowered combo action.

I don't know. I think Blue Mage needs more funny, weird, and surprising spells.

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Originally Posted by Raikai

It's a hot take because everyone seems to love this spell as it is: Moon Flute.

I know why it's designed that way. I know how to use it properly. I don't mind that it forces a 2minute burst phase on BLU...

But I can't in good faith say that spending 15 whole seconds doing nothing but running around is a good design in a game like XIV.

I would instead, design a Waning Nocturne phase with the Blue Mage temporarily transforming into a Kappa, with an underpowered combo action.

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I agree, I like moon flute for the power, but as an ability it’s really not that fun, there’s a reason that berserk on old WAR was changed to not work like this (and WARs version could actually be esuna’d so it actually had more interaction to it than moon flute). There are ways to give BLU a powerful burst window that could be more fun and interactive than moon flute. I only really left it out because I’m looking at moves that don’t work. Moon flute is functional, it’s just not that fun.

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Originally Posted by VictorSpoils

Eerie Soundwave: Let this actually remove something on an enemy or an incurable status on a party member, give it a long cooldown

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I left out eerie soundwave because technically there’s nothing wrong with the move, it’s the game’s design that’s the problem. It could definitely be made more useful though, like if we could completely break mechanics with it (I’m thinking like if we could remove the damage up and vulnerability down buffs the 2 knights in Thordan or the omega twins in O12s get when they get close to eachother).

Honestly, I hope they kind of do a bottom up rework of all spellbook in its entirety, especially now with Mimicry. I really think there needs to be more interactions between the Mimicry you have and spells, giving them unique or different rider effects to make things more interesting. Plus a more general buff/change of spells to make more of them more useful outside of just being elementally aspected for the Masked Carnivale. There are a ton of unique interesting, cool spells that just don't see any use because the effects they currently have make them basically a worthless waste of hotbar space versus other high potency spells.

Blue Mage feels genuinely not fun to play in some of the "high end" content like Savages, etc., most especially as a BLU Tank. It can be downright miserable. Tank Mimicry should make make defensive cooldown abilities cast much quicker.

I really hope they use this opportunity of a second Limited Job to rethink and reevaluate what they want out of the Limited Job system, because as someone who enjoys BLU but wishes it could be better, I'm not quite sure what they're exactly aiming for at this point.

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

I agree, I like moon flute for the power, but as an ability it’s really not that fun, there’s a reason that berserk on old WAR was changed to not work like this (and WARs version could actually be esuna’d so it actually had more interaction to it than moon flute). There are ways to give BLU a powerful burst window that could be more fun and interactive than moon flute. I only really left it out because I’m looking at moves that don’t work. Moon flute is functional, it’s just not that fun.

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One thing that could happen is reducing the Waning Nocturne time to 10s, so you can match that downtime with actions like Apokalypsis or Suzaku's Kick - channeled actions. Right now you can cut a little of that downtime with those, but still there's many seconds of doing nothing. Or perhaps a new action with 6-10s of cast time, rewarding you for the correct timing and good positioning by the last second of Waxing Nocturne.

Back to the OP, other than MF, the other actions I think need revision are:

- Loom: Make it instant cast so you can actually use it in actual duties and not just the Masked Carnivale.
- Chelonian Gate and Dragon Force: Make them instant cast under Tanking Mimicry. All of the tankbusters in the game are designed to be reacted with instant cast mitigators... BLU's having a cast time just makes the fight timeline annoying as heck because you can't have your GCD rolling at the time of the buster, or you'll miss it. Plus, who even remembers correct timelines for things like dungeons or old raids? If they wanted to make BLU tanking more challenging, that's defnitely not the best way to do it. Either change that or make BLU tanks less squishy. Diamondback probably could stay as it is.
- Aetherial Mimicry: Not quite the action itself, but just put 'role NPCs' close to the job hub. In fact, please give Martyn and his crew the actual building behind them for the guild!
Ice Spikes: Buff both the damage and the duration. It's a cool spell for tanks but it does have minimal impact as it is.

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

I left out eerie soundwave because technically there’s nothing wrong with the move, it’s the game’s design that’s the problem.

