Alright, I Did It. [Blue mage Review]

[Kalise]

Whether it was or wasn't possible before (I don't believe it is possible in way that would satisfy people more than what we have), it most certainly isn't possible now. To change current BLU in such a way would be an overhaul akin to making a brand new job, which I would rather they didn't do.

It really wouldn't be that hard.

We already know they're planning on adding (A considerable amount of) new skills to BLU come the next update for the job.

They just need to make some of those skills comparable to the current "Must haves" and then put them in the Overworld or as Totems. Then it's done, literally the entire design I outlined for making BLU both not restricted while retaining the essence of BLU (If we assume that the current implementation is capturing the essence of BLU) is successfully created.

Just add more skills, make some easier to get. Just like they have now. The only thing you need to do is make it so that the easy to obtain skills aren't just garbage like Final Sting and at least have some that are like actually relevant skills such as The Ram's Voice.

Then it's just balance changes to the trio of problematic skills, which hardly needs an overhaul to the entire BLU.

[Blueyes]

Whether it was or wasn't possible before (I don't believe it is possible in way that would satisfy people more than what we have), it most certainly isn't possible now. To change current BLU in such a way would be an overhaul akin to making a brand new job, which I would rather they didn't do.

That's drastically overstating the amount of work that would be required. All of its assets are already present. Blue Mage does not need to be remade from scratch. Learning spells from monsters can stay. Spell customization can stay. The vast majority of its spells are perfectly fine the way they are. Very few of them could be considered broken or overpowered. As long as those few spells are kept within reason, we're left with a DPS that contributes fair damage and some support utility.

Now the RNG aspect of learning spells would also have to be addressed. Particularly, spells from dungeons and trials. There should be a consistent and reliable means to acquire those spells which can be handled with purchasable totems.

[GrenGarm]

That's drastically overstating the amount of work that would be required. All of its assets are already present. Blue Mage does not need to be remade from scratch. Learning spells from monsters can stay. Spell customization can stay. The vast majority of its spells are perfectly fine the way they are. Very few of them could be considered broken or overpowered. As long as those few spells are kept within reason, we're left with a DPS that contributes fair damage and some support utility.

Now the RNG aspect of learning spells would also have to be addressed. Particularly, spells from dungeons and trials. There should be a consistent and reliable means to acquire those spells which can be handled with purchasable totems.

Spot on this. They would also just need to add some kind of "attunement" quest where the game checks if you have enough and the correct spells in order to participate in the Duty Finder. This should be trivial since the game already checks this for job quests and totems.

[Lambdafish]

Spot on this. They would also just need to add some kind of "attunement" quest where the game checks if you have enough and the correct spells in order to participate in the Duty Finder. This should be trivial since the game already checks this for job quests and totems.

I will concede that matchmaking may be possible in the future, as the Devs just need to assign a pseudo level to each skill for level sync. That doesn't stop BLU being a limited job though, because it still can't and should never be able to do deep dungeon, raid, or PvP.

Raid would be impossible on BLU because the job is not balanced against other jobs. There is a level of homogenisation in other jobs that means that they can be directly compared, BLU doesn't fit into that meaning that it would either be useless or heavily exploitable. When it comes to deep dungeon and PvP, the systems are simply not designed to accommodate the concept of BLU skills.

I will follow up by saying that if this is what the community wants then they are asking in the wrong way, there is a lot of complaining and not a lot of constructive ideas. A lot of bedroom designers who don't understand why "just make it a proper job" doesn't work, and are completely ignorant as to why BLU was designed the way it was. We need to create a discussion that is more constructive, otherwise all the Devs will see is that people don't like BLU and it's not worth any more Dev time

[KageTokage]

Once fully kitted out, BLU is honestly not that unorthodox as a caster DPS outside of its utility/support moves that run the line from almost useless to hilariously overpowered.

The instakill/HP reduction effects are already limited due to several things being immune to them, while stuff like White Wind and Bad Breath could be balanced out by giving them cooldowns.

[Kalise]

I will follow up by saying that if this is what the community wants then they are asking in the wrong way, there is a lot of complaining and not a lot of constructive ideas. A lot of bedroom designers who don't understand why "just make it a proper job" doesn't work, and are completely ignorant as to why BLU was designed the way it was. We need to create a discussion that is more constructive, otherwise all the Devs will see is that people don't like BLU and it's not worth any more Dev time

What? Really? That's what you think?

Have you missed the many, many, MANY, posts that people have been making where they cover all the different changes that could be made in order to let BLU fit into normal content without breaking Raids/Deep Dungeons/Duty Finder?

Most of the direct complaints come from people like you that are complaining about the fact that people want BLU to be a real job instead of some half baked side content.

[GrenGarm]

I will concede that matchmaking may be possible in the future, as the Devs just need to assign a pseudo level to each skill for level sync. That doesn't stop BLU being a limited job though, because it still can't and should never be able to do deep dungeon, raid, or PvP.

