BLU for Duty Finder and Raids! Show your support!

[Kazrah]

BLU will be great side content for me and i much rather get a limited job every expansion than another boring dungeon. We have more than enough different ways to get tomes by now that we don´t have to do expert roulette every day.

I also think, the time needed for BLU isn´t that bad, because they don´t need to balance the spells at all.

This is my perspective on the matter. It's something that both enforces and promotes leveling in a style alternative to the same boring dungeon grinds.

Also, during Heavensward, I made my post explaining how Blue Mage could work as a job like any other, and a lot of people didn't like it because of elements of the job that simply would not work with a regular job. You just can't have a standard job work the way that people wanted Blue Mage to work, and devs (especially Yoshi) knew that better than any player ever will.

[Niwashi]

A new job that just does the exact same thing as the other 15 jobs we already have versus an entirely different new job with its own unique content and its own unique goals (collecting skills). Why would anyone want to just do the old worn out stuff, like regular dungeons and raids, when finally given an alternative? I think the Blue Mage design is great, and totally fits what Blue Mage is supposed to be.

[Valdegarde]

Why would anyone want to just do the old worn out stuff, like regular dungeons and raids, when finally given an alternative?

'Cause I still like this damn game. I do. And a new job, especially one that means so much for the Final Fantasy series, is like unlocking a cool secret character in a fighting game or something to play the game with. I understand those who aren't happy with this game and want alternate playstyles tailored specifically to them, I do have sympathy. As a long time fan of the series, I just did not want that hammer to fall on Blue Mage. I don't believe that's fair to the job's representation in the series, being treated like kind of a relative bastard compared to other jobs. It's not THAT weird to have deserved such a segregated existence.

I understand it would be a lot of work and it seems like the devs are pretty stalwart in their stubbornness on Blue Mage's projected future, but I would be 100% on board with Blue Mages having a pool of skills they can use in regular parties and the rest be novelty highly specific solo instance/Masked Carnival deals, where if you don't have...Level 3 Old or something you won't complete an objective. That seems totally fair and they can throw balance even further to the winds for the 100+ other spells they have in mind while continuing to balance a certain amount that aren't locked behind like...savage raids or something, but are learnable in dungeons and the overworld.

Maybe I'll frame that as a question. Would those who are on either side of the fence like to see a future Blue Mage with x amount of easier to learn spells that allow them to function in currently relevant parties and 100+ wildly out there spells designed for the Masked Carnival? Would this be something too crazy to suggest to the devs in live letters and such after we've seen Blue Mage in action for a couple weeks?

[Arkdra]

Maybe I'll frame that as a question. Would those who are on either side of the fence like to see a future Blue Mage with x amount of easier to learn spells that allow them to function in currently relevant parties and 100+ wildly out there spells designed for the Masked Carnival? Would this be something too crazy to suggest to the devs in live letters and such after we've seen Blue Mage in action for a couple weeks?

It's not crazy unreasonable (assuming your timeframe for this is somewhere between 5.3 and 6.0 I guess), but I also don't want it. The obvious return question is, "Why is blue mage getting all this extra dev attention?" Which is also my question whenever people bring up summoner egi's to be honest. Wheres my feudal lord content for samurai? Musketeer content for red mage? Gladiator arena for Gladiators? Etc. etc. etc. Currently this goofball blu thing is sucking up the resources of one dude who would most likely be working on some other content I don't care about (ultimates) so this is a net gain in my book. But the second blu starts sucking up resources elsewhere from something I do, then I am against it.

[Lambdafish]

" Which is also my question whenever people bring up summoner egi's to be honest. Wheres my feudal lord content for samurai? Musketeer content for red mage? Gladiator arena for Gladiators? Etc. etc. etc.

Isn't that exactly what perform is for BRD?

[BillyKaplan]

like regular dungeons and raids

Because for better or worse, that's how the game operates and that is the vast majority of future content we can expect to see. MSQ is going to take you into dungeons and trials. The big side-stories are going to be either 8-player raids, or 24-player raids. While a lot of people complain about it, that's how the game is. If you don't want to continue consuming that content, maybe this isn't the game for you, at least until a wider overhaul to the structure is performed. But judging by the FanFest presentation about ShB, at the earliest that's going to be 6.0, if at all.

when finally given an alternative?

