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

[Payotz]

[*]It means once people get theirs you have reduced to less and less likely chances of actually getting the good part of blue mage as less groups will be running for things that they've no value for. If you don't take part in the rush, then your drought build time to enjoy blue mage is drawn greatly, and some spells that would have increased your enjoyment just wont be achievable.

Which is a problem with most of the content in this game. Eureka is dead, Rival Wings is dead. It's not a BLU only problem.
Most content is simply not replayable at all. It's also the problem with synced content, or min-ilvl content.
BLU's not the only content that needs it, even Hildy trials aren't getting filled because there's no incentive to do them.

[*]It devalues collecting other spells when pretty much all except for specific spells are just terrible, or are at least different colors, perhaps even different colors of terrible.

Which is fine because it adds flavor. It also interfaces perfectly with Condensed Libra with Astral and Umbral damage, and Carnival with those niche spells being used during the floors.
Sure in the sanitized, no elemental weakness bullshit sandbox that we have right now, of course it's gonna be terrible or useless, but in its own skillset and toolkit, it does fit.

[*]That other spells are so devalues the whole 'we made blue mage this way so we could give it the real spells' but wait we totally didn't because we wanted to balance it around PF exclusive content, and we designed the whole job in a way that you have the least interesting possible mechanics if you don't do PF only content which of course will only be most feasible at launch of each content

Which is fine because if you just one shot bosses, it doesn't count as adding replayability to old content.
You can one shot bosses with your lvl 80 unsynced, why do we want to one shot a boss in synced content?
It makes sense because it's obvious that they want BLU to be the "do synced or min ilvl" job, which frankly, it does well.

...blue mage has been the worst leveling experience and it takes the least amount of time because once you get past the novelty of spamming on spell (which a job shouldn't have been built around, that's a sad fate) then you're stuck with a not very well designed job UNTIL you farm out every piece in PF...

Which I can also say about all the ARR classes. At least BLU you get to learn more skills at lower levels, and that the powerleveling thing still works.
You're not gonna be stuck spamming 3 spells at lvl 30, since you can just start learning the overworld spells immediately.
Scholar even loses spells once they're promoted to SCH. ACN at lvl 30 is a lot more engaging than SCH at lvl 30.

[*]It means that you will play the poor uninteresting BLU until you get to the built version, unlike all the other jobs which are interesting much sooner. Which means they drew out the time, indefinitely for quite a lot of players, where the job is just dull and only because the novelty of casting monster spells is it not entirely dead (spamming 1k needle, neat for a while, but entirely boring mechanically). Level 50 job vs level 50 blue mage that doesn't have the PF only spells, the level 50 job has a way more engaging kit.

I did tell you that it takes a lot of time to set up, but then again it's essentially something to do and grind for, which is what the game needs because after clearing Savage, there's really nothing to do.
Without something to do, you really just login for raids, or for weeklies. BLU adds filler between those days.

And the lvl 50 job vs lvl 50 BLU is not a good comparison. It's like comparing a lvl 50 warrior that didn't do job quests to a full spellbook BLU.
Again it takes work to have it fully set up, and that's fine. We need the content anyway.

Once you get the PF only skills your kit while a bit silly in potential doesn't even significantly play more interestingly than an actual job. (obviously synced down job vs blue mage sync, blue mage goes faster). Mind you if you let a level 80 job sync down to 50 content with it's whole kit that it too would go a lot faster (as you pointed out blue mage has a full spell list unlike some other jobs that sync down). Which is to say when it's good it's basically nearing other jobs and when it's bad.. it's just really bad and the only thing that makes it not feel dismal is that you get to use monster spells (hinging entirely on the novelty).

The role switch while vaguely novel doesn't add mechanical value to the job if anything it takes away from it.

It does play significantly different role wise. Heal BLU is the best healer in the game hands down, and the most engaging healer I've ever played since ShB launch.
It blows SCH and AST out of the water and honestly is a good foundation for healer design for this game.
DPS BLU has specific Moon flute windows, and having to cast the right spell based on Condensed Libra.
Tank BLU is bad, I'll admit, but even then it's a lot more risky playstyle given to a tank. Having no Rampart, and having to cast your cooldowns means that you have to be on top of your game as a tank.

[*]That the job doesn't use all the monster spells 1:1:, that the job is at it's most interesting (your words and the words of others who liked the blue mage after PF content) when it has the most shape and form and is most like an actual 'real job', just to me makes the entire reason blue mage the way it is now as experience with a metal bristle brush and salt.

