it would be nice if leveling was less exploitable

[Niqote]

Doing a good job with that when half of its spells are locked behind group content, dungeons we can't queue for. And not like having a full blu party works either, since if one dies he won't get the skill. Not to mention the horrid drop rate, as if it was expected the BLU to get carried a bunch of times into the primal ones.

Oh... Not to mention they still end up taking just as long as any other dps to kill anything at 50, or even taking longer... They're only good for fate boss 1 shotting gimick, nothing else really unless it's in the carnival.

I'd appreciate it if you didn't cut my sentence in half to orchestrate some other meaning out of it just so you can speak your mind about an aspect of the job you strongly disagree with.

This is not the quote you are replying to *Jedi hands*

[Jijifli]

I'd appreciate it if you didn't cut my sentence in half to orchestrate some other meaning out of it just so you can speak your mind about an aspect of the job you strongly disagree with.

This is not the quote you are replying to *Jedi hands*

I can edit in the quote if you want. I highlighted that part because for a job advertised for its soloness, it's doing an amazing job of forcing me into group content I can't even queue for.

Though, I guess you technically agreed since you're having fun with it with your friends?

[Jojoya]

I can edit in the quote if you want. I highlighted that part because for a job advertised for its soloness, it's doing an amazing job of forcing me into group content I can't even queue for.

Though, I guess you technically agreed since you're having fun with it with your friends?

Where did SE advertise it for its "soloness" as opposed to advertising it as a limited job with special solo content that can only be done by the job (Masked Carnival)? They did warn players from the start that they would need to group up with other players to learn the most powerful abilities.

[Jijifli]

Where did SE advertise it for its "soloness" as opposed to advertising it as a limited job with special solo content that can only be done by the job (Masked Carnival)? They did warn players from the start that they would need to group up with other players to learn the most powerful abilities.

"Blue Mage is the first "Limited Job" coming to FFXIV. A Limited Job is a job that is meant to be enjoyed in a solo environment and is not suited for parties. "

Right from the Letter from the Producer, Number 46 (Where it's announced.)

They said it was meant to be enjoyed in a solo environment and not suited for parties. So why is half of its content locked behind parties, and it's not capable of doing solo content any better than anyone else, and in some cases, even WORSE than other classes.

Outside of gimick shotting a boss fate, RDM is a better solo job than BLU right now.

And interestingly enough, the screenshots show the BLU soloing the primal content for the abilities...

[Evogolist]

Where did SE advertise it for its "soloness" as opposed to advertising it as a limited job with special solo content that can only be done by the job (Masked Carnival)? They did warn players from the start that they would need to group up with other players to learn the most powerful abilities.

That's taken from the fan festival live letter. Unless the local team translated it wrong, they pretty much stated right there that it was designed for solo play.

[Jojoya]

That's taken from the fan festival live letter. Unless the local team translated it wrong, they pretty much stated right there that it was designed for solo play.

Which it is. Designed for the Masked Carnival, which is solo play.

Not suited for parties? I'd argue that possibly. It has some use in parties depending on your willingness to ditch the weak 1000 Needles spam and use the ability combos that are more powerful once you get past 38. Considering most people seem to want to only spam 1000 Needles, then I agree it's not suitable for parties.

I think where the translation is flawed is saying "While blue mages can learn abilities while in parties" instead of "While blue mages will need to learn some abilities in parties".

[Penthea]

It appears some people are misinterpreting this image.

1: "Designed for solo play" does not mean "you should only solo" or "you can solo everything". If we were to apply this to standard classes the image would say "designed for group play" but we all know this doesn't mean you should only ever play in groups if you're playing a standard class.

The end-game content for blu is The Masked Carnivale, which is solo content. This is the solo play blu is designed for. The end-game content for standard classes are raids, which is the group content they're designed for.

Just because something is designed with a specific task in mind does not mean that's the only thing it can or should do.

2: "Not suited for parties" does not mean "you should only solo" or "you should only play with other blu players". It means that while blu is classed as a dps, it does not fit into the trinity system the standard classes are designed for.

Blu is a jack of all trades but master of none. It has a lot of utility and high damage potential, but past the point of cheesing out 1k needles, a standard dps class does more reliable damage. It has one strong heal but it can't compete with a healer's varied toolkit and it has no res. It can tank but it's not as durable or efficient at aggro building as a real tank.

