People who are mad about the "limited job" didn't actually want Blue Mage.

[Duskane]

I doubt we will see much limited jobs
But generally depends on the reception blue mage gives when we can actually play with it ,definitely leave a sour taste for those who wanted to truly main it.

It'll be funny and quiet ironic if blue Mages spells are underwhelming and not balanced in a sense of them being too weak.

[Mansion]

I don't know what to think right now but that strange haired man made a good point:

'm shocked Square had the cajones to actually implement something fun and unique, rather than another homogenous watered down rotation machine with nothing but the AF making it as that it's supposed to be (:: cough Summoner cough:)

Basically, having a template of another caster with Blue Mage flavoured actions would have been a poor choice. Although Red Mage is a success (IMO) in that respect, I'm not sure the essence of BLU would match FFXIV's system without feeling watered down or awkward.

[Alleo]

I believe this issue with party forming/duty roulettes will be solved with the addition of trusts, which could in fact help the other jobs in Shadowbringers. If I was another job besides blue mage, I probably would queue up with my trust npcs instead of waiting ages for a tank or healer anyways. That way I could still do dungeons with a party in piece, and it would be a far less annoying and speedy experience. I'm still excited to be able to level in the overworld instead of the same dungeons over again. Upon the release of Shadowbringers however, Blue Mage's level cap should be on par with other jobs at 80 so people can play through Shadowbringers with it if they choose.

Didnt they state that they will increase the cap slowly of the 5.x patches? So why would it even be at 80 in Shadowbringers? Heck we dont even know if it ever will be on max level since its spells could destroy the raid scene if people take them with them.

[Deceptus]

Please don't presume to tell me what I did and did not want or expect.

[Melichoir]

Wrong. Try again.

Great Counter point.

Someone says something you dont like, just tell em "Wrong".

Also, the OP is partially right. The necessity for BLU to be implemented in game would require exactly what they stated: Youd need Rotations built into the class, and for monster skills to be simplified and on par with other classes to be a part of end game content. Both of these things would minimize what BLU is as a concept. Some of you are admitting as much yourselves.

Arguments that I read often are:

No Single Player Jobs in MMOs - Youre still able to party with people. You just wont be able to use DF. No one is saying you cant do stuff with other people.

MMOs are multiplayer only - Not really. There is a lot of single player content in most MMOs, because designers know that not everyone wants to spend every moment logged in playing with other people.

We wanted an Iteration of BLU - Which is exactly the point the OP was making. You wanted something that was BLU in name, not in concept. I challenge anyone to tell me how you would rectify the following issue:

Monster Skills would be parred down to be in line with all other classes. This is not avoidable. A rotation/priority skill system would need to be implemented because the playstyle of BLU would shift from SOLO player to party play. This means that, unlike in solo play where your skill is based on using Monster Abilities to overcome situations, in party play its party organization and then being relegated to a caster role, and maximizing DPS/Healing. Just like all other classes. This would mean that the playstyle of BLU is less dependent (if at all) on monster skills, and more dependent on rotations. This would mean there is an optimal order in skills to be useful. It creates a priority system in content where you must "Bring x, y, and z, to be functional". This makes monster skills an illusion of choice - nothing more than a complicated way to learn your class skills. Then, after that how exactly does this get differentiated from other casters, other than monster skills are reskinned versions of other caster skills. Is this the BLU mage people were asking for?

Read old threads. People were asking for BLU to be able to learn monster skills and bring those monster skills to raid. No one was saying "Nah, lets dumb down those skills, minimize the necessity of Monster Skill Learning, add a rotation, and call it BLU. People wanted a 1 to 1 translation.

Ill be locked out of End game Content! - No, youll be locked out from current game content, again, due to balance issues. Youll get access to more and more as the game progresses. Not ideal, but again, how do you get around balance issues. End game/current content would have to be balanced with BLU in mind if you could just PF people into current content.

Other MMOs have done it - So what? We have to be worrying about balance in regards to THIS MMO. Some people have pointed to FFXI as the template, but this is like saying you can just import it from FFXI and it wont cause any problems. I do not believe this to be the case, nor anyone is seriously making this argument.