Raid would be impossible on BLU because the job is not balanced against other jobs. There is a level of homogenisation in other jobs that means that they can be directly compared, BLU doesn't fit into that meaning that it would either be useless or heavily exploitable. When it comes to deep dungeon and PvP, the systems are simply not designed to accommodate the concept of BLU skills.

I will follow up by saying that if this is what the community wants then they are asking in the wrong way, there is a lot of complaining and not a lot of constructive ideas. A lot of bedroom designers who don't understand why "just make it a proper job" doesn't work, and are completely ignorant as to why BLU was designed the way it was. We need to create a discussion that is more constructive, otherwise all the Devs will see is that people don't like BLU and it's not worth any more Dev time

All of the constructive feedback and suggestions that Square could ever need have been provided 10 times over via every available form of communication, starting from the announcement of FFXIV as a game, to this very day, and of course spiking after the disappointing announcement of BLU as a limited job. If you're ignorant of that history, please educate yourself before commenting on BLU at all.

[Deceptus]

That's drastically overstating the amount of work that would be required. All of its assets are already present. Blue Mage does not need to be remade from scratch. Learning spells from monsters can stay. Spell customization can stay. The vast majority of its spells are perfectly fine the way they are.

Slight disagreement. They have too many spells that are carbon copies of each other. Random 120 potency aoe X here and there. Eruption and Feather rain are exactly the same (220 total pot) Landslide and Shock Strike are the same Damage wise (310 then reduced), but Shock is ranged so it wins 100% of the time.

[Blueyes]

Slight disagreement. They have too many spells that are carbon copies of each other. Random 120 potency aoe X here and there. Eruption and Feather rain are exactly the same (220 total pot) Landslide and Shock Strike are the same Damage wise (310 then reduced), but Shock is ranged so it wins 100% of the time.

I wouldn't say that having some spells which are carbon copies of each other is necessarily a bad thing (when there are so many) but that's just my personal opinion. There are usually minor variations such as elemental type and targeting behavior. Personally, I think what we have right now works okay as a starting point, but it would be nice to see them make better use of diverse spell combos in the future.

One thing worth noting about Mountain Buster is that it has twice the radius of Shock Strike. Shock Strike has a radius of 3y which is rather small. In a situation where there are multiple adds, it actually may be preferable to cast Mountain Buster as long as you can comfortable get within melee range. (I'll still need to test those spells to make sure that is the case, but that is my understanding.)

Though, I will agree that Feather Rain could use some help. It does the same damage as Eruption, but over a period of 6 seconds instead of instantly. Objectively speaking, Eruption will always be superior. Feather Rain does have a slightly longer range (30y vs 25y) but that's hardly worth mentioning.

[TarynH]

Adding my review to this in an attempt to keep it a uniformed review thread.

For the most part, I like BLU. I like it so much, that I want to see it be re-imagined into a fully functional job.

Points of interest:
1. The job is fun to play in the most basic sense. It feels like a FFXIV job. However, it lacks any form of structure or uniqueness to the job (other than learning spells).

2. I would like to see more spell combos added to it. It needs a rotation to make it interesting. For instance, Water Cannon could have had 2 followup spells to complete a basic combo for low level. BLU could actually become a very fun spell combo job.

3. Make those spell combos interchangeable. In other words; give the option for Water Cannon to be replaced by something like Goblin Punch later. It won't change the function of having a combo, but rather add variety to the look of spells for the individual playing.

4a. The damage aspects of the job are too gimmicky. Most of them are spam-until-it-hits spells that do set damage. However, most of them are fully resisted on anything that matters.

4b. If you are going to balance BLU as an actual job, it is perfectly acceptable to have spells like Tail Screw do scaled damage. FFXI's BLU did this in a way where the job could be played normally. 1-shot spells do not hold my interest as much as having a viable job I can play for content. Besides, you have already made those types of spells be fully resisted on anything that matters.

5. Let us level up. There is no reason for the job to be capped at level 50. Let us level to 70 (80 at 5.0) so we can actually pick up spells on our own in older content. I'm not even asking for more spells to be added at this time. But at the moment, the 50 cap is only holding us back from being able to acquire spells solo. (I'm also not asking for us to play 51-70 content at this time.)

6. Add learning %+ to the weapon. Since it has no stats currently, this would be a good stat to add for it. Another stat could be increasing overall damage of spells.

7. The spells are weak. Even if BLU was being used as a full job at this moment, the spells are absolutely too weak for it to compete.

8. I don't see people kicking BLU from content because it doesn't have X-spell. In fact, you've made most of those spells absolutely worthless in content as it is. I see it more as BLU getting kicked from content because it simply can't do any damage. This can be addressed by giving BLU a basic skill set to do content with. One that is scaled and balanced. All of that other fluff can be used in the Masked Carnivale.

As it stands right now, BLU is just as you described it; side content. It's pointless right now. Even the end content for it is pointless. Learning spells to learn more spells? Why? I like the job enough to want to see it NOT be pointless. I would love playing this job in the newest raid. And I see no reason how it could "ruin the content," because atm BLU can't even ruin an Ifrit in hard mode. None of the "content ruining" spells work on him.