Blue Mage Spell/Skills Feedback (Limited Job Focus)

[Berethos]

At this point Blu is way to weak. When your level 50 with ilvl of 128 and takes more than 5 hits to kill lvl 28 mob something is wrong.

What exactly are you doing that it takes 5 hits to a kill a level 28 mob? Auto attacking?

A single bristle+off-guard and any one of your spammable spells at ilvl 128 should be doing around 900 damage, give or take.

Considering 1000 damage (easily testable with 1k needles) is enough to one-shot most things up into the 30s, and take things in the high 30s to half health...if you're taking 5 hits at 50 with near max ilvl for BLU against a creature 32 levels below you?

You're doing something wrong.

[Shougun]

What exactly are you doing that it takes 5 hits to a kill a level 28 mob? Auto attacking?

A single bristle+off-guard and any one of your spammable spells at ilvl 128 should be doing around 900 damage, give or take.

Considering 1000 damage (easily testable with 1k needles) is enough to one-shot most things up into the 30s, and take things in the high 30s to half health...if you're taking 5 hits at 50 with near max ilvl for BLU against a creature 32 levels below you?

You're doing something wrong.

In that case it would be three spells lol. Close to 5, I know I'm being a little silly on the number though lol. I think just having to cast two spells to "un"terrible something feels terrible though.

[Berethos]

Feels like they "erred" on the side of over cautious with potency for Blue Mage. I'm level 50 and was doing tam tara normal for mind break (or whatever its called) and even the normal trash was still taking about 2 AOE or 3 water cannons to kill. That seems a lot for an unsynced lvl 50 considering they are only level 16.

Might I ask when the last time you did something where you were synced at level 50?

See my above comment about Bard synced at 50 - 450-500 damage is about where its spammable abilities hit when at that level (Heavy Shot specifically, which is our highest spammable ability at 50 and has 150 potency - Misery's End is higher at 190 but requires sub 20% health and has a 12 second recast, and even the higher level abilities with higher potencies are either cool down based or held behind the RNG inherent to the job's current design). Spamming Plainscracker with no additional buffs has you doing higher potency aoe than a Bard can when at the same level - 130 for the BLU versus 110 for the Bard.

Unbuffed most of its potencies are very much in line with what another job would be capable of at that level, and then its the buffs and synergies that take it noticeably above what the others can do...but again, at that specific level.

Right now, BLU has two aspects to its identity - learning skills is one, but the "tilted synergies" (to use the phrase from the translation of the Famitsu interview) is the other, and it's with those that BLU can and does outclass other jobs at that level...and then you throw in the special abilities, like Diamondback (Mighty Guard+White Wind for aggro, then Lucid Dreaming to get that MP back, then become super tank for 10 seconds at a time, with enough MP to do it for 30s total).

[Berethos]

In that case it would be three spells lol. Close to 5, I know I'm being a little silly on the number though lol. I think just having to cast two spells to "un"terrible something feels terrible though.

If the basic Water Cannon is terrible at 50, then Bard's abilities are terrible at 50. As I've outlined a couple times now, unbuffed it hits for the same range as others do when at that same level, barring certain jobs that are designed to hit hard and do little else (such as Black Mage).

Also, to be silly about their word choice on the numbers, they said "5 hits" not 5 spells.

[Shougun]

If the basic Water Cannon is terrible at 50, then Bard's abilities are terrible at 50. As I've outlined a couple times now, unbuffed it hits for the same range as others do when at that same level, barring certain jobs that are designed to hit hard and do little else (such as Black Mage).

Also, to be silly about their word choice on the numbers, they said "5 hits" not 5 spells.

Haha true 5 hits. I'd suggest that we probably disagree on a base line. Since your example shows blue mage being a bit stronger than bard on spam skills but I'm thinking blue mage should be massively stronger as a baseline (prebuffs even). As that's the only way I can feel the limitations are justified.

Water cannon no buffs slapping regular monsters into a leviathan flood.

[Burningskull]

Might I ask when the last time you did something where you were synced at level 50?

See my above comment about Bard synced at 50 - 450-500 damage is about where its spammable abilities hit when at that level (Heavy Shot specifically, which is our highest spammable ability at 50 and has 150 potency - Misery's End is higher at 190 but requires sub 20% health and has a 12 second recast, and even the higher level abilities with higher potencies are either cool down based or held behind the RNG inherent to the job's current design). Spamming Plainscracker with no additional buffs has you doing higher potency aoe than a Bard can when at the same level - 130 for the BLU versus 110 for the Bard.

Unbuffed most of its potencies are very much in line with what another job would be capable of at that level, and then its the buffs and synergies that take it noticeably above what the others can do...but again, at that specific level.

Right now, BLU has two aspects to its identity - learning skills is one, but the "tilted synergies" (to use the phrase from the translation of the Famitsu interview) is the other, and it's with those that BLU can and does outclass other jobs at that level...and then you throw in the special abilities, like Diamondback (Mighty Guard+White Wind for aggro, then Lucid Dreaming to get that MP back, then become super tank for 10 seconds at a time, with enough MP to do it for 30s total).

