BLU for Duty Finder and Raids! Show your support!

[Linadae]

Blue Mage should be usable in duty finder. The idea of a job being limited is ridiculous. Maybe if its a temporary testing period, but that is it.

I don't find it ridiculous at all. Like I told you in Limsa, it will likely be impossible to balance without stripping the class of what made it unique. Also it also stops the headaches when Mr. Blue Mage shows up in an end game dungeon still missing most of his spell book. And you can't say "Well they have to have so many spells to be able to enter." Ok but what if they show up with the most useless spells Blue has available? Say they have to have these specific spells? Then you may as well have Blue learn spells like every other class does, which would strip Blue of the unique flavor it's always had.

Would it be nice to see it being able to be used, sure. I have friends who would like to main it. Is it possible, eh, I'm no game dev...but I'm sure SE tried all avenues before deciding to limit the job. It preserves the true essence of what Blue Mage is without letting it inhibit the gameplay of other players. Also, not like you can't get some buddies and do the dungeons with them.

[Noodle_Trinidad]

I don't find it ridiculous at all. Like I told you in Limsa, it will likely be impossible to balance without stripping the class of what made it unique.

Why do you think this argument even holds up? The only thing that makes BLU unique is that it uses abilities that it learns from Monsters. That is it, nothing more nothing less. I think people have held up this idealized overpowered BLU from other games and have cemented it into their minds that that is the unique "BLU" calling card. Do I think the learning mechanic is unique and interesting? Sure I do but I don't find its implementation worthy of stripping the class from playing in most of the battle content in this game. The one way I'd imagine this class to work beautifully in its current state would be an idea I read during an argument of this class. Instead of a Limited Job make it an Advanced Job that makes it clear that just playing the story alone would not be enough to learn all your abilities, to make it clear that you really need to put in the time to make BLU complete. I think it'd easily be done if you balanced the skills around a bit, I mean it already has 49 skills it can learn, no reason you can't just shrink down that pool a tad and have it more balanced to existing content. Also on the topic of "unique" the argument is made moot given the Iconic Skill: Mighty Guard got turned into a Tank Stance instead of a party wide defensive buff.

[Niwashi]

I hope people realize the double standard that is being applied to Blue Mage. The number one argument that people state as a reason for why Blue Mage should be limited is that, because some BLUs will be lazy, no BLU should be allowed entry. If we applied that same logic to every job, everything would be limited.

Ok, in a thread with over a thousand posts, it's possible I've forgotten a couple, but I don't recall having seen anyone make that argument, that blue mages would be lazy. The most common argument was that it would be somewhere between prohibitively difficult and impossible to balance dungeon content for a job that's as varied as BLU.

I think it'd easily be done if you balanced the skills around a bit, I mean it already has 49 skills it can learn, no reason you can't just shrink down that pool a tad and have it more balanced to existing content.

Shrink it down? That 49 is just the initial starting point. It has over a hundred planned already, with undoubtedly more to come after that. That's the whole point of it. BLU is a collector's job, and collecting all those skills is its main point in existing (just as it has been in every other iteration). You can't shrink down the number of skills to something approaching other jobs without removing BLU's whole purpose.

[BillyKaplan]

Ok, in a thread with over a thousand posts, it's possible I've forgotten a couple, but I don't recall having seen anyone make that argument

The devs did in the Fanfest panel. They didn't call it 'lazy', but they described a situation whereas a BLU wouldn't have all the necessary spells for the content and be kicked from parties for it. And that can only happen if someone attempts content before performing the necessary preparations. Which is a double standard because how many people have we seen in Shinryu without their level 70 skills and gear? How many jobs do we see in all sorts of content without the skills that are locked behind job quests, or even the job themselves?

You can't shrink down the number of skills to something approaching other jobs without removing BLU's whole purpose.

You can if you keep those skills to the Masked Carnivale (thus maintaining the exact state we already have right now), but only work within instances with that limited number of skills.

[Lambdafish]

The devs did in the Fanfest panel. They didn't call it 'lazy', but they described a situation whereas a BLU wouldn't have all the necessary spells for the content and be kicked from parties for it.

This wasn't the only reason they stated though, and the devs have this fear based on evidence. I call it the "DRK provoke" problem. If this was the only reason, you would have a case, but it's not. The devs also stated that certain skills would be overpowered/wouldnt work in a standard party setting, and the restriction is put in place so that BLU parties have the creative freedom to be BLUs while not spoiling the run for a random just running his roulette. The devs used the awful example of lvl 5 death on Omega, but a better example would be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygUMAQr1Kxg

[BillyKaplan]

This wasn't the only reason they stated though

Yeah but we're debating that one right now :P

not spoiling the run for a random just running his roulette.

What about the WHM who hasn't done a single job quest since level 50 in the Vault? That sure ruined my run of the place as a tank. Double Standards, again.

The devs used the awful example of lvl 5 death on Omega

A curse of their own design, and one I disagree with. I mean, you're not wrong. But then I can just say that I think they were wrong to give us all those skills in the first place. NOT TO MENTION - what's keeping people form using those griefing skills outside of dungeons? Just because BLU can't use matchmaking doesn't mean they can't bother other players. I've been in Eureka Pyros the other day and the boss just kept being pingponged around by people using various knockbacks. BLU has Sticky Tongue outside of instances too. The problem isn't putting it in an instance, it's putting it in the game in the first place.

[Vaer]

Shrink it down? That 49 is just the initial starting point. It has over a hundred planned already, with undoubtedly more to come after that. That's the whole point of it. BLU is a collector's job, and collecting all those skills is its main point in existing (just as it has been in every other iteration). You can't shrink down the number of skills to something approaching other jobs without removing BLU's whole purpose.

They could probably do it. You can already save sets of spells; they could just have a specific set balanced for party play that is the only one that can be active in the current "restricted" content and save the hotbar separately. If you don't have all of the ones in the balanced set, it just doesn't let you in. Then you can have the "balanced version" and everywhere else they can go now with the 49-100 spells you can do whatever you want. The question is whether they want to bother. So far I'm gonna say no since for a functioning job they need to actually be able to acquire weapons to be fair to everyone else and they didn't even bother designing those.

Yeah, you'll feel gimped inside party play, but I dunno some people might accept that to have the extra option some might not.