BLU as an "Unlimited" Job - Thoughts and Suggestions

[Kalise]

I can give you my opinion on it: I like BLU for what it represents rather than what it is. We all know that BLU is flawed, and over time it will be improved (As most jobs in the game have at some point), but its core identity is exactly what community has been asking for for a long time.

What exactly is that core identity?

Playing as BLU, I don't feel it's much different to any other class, other than how it learns skills and of course, the complete and total disregard for having skills feel different and unique what with all of them being just normal spammable skills with no CD's or anything.

Further exacerbated by the fact that many skills are interchangeable because they're all balanced the same doing 120/130 potency to a target/in an area with different "Flavours" that are basically unusable because they're all predicated on having targets afflicted with status ailments that are highly limited in application (Such as Petrify is only from that 1 skill you get from Haukke Manor and is an RNG chance to apply it only to trash mobs)

As I mention in my OP, I suggest these things because it feels to me, that BLU IS very close to "Normal" jobs in comparison.

My biggest complaint about BLU is that I want more, I don't want BLU in raids, I want Disciples of Collection (I refuse to call them limited jobs) to have their own raiding scene that gives us a different experience that I guess leans slightly more towards how XI works (im not saying I want XI).

You don't want BLU in raids you just want... BLU in raids?

Uhh... Okay.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to think of ways to make elements mean something in places outside of the Masked Carnivale, so that for BLU, everywhere will feel like Masked Carnivale. Creating interactions between elements and skills that cause them in a way that will not only feel good to use, but also mean that people will be able to experiment with different skill setups rather than use the 1 skill that does X element damage to the target that's weak to X element. Or their current playstyle where they pick whatever 130 potency attack and spam that for days (Especially given how few people have the full slew of abilities for the rotation, because RNG on Primal skills being learned...)

Let BLU expand what the game can be, rather than being warped and changed to fit within the set criteria for what the game currently is.

Well, letting BLU be a "Normal" job without heavy limitations DOES expand what the game can be. As it means that any job that doesn't fit into exactly the same formula as other jobs in the "Level up, get skills = GG" sense can still be created and can still fit into the majority of content within the game.

Instead of being segregated to side content which would need the devs to divert resources to specifically in order to make sure these few jobs can get continual content while at the same time you KNOW that their primary focus will be with the content accessed by the majority of jobs. All that content is a veritable playground for a job like BLU to be used and to flex their muscles in terms of gaining new skills (Again, the skill set noted in my OP is merely the 1-50 core skills. There's so much more depth that can be added with the 50-70 skills)

Especially given how quick it would be to consume new content. Heck, a majority of the content for BLU already was completed in days for many people, getting to level 50 and learning most spells and completing the Masked Carnivale.

How much time will need to be spent by the Devs to create more content? How long will that content last? A month? A week? A day?

How much time is spent by a normal class experiencing all the content the Devs make for them? All the raids and dungeons, all the MSQ's, all the time in exploratory missions, all the time spend doing DF dailies and Beast Tribe dailies and PvP and tomestone farming and all the other many things that Limited Jobs are prohibited from.

All that extra content locked away from the jobs for what? The possibility that they might make a "Limited Job Raid" where elemental weaknesses matter despite their not being a guarantee that any other limited job other than BLU will even HAVE elemental attacks?

Not to mention, that BLU being able to do normal content, doesn't preclude them from adding in additional Masked Carnivale style content for them to do or these FFXI style "Tactical Raids" that you wish to get. It merely means that the job can have content to play in without ultimately having to drag people away from playing their jobs in content that matters to them in order to carry them through irrelevant dungeons/trials to get their skills...

some of this looks overcomplicated and heavily leaning towards removing the rewards of obtaining spells through personal achievement and effort, which is central to the whole motif of BLU.