It's a grind. Complaining about BLU progression is like me at lvl 30 complaining about how much MSQ I need to do. It's like if I'm a lvl 10 Carpenter, and I'm complaining how much Diadem and Restoration and leves and turn-ins I have to do. It's literally something to do, and the big pay off is the full spellbook BLU experience. Which, again, the game desperately needs.

So what you mean to tell me is the most enjoyable blue mage would have been a complete job..? Color me shocked.

And that's the thing though, it is a complete job in what it does . It's pretty much what a job in FFXIV is if they haven't trimmed skills for the sake of "QoL".
Hell, BLU's even a lot more engaing than most jobs. Warrior lost half of its kit, DRK got turned into a budget WAR, the healers lost all their dps skill.

The main reason people doesn't consider it as a complete job is because it's stuck at lvl 60 content and not able to queue in DF, which believe me, you don't want to do.

BLU's not one shot broken, but it has the most dps and the most versatility in its kit, and if you let them in at lvl 80 content, everyone would literally just want a BLU, maybe except for tanks.
MoonFlute + Boost + Final Sting can deal more DPS or close to Melee LB3 dps. It has a spammable Arm's Length, a busted "Cure 3" with the size of the whole arena, and has 8 Trick Attacks.

I don't wanna see current BLU be gutted just to become just a normal caster, or just a normal tank or worse, a ShB healer. Don't let the people who gutted healers touch BLU.

[HadesNight]

HEY DONT BE SO SWEET BACK!

Alright fine lol. To be fair I am emotionally invested to the job, so here I'm like 'do better' but I can easily see a situation where I don't care as much as I'd be more on your perspective.

For example I know a few people thought red mage wasn't a very great representation of red mage and honestly it felt fun to me. Although I would argue in comparison they did spend more resources on getting red mage in, so it's not a 1:1 comparison to this blue mage example but is an example where different people are willing to let more or less go.

Since I fee like they could have made a more interesting blue mage, a job I was clearly invested in, as you pointed out, and still also met your needs, or PF exclusive player needs better.. I guess that gets my salt factory going.

Just rings in my head as a list of wrongs, and since it is tied to something I don't really want to 'let go', all the perceived wrongs ring louder too. "This should have been done better"

LOL!

Honestly, I think coming to the OF and expressing your opinions openly and with consideration that the Dev teams are real people too is totally fine. My sincere hope is that we're not speaking to the aether here lol. So whenever I see a popular topic that I have an opinion I want them to see, I try to slip it in.

Would I complain if they went back and made it a full job? Hell no. I really like Blue Mages main stance and pose! It's a fun class and it would be great in game. So fingers crossed!

[ReiMakoto]

The spirit of being a blue mage is the ability to use monster abilities. That's it. Thats the baseline.

Anything else is the fanciful opinions of fans. Which isn't bad of course, being a fan is why we're all here. But not having the ability to separate personal desires from the fact that SE can implement their IP how they like borders on entitlement. Blue Mage exists as it should, I can get monster abilities from monsters and use them.

If you asked anyone what they thought of Blue Mage before it was added to the game, they would call out the FF people and land on using monster abilities. That's like the calling card of the class. The spirit of the job.

So it's just opinion. All of this is opinion, which I'm definitely a proponent of, as long as people acknowledge it as such. You can absolutely think that SE could have implemented it better, but there will be people that are happy with the ability to use monster attacks in this game.

It's all just an I agree to disagree. Once again, I just wanted SE to see the voice of someone that's fine with how it is and is getting enjoyment from it with my sub.

Entirely aggree, I was just bringing up why so many people seem fixated on how it was in other games. So often in these styles of threads you see lots of "if it was unlimited it wouldnt be blue mage" or such nonsense. Its okay to like the content you like and nobody reasonable is trying to take it away from you, just if you're going in for a discussion try argue points that can actually be backed up if youre making definitive statements. Personally im a fan of the best of both worlds approach, because I do like to use limitied blu from time to time to boost people through early game. So a system where we can have a dungeon BLU using the optimal rotation blu already has, and a limited one for the folks who just wanna chill seems like the most logical approach to push SE for.

[ReiMakoto]

Snip[

Just a snip here about your point on condensed libra, mathematically its almost pointless. The maximum you can get out of it is like 700potency's worth of damage if all your party did was spam the correct element, in practice getting physical gimps your damage so its worthless, and astral is just better than umbral to get, also you have non elemental spells to use. Generously you could say on a good roll you could get 400-500 potency out of libra per cast if you're being very generous, but that is an absolute drop in the bucket compared to everything else thats going on.

