Thank you SE for...

[ApolloGenX]

Yeah, sorry- bottom line is BLU is dependent on others to progress... and isn't any better soloing than any other job. It's a gimp job that is useless. It's a collection minigame, I wouldn't even call it a job. It's basically just a glamour/emote collection that takes a job slot.

[BillyKaplan]

And no one's doing synced dungeons to get XP so drop the "It's only partying up for levelling" argument

You're right, they're doing it because half their bloody kit is inside instances they can't solo.

Two things I'd like to say:
1. It can join parties. Yes. Ok. And? People use this slide to counter the "designed for solo" argument but they also said, clearly, that it was not designed for party play. Being able to join a party does not, in any way, shape or form, contradict the two points presented in the first slide. I can tank as BLM and heal as SMN; doesn't mean I'll be good at it or that the job was designed for it.
2. BLU joining parties is a necessity born out of their kit's distribution. Did you notice where they wrote the "forming parties" part? Under "BLU Progression". But it's not like the BLU in question is going to be able to carry their weight in there because their kit is not designed for anything outside of the Masked Carnivale

BLU is this monstrous hybrid of design, and in the worst possible sense. It was created to be carried.

[Floortank]

You can't do literally every thing in the game solo as a BLU, and in some people's minds that makes it a lie. Lol great logic.

Designed for solo play means that you're going to be spending a lot of time in the Masked Carnivale puzzling out the challenges and bonus achievements. If you play through all 25 stages of the Carnivale, using the different strategies available to defeat enemies on your own, you will see that it has literally been designed for solo play.

That doesn't mean you get to solo Kefka savage.

I mean come on, give me a break.

[BillyKaplan]

That doesn't mean you get to solo Kefka savage.

You're looking at it from the wrong direction. No one here wants BLU to be able to solo - to use a more relevant example - Shiva Ex (although then the question arises, if it can't do it, why is it a locked job? hmmm :thinking: ). BLU was advertised as a job intended for solo play, with its own solo game mode, the Masked Carnivale. If this is where it would've ended, you'd have seen a lot less discourse over this aspect of BLU.
But then they took several skills and put it behind content that BLU can't solo. They put it, at the very least, behind Shiva Ex and Garuda Ex, because at least those two skills you can't get from anywhere else. And then there's also Titan HM and Ramuh and Levi and T1. Content this job that was said to be designed for solo play, that was not designed to be in parties, has to beat otherwise its own niche content is incomplete. That's where the paradox exists.

A lot less people would've cared, and cared a lot less at that, that we couldn't solo Shiva ex if we could get her skill in some other way. As befitting a solo-designed job that isn't meant for party content. But we can't, and that's the problem, and dare I say, the false advertisement.

EDIT: now I wonder if they couldn't have Lored it and played a mix of BLU and SMN. Because the entire thing about SMN is that you had already fought those Primals and already are infused with their aether, all it takes is focusing it and harnessing it. BLU could've easily played on that, maybe even with the help of actual SMNs from the grand companies who fought the Primals. Focus the aether that's already inside you into a BLU spell.
But that would've required extra development (and stepped on SMN toes I guess) and it was easier to throw the skill acquisition behind existing party content, regardless of how it breaks the job's declared design.

[MrKimper]

You can't do literally every thing in the game solo as a BLU, and in some people's minds that makes it a lie. Lol great logic.

Designed for solo play means that you're going to be spending a lot of time in the Masked Carnivale puzzling out the challenges and bonus achievements. If you play through all 25 stages of the Carnivale, using the different strategies available to defeat enemies on your own, you will see that it has literally been designed for solo play.

That doesn't mean you get to solo Kefka savage.

I mean come on, give me a break.

Then why is it locked out of party content if it's only real solo content is the masked carnival? which doesn't even seem like it takes much effort to do and can be trivialized by just getting all the skills (The point of playing blue mage in the first place) again I'm not saying having less of an emphasis on solo play content is a bad thing, but as it is now it's too wishy washy in the way they developed it. Just give us a full version of both at this point.

The issue is that if it's only REAL solo play content is a glorified mob gauntlet with seals behind it, what is keeping BLU out of being a regular job with side solo content in the carnival and learning?

1. They've already shown it can be locked out of duties by not having certain skills as it is locked out of quests without glower etc etc

2. It already has a rotation at level 50, in fact it already has several rotations that can optimize it's dps.

3. It can't even USE all of it's spells and needs to lock in 29 specific abilities to be active at a time.

4. Most of it's abilities are copy pasted potency's or cc abilities that aren't particular strong or noteworthy after level 20.

I think BLU needs a rework, unlock duty finder firstly or implement some sort of BLU finder, let learning skills mean something more after 20 or have it learn it's core set of rotational skills through special mobs and keep the rest of it's spellbook as back up or spells for the carnival, and for the love of god give it weapon damage or at least better gear through quests.

[Fyce]

Except they did. You can try to defend it all you want but a picture is worth a thousand words.

Why do you cherry pick this line in particular, while ignoring every other instance of Square Enix speaking about party play for Blue Mage?
Also:

It actually is designed for solo play as it allows most of its content to be played solo. Only a handful of skills require party play. EVERYTHING ELSE this job has to offer can be solo'ed. This is what "designed for solo play" means. It doesn't mean "solo job exclusively". I wonder how many times I will have to repeat myself in order to get my point across.

But anyway, I redirect you to my initial post: arguing about what you think that single line in a single powerpoint slide meant is completly useless and will achieve nothing. We were never promised a solo exclusive job. Pretending that we were is ridiculous and nothing will change because of it. As I said, SE could very well come to us and simply say "sorry you got it wrong" if they think that this is our feedback.

[Alexandre_Noireau]

Some white knights would argue in circles till the heat death of the universe in order to try justify the unjustifiable.
The job was advertised as DESIGNED for SOLO. If you are requiered to party (and you are required to party), then either the advertising was wrong or the design is a failure.

And even if the advertising is wrong. There is no way arround the fact that the job design is awful, is just RNG filler content in form of a job.

No wonder this genre is collapsing, people are defending this kind of content as "proper content." The delusion.

[Fyce]

Some white knights would argue in circles till the heat death of the universe in order to try justify the unjustifiable.
The job was advertised as DESIGNED for SOLO. If you are requiered to party (and you are required to party), then either the advertising was wrong or the design is a failure.

And even if the advertising is wrong. There is no way arround the fact that the job design is awful, is just RNG filler content in form of a job.

No wonder this genre is collapsing, people are defending this kind of content as "proper content." The delusion.

And some dense people think that "designed for solo" means "solo exclusive content" just to be able to hate on SE with... a sentence in a powerpoint slide.
Impressive argumentation.

[ApolloGenX]

And some dense people think that "designed for solo" means "solo exclusive content" just to be able to hate on SE with... a sentence in a powerpoint slide.
Impressive argumentation.

Ok, but I fail to see how this job is designed more for solo than any other class....aside from having solo content designed for it...which you could argue is just expanded content similar to job quests... I think other classes are better at soloing... like summoner.

[BillyKaplan]

And some dense people think that "designed for solo" means "solo exclusive content"

It kind of does when "designed for solo" is coupled with "not suited for parties". Given these two statements together makes forcing BLUs into party content to be a curious decision at best, and a mistake born out of laziness to make proper content for the class at worst.