A final point is this: The OP has a point. While slightly strawman-ish, the overall context is something they have a problem with: People who are claiming they want BLU are typically arguing for a caster class that has BLU as its name, but not as its implementation. SE is giving us BLU as is, and the ability to play content in the game as a BLU, even if it breaks mechanics. That is the closest iteration to what people wanted. Youre getting BLU, youre just not getting the ability to use DF with it, or have immediate access to current content. So when people are complaining about those two aspects, theyre arguing they will give up a lot for the design choice behind BLU just so they can play it in DF and end game content. This is mind boggling, because the whole point of BLU is the monster ability system, and arguing for the other aspects will directly mitigate it.

[Skyskip]

Great Counter point.

Someone says something you dont like, just tell em "Wrong".

The OP made a generalized statement as to why I didn't actually want Blue Mage.

No other response is necessary for that level of arrogance.

[Aluja89]

Mate, I just want to Auto-life myself then selfdestruct as a tank! Is it really too much to ask for?

[Deceptus]

We wanted an Iteration of BLU - Which is exactly the point the OP was making. You wanted something that was BLU in name, not in concept. I challenge anyone to tell me how you would rectify the following issue:

Monster Skills would be parred down to be in line with all other classes. This is not avoidable. A rotation/priority skill system would need to be implemented because the playstyle of BLU would shift from SOLO player to party play. This means that, unlike in solo play where your skill is based on using Monster Abilities to overcome situations, in party play its party organization and then being relegated to a caster role, and maximizing DPS/Healing. Just like all other classes. This would mean that the playstyle of BLU is less dependent (if at all) on monster skills, and more dependent on rotations. This would mean there is an optimal order in skills to be useful. It creates a priority system in content where you must "Bring x, y, and z, to be functional". This makes monster skills an illusion of choice - nothing more than a complicated way to learn your class skills. Then, after that how exactly does this get differentiated from other casters, other than monster skills are reskinned versions of other caster skills. Is this the BLU mage people were asking for?

In every other iteration that BLU was in any other Final Fantasy, they were part of the team. Not on their own. So yes, I DID want THAT BLU.

It'll be locked out of End game Content! - No, youll be locked out from current game content, again, due to balance issues. Youll get access to more and more as the game progresses. Not ideal, but again, how do you get around balance issues. End game/current content would have to be balanced with BLU in mind if you could just PF people into current content.

You are mistaken. I'll be locked out of 60% of the game when it arrives (HW and SB). That's not fun. You know, the whole point of playing a game?

[Aerlana]

Let's imagine FFXVI (solo FF), coming back to some old recipe, with jobs system.
You travel with your team of 4 people "activ" and others waiting their turn, and here it is, you can have some bluemage.
BUT when you put one of your character in bluemage, he can only be alone.

This is the BLU from FFXIV...

Ill be locked out of End game Content! - No, youll be locked out from current game content, again, due to balance issues. Youll get access to more and more as the game progresses. Not ideal, but again, how do you get around balance issues. End game/current content would have to be balanced with BLU in mind if you could just PF people into current content.

YES, limited to lvl 50, hard to do end game, (and sorry but bahamut, or alexander are no more endgame content...)

And the "balance matter" but... what?! Why would it be so hard to balance BLU? i mean due to "death" spell ? How many bosses can be affected by spells like "sleep" ? or being slow, reppel. How many fight do we get root, snare, or repel and PLD can sit on their wonderfull skill which theorically avoid all of this?

Tell me why, with all those restriction, BLU could be too strong? then, we have the "classical" damages spells, with dot, direct damages etc... like other jobs get? Also he get some buff to boost the party... like RDM get?

[Sigma-Astra]

You wanted all your skills to just be part of a rotation and for it to be balanced against all other classes so you could take it into raids. This could have been any class.

Well, since we're playing an MMO, that's the point.

Blue Mage has always been a niche class. It doesn't appear in a lot of Final Fantasy games and you could see how surprised people were with the AF.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3y3QoFnqZc

They could have done something similar towards Gun Mage from X-2 and even THAT would have worked and been functional in XIV.