SE, the concept of "Limited Jobs" is a really bad idea, turn back now

[Khalithar]

So basically you never want them to do anything new? Just stuff every job into one of the extremely limited DPS / Tank / Healer boxes that 'group play' (specifically raiding) in FFXIV demands.

The entire concept of final fantasy has always been about group play. Taking a group and destroying giant monsters for various world saving reasons. I also think it's a bit inaccurate to refer to the archetypes as a limiting factor. By setting the specific roles, it allows them to create a solid structure to work around and iterate upon. So yes, every job should be a dps or a tank or a healer but that doesn't mean they shouldn't try new and interesting ways to change up the moment to moment gameplay to make it fun and engaging. I honestly don't think the very clear role and archetype structure is a weakness.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Yoshi in an interview mentioned; "With the Trust system, these players can experience the story of Final Fantasy XIV and learn party dynamics by playing with their favorite NPCs. Then, once they feel ready, they can shift into playing with other people. The challenge level of content using Trusts will steadily rise, and so it will not always be the easiest option to play with them exclusively."

Seems odd if they restrict it to Shadowbringer content if part of the purpose is to expose players to party dynamics. By the time a player gets to Shadowbringer content if they haven't been exposed to and learned party dynamics something has functionally gone awry.

They specifically mentioned Trusts will be Shadowbringer only upon initial. While I imagine this will change at some point, they aren't exactly swift.

Again, do you really want those jobs in name only?

Better they not bother at all and put those resources into something that will see far more use. Call me a cynic, however I fully anticipate Blue Mage being Hildebrand-esuqe, which sees updates every odd patch. Regardless, they could implement any of those jobs if they showed come creativity. Say what you will about Red Mage, but they did a pretty solid job making it work. The recent addition of Bahamut could mean positive things for Summoner if they continued down that trend. There is no reason they couldn't make Blue Mage work even if it's not precisely how other games did it. As for keeping Blue Mage restricted. This whole "Limited Job" nonsense implies it will, indeed, stay forever restricted. If they can't balance it for raids, then they aren't going to allow it into Roulettes. It'll just stay a side activity.

[EusisLandale]

I'm afraid I have to agree here.
The whole concept of people arbitrarily being locked out just doesn't make any sense in an MMO.

Rework BLU (yes that means somewhat limiting it) and make it a proper class people can have fun with in endgame (which is the content that actually matters for most players).

Masked Carnivale is Blue Mage's endgame. It's not endgame raiding, but that doesn't disqualify it.

[giwaman]

It will probably be playable with party raids etc in the next expansion when it hits level 80?. Just my good guess.

[Tempest222]

I mean, blue mage really isn’t for solo players because you will need pre formed groups to access content to unlock skills. Not really sure who this job is aimed at tbh, because it’s not great for very social players or for those who like to lone wolf content. Just being able to queue for things in duty finder is much easier. Being forced into trying to use party finder to get the most of this “solo job” just sounds annoying to me tbh. I too wish they had just done whatever they needed to do to make this a real job.

But hey, people are always complaining about just getting the same old stuff over and over, so this is a bit different. I’m a boring creature of habit and am giving this the one eyebrow raise at the moment, but I’m still interested to see how it actually is once it comes out. Continuing to release limited jobs like this doesn’t seem like something they’d be able to sustain the game on, so I doubt this is going to become the new norm to the exclusion of all else.

[Rysir]

If you're getting carried, it wouldn't take many people. If you're doing it all at level, sure you may need to line things up a little more. But then there's also things like friends? Linkshells? Human interaction?
And, for the record, I'm loving how the thought that it's a solo class is falling apart here. Their endgame is solo, the build up is collaborative.

The build up for blue mage is sitting on your hands for 2-6 minutes as a red mage nukes whatever you want an attack from and not being able to stand on its own feet in group play for 49 levels, not very collaborative.

What human interaction are you poking at? For this game the average human interaction for duties is saying hi and maybe thanks for the run due to party finder description getting the point solidly across for blue mage. And if its with your friends then interaction was already there.

[SDaemon]

They specifically mentioned Trusts will be Shadowbringer only upon initial. While I imagine this will change at some point, they aren't exactly swift.

You know when that was mentioned specifically? Playing back videos now and didn't see it on the live reddit update. Seems contradictory to his interview answer.

[EusisLandale]

The build up for blue mage is sitting on your hands for 2-6 minutes as a red mage nukes whatever you want an attack from and not being able to stand on its own feet in group play for 49 levels, not very collaborative.

If you want to just get carried, that's on you. Nothing's stopping you from finding people willing to do things at level. Though that you assume the job will be non functional for 49 levels tells me you don't really care in the first place.

[D_C]

Inna words of a great sage, "I expect nothing, and I'm still let down".

[Gun-Cat]

I see BLU as less a job and more some interesting side content. Banding together as BLU in a group, some taking skills to be a tank, some as healer and some as DPS, farming for enemy skills and having some cool, really hard single player arena battles in the end sounds actually really nice. This has a lot of potential imo.