Also also while im talking numbers, if you take off dps mimicry and dont use the self destruct attacks, blus output is actually fairly balanced for a level 60 dps, and I wouldnt mind using an expansion of the rotation it has as a full job, wouldt call it gutting either as the level 60 rotation we have is what you use most of the time anyway

[MelodyCrystel]

I stated the obvious, and yet a lot of the feedback forums are presented in a way in which people think they have any right to tell SE how a job should be by showing how it was in the past in other games.

Which is a natural thing to happen in case of those people who played other Final Fantasy games before XIV; especially when you consider players coming from XI.
->Or are you surprised that others get disappointed when XIV-Bluemage here is neither overpowered (which a Limited Solo Job suggests) nor a normal job that can enter every content?

I personally won't protest in any harsh manner against XIV's interpretation, yet I'll show you the BLU-versions I played / really loved myself --- and they all were full-fledged jobs that required you to chase specific monsters for learning skills:

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance / A2 - Blue Mage


Bravely Default - Vampire


Bravely Second - Catmancer

[Payotz]

Also also while im talking numbers, if you take off dps mimicry and dont use the self destruct attacks, blus output is actually fairly balanced for a level 60 dps, and I wouldnt mind using an expansion of the rotation it has as a full job

Sure but it's not just dps output where BLU shines, it's the utility.
Second Wind, Diamond back, Offguard, Gobskin, Peculiar Light and even the ability to essentially "switch roles" alongside being able to keep dps up will replace ranged physicals as it stands.

If BLU turned into a viable lvl 80 job as it is now, then ranged physical as a role will be phased out immediately, like what happened on ShB launch with double blackmage.
The only way you can balance BLU is by taking out the utility, and turning it into a normal caster, which I say "please no".

[ReiMakoto]

Which is a natural thing to happen in case of those people who played other Final Fantasy games before XIV; especially when you consider players coming from XI.
->Or are you surprised that others get disappointed when XIV-Bluemage here is neither overpowered (which a Limited Solo Job suggests) nor a normal job that can enter every content?

I personally won't protest in any harsh manner against XIV's interpretation, yet I'll show you the BLU-versions I played / really loved myself --- and they all were full-fledged jobs that required you to chase specific monsters for learning skills:

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance / A2 - Blue Mage


Bravely Default - Vampire


Bravely Second - Catmancer

To add to this list as well, the interpretation of BLU in final fantasy explorers was actually top notch, such a shame so few people played that game, it was essentially ffxiv lite on the 3ds, with 4 players running dungeons with aoe telegraphs and boss mechanics and such. BLU in that game only had like 10 or so abilities it could learn but they were all pretty fun to use, it even had the fairest implentation of white wind ive seen, where it placed a healing zone on the floor like an assylum and standing in it would heal everyone for 5% of the blues current hp every tick and it ticked 20 times.

[Shougun]

LOL!

Honestly, I think coming to the OF and expressing your opinions openly and with consideration that the Dev teams are real people too is totally fine. My sincere hope is that we're not speaking to the aether here lol. So whenever I see a popular topic that I have an opinion I want them to see, I try to slip it in.

Would I complain if they went back and made it a full job? Hell no. I really like Blue Mages main stance and pose! It\'s a fun class and it would be great in game. So fingers crossed!

Absolutely . Yeah I like to do that too (I think I did that recently in the rescue thread, just pop in and say my little opinion and go lol), it's important that they hear feedback and especially diverse feedback that also explains why they think a way. So they can see "this person like this wants that, this like that.. hmm yess.. okay" haha.

Anyway I appreciate your sentiment there and I whole heartily agree that it is good function to bring to the forums, and in general.

Which is a problem with most of the content in this game. Eureka is dead, Rival Wings is dead. It's not a BLU only problem.
Most content is simply not replayable at all. It's also the problem with synced content, or min-ilvl content.
BLU's not the only content that needs it, even Hildy trials aren%u2019t getting filled because there's no incentive to do them.

So your suggestion to a problem is make an entire job built around that problem. . . ? That concerns me...

Which is fine because it adds flavor. It also interfaces perfectly with Condensed Libra with Astral and Umbral damage, and Carnival with those niche spells being used during the floors.
Sure in the sanitized, no elemental weakness bullshit sandbox that we have right now, of course it's gonna be terrible or useless, but in its own skillset and toolkit, it does fit.

