BLU for Duty Finder and Raids! Show your support!

[Beckett]

That is absolute rubbish. There are content modes already in the game that go to town with your skills and your hotbars. PvP and the deep dungeons at least.

Deep dungeon is just your normal leveling skills, but unlocked faster. There's no difference between someone who's level 15 in deep dungeon or level 15 in the main game. And there's a world of difference between the super simplified PVP skills and a full fledged PVE job. Transforming BLU into a balanced PVE job for group content, while still having it be a totally different type of job for its own content, would at least double the work load. It's frankly silly to expect them to put that much effort into one job.

No one wants group BLU more than me, and I stand by the claim that they could have made it work, but that ship has sailed. Now I can only hope that they don't drop the ball on the content they're already dedicated to making for it.

[Oreos]

Really do not see the problem here. Get a few friends and convince them to drag your butt through the content. They won't care if your DPS isn't up to snuff compared to other classes. Dungeons & normal trials shouldn't be a problem.
I doubt BLU can be strong enough for EX/savage, you might want to steer clear of those.
I am sure there will be groups whacky enough to take a BLU along there too. ^^

I love 14 because of the raid content. I love the challenge of bashing our heads into a wall and the sheer joy and accomplishment and relief when we finally break through. I want to play that content with the job I love. That is what kills me.

I don't want to be "dragged" through content. I want to play the job I love at an even level with my close friends and static members. Knowing that won't happen breaks me.

[Valdegarde]

On the other hand, we were never likely to see more than 2 new jobs per expansion, this "limited job" allows for more jobs to be added.
In addition to our 2 expansion jobs we can also get other jobs that dont fit into the system.

Possible future limited jobs?
Mime or Puppet Master seem to fit the bill to me.

I don't want jobs just for the sake of having jobs.
I wanted and expected new iterations of classic jobs for interesting ways to compete and play alongside the other established iterations of jobs that have come so far. Blue Mage deserved better than to be relegated to a glorified mini-game. And so do any established jobs that might get this treatment in the future.

[Rokke]

A class built around solo play in an MMO is inherently garbage.

[Kaurhz]

No, I will not.

[Valdegarde]

A class built around solo play in an MMO is inherently garbage.

What boggles my mind is that Blue Mage has never been some ultimate iconic solo class in any Final Fantasy ever, they've tended to be actually weaker than most classes/characters stat-wise and were useful for support and things like hitting uncommon weaknesses and Magic Hammer and such. The fact that they're in the same breath trying to act like they're being so faithful to the pure essence of what makes a Blue Mage and then saying it can't and won't work in a party to retain this faithfulness is ridiculous.

FFXI is the only exception to them having major solo capabilities, but even then it was behind Dancer, Red Mage, Ninja, etc.

[Lambdafish]

What boggles my mind is that Blue Mage has never been some ultimate iconic solo class in any Final Fantasy ever

That's half true by virtue of final fantasy being a solo experience anyway, and FFXI not caring about job balance. This means that the point about a "solo experience" is moot because no job has had to deal with a label like that before. What BLU is though, is the only job that requires a side activity in order to become more powerful (outside of buying magic from shops). In FFV, I actually gave up with BLU because I felt like it was too much work to invest in, and I opted for the "normal jobs" because it felt too unique to me. I'm glad that the difference between BLU and other jobs was recognised and retained

[Granyala]

I love 14 because of the raid content. I love the challenge of bashing our heads into a wall and the sheer joy and accomplishment and relief when we finally break through. I want to play that content with the job I love. That is what kills me.
I don't want to be "dragged" through content. I want to play the job I love at an even level with my close friends and static members. Knowing that won't happen breaks me.

Your sense of logic should tell you that the level of freedom desired by the BLU concept cannot be combined with the razor sharp balance needed for savage.
There is no way to combine the two, balancing complexity increases exponentially with the # of abilities at a classes disposal.

I'm sure if you are locked into a few abilities that they CAN balance during raid content (a.k.a. the PvP skills approach) would not make you happy either, because you'd essentially play a different class.

Yes, some concepts that work great in single player games do not translate well into a competitive multiplayer environment. That's not exactly a shocker.

BTW: it's just a video game. You can cut the drama.

[Beckett]

I doubt BLU can be strong enough for EX/savage, you might want to steer clear of those.

I think the problem is going to be the opposite, based on the fact that it's meant for solo play, that they have 49 potential abilities to start with (and will only get more down the line) and the Devs example of "Level 5 Death to kill Omega". I think BLU might wind up super OP. Seemingly the reason why they don't want to allow it in normal group content is that it's too powerful.

Not sure what their plan is for when reaches the same max level as all the other jobs, since (based on the rules they've put forth so far) that would mean it could just group up with other people and do most content. Maybe they'll always keep it capped at 10 levels below the normal expansion cap. If not, it would be pretty funny to see the opposite version of their fears come true. Instead of people kicking out BLUs from the party, we could get "BLU Only" groups.

[Granyala]

I think BLU might wind up super OP.

No they won't.
They won't be super OP like they aren't super OP in the single player games for a very simple reason:
Bosses are immune to most status effects and stuff like gravity attacks (% based damage) or insta death abilities.
In essence: 90% of what makes a BLU special and fun would simply net a [immune] on any high end boss fight.

I still remember how disappointed I was after leveling Diabolos in FF-VIII only to find out that he is useless against foes that are actually difficult due to them being immune to his spells.

BLU might be a killer class on trashmobs though.