Some love for Blue Mage

[Kabooa]

No job is as bland as BLM juggling betweent fire, ice, and thunder only..

You !@#kkin' wot, mate?

[ReiMakoto]

I mean they were already onto something to make blu feel unique as a caster with some of its moves. Give BLU a bunch of 1 second cast time gcds, then a bunch of 1 second cast time ogcd weapon skills like off guard is, so then you have a constantly quick casting mage, already different to the rest of the casters and not "Cookie Cutter" before you even add the flavour.

[Saefinn]

Exactly this. One of the most stupid argument from people against BLU being a regular job is that BLU would become another BLM LOL!

No job is as bland as BLM juggling betweent fire, ice, and thunder only. SMN is already different enough. Just look at RDM, it has faster casting spells that can be instantly cast after every other spell and a melee combo. None of the caster jobs care remotely identical to each other. Let BLU become a regular job has zero chance with it being a BLM copy at all.

Not quite, Leylines, teleport to leylines, variations of fire/blizzard, flare, triple cast, sharpcast, convert, foul, enochian (or BLM Greased Lightning as I call it). Though I might agree it's not that interesting most of the way to 50, I didn't start enjoying it until around level 40. Whilst RDM wins with speed and mobilities, BLM wins with power, especially AoE power, whilst RDM's is respectable (especially at a lower level - low level RDM is pretty OP more so than BLU), but Scatter feels weak in comparison to BLM's sustainable AoE's (and it is behind BLM in terms of DPS too, but RDM has more utility). So I agree they are all different, but not sure I agree with your reasoning as to why BLM is 'bland'. Though I don't mean to imply you have to like it.

[Dralonis]

I don't get why people think you can't have both aspects if the job was implemented as a full job. Spell acquisition can still be the core of the job.
Give it some base moves like a melee combo and make the blue spells be rotated through the melee combos or something (traditionally BLU is a melee caster).

Again, what is bad atm about BLU is not just the fact it is solo, but the whole deal of the limitations. BLU is so limited even its ability to play solo is limited.

I don't really agree with having a ton of melee combos or something , even if "traditionally" BLU is a melee caster, it's not here. It's also not from the source it was from , which was FF5. In FF5, BLU had rather mediocre, to bad Melee stats. The main one it was even really a melee was FFXI. The others, they had some little bits of melee. It's even catergorized as Magical Ranged DPS. We need more ranged spells for it. we have tons of melee cleave, we just spam glower.

[zylo1010]

I love Blu, I really do. Even this version of it. Blu has always been my favorite class in every ff game it's been in. But I want more. There just wasn't enough to do with the job. If they added this in 2.0 it'd have made more sense and we'd have tons of content to play. But now that caps at 70. You see tons of 2.0 content in group finder literally saying "no Blu allowed". I want to take my Blu through coil, but you barely see it run. Once you learn the spells and finish the story there really isn't anything else to do with it atm.

[Phoenicia]

I don't really agree with having a ton of melee combos or something , even if "traditionally" BLU is a melee caster, it's not here. It's also not from the source it was from , which was FF5. In FF5, BLU had rather mediocre bad Melee stats. The main one it was even really a melee was FFXI. It's even catergorized as Magical Ranged DPS. We need more ranged spells for it. we have tons of melee cleave, we just spam glower.

I did not say make it exclusively melee. I said "a" melee combo. Of course I am not asking it to be the next SAM or MNK.

In FF5 even BLU's Magic Stat was low. BLU was a battle mage just like red mage. Slightly weaker magic and slightly stronger attack (BLU wore shields while red mages didn't). BLU was never about raw power in either aspect but rather about special and cheesy effects. For example BLU isn't a healer but White Wind is a very strong heal. Heck the ffxiv iteration of WW is the weakest it's ever been (since it used to have aoe esuna in 7, 8 and 9). Their offensive and defensive capabilities came from abusing certain effects. Just like how this iteration is trying to make it, but failing miserably at it.

I wasn't even comparing this BLU to FF5's BLU specifically. However, Every FF game that had BLU had them with decent melee capabilities. Check Tactics Advance, FF5, FFXI, And to an extent Quistis and Quina in 8 and 9. What SE classifies them is irrelevant, RDM has the same classification of Magical Ranged DPS and still has its strongest burst in the form of a melee combo. Paladins are tanks yet they have one of the strongest single target heal spells and one of their burst phases is a magical nuke spam.

[Dralonis]

I did not say make it exclusively melee. I said "a" melee combo. Of course I am not asking it to be the next SAM or MNK.

In FF5 even BLU's Magic Stat was low. BLU was a battle mage just like red mage. Slightly weaker magic and slightly stronger attack (BLU wore shields while red mages didn't). BLU was never about raw power in either aspect but rather about special and cheesy effects. For example BLU isn't a healer but White Wind is a very strong heal. Heck the ffxiv iteration of WW is the weakest it's ever been (since it used to have aoe esuna in 7, 8 and 9). Their offensive and defensive capabilities came from abusing certain effects. Just like how this iteration is trying to make it, but failing miserably at it.

