Blue mage at patch 4.5

[Berethos]

They could've done both if they were already investing so much into a job and literally no one would've complained. The solo experience would've became optional content for BLU fans who'd have done it anyway, only now a lot more people would've at least picked BLU up and therefore given the solo play at least a try too.

A job that works two vastly different ways depending on where you're using it?

Yeah, that's not a design nightmare, nor terribly unfun to play.

[BillyKaplan]

A job that works two vastly different ways depending on where you're using it?

Yeah, that's not a design nightmare, nor terribly unfun to play.

You're being really narrow minded about how classes can be added to a game like this

[Berethos]

You're being really narrow minded about how classes can be added to a game like this

I'm being realistic.

If you wanted something that would be part of a group at level-capped content, such as Savage raids or Ultimate difficulty, or even Normal difficulty, it would have to fit within a specific range that they have spent the last 5 years maintaining. That would require a specific approach to balancing.

With the range of permutations on abilities that a Blue Mage could feasibly have if they are allowed to mix and match, you're either looking at cosmetic differences with groups of spells tuned identically, or a fixed set of spells like all the other casters. Both of those then beg the question, why make it Blue Mage, whose identity is so heavily based around learning abilities from monsters to use those abilities due to their potentially unique or useful application? If the goal of adding Blue Mage is for it to embrace that identity, why add it if it's going to be limited based on raid and dungeon balancing needs?

So while they could do that, and please all of you who wanted the Blue Mage name attached to something you can run raids with, they opted for the other approach - namely choosing to implement the Blue Mage as it traditionally has existed in other FF games.

Since the content we have currently doesn't readily support this class design, they have then opted to create content specifically for it (along with allowing it into a certain stretch of group content if you have a pre-formed party, and there's flexibility with this element in the future).

On top of all this, we're almost certainly getting two additional traditionally designed classes with the expansion.

But please, tell me how I'm the one being narrow minded because I am willing to accept a class implementation that doesn't require it be balanced and designed for end-game raiding.