Different colors is hardly something I'd call flavor. But let's say it was just for flavor, if that was the case the job could easily condense the flavor spells into a card system and be DF-able and use loads of spells.

Which is fine because if you just one shot bosses, it doesn't count as adding replayability to old content.
You can one shot bosses with your lvl 80 unsynced, why do we want to one shot a boss in synced content?
It makes sense because it's obvious that they want BLU to be the "do synced or min ilvl" job, which frankly, it does well.

No it's not fine, because they said the job had to be limited because they wanted to give real spells. The point wasn't satd as such of doing old content hard style, the point was they prevented it from being in content due to balance so they could give it real blue spells and then they balance it anyways.

Which I can also say about all the ARR classes. At least BLU you get to learn more skills at lower levels, and that the powerleveling thing still works.
You're not gonna be stuck spamming 3 spells at lvl 30, since you can just start learning the overworld spells immediately.
Scholar even loses spells once they're promoted to SCH. ACN at lvl 30 is a lot more engaging than SCH at lvl 30.

What you said is hardly true. All the other jobs use their whole kit, or at least if you were playing optimally they would. Some unique exceptions to like a cover ability which has a very narrow use. Also at level 30 you would be spamming one skill still, and if for soem reason you didn't have the good skill at that level you'd be spamming like three spells. Which is a whole combo of a normal job, ah yes, the 1 2 3 combo the pinnacle of other job's mechanical gameplay (/s).

I did tell you that it takes a lot of time to set up, but then again it's essentially something to do and grind for, which is what the game needs because after clearing Savage, there's really nothing to do.
Without something to do, you really just login for raids, or for weeklies. BLU adds filler between those days.

And the lvl 50 job vs lvl 50 BLU is not a good comparison. It's like comparing a lvl 50 warrior that didnt do job quests to a full spellbook BLU.
Again it takes work to have it fully set up, and that's fine. We need the content anyway.

Didn't need blue mage to have something to do between patch lulls. But sure something to do sounds better than nothing.

The level 50 to 50 comparison is absolutely a good comparison, a level 50 job has more mechanical gameplay than a level 50 blue mage that hasn't done PF content. A level 50 job that hasn't done it's job quest STILL has more mechanical gameplay value than blue mage that hasn't done PF. A PF kitted blue is mechanically similar to a regular job (though the power level is obviously different).

It does play significantly different role wise. Heal BLU is the best healer in the game hands down, and the most engaging healer I've ever played since ShB launch.
It blows SCH and AST out of the water and honestly is a good foundation for healer design for this game.
DPS BLU has specific Moon flute windows, and having to cast the right spell based on Condensed Libra.
Tank BLU is bad, I'll admit, but even then it's a lot more risky playstyle given to a tank. Having no Rampart, and having to cast your cooldowns means that you have to be on top of your game as a tank.

DPS blue is less mechanically interesting than a normal job (PF skills can bring it up) healer blue is only so well touted because the normal healers had their damage rotations gutted- if they hadn;t of done that healer blue would also be less valued than a regular healer. Tank blue is just pure bad, agreed.

I'll give you healer blue but only because what they did in ShB made a lot of healers feel it's too simple / boring, and blue mage here has all of it's damage spells still. It, as many healers argue, shouldnt be this way. Though I personally think one healer being simple is good for players who need/want the simple life, yet for the rest there should either be changes or a new job that meets that desire.

It's a grind. Complaining about BLU progression is like me at lvl 30 complaining about how much MSQ I need to do. It's like if I'm a lvl 10 Carpenter, and I'm complaining how much Diadem and Restoration and leves and turn-ins I have to do. Its literally something to do, and the big pay off is the full spellbook BLU experience. Which, again, the game desperately needs.

Hard disagree, that the game needed this blue. Agree that it's a grind.

And that's the thing though, it is a complete job in what it does . It's pretty much what a job in FFXIV is if they haven't trimmed skills for the sake of "QoL".
Hell, BLU's even a lot more engaing than most jobs. Warrior lost half of its kit, DRK got turned into a budget WAR, the healers lost all their dps skill.

Also hard disagree, even though the jobs are trimmed they have all their buff windows, ogcd, interworking combo/utility kit, the normal jobs are STILL more mechnically interesting than a full kitted blue. You've got a buff window in blue, ooo... that's been in the regular jobs since like level 20.