Well, this is merely just because as BLU exists at the moment, some of their core spells in order to have a full DPS rotation, are locked behind level 50 EX Trials (The Primal skills) or otherwise need to run through level 50 dungeons/raids in order to obtain (Such as Song of Torment)

Which causes an issue if you ever intend to let people access DF because then they literally wouldn't have access to their core rotation until they've somehow already farmed the content accessed by the DF a ton (Especially with the Primal skills only having a 5% chance to be learned)

For the most part, I want skills to be collectable in the overworld. However, in order to fix what SE screwed up by sticking such important skills into RNG Dungeons and Trials, there has to be a compromise. To which, I feel the best solution is being able to get similar abilities from totems upon reaching a level where DF becomes accessible, but still having the option to go and learn the spells from the Dungeons/Trials at a later date (Much like how people in the single player FF games might complete the game and then go back and learn all the skills for completionist purposes)

Ideally, for all future skills, I would prefer if the ones that would be core for the full DPS rotation (Or can substitute for part of the core DPS rotation) be all learned from enemies in the overworld. Be it random enemies, FATEs or Leves. As that is most fun and more true to the idea of BLU.

It just sucks that SE botched it pretty hard with Song of Torment and the Primal skills...

1. Just remove BLU's restriction from not having access to the DF synced altogether. Level syncing abiltiies in general is /okay/ but I think most spells are fine as is aside from 1000 needles for any content tbh.

Well, it's not just about the fact that certain (1000 Needles) skills are OP at lower levels, but it's also about consistency and the NUMBER of skills available.

People would complain if when they're sync'd to level 15 and running Sastasha they only have 2 skills to spam and are not particularly effective (Outside stat syncing making them deal massive damage compared to an actual level 15 newbie) meanwhile you have BLU running around with 24 skills having full access to all of their level 70 combos.

Again, ideally it wouldn't be so strict that you couldn't for example, go and learn skills from an enemy that's 10 levels higher than you. Just that you're not running around with a ton of available skills in content where everyone else is far more limited. Since, BLU will anyway have more skills available than average due to needing to be able to access a few skills as depending on what skills they've learned and which ones they actually decide to use.

2. Instead of replacing certain abilities with quested copies, thereby removing the need to endeavor to obtain them. Utilize the ability for blu to enter content synced to create a more rewarding and fun way to get them.

Again, the issue is the conflict of interest between certain skills and the ability to actually go do the content.

At level 50, you'll be expected by groups to have Primal skills and Song of Torment as they're key parts to your rotation. But how do you get those skills? You run through level 50 dungeons and trials.

How do you access those dungeons and trials... Well you can't through Duty Finder because most people who advocate for BLU to be able to access DF want it to be restricted until BLU have learned enough skills they perceive to be necessary for them to function. But without DF access to this content, you're at the mercy of forming a party using the PF function, which outside the initial BLU hype is likely not going to be terribly easy to do ESPECIALLY if you have to do it sync'd so you can't even get a friend to carry you through it.

Of course, this is to say nothing about the CONTENT of the quests to unlock these replacement skills, which could actually just pit you against the relevant enemies and let you learn the normal skills (Thus making the need for my suggested replacements unnecessary)

3. Personally I think mighty guard is fine as it is. it's a handy tool for soloing and the idea of having BLU be a "ghetto tank" is appealing in it's own right. If anything I'd like to see BLU be encouraged to take on a tanking spot for some of the less intense content such as dungeons, using CC and mighty guard. We could use more tanks in this type of content, why not let BLU flex into filling that need?

Because, as a Tank main, I'd rather get new tanks that are actually designed to be tanks, rather than try and balance Mighty Guard in a way that allows it to not be a problematic skill. Especially when it comes to trying to get a job into normal content while also trying to balance them for a pseudo-tank role. BLU's don't have Tank job actions, nor do they have access to Tank gear. Giving them a Tank stance and trying to make them also be able to Tank is just adding in a huge balance headache for little gain.

That, and the current iteration of Mighty Guard is an aberration compared to the much beloved skill of the same name found in many previous games in the series.

It would be akin to if Goblin Punch, instead of being a massive damage nuke, became a short duration stun to a single target.