But it's not an alternative. An alternative would be the ability to clear MSQ with puzzles created exclusively for BLU instead of those "regular dungeons and raids". BLU's solo content (which isn't even that solo, is the absurdity of the matter) is parallel to all of these and could've just as easily been not only solo-locked without taking anything out of the solo mode.

[Blueyes]

I think Yoshida's heart was in the right place when designing Blue Mage, but I disagree with the execution. Many people seem to think it had to be one extreme or the other. It had to be either this or a reskin of Black Mage. That no alternative, or middle ground, was or ever will be possible. That is simply untrue.

The latest interview gave some perspective into Yoshida's view pertaining to Blue Mage. You'll notice that the primary reason as to why Blue Mage has been limited isn't because of spells that are too powerful for normal play or the possibility of Blue Mage functioning as a tank or healer. Those points were touched on briefly, but they come across as byproducts of Blue Mage being limited rather than the reason as to why it was limited in the first place.

The real reason why Blue Mage has been limited is because of the learning mechanic. And that, quite frankly, is SE forcing players to play how they see fit. Players would feel bad when kicked from a group because they lack spells? Let's solve that problem by not allowing Blue Mage to queue with random people. Players aiming for world first raid clears would have to put in extra work compared to other jobs? Let's solve that problem by removing Blue Mage from the raid scene entirely. Those are not proper solutions.

I also find it ironic when people talk about how Blue Mage will improve the open world experience when Blue Mage has been actively discouraged from participating in one of the few open world activities that exist: FATEs. I get that many players aren't a fan of FATEs, but will grinding basic, open world enemies be better? It would be something different, but better? And again, this is SE forcing Blue Mage to be played how they see fit. Why penalize players who want to level up through FATEs? What purpose does that even serve?

To summarize SE's logic:

[Laphael]

I think Yoshida's heart was in the right place when designing Blue Mage, but I disagree with the execution. Many people seem to think it had to be one extreme or the other. It had to be either this or a reskin of Black Mage. That no alternative, or middle ground, was or ever will be possible. That is simply untrue.

The latest interview gave some perspective into Yoshida's view pertaining to Blue Mage. You'll notice that the primary reason as to why Blue Mage has been limited isn't because of spells that are too powerful for normal play or the possibility of Blue Mage functioning as a tank or healer. Those points were touched on briefly, but they come across as byproducts of Blue Mage being limited rather than the reason as to why it was limited in the first place.
[/HB]

I think it´s not about "limited" or "normal" job.
It´s about "limitied" or "not at all".

Of course i can´t look into Yoshi´s or SE´s heads, but thats the strong impression i get from everything that was said about BLU.

[Jkap_Goat]

Im going to say it again. I STRONGLY don't support this, blue mage cannot work in FFXIV without making it into a generic caster that functions like a black mage, just DPS with one support spell, and every 10 or 5 levels , you go kill a monster to learn one ability.. so boring, that's what you people want right? Go play black mage then.

This BLU I like, going out into the world and learning spells from every monster in Ezorea, and teaming up with other blue mages is going to be so much fun!

Thank you Yoshi P and dev team for making a job that's true to it's identity and something that isn't tied to the Trinity system because that's not what BLU is.

[Foris_Zecht]

If BLU was true to it's identity it would be in line with every other job in the main cast of roles, but it isn't. It's already outside of it's identity by being ostracised to "limited job" in this new form/function of solo play. The job has been around since 1993, they have no excuse other than laziness or not wanting to actually deal with the problem they had to approach here finally with it's implementation to somehow brainstorm their way around it's game play mechanics as an iconic role from the series. (and Yoshida only ever talks about the limits from not having learned certain magic before endgame content as prerequisite, that has always been the player's right to decide throughout the main series, even in XI)

I wholly support the idea of BLU being way less limited than it's been outlined and fear the only support or identity it will ever get (barring command restrictions and their planned 128 spells) after they took time to actually develop it is not being the only problematic or incompatible job for the dev team to handle when another iconic role the series has had at a certain point gets highly requested and approached.

Anybody wanting Puppet Master or Beast Master and have been waiting for a while for either job should probably check out now, because this is the solution and it's not great.