Blue mage is a waste of potential, change my mind.

[BillyKaplan]

SE didn't state that BLU was meant to solo dungeons

Then the problem is SE locked BLU skills behind those non-soloable dungeons.

[Arrius]

Then the problem is SE locked BLU skills behind those non-soloable dungeons.

Then it could be, again, a translation error in the explained text.
Instead of 'Not suited for Parties' it could've meant 'Not being able to form/join Duty Parties'.

Again, could be hair splitting in my opinion and SE not have worded out properly, thus receiving the fallout of their decision to word it like this.

[HyoMinPark]

Then it could be, again, a translation error in the explained text.
Instead of 'Not suited for Parties' it could've meant 'Not being able to form/join Duty Parties'.

Again, could be hair splitting in my opinion and SE not have worded out properly, thus receiving the fallout of their decision to word it like this.

No, the second bullet point is literally a direct translation of the Japanese. If they were meaning “Not able to form/join Duty Parties”, the verb would have a different conjugation—mainly the potential form. Instead, it’s the direct negative of the verb that means “to be suited for”.

[Arrius]

No, the second bullet point is literally a direct translation of the Japanese. If they were meaning “Not able to form/join Duty Parties”, the verb would have a different conjugation—mainly the potential form. Instead, it’s the direct negative of the verb that means “to be suited for”.

But we can form parties, so that was a thing thrown out of the window at the very start. Forming, as in making or joining existing parties.
So I can assume SE didn't give the text a proper proofreading and didn't clarify this properly by limiting it to Duty Parties, since 'Duty' is whatever is present in the Duty Finder tab without changing the settings (undersized, minimum IL).

Also, thank you for translating the texts. It's very helpful!

[HyoMinPark]

But we can form parties, so that was a thing thrown out of the window at the very start. Forming, as in making or joining existing parties.

So I can assume SE didn't give the text a proper proofreading and didn't clarify this properly by limiting it to Duty Parties, since I assume 'Duty' is whatever is present in the Duty Finder tab without changing the settings (undersized, minimum IL).

The text says “Not Suitable for Party Content” — it says nothing about forming parties or joining parties, just that they aren’t suitable for party content.

There are several different inferences that can be made about the statement: the one I personally made was that it would be unable to fit into the regular party content due to being difficult to balance. In other words, I interpreted it as the job would actually be a bit overpowered, but it ends up being the opposite. Adding to the advertisement of it being a Solo Job, I also inferred it would have decent soloing capabilities outside of just the Masked Carnivale and overworld mobs, but its solo sustain for content near or at its level is fairly weak.

[Arrius]

The text says “Not Suitable for Party Content” — it says nothing about forming parties or joining parties, just that they aren’t suitable for party content.

But they were straight locked out of the matchmaking Duty content but still could make their own parties and tackle dungeons, of they could've just simply mentioned that beforehand and saved everyone the guessing back then.

There are several different inferences that can be made about the statement: the one I personally made was that it would be unable to fit into the regular party content due to being difficult to balance. In other words, I interpreted it as the job would actually be a bit overpowered, but it ends up being the opposite. Adding to the advertisement of it being a Solo Job, I also inferred it would have decent soloing capabilities outside of just the Masked Carnivale and overworld mobs, but its solo sustain for content near or at its level is fairly weak.

I think of the game balance as a rough line, where the Blue Mage is making sharp jumps up and down due to certain spells. And those 'sharp jumps' cannot be 'smoothed out' as that would endanger the integrity of the job, as the mmo's of this time and age are much simpler in terms to gameplay, complexity and depth. Just look at XI and the roster of spells they got over there.

As for the solo aspect, I would've gone with 'Designed for Solo-Oriented play' and soften the argument instead of taking a hard stance of 'Designed for Solo play'.
Just me, tho.

[Evogolist]

I think of the game balance as a rough line, where the Blue Mage is making sharp jumps up and down due to certain spells. And those 'sharp jumps' cannot be 'smoothed out' as that would endanger the integrity of the job, as the mmo's of this time and age are much simpler in terms to gameplay, complexity and depth. Just look at XI and the roster of spells they got over there.

At first I was very optimistic about blu, I understood why it was limited and didn't challenge their theory.

The thing is, the framework for it to play normally like the other jobs and not compromise the integrity of blu is already there. The lvl 20 job quest as well as the lvl 50 job quests require you to venture out and learn their required spells in order to progress further. Spells like Bomb Toss, Sticky Tongue, and Faze that allow you stun a enemy will allow Sharpened Knife to do more dmg. The same goes for the Ram's Voice, Dragon's Voice combo. So again the framework is there.

There's absolutely nothing stopping them from requiring players to go out and learn a spell or any number of certain spells every 5-10 lvls to complete a job quest and make blu a normal job. As for balance wise and the infamous lvl 5 death example they gave, again...the framework is there. Tail Screw barely works, Lvl 5 Petrify will barely land. Hell, even spells such as Bad Breath, Mind Blast and other status inflicting spells stop landing after a while and start being resisted, not to mention the bosses and mobs that resist from the start. So in the end Blu just feels rushed and lazy.

If anything, it feels like info on blu started leaking from data miners and Yoshi and the dev team pushed the panic button and we got blu sooner than we should have.

[Whanext]

But we can form parties, so that was a thing thrown out of the window at the very start. Forming, as in making or joining existing parties.
So I can assume SE didn't give the text a proper proofreading and didn't clarify this properly by limiting it to Duty Parties, since 'Duty' is whatever is present in the Duty Finder tab without changing the settings (undersized, minimum IL).

Also, thank you for translating the texts. It's very helpful!

I do not understand what you are trying to argue. The slide is literally official translated, and SE should take full responsibility of the words they showed/said. Poor proofreading is a terrible excuse.