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[Burningskull]

This just in from Reddit the full roster of Blue Mages spells has already been datatmined. Obviously take this with a pinch of salt (as with all datamining) and caveat emptor - beware - if you're wanting to avoid potential spoilers for Blue Mage:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...=0&single=true

I'm going to take a look through this as, at the least, it might be a good general idea of what we are (and are not) getting.

Wow... why are like the first 10 spells I read say they come from dungeons that I would have to use a premade party to get... I thought this was a solo job....

I just counted. 25 of 49 abilities come from dungeons or trials... good luck in PF all you BLUs out there.

[Valdegarde]

Looks...far more balanced than originally thought, assuming "has no effect on enemies higher level than your own" is taken to mean equal or higher level. The only spells that would need to be banned or tweaked for parties are White Wind, Diamondback, and Peculiar Light, in my opinion. White Wind having a cap of like a weaker AoE Vercure depending on max HP, Diamondback being like...I dunno, 30-40% instead of 90%, Peculiar Light being ~5-10% instead of 30%.

Also there seem to be some must have spells and kind of a rotation, such as Off-Guard and Moon-Flute for a pretty major burst, Blood Drain for MP, Bristle, etc.

I...don't know how to feel about this. It almost feels like they're giving themselves some future wiggle room for it being balanced or not. Having a...what looks like magical berserker + samurai that gives a magical trick attack is an interesting niche, and it can save some parties through the mighty power of suicide.

I'm not sure...I feel a little more hopeful now, but I could also be really reaching for hope. Thoughts?

Edit: Upon further reflection, I don't take back what I said, but I do understand some trust issues with random Blue Mages blowing up, bee stinging, or gifting themselves to death to troll or at inopportune times. I think a healthy dose of trusting the playerbase is really what I prefer, but I do understand some hesitation on the dev's part, locking some roulettes out for fear of having to raise the suiciding Blue Mage yet again. It definitely does not mean it could never be balanced however.

[Burningskull]

Looks...far more balanced than originally thought, assuming "has no effect on enemies higher level than your own" is taken to mean equal or higher level. The only spells that would need to be banned or tweaked for parties are White Wind, Diamondback, and Peculiar Light, in my opinion. White Wind having a cap of like a weaker AoE Vercure depending on max HP, Diamondback being like...I dunno, 30-40% instead of 90%, Peculiar Light being ~5-10% instead of 30%.

Also there seem to be some must have spells and kind of a rotation, such as Off-Guard and Moon-Flute for a pretty major burst, Blood Drain for MP, Bristle, etc.

I...don't know how to feel about this. It almost feels like they're giving themselves some future wiggle room for it being balanced or not. Having a...what looks like magical berserker + samurai that gives a magical trick attack is an interesting niche, and it can save some parties through the mighty power of suicide.

I'm not sure...I feel a little more hopeful now, but I could also be really reaching for hope. Thoughts?

When it says level can't be higher than your own I took that to mean it wouldn't work on Bosses since their levels are ???.

[Elerus]

When it says level can't be higher than your own I took that to mean it wouldn't work on Bosses since their levels are ???.

This is what I took it to mean as well in addition to YoshiP's earlier comments that Death would only potentially work on "minibosses" in a dungeon. It seems like Death working on actual bosses was off the table for a long time.

[Blueyes]

Looks...far more balanced than originally thought, assuming "has no effect on enemies higher level than your own" is taken to mean equal or higher level.

It's worth noting the likelihood that some of these effects won't work on certain bosses without it being outright stated. For example, many bosses are immune to stun, but you won't see "stun is ineffective against certain bosses" mentioned within the description of an ability. During an interview, Yoshida commented on Doom and stated that it won't work against all bosses. I assume we won't be able to walk into the Binding Coil of Bahamut, spam Doom until it works, and walk away with an easy win. It will still work against basic level 50 enemies, but if that ever becomes a concern for endgame balance, it wouldn't be hard for them to adjust its effect to only apply to enemies that are lower level.

Blue Mage really doesn't have that many spells that I would consider problematic for balance. It's mainly just 1000 Needles (at low levels), Diamondback, and White Wind.

[SamsaraLotusx]

So all in all SE is fucked up. It as much solo as eureka. So if you dony rush doing blur day 1 you are fucked. I like how they force " side content ".
What more all the op skills will not work on bosses at all as they got no lvl. Why its limited job?
Blue be a dps as hp/def go, so soloing dungeons befor you like over lvled them by 30 lvls will not be a thing.
How will bleu do 40+ dungeons/fates in a blue party/solo.

[Elerus]

Blue Mage really doesn't have that many spells that I would consider problematic for balance. It's mainly just 1000 Needles (at low levels), Diamondback, and White Wind.

Actually had a question regarding 1000 Needles. Doesn't the skill say it splits its damage to surrounding enemies? So if there's one target you're getting 1k, two and it's 500 a target, etc. Is that how the skill works for the Cactaur mob? It's been a while since I've intentionally stood in the orange circle but my FF gut instinct is telling me 1000 Needles "thing" was that it dealt 1000 damage, to everyone, regardless of resistances, etc. If so then they really went out of their way to modify this spell.

[Burningskull]

Actually had a question regarding 1000 Needles. Doesn't the skill say it splits its damage to surrounding enemies? So if there's one target you're getting 1k, two and it's 500 a target, etc. Is that how the skill works for the Cactaur mob? It's been a while since I've intentionally stood in the orange circle but my FF gut instinct is telling me 1000 Needles "thing" was that it dealt 1000 damage, to everyone, regardless of resistances, etc. If so then they really went out of their way to modify this spell.

1000 needles is useless once your other spells start doing over that. And that is how the cactuar spells work. It's just that some higher lvl cactuars have 10k needles and 100k needles.

[SDaemon]

[Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 1,500 while incapacitating self.]

Going to run around Final Sting-ing everything!!

[Reynhart]

The problem with what you just said is that you are completely ignoring where they straight up said it would never hit full lvl cap at the same time as anything else.

Too bad that's absolutely not what they said :

It might be difficult to expect the level cap to reach level 80 during 5.0.

Game watch: Will BLUs catch up to level 80 during 5.x?
Yoshida: If we keep raising the level cap with that pace, us developers and players will all faint (bitter smile).

Nothing in there says "never", unless you count the same "never" people assumed when asked if we'd ever have a Blue Mage or if they would ever release a job mid-expansion. At best, it says that it will be difficult to raise the level cap 30 levels higher during the course of 5.x.

But if BLU has its level cap raised by 20 levels while others gains 10 levels, it can be on par with everything in early 6.x.