Blue Mage might actually be a good thing.

[Seraphor]

I’m surprised that with so many complaining about the stale endgame, the linear progression grind, and no reasons to replay old content or play in the open world, that there’s so much vitriol around Blue Mage.

In many ways, this is the answer to most of those old complaints, they’re actually listening to people. We’re getting a true horizontal progression job, the open world will be full of blue mages hunting down new skills, no blue mage will have the same skill set, and the skills will be so much more interesting than the other jobs that are restricted for balance.
It may not be tailored towards the ‘true mmo’ community, but it’s a godsend to classic final fantasy fans and those who do enjoy the casual content, which makes up 90% of the game content.
Despite it being pegged as a ‘solo job’ I’m betting there will actually be more call for social interaction. Imagine parties of blue mages working together in the open world, with different skill sets, people who actually need to communicate and work around each other instead of just filling a predefined role slot that we all recognise with no need for communication. Blue mages with mighty guard acting as tank for blue mages healers with white wind, while those with bad breath debuff, etc.

But some people can’t see the wood for the trees, it doesn’t fit the end game tombstone grind paradigm, so it does not compute.
This isn’t a typical job, but it is something new and this game needs new stuff if it’s going to survive.
We’re still getting two new normal jobs in Shadowbringers, that’s the content for you if blue mage isn’t.

I get that’s it’s disappointing for those who were specifically looking forward to Blue Mage, and who don’t care about new types of gameplay or ‘casual’ content, that’s fair enough, those complaints are justified. But I think the overall reaction to this is a little overblown.
It might not be the Blue Mage everyone wanted, but it is something we asked for and many will be happy with it, and if you can get over the initial disappointment of an iconic job not being exactly what you wanted (everyone wanted it to be something different anyway) I bet you’d probably end up enjoying it anyway.

I for one am glad it’s not just another caster. BLM, SMN and RDM don’t need more completion, and I can’t see how a BLU being a typical class would be all that innovative or different from RDM.
The ‘Limited Job’ strikes me as a good opportunity to fit in some other jobs that typically would not fit the role system.
The prospect of a Beastmaster that actually collects monsters in the openworld, pokemon style, instead of being a non-magic SMN who can ‘summon’ up to three or four preset monsters, has me hopeful that this could be a new form of side content that will keep this game alive, alongside end-game raiding, and crafting/gathering. This could be the ‘Eureka’ that actually works.

[Raikai]

Honestly, at this point, my main concern is about what kind of rewards are due to the whole BLU experience. Triple Triad, for example, is a nice minigame, but what incentive there is to do that besides weekly GP challenges?

[Seraphor]

Honestly, at this point, my main concern is about what kind of rewards are due to the whole BLU experience. Triple Triad, for example, is a nice minigame, but what incentive there is to do that besides weekly GP challenges?

This is a legitimate concern. Ultimately it will all be down to execution, and it's entirely possible they do screw it up, but I don't think it's a given, and I don't see too much reason to be pessimistic about it right now. We don't know enough about that part of it.

At the very least, if the 'Blue Mage End Game' content, the Masked Carnival, drops current tombstones, that alone would go a long way to making it a fun alternative tombstone grind. But hopefully there's more to it than that.

[RopeDrink]

The difference is BLU will be woven through future content - quite possibly being integrated (if not fully then mostly) into the multiplayer aspect over time (seeing as they're not restricted from playing with other people - they just can't Duty Find or go beyond a certain point), whereas Triple Triad is a case of a content-type that can't really go anywhere other than to add new cards or NPC's to battle (or whatever minor additions apply to those who actually TT against other players regularly). I don't recall ever levelling any of my current max-classes for some incentive or final reward other than to be able to do max-level content with it. However, our max-content will not be the same as BLU's. They will no doubt expand their content realm, add more collectibles, probably even have an incentive reward for keeping it up to date -- but I think people are approaching the experience the wrong way.

[Lyden]

Thank u Seraphor and RopeDrink !!!