I think the problem is that most of BLU's combos that require them to do super damage are gated behind status debuffs that most non trash mobs are immune to. Such as petrify, stun, and that freeze debuff. The one combo that isn't is Dropsy > High Voltage. But High Voltage comboed is only 130 potency. Which is the same potency of Glower and Ram's Voice. So you are still better off spamming those on bosses. The fact that peculiar light is only 10s and has a somewhat long cool down doesn't help BLU be overpowered. Add to that Mood flute makes you litteraly useless for 15s after it's over. Which means all that extra damage you do while Moon Flute + Peculiar Light is balanced out if you hadn't used Moon Flute but could still cast afterwords.

[JBee]

Full disclosure - I didn't want BLU as a limited job and I still don't.

I have had some fun this week playing with BLU. More than I thought I would, actually.

I'm capped at 50, have all but the two spells from the Carnivale, and have gone through 8 stages so far of the MC.

The Carnivale is... well it's not fun for me. A series of solo duties to do for bonus rewards of non end-game relevant currencies... And the fights just feel like mini meme's. Ohohhohoho!! Water the lava to make it explode! You figured that out, now ACT TWO! *transition* I mean, sure, I guess, for some of the stuff, but as I've gone through it more and more, it's a matter of the difficulty being scaled behind figuring out the trick. And once you figure out the trick, it's just time wasters really.

Plus all the tricks have been found already, so it's not like it's particularly challenging.

I had more fun in the PF groups helping people get their abilities and seeing them for the first time... and running as all BLU groups to get some of them... than the carnivale.

Not even sure if I will bother to finish it now.

I get where they were coming from in saying it doesn't work with DF and limited and all, but in the end, for me, they made bad decisions. They decided to meme instead of making lasting, compelling content. And considering how many people have been playing it this week, I imagine it will only get worse in the future with other LJs. Shame. Some of the stuff is genuinely fun - but whatever.

Back to playing the real game now I guess.

[Nihility]

my feeling is everything is basically 110, 120, or 130 potency so your kind of just stuck using the clearly better spells

like, why use mindblast when you can plainscracker?
or why even bother with the aquabreath > high voltage combo when stuff like the voices and plainscracker/flamethrower/glower do the same damage on one button which is a real shame since both those spells look cool and the interaction makes them more interesting
A lot of spells like ink jet are just lower potency outright which makes them very undesirable

I'd say the first adjustment needed would be to make blue mage actually capable of tanking so stuff like primal farming isn't almost required to have a carry.
doesn't even need to be anything big, like...
The Look: 90 potency damage not reduced by mighty guard
bad breath: mp cost drastically reduced while under the effect of mighty guard (the one thing this does exceptionally well is the damage reduction debuff so it is a tank skill)
diamondback: mp cost and duration reduced by 50% while under the effect of mighty guard

and after that, maybe make some of the skills instant cast or have combo effects to compensate for the 10 less potency. give them a reason to exist

[Freyt]

my feeling is everything is basically 110, 120, or 130 potency so your kind of just stuck using the clearly better spells

like, why use mindblast when you can plainscracker?
or why even bother with the aquabreath > high voltage combo when stuff like the voices and plainscracker/flamethrower/glower do the same damage on one button which is a real shame since both those spells look cool and the interaction makes them more interesting
A lot of spells like ink jet are just lower potency outright which makes them very undesirable

I'd say the first adjustment needed would be to make blue mage actually capable of tanking so stuff like primal farming isn't almost required to have a carry.
doesn't even need to be anything big, like...
The Look: 90 potency damage not reduced by mighty guard
bad breath: mp cost drastically reduced while under the effect of mighty guard (the one thing this does exceptionally well is the damage reduction debuff so it is a tank skill)
diamondback: mp cost and duration reduced by 50% while under the effect of mighty guard

and after that, maybe make some of the skills instant cast or have combo effects to compensate for the 10 less potency. give them a reason to exist

Mindblast:
- Less than 1s cast time. Gives you opportunities to avoid AoE's without missing your cast.
- Paralysis is useful to mitigate damage
- 30 potency not that huge a difference until you use it a lot

Aqua Breath > High Voltage:
- The paralysis advantage of Mind Blast, but with the potency of Plaincracker

Ink Jet:
- 30s blind is insane
- 10 potency difference not a big deal when you're using it as a blind

The Look:
Not a bad idea, I agree. 90 potency might be too much though and get a group to just take the hit in damage to have guaranteed safety.

Bad Breath:
The MP cost is not a big deal. Remember, that being in the Magic role gives us Lucid Dreaming.

Diamondback:
This one is an alright idea. Personally I'd rather just be able to cancel it any time I want.

Just about every skill is unique. They all have their niche. Some of those niche's are less useful than others.