On top of the above, blu does not learn abilities by lvling up which means the effectiveness of one blu player to another can wildly vary. If you have a lvl 50 standard class in lvl 50 group content, you know that the player has access to the necessary abilities to complete it. Not the case with blu. Having a blu in the party can mean having to carry a dead weight, or having a very useful team mate.

[Lastelli]

Blu is a jack of all trades but master of none.

Doesn't "jack of all trades" mean "pretty good at everything"?

Maybe I'm still missing the most important spells, but right now it looks like BLU is just a terrible dps, a terrible tank and a underwhelming healer. Frankly, it cannot even be compared to other jobs because of how underpowered it is. Its sole reason of existence is the masked carnival, using it for anything else is just a waste of time. It might be fun if you're doing it with friends while chatting on discord, but what isn't?

I wasn't expecting much and I'm still disappointed. The masked carnival is a decent minigame, but I really don't think that alone can make a job relevant, no matter if they label it a limited job.
Also, lvl 70 players carring BLUs in instanced content to help them learn their spells gotta be one of the most absurd things I've ever witnessed in a videogame. I really hope this wasn't their intention from the beginning, because it's just bad design.

[Jijifli]

[IMG]1: "Designed for solo play" does not mean "you should only solo" or "you can solo everything". If we were to apply this to standard classes the image would say "designed for group play" but we all know this doesn't mean you should only ever play in groups if you're playing a standard class.

The end-game content for blu is The Masked Carnivale, which is solo content. This is the solo play blu is designed for. The end-game content for standard classes are raids, which is the group content they're designed for.

Just because something is designed with a specific task in mind does not mean that's the only thing it can or should do.

Classes that come out that are normal do not tell us they're "designed for group content," which showed BLU was meant to be different. And of course we didn't say "You SHOULD only solo" because that's not the point. For a class "Designed for solo play" I'd expect it to get its piece on its own.

I'm keeping the carnival opinion out since I actually haven't done that part of the content. It wouldn't be a fair opinion as I'd only be able to work off of word of mouth. However, I will focus on the "designed with a specific task in mind" part of this. Yes, it can work off of more than its original intended design, and it probably should, but focusing again on, "Designed for solo play," part. It does not feel like, to me, it did a good job being designed for solo play. For something to do more than it can originally do, it should be good at doing at what it originally did. Imagine if WAR did more dps, but couldn't keep threat anymore, at all, for whatever reason. Would you call it a tank anymore? It's still classified as a tank, doing, let's just say for funsies, a BLM's damage output, but it's not doing the job of a tank very well.

That's how I feel here. It's a class meant for solo play that isn't doing that solo play very well, outside of ONE piece of content.

2: "Not suited for parties" does not mean "you should only solo" or "you should only play with other blu players". It means that while blu is classed as a dps, it does not fit into the trinity system the standard classes are designed for.

Blu is a jack of all trades but master of none. It has a lot of utility and high damage potential, but past the point of cheesing out 1k needles, a standard dps class does more reliable damage. It has one strong heal but it can't compete with a healer's varied toolkit and it has no res. It can tank but it's not as durable or efficient at aggro building as a real tank.

Which my statement is also pointed out here. For a class that, in the picture, states it's designed around solo play, it's not very good at doing that outside of carnival and the gimmick spells.

On top of the above, blu does not learn abilities by lvling up which means the effectiveness of one blu player to another can wildly vary. If you have a lvl 50 standard class in lvl 50 group content, you know that the player has access to the necessary abilities to complete it. Not the case with blu. Having a blu in the party can mean having to carry a dead weight, or having a very useful team mate.

Actually, you can't KNOW either way. I've had plenty of cases of players who were lacking their skills. In fact, I even ended up in a 60 dungeon on an alt with BLM forgetting to do any of my HW quests, removing almost half of my damage output. The difference is that, while I'm able to just do a quest for a skill, I have to go farm nightmare in Garuda EX because it's apparently more common than this spell.

When a mount I never even knew was a thing, and have most of the other ponies anyways, is more likely to drop than obtaining a spell that, outside of carnival, is worse than Ifrit's version anyways, there's a flaw in design of how common this spell is.

Also:




Both these images, also from the producer's letter on revealing BLU, show the BLU in Shiva and Garuda. In Shiva case, having the spell sure, but in both cases, ALONE. I wonder where people got the idea we could solo these?