I wasn't even comparing this BLU to FF5's BLU specifically. However, Every FF game that had BLU had them with decent melee capabilities. Check Tactics Advance, FF5, FFXI, And to an extent Quistis and Quina in 8 and 9. What SE classifies them is irrelevant, RDM has the same classification of Magical Ranged DPS and still has its strongest burst in the form of a melee combo. Paladins are tanks yet they have one of the strongest single target heal spells and one of their burst phases is a magical nuke spam.

Their magic was lower, but not entirely super low like that of RDM. BLU had -8 to melee damage but +23 to magic. (however, this point is sortaaa moot since they got the power of their spells from the magic not the STR. so they just wouldn't be whacking the mob with a cane, but with spells unlike RDM, so only a visual difference) RDM had +8 / +8 to magic but had agility, sorta would be like making them more mobile .That's also probably why RDM's burst is put into their melee rotation since they have tons more STR. BLM had -9 / +31 , SMN had -10 + 33 Just mentioned those for points of reference to other spell casters.

The main problem I have with it is that I'm not a huge fan, personally, being forced into melee range to do that. Paladins, you can do it at range and in melee range. They already do it with RDM so they could with BLU, just saying that it isn't exactly the same with PLD, is all. I guess I'd be ok if it was an OPTION but not forced though for BLU. At least, for class fantasy sake and for it to not literally be a BLU clone of RDM,but it would make sense, so they probably may do a melee rotation for them.

As long as it's not too long. Personally, I'd prefer RDM and BLU to have a 2 button melee rotation if anything. Goblin punch+ aqua breath or something. If it becomes a full class. Would be cool to visually change some skills, have that kinda customization and swap out aqua breath for flamethrower, but I doubt they'd put that much into the class, if it were to go full class. Also, they clearly looked at FF5 and said they are modeling it after FF5, I don't think they are going to go off the identities of the other versions of BLU tbh. I kinda wonder if we will see goblin punch, aeroga, flare, and graviga.

[Saefinn]

Whilst in most cases it has a melee side, as suggested they went more for the FFV style one and also seemed to want to play with the showman aesthetic, hence the cane and I think they were making it in keeping with Masked Carnivale.

But who knows, maybe they’ll throw in some melee spells instead at some point.

[GenericMagus]

If only we had BLU but with the current learning system, much better skill learning while being unlimited, it could of gave us the job that many people been wanting.

I feel like those who are all for limiting it are shooting themselves in the foot, restricting something that's obviously designed to be just as balanced as the other jobs barring a few moves. Like it's always "SE won't balance content around BLU". You're right, they balance it so everything is able to do it. There's nothing broken in BLUs current kit that works on bosses.

Smh SE, you had a fantastic opportunity to show off unlimited BLU, breaking the mould but too stepped in restricting yourselves that you Limit BLU not for gameplay reasons but out of lack of creativity.

[Phoenicia]

snip

Thanks for correcting me regarding stats. I know however BLU in 5 had access to better melee equipment than RDM. Maybe to make up for actually having lower melee stats.

My point in the PLD and RDM cases is that 1 skill doesn't change your role. Just because I heal doesn't mean I am a healer. Just because a magical nuke PLD is not a "mage". And RDMs melee combo didn't make it a melee DPS.

Regardless, I was just throwing suggestions as to how make the job viable as a full on unlimited job. Even if its melee "combo" is just a means to disengage.

Whilst in most cases it has a melee side, as suggested they went more for the FFV style one and also seemed to want to play with the showman aesthetic, hence the cane and I think they were making it in keeping with Masked Carnivale.

But who knows, maybe they’ll throw in some melee spells instead at some point.

I am not arguing what BLU "is" , I know what they "went for" which is where the problem lies. Yes the whole "showmanship and cane" deal is what they went for. It is also where the people who dislike the current BLU are disappointed.

What I am saying is, they "could have" added aelee combo (to use as baseline before learning spells) and then you use blue magic as your main source for damage. Something along the lines of melee being no more than 10%of your total damage.

I feel like those who are all for limiting it are shooting themselves in the foot

Couldn't agree more. I mean if people don't want to "grind" dungeons and raids on a job they can simply, you know, not do dungeons and raids on that job.


Look at BRD for example. The job is already established as a main job. Perfect spot in the meta game. And Very well designed. Now it also has the ability to perform music. Imagine if in order to perform SE said: we releasing the performer job, it is a limited job meant for solo play. (but you guys are so dumb we hid all the instruments at a low drob rate in raid instances. LOL suckerssss!! ). I wonder if people would rush to level PRF and defend it as hard.

Like the BRD has "Perform" while retaining identity as a full on job, BLU can have "Learn" and "Masked Carnival" and be a full on job. If you don't want to raid on it then don't. Don't limit others because you want to be a selfish snowflake.

So regardless whither people want to look pretty In a pixil beauty contest, or perform music in crowded areas. We don't need a job specifically "limited" to do that. We don't need the jobs "Dresser" nor "Model" nor "Performer" for those sub-activities.

Disclaimer: I mean no offense to anyone and to each their own. If you enjoy any of those activities, please go ahead. I'm a digital glamor enthusiast myself. I just meant to deliver a message against forcefully limiting jobs.