BLU for Duty Finder and Raids! Show your support!

[Ayer2015]

further BLU development will mimic egi-glamours I'd wager.

[Berethos]

Okay. First a balanced duty set that you must equip to go into the df doesnt need to have the same 24 restriction, it could use as many as needed but i digress I can make an argument even with just 24. To make a balanced rotation out of the 50 skills we currently have we only need to take 14 ish skills. assuming going forward we will get a lot more of what we have already: repeat skills (130 potency aoes say high and they arnt the only repeats, wouldnt put it past them to do something similar but with a single target skill, so 1 for each element), joke moves like sardine, and moves that would be useless/ very niche in a high end setting (self destruct, the deaths/ percentage skills). Not to mention as we reach higher levels we could get spells that just straight up replace skills we have already in the balanced stuff, like something better than mind blast for weaving, or a more powerful spammable aoe or dot like other classes get replacements.

All that being said it is very possible that outta all the skills we end up with there can be a balanced set as:

TLDR: Repeat skill of all forms, possibility of direct upgrade skills, meme abilities for the lols, and stuff that won't work on bosses/ are very impractical mean a set of 24 hand picked by the devs could be achieved.

Edit, where are you getting 129 from btw, i always see it quoted around 100 total skills.

All you've done is chosen the skills that would likely show up in a rotation balanced for group play.
That's maybe 1/3 of what you'd need to do - you'd also need a mechanic around which those abilities play, since the tilted and OP synergies aren't an option, and choosing different visuals for identical abilities is not a mechanic to build a job around. What's the mechanic for the job, the way Umbral Ice/Astral Fire is for BLM, or balancing Black/White mana is for RDM, or building toward DWT and Bahamut is for SMN?

You'd also need to figure out what the collection of abilities for the set rotation is going to look like when the next set show up (the 120+ is from the Famitsu interview article done in December, where he mentions they have "about 128 developed and they are planning on adding them in order in the future."), since the job will be getting significantly abilities than other jobs, and preventing later (particularly popular) abilities from being used in the rotation just because they showed up later wouldn't go over very well.

You also haven't explained how you'd fit doing that and keeping the non-DF version that has access to all spells up to date with new content for it to challenge.

As I said - you've underestimated the amount of development time that would likely be required to make it work (for what would be, in the end, minimal gain).

[ReiMakoto]

snip

Now im not a game designer so thats not my job, but ill give it a crack anyway. For an idea of how they would interplay, you could have it work that casting certain attacks on bosses changes the bosses elemental affinity gauge, (blu job gauge) so for example casting water canon X number of times raises water, then when you do a lightning attack like shock strike, it resets the water on the gauge and makes the lightning deal bonus damage. So the mechanical interplay becomes casting weaker spells to build up to the oGCDs as burst, while keeping your non elemental dot (dots) ticking. This is all on top of the fact that blus kit already has some synergy between abilities in it (not much but hey), bristle+song of torment, primal ability timers linin up with you peculiar light, mind blast becoming a weaving tool in pec light.

I would do it so the balanced set turns up in sets of 10 after level 50, so once you hit 50 you an do a quest to unlock the balance set, which gives you the 1-50 section of your ability list to use in dungeons, then at 60 you do the same ect. Each skill in the balance list has a level associated so blu can sync.

With this in place non-df blu could say learn level 80 skills while blu has its balanced level 80 set, and df blu can't use those skills until next expac if they are in. I'd be fine with that, I don't mind that other classes only get new abilities with a new expac, so id apply the same standard to df, so i think it would go over just fine, sure people would grumble but people grumble about everything, the easy counter argument is just "Other classes don't get new skills after they hit cap, so neither does df blu"

Finally minimal gain is relative, I think it would be a quite large gain over what we currently have, because as the unofficial census shows us, and what people are telling us on here and reddit, people arn't using blu past like a week. So having it as a job people can main will give it exponentially more use time, and please the large number of people (myself included) who have been wanting BLU to main for a long ass time, just some anecdotal stuff, I know people who resubbed to play BLU because they love BLU like me, then unsubbed again after a week because they couldn't main or do anything with it. I never said it wouldn't take dev resources, so ive not underestimated anything, I just think it still should be done, because pleasing both sides is a win for everything.

[xbahax92]

Polygon: While Blue Mage was released to be a solo-oriented class, players have been partying up more than ever to collect skills, clear dungeons, etc. How was the release of Blue Mage different from what you initially expected it to be?

Naoki Yoshida: The release of Blue Mage did not fall far from my expectations — the job was not meant to be subject to the standard rules of FF14 gameplay that players are used to, but rather it was meant to give players freedom in the way they approach the job. That is why it is a “limited job” only in the sense of content matching; there is no limit to the type of play style, and that was the initial concept behind it.

:')))

https://www.polygon.com/2019/2/19/18...hida-interview

[BillyKaplan]

I wonder if anyone even has any idea what's going on there. At the very least I can't take anything they say in fanfests and live letters seriously anymore, if it has any relation to what's actually in the game it's usually an utter, complete contradiction.

[Mansion]

I think they play on the ambiguity part.

A lot of people did play BLU on release day, in parties, in party finder etc.

Now, the feedback is another thing. And that's conveniently not mentioned in the interview.

[BubblyBoar]

Sadly, as I see it, those tons of people playing it those first few days means it was a success to them. Even if most people disliked it by the end or have given up on it.

[BillyKaplan]

Now, the feedback is another thing. And that's conveniently not mentioned in the interview.

Forget that, Yoshi totally sidestepped the question and even contradicted himself. "BLU is freeform"? What option do I have in how to play it if I want to acquire my skills? And if what happened was in line with what he envisioned, why call it 'designed for solo play'? And if it's designed for solo play, where's my freedom? But oh I do kind of run in parties so I guess it wasn't designed for solo play at all?!
Contradictions on top of contradictions. I enjoy far too many mainstream, streamlined elements to the game or I'd have unsubscribed a long time ago, at least between story patches

[ReiMakoto]

:')))

https://www.polygon.com/2019/2/19/18...hida-interview

I dont understand the "play your own style" aspect, youre about as free to play your own way with blu as you are to choose not to use jumps on drg. The only choice you have is what colour of 130 potency aoe you want.

[Mansion]

Forget that, Yoshi totally sidestepped the question and even contradicted himself. "BLU is freeform"? What option do I have in how to play it if I want to acquire my skills? And if what happened was in line with what he envisioned, why call it 'designed for solo play'? And if it's designed for solo play, where's my freedom? But oh I do kind of run in parties so I guess it wasn't designed for solo play at all?!
Contradictions on top of contradictions. I enjoy far too many mainstream, streamlined elements to the game or I'd have unsubscribed a long time ago, at least between story patches

Yeah, it really does not make sense when you think it through.

Now they can't just rely on the number of people playing on release day. I guess they have an eye on Masked Carnivale weekly challenges? I know for Eureka, Yoshi-P said they checked the amount of players on a regular basis in each Eureka zone to get an idea of the playerbase involvement there.
While Blue Mage would be slightly different. Surely they have to get an eye on players feedback on the forums. I know that on the French forum, the BLU thread is created by a Community Rep and it invites us to give feedback there...
Maybe a Q&A in Tokyo could tackle the issue a bit.