Its exactly what i think and wished for.
First of all sry for my terrible (D)english but i try my best to bring up my mind here ( German forum dont care that much for the BLU in a good nor bad way XD)

Tbh, in the first 3 seconds i was shocked, but than i was more than happy about this announcement, we have enough casters which are downgrated to fit into the generic MMO formular.
I was deebly in sorrow about jobs like BLU, but with the first "limited job" they make up complete new ways to explore a mmorpg, and BLU can be played as a BLU we all love and known for,
beside its just Dutyfinder with rnd., do FATEs and hunts also hunting tresuremaps, PotD-content, eureka and much more are there for a BLU ... and fullparty and single dungeon stuff is also in( or did i missed something?)
Only Raidparty will not work and this is not the popularest content on some servers there are about 1% ppl doin it, beside the fact a another mage (and much more the BLU with his Skillset) would be a potential balance killer which lead to exclusion for BLU or other jobs in a raidparty cause numbers dont care about feelings.
for me is this class send from heaven cause FF-14 has a lot of boring content which we all had beatn thousand times and with a BLU u can make it by ur own or with friends in a special broken way.

Final Fantasy 14 become more and more a real Final Fantasy Titel for me.
And i am happy not everyone out there is complaining about the first "limitedJob" BLU.


PS: Lets call us BLUes Brothers

[Bright-Flower]

I'll be honest, I would have preferred to just roll the 'learn from monsters' thing into the job quests and lore and gotten a standard job. RDM, SMN, even BLM to a lesser degree etc, all went through changes to be fit into FF XIV's mold, and there's really no reason BLU COULDN'T have gotten the same treatment.

But I will applaud them for going outside the box and going all out with the classic blue mage approach. The game needs more things to do beyond the end game grind, and this could be fun depending on how they execute the concept.

On the other hand, if I was a big fan of blue mage I might be upset like some others knowing that it was in the game but as a side activity rather than a job I can 'main.'

[Raikai]

I'll be honest, I would have preferred to just roll the 'learn from monsters' thing into the job quests and lore and gotten a standard job. RDM, SMN, even BLM to a lesser degree etc, all went through changes to be fit into FF XIV's mold, and there's really no reason BLU COULDN'T have gotten the same treatment.

But I will applaud them for going outside the box and going all out with the classic blue mage approach. The game needs more things to do beyond the end game grind, and this could be fun depending on how they execute the concept.

On the other hand, if I was a big fan of blue mage I might be upset like some others knowing that it was in the game but as a side activity rather than a job I can 'main.'

But then there is SMN... It's the perfect example of how a class went south when it came to its classic approach. It barely remembers anything that oldschool Summoner is.

You can't summon a myriad of deadly entities to lay waste on your enemies other than Bahamut, almost making you a "dragonmage". Though my perspective is that it can be very simple to fix... Rename Dreadwyrm Trance to Aethertrance, and Summon Bahamut to Summon IV (and Enkindle Bahamut to Enkindle II) give a myriad of Demi-glamours to subistitute Bahamut by other big beasts, Like Leviathan, Ramuh, Fenrir, etc... You'd basically keep SMN as it is mechanically.

[Lyden]

@Raikai and thats a reason to downgrate all other Final Fantasy Jobs to this SMN example ... pls NO!

[Bright-Flower]

But then there is SMN... It's the perfect example of how a class went south when it came to its classic approach. It barely remembers anything that oldschool Summoner is.

You can't summon a myriad of deadly entities to lay waste on your enemies other than Bahamut, almost making you a "dragonmage". Though my perspective is that it can be very simple to fix... Rename Dreadwyrm Trance to Aethertrance, and Summon Bahamut to Summon IV (and Enkindle Bahamut to Enkindle II) give a myriad of Demi-glamours to subistitute Bahamut by other big beasts, Like Leviathan, Ramuh, Fenrir, etc... You'd basically keep SMN as it is mechanically.

Yeah, but honestly blue mage would be EASIER than classic sommoner to work in honestly. Just theme the abilities around classic blue mage monster abilities, and tie that lore into the job. Have the job stone teach the WOL basics and have job quests about learning other abilities. They could have fit BLU into FF XIV's job trinity system much more smoothly than SMN which is all about summoning big creatures to devestate your foes, or at times support summons like carbuncle.

[Lyden]

Yeah, but honestly blue mage would be EASIER than classic sommoner to work in honestly. Just theme the abilities around classic blue mage monster abilities, and tie that lore into the job. Have the job stone teach the WOL basics and have job quests about learning other abilities. They could have fit BLU into FF XIV's job trinity system much more smoothly than SMN which is all about summoning big creatures to devestate your foes, or at times support summons like carbuncle.

and than we have a another funny reskinned mage class ... dont like the idea