SE, the concept of "Limited Jobs" is a really bad idea, turn back now

[Elerus]

So out of curiosity I took a look at the Japanese forum's thread on Blue Mage. I was a bit surprised to see many of the same complaints as are voiced here, foremost among them:

1) Low chance to learn spells in instanced content meaning repeated runs usually with one person sacrificing their time with a 70 to run their friends over and over again.

2) Blue Mage's lack of access to Squadrons. There seemed to be a good number of people that were just mystified by this.

3) Complaints about the depth of the content. A lot of "what now?" and questions on why this job "not suited or designed for party play" is so cripplingly dependent that it literally cannot function without running more party content than any other job in the game.

Looks like SE messed up on this one. Feeble comfort but the outcry from across the Pacific actually leaves me a bit hopeful that there will be changes. Square seems to pay . . . special attention to the Japanese playerbase. I hope this serves as a lesson that "new and engaging" content is not created by taking existing design paradigms (jobs) and slicing mechanics from it.

If I take chess and "remove" all the white pieces from it I have not made a new version of chess - I've just taken an existing and functioning system and butchered it.

[Reneo]

I'm glad you were able to relay to us what the Japanese forums thoughts are as I am also curious about what they think of Blue Mage. I just think shoving Blue Mage into limited content was a huge mistake.

[Mesarthim]

Well I learned all 49 present spells and completed all 25 carnivale stages. What now? There's nothing for me to do on the class other than premade parties for "the lulz" because I can't run a blue mage in any other content, especially since it's only 50. All there is for me to do is blow up in town.

[Wildsprite]

I know my opinion will be unpopular with some of you but, I really hope the devs don't listen to any of you who are trying to demand BLU changed to play normal content. while I don't overly like not being able to enter MSQ content without a pre-made party I honestly like BLU itself how it is and I would like to see PUP and BST in this game as well even if they get the same treatment.

especially since it's only 50.

I think the reason they chose to release BLU like this was so they could fine tune it to be ready when they release more content and levels for ShadowBringers

[Elkanah]

So out of curiosity I took a look at the Japanese forum's thread on Blue Mage. I was a bit surprised to see many of the same complaints as are voiced here, foremost among them. Looks like SE messed up on this one. Feeble comfort but the outcry from across the Pacific actually leaves me a bit hopeful that there will be changes. Square seems to pay . . . special attention to the Japanese playerbase. I hope this serves as a lesson that "new and engaging" content is not created by taking existing design paradigms (jobs) and slicing mechanics from it.

Usually if the Jap's don't like the content, then the adjustments come at a swift pace. Seems to always be the case, because Japan takes priority over NA or EU. While I'm not surprised, it's also some good news for us really.

[Reneo]

I just don't like the concept of limited jobs. I don't think any jobs deserve restrictions for going into normal content. Every battle job should have that right by default. Blue Mage should at least be able to do the main story without having restrictions. And to be honest, I expected it to at least be op from what we heard as a solo job. But it really isn't. It somehow presented itself as a class that is dependent on others more than any other class. The idea may sound neat on paper but the way they pulled this off wasn't really close to their concept.

[DamianFatale]

Well I learned all 49 present spells and completed all 25 carnivale stages. What now? There's nothing for me to do on the class other than premade parties for "the lulz" because I can't run a blue mage in any other content, especially since it's only 50. All there is for me to do is blow up in town.

I literally told people this would happen, and people made fun of me.

[BillyKaplan]

I know my opinion will be unpopular with some of you but, I really hope the devs don't listen to any of you who are trying to demand BLU changed to play normal content. while I don't overly like not being able to enter MSQ content without a pre-made party I honestly like BLU itself how it is and I would like to see PUP and BST in this game as well even if they get the same treatment.

The all-or-nothing attitude has to stop. Most of the suggestions and requests say nothing about taking away anything from what BLU has now, but to expand it, add on it, so it can partake in more parts of the game rather than its own very limited, short-lived niche. And more recently, requests also include letting BLU be able to run the content it needs for its own niche without relying on other jobs. I'm not sure I'd want BLUs to be able to solo Shiva-Ex, but if a party of only BLUs could do it, I think that would already be a huge step in teh right direction.

I think the reason they chose to release BLU like this was so they could fine tune it to be ready when they release more content and levels for ShadowBringers

While I don't condemn them for this beta stage, it's too poor and underwhelming in its own right. Which wouldn't have been as bad if it wasn't a Limited Job, but it is, adding insult to injury. They need to revamp its kit so that you don't have maybe the one viable skill all the way from level 1 to 50. They need to revamp the spellbook so it's not this thing that's both misleading and uninformative at the same time. Leaving the Carnivale as only "endgame" was a mistake as it leaves the leveling process feeling redundant and more of a chore than it usually does because it doesn't even really give you skills like it does for other jobs.
Like, just looking at even this content they released on its own, regardless of Limited Job or not... it's bad. I'm already at 50 and I'll likely finish my spell book but I'm not sure how much I'll bother with the Carnivale unless I'm starved for tomes and allied seals (spoiler: I'm not, I hunt). Honestly at this point I'm not sure how motivated I am to pick this back up when they do increase the level cap. The mainstream leveling process is something I find somewhat enjoyable even on jobs I don't bother with after, but BLU doesn't even have the excitement killing mobs in Eureka does when you occasionally have an NM spawn.
The one good thing that came out of BLU for me so far was maxing out my Chocobo...

[SpiritMuse]

I've been trying out this job and while it is cool to be able to Bad Breath and hilarious to Self Destruct, I'm left a bit confused. This "job" has a hard time getting into dungeons and was advertised as not being suitable for it, yet a vast majority of the abilities require you to go into dungeons as they are apparently only available from dungeon bosses... so what is it exactly that they want us to do with this? It doesn't even really work to "revive" old content because you can't use the df to enter.

[Alleo]

I wish that we had our first advanced job instead of our first limited job. Blue could have been a job where you have a small fixed rotation for dungeon runs and things like that but if you really wanted to be the best you would need to react to each instance and swap in certain skills to make you better. They could have been the first job where elements matters or even be a job that can buff depending on other jobs in your party. So it could be more on the lower side for pure DPS with a fixed rotation there and could bring in more to the table with different kind of buffs or elementals. This way you can casually play it but you can also try to use it with strategy.

On top of that they still could have their collection part next to it as solo side content (like really only have overworld monsters that give you the skills) and the carneval and get the rest of the necessary skills for their rotation from the job quests.

Now we have a job with x amount of aoes that kinda just do the same damage but are named different, no true solo experience since most of the stuff is locked behind instances and RNG. Also it barely has many overpowered skills thus they could have easily locked them out of instances or made all the bosses immune to them.. I really wonder how many people will just drop it till the next update and then be done with that too in a few days. So much potential wasted imo.