The main reason people doesn't consider it as a complete job is because it's stuck at lvl 60 content and not able to queue in DF, which believe me, you don't want to do.

BLU's not one shot broken, but it has the most dps and the most versatility in its kit, and if you let them in at lvl 80 content, everyone would literally just want a BLU, maybe except for tanks.
MoonFlute + Boost + Final Sting can deal more DPS or close to Melee LB3 dps. It has a spammable Arm's Length, a busted "Cure 3" with the size of the whole arena, and has 8 Trick Attacks.

I don't wanna see current BLU be gutted just to become just a normal caster, or just a normal tank or worse, a ShB healer. Don't let the people who gutted healers touch BLU.

First I never asked to gut the healers so I don't know what cute sort of protest you're trying to do there but it doesn't apply to me. If anything you'd be opposite of right since not only do I want blue to have more complicated mechanics but I also spent time to suggest a damage based healer job because of the ShB changes.

Second obviously the kit would have to change if it became DF-able.. so I'm not going to even comment on what it can do. Although there are many options on how to do that change, some even leaving alone the limited side, like having a set of skills that have a balanced "df" variant, though that's hardly the only option.

[ReiMakoto]

Sure but it's not just dps output where BLU shines, it's the utility.
Second Wind, Diamond back, Offguard, Gobskin, Peculiar Light and even the ability to essentially "switch roles" alongside being able to keep dps up will replace ranged physicals as it stands.

If BLU turned into a viable lvl 80 job as it is now, then ranged physical as a role will be phased out immediately, like what happened on ShB launch with double blackmage.
The only way you can balance BLU is by taking out the utility, and turning it into a normal caster, which I say "please no".

Off Guard is just Trick and shares a recast with pec light so with 1 blu in the party wouldnt cause stacking issues. White Wind has been balanced before in other final fantasy games, and as it stands would be quite situational in a current raid environment. There would be little reason to cast gob skin if blu was a dps in the party as it is essentially just a succor and you have a healer for that and the effects dont stack. Diamond Back would be incredibly situational to use in a raid environment unless you were trying to run a solo tank strat, which presents its own quirks and issues. Also you make these declaritive statements about the ranged role being phased out, that would certainly not be the case, like what happened at the start of ShB they would be tuned in such a way they they could not outweigh the 1% dps buff for party diversity/ the limit break penalty, thats just a matter of tuning the numbers, you can't out utility a raid boss in ffxiv due to enrages.

[Payotz]

So your suggestion to a problem is make an entire job built around that problem. . . ? That concerns me...

It's a solution, yes. I don't agree with Square on a lot of things, and I hated the initial BLU implementation at lvl 50, but as it stands now with BLU mage dungeon log and the 100% drop rate of spells on synced content.
It's a fun job that's well implemented to solve a problem. I say that's a success in that front.

Different colors is hardly something I'd call flavor. But let's say it was just for flavor, if that was the case the job could easily condense the flavor spells into a card system and be DF-able and use loads of spells.

I agree, but balance issues still remain. It's gonna be a lot more RNG heavy than DNC, and the reliability of having Moon Flute only pop up in a 1/80 chance is terrible design.
BLU would suck as a final job if it has to contend with crit AND utility RNG. It would literally be an even worse version of Balance Fishing pre pull back in HW.

No it's not fine, because they said the job had to be limited because they wanted to give real spells. The point isn't doing old content hard style, the point was they prevented it from being in content due to balance so then they could balance it anyways.

At this point I think we both have very different desires for the job. You want a god mode job that can essentially Missile raid bosses to death, I want a job I can play synced content with.
I'm not gonna argue with this point.

What you said is hardly true. All the other jobs use their whole kit, or at least if you were playing optimally they would. Some unique exceptions to like a cover ability which has a very narrow use. Also at level 30 you would be spamming one skill still, and if for soem reason you didn't have the good skill at that level you'd be spamming like three spells. Which is a whole combo of a normal job, ah yes, the 1 2 3 combo the pinnacle of other job's mechanical gameplay (/s).

Yeah, and their whole kit is lacking compared to a BLU spellbook.
At least BLU Healer you have an opener aside from Glare - Glare - Glare - Glare - Glare.

The level 50 to 50 comparison is absolutely a good comparison, a level 50 job has more mechanical gameplay than a level 50 blue mage that hasn't done PF content. A level 50 job that hasn't done it's job quest STILL has more mechanical gameplay value than blue mage that hasn't done PF. A PF kitted blue is mechanically similar to a regular job (though the power level is obviously different).