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Assuming there's a difference, this description would fit Loom better since it does what it's supposed to, but a hard-cast gap closer has the same issue as hard-cast mitigation. It's Eerie Soundwave and Toad Oil that outright don't work, the former even more so.

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Originally Posted by Raikai

- Aetherial Mimicry: Not quite the action itself, but just put 'role NPCs' close to the job hub. In fact, please give Martyn and his crew the actual building behind them for the guild!

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I think the consensus on this was "teleporting back to Ul'dah and the Miners' Guild to switch roles is just an extra step to what you have to do now"

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

Toad oil: evasion just isn’t a stat in this game so this spell basically does nothing but buff self destruct beyond level 30, it should be changed to just give you a static 20% chance to evade attacks to make it a useful tanking option in any content.

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Oh it does work, even on higher level mobs. Still think it is probably a waste, when looking at other skills, but it is good in solo - people in treasure maps for example tend to use it when solo.

The whole system would need to be streamlined if you ask me. They need to add more filter to the skilllist, skills that are range or melee, skills that are dots or flat dmg, skills that are instant or have a casttime, skills that share a recast timer with another skill, skills that are defensive/offensive/support&utility.

Blue Mage Log should allow bluemages to be able to solo them, to me it fails their purpose if you add a Basic Instinct ability, but you are forced to queue as 4 man into a dungeon, else it wouldn't count for the log. Though if 3 players would leave, it would still count for the log anyway...It is a simple design flaw.

I wish they would have at least 1 instant cast ability with a normal GCD, with reduced potency if necessary, no not Flying Sardine 10 potency - a bit more like 100 maybe on 3s GCD, at least something while in movement.

I think they should fix Mortal Flame, on a lot of bosses it can't be applied as they simply fully resist it. Making you waste the slot. You also cant tell if its your Mortal Flame or someone elses.

Deep Clean Peat Pelt seems like a nice idea for a healer combo, but isn't practical due to slot capacity being low.

I think Both Ends potency should be buffed, so it compares a little better with Nightbloom, 600 potency directly vs 1900 over 1 minute. It is less than a third...A nightbloom that goes over 10s is already better than Both Ends, making it almost always worse.

Chocobo Meteor sound effect can be pretty annoying after a longer duration, but it is the best dmg skill in open world with a chocobo.

Aetherial Spark, Feather Rain, Breath of Magic and other DoT abilities share the same "dot debuff slot", making it so there can be only one bleed/dot effect over time, overwriting each other.

I think Cold Fog buff should be at least 7s up instead of the 5s atm, some bosses are really slow with autoattacks if unlucky.

J Kick/Flying Frenzy/Loom should get the DRG jump treatment, making it smoother to use, so not being animation locked.

Surpanakha reduced to 3 Charges, but increase the potency, so dmg stays same, while having more time in moonflute.

Condensed Libra/Offguard isn't worth the RNG/hotbar slot for only 5% potential dmg increase that much anymore.

Frog Legs only having a 4y aoe effect, is a pretty annoying way to provoke, especially if some duties require a range swap to be more effective. Furthermore I think it is the old type of provoke which puts you only 1 point over the highest aggro target, instead of giving you a tiny lead. Especially for bosses like alpha 4s and cinder drift, where enemies become invulnerable but still need to be tanked, it can get more difficult.
Maybe there should be a single target enmity skill..

Glass Dance and Veil of Whorl both have 90s CD, should be reduced to 60s like other primal spells, to make them worth it

I think Moonflute is too short now with the new skills, it is almost like you can do another moonflute opener right after it when you use cold fog too.

Diamondback is weird with some skills, like T5 fireprisons, it will just get ignored.

But overall, it would be nice to have at least 2 more sets to save. Dungeons will always require The Rams Voice and Ultravibration - while raids do not. I know there are macros, but would still be cool to just have another set or two to save. At the moment we can save 5 saved sets: Tank/Healer/Dps Raid/Dungeon, Treasure maps, Solo play, Carnival - you could cover all categories with 9.

Every skillset we do atm, feels like you have to remove important skills, as there are not enough slots. Adding 4 more would complete skillsets properly, without having to switch 1-2 situational skills out every damn different duty.

I wish BLU could become a regular job but I guess that's too much to ask.