That's obviously not true at all.
Are you having fun throwing just throwing Shurikens with one Mudra?
Are you having fun with a Warrior who's essentially a Marauder with no InnerBeast?
I'd argue that Overworld BLU might be the same amount of fun as a job quest less class, but saying that the job quest less class is more fun is obviously not true, and is hyperbolic.

DPS blue is less mechanically interesting than a normal job, healer blue is only so well touted because the normal healers had their damage rotations gutted- if they hadn;t of done that healer blue would also be less valued than a regular healer. Tank blue is just pure bad, agreed.
I'll give you healer blue but only because what they did in ShB made a lot of healers feel it's too simple / boring, and blue mage here has all of it's damage spells still. It, as many healers argue, shouldn't be this way. Though I personally think one healer being simple is good for players who need/want the simple life, yet for the rest there should either be changes or a new job that meets that desire.

DPS BLU being less mechanically interesting is something I'm leaning towards to but the very fact that BLU has 3 playstyles is a big plus for me essentially makes the job as whole a lot more mechanically interesting for me.

Hard disagree, that the game needed this blue. Agree that it's a grind.

It's subjective. I won't argue with you at this point. I already said that the game needs something to do, so that's there.

Also hard disagree, even though the jobs are trimmed they have all their buff windows, ogcd, interworking combo/utility kit, the normal jobs are STILL more mechnically interesting than a full kitted blue. You've got a buff window in blue, ooo... that's been in the regular jobs since like level 20.

A single job that can function both as a healer, a tank and a dps combined is a lot more interseting than a WHM spamming Glare or the MNK having the same gameplay from ARR to ShB.
Yeah man let's just press this button the moment it's on cooldown.

Oh yeah man let's just press Delirium so I can press Fell Cleave DRK edition.
Oh yeah man let's just press Requiescat so I can press Fell Cleave _long range_ edition.
Oh yeah man let's just click Inner Release so I can press Fell Cleave Original edition.

I do somewhat agree on DPS BLU, but on the job as a whole, nah. It functions a lot better than synced down jobs.

First I never asked to gut the healers so I don't know what cute sort of protest you're trying to do there but it doesn't apply to me. If anything you'd be opposite of wrong since not only do I want blue to have more complicated mechanics but I also spent time to suggest a damage based healer.

Second obviously the kit would have to change if it became DF-able.. so I'm not going to even comment on what it can do. Although there are many options on how to do that change, some even leaving alone the limited side, like having a set of skills that have a balanced "df" variant, though that's hardly the only option.

I know you didn't said to gut healers, but if the people who "balanced healers" are the ones who's in charge of "balancing BLU for DF content", then honestly I wouldn't want to play BLU again.
If BLU's gonna be gutted to fit the mold of a "DF-able job" then I vote against it.

If BLU's gonna be "DF-able" with its current kit, then I'll also vote against it.

Off Guard is just Trick and shares a recast with pec light so with 1 blu in the party wouldnt cause stacking issues.

It's another Trick Attack with no "LB generation" disadvantages. Of course that's gonna be good.

White Wind has been balanced before in other final fantasy games, and as it stands would be quite situational in a current raid environment.

Which will gut the skill. I'm not up for that stuff.

There would be little reason to cast gob skin if blu was a dps in the party as it is essentially just a succor and you have a healer for that and the effects dont stack

Extra mitigation in a double regen comp will not be turned down by any party.

Diamond Back would be incredibly situational to use in a raid environment unless you were trying to run a solo tank strat, which presents its own quirks and issues.

Diamond back is an extra immunity for the party. That's really big for prog especially.

Also you make these declaritive statements about the ranged role being phased out, that would certainly not be the case, like what happened at the start of ShB they would be tuned in such a way they they could not outweigh the 1% dps buff for party diversity/ the limit break penalty, thats just a matter of tuning the numbers, you can't out utility a raid boss in ffxiv due to enrages.

Sure Farms and Clears would probably not gonna be affected as severely as Prog parties are, but it's perfectly reasonable to consider current BLU broken in terms of what utility it gives out, especially during Prog.

And BLU would literally need to be gutted DPS wise to account for its utility OR BLU will need to have its Utility gutted in order to be DF-able; something I don't agree with.

One thing I could be in favor of is to have the job not generate LB at all for the party, but that's really debatable in implementation.

Off topic: I'm going to go ahead and come back to this conversation later. I'm slacking too much at work.