SE, the concept of "Limited Jobs" is a really bad idea, turn back now

[JiSH]

This part of the post elaborate and explained the points I wanted to say far better. Make blue mage a proper DPS job. it could be flex like SMN/SCH, give it a certain basic skillset that can accommodate both side of the flex to certain extent, then you can start collecting more spells depending on which route you want to take. as long as it has the essentials of blue mage which is skill collecting, i'm not really complaining.

Mood, especially the "as long as it has the essentials of blue mage which is skill collecting, i'm not really complaining." part, personally, it's more about functionality over how close they are to the original iteration, we can have only like half of the current skill lineups for a "normal job" Blue Mage if they decided to streamline it, and i won't complain, as long as i can play the job in raids with my static/friends i'm satisfied. Just like how Summoner is only using egi in ffxiv instead of using the actual summon like in the other games, just taking the concept and not applying everything to the job actually works.

[Volsungr]

Mood, especially the "as long as it has the essentials of blue mage which is skill collecting, i'm not really complaining." part, personally, it's more about functionality over how close they are to the original iteration, we can have only like half of the current skill lineups for a "normal job" Blue Mage if they decided to streamline it, and i won't complain, as long as i can play the job in raids with my static/friends i'm satisfied. Just like how Summoner is only using egi in ffxiv instead of using the actual summon like in the other games, just taking the concept and not applying everything to the job actually works.

customization wise/variation wise, blue mage has more potential than that honestly since most of the animations are just slightly modified of already existing assets, at least the particle/effect would already be there. while a new egi requires them to make things from scratch starting from the 3d models and everything. but if shaving some of those are required for it to be a real job then i guess that's a fair trade-off. especially with every expansion they'll have more skills due to level cap.

[Mariel_Crystallie]

customization wise/variation wise, blue mage has more potential than that honestly since most of the animations are just slightly modified of already existing assets, at least the particle/effect would already be there. while a new egi requires them to make things from scratch starting from the 3d models and everything. but if shaving some of those are required for it to be a real job then i guess that's a fair trade-off. especially with every expansion they'll have more skills due to level cap.

Honestly, ever since they starting announcing this job, I was thinking that blue mage will start off as a limited job (i can't remember if i read this somewhere, but i faintly remember this being brought up), but eventually turned into a real job after they get the right feel to it. but comes SHB turns out they just continue the same pattern.. so this kinda bums me out. we all have our opinions regarding the current limited blue mage, they should've just gathered the data and use it to construct a proper job blue mage. here's hoping it'll be next expansion.

[JiSH]

Honestly, ever since they starting announcing this job, I was thinking that blue mage will start off as a limited job (i can't remember if i read this somewhere, but i faintly remember this being brought up), but eventually turned into a real job after they get the right feel to it. but comes SHB turns out they just continue the same pattern.. so this kinda bums me out. we all have our opinions regarding the current limited blue mage, they should've just gathered the data and use it to construct a proper job blue mage. here's hoping it'll be next expansion.

I think we really have to see until the end of the expansion, they add 10 level per BLU update, though the chances are slim there are still chances that they will give them the last 20 levels in the next two big patches, cause "anything can happen".
I don't think i've heard it anywhere before but with how they update the level cap i also thought the "limited job" label will soon be removed, but turns out two years after, it's still there.
It's really a bad idea to lock a job that's been a staple throughout the Final Fantasy series and are a lot of people's favorite job behind a "side content" limited job.

[Mariel_Crystallie]

I think we really have to see until the end of the expansion, they add 10 level per BLU update, though the chances are slim there are still chances that they will give them the last 20 levels in the next two big patches, cause "anything can happen".
I don't think i've heard it anywhere before but with how they update the level cap i also thought the "limited job" label will soon be removed, but turns out two years after, it's still there.
It's really a bad idea to lock a job that's been a staple throughout the Final Fantasy series and are a lot of people's favorite job behind a "side content" limited job.

but even with the additional level, as long as blue mage can't join the rest of the roster in roulettes or raid scenes, it'll still be considered limited.. if anything that will only add salt to the wound because what's the point, you give players a glimpse of hope and just.. nothing. but if it happens, i do hope it will happen correctly.
blue mage is a job first introduced in FFV, almost a full 20 years since, and we still can't do it justice. If they wanna do it better do it right rather than the state it is right now.

[Alysella]

but even with the additional level, as long as blue mage can't join the rest of the roster in roulettes or raid scenes, it'll still be considered limited.. if anything that will only add salt to the wound because what's the point, you give players a glimpse of hope and just.. nothing. but if it happens, i do hope it will happen correctly.
blue mage is a job first introduced in FFV, almost a full 20 years since, and we still can't do it justice. If they wanna do it better do it right rather than the state it is right now.

Judging from current situation, they only see blue mage as an extra to please fans but its not working since its not really usable in the normal situations hence the only people that playing is the one that really like the class itself from other FF series. its not doing the class justice considering its one of the "iconic" class from the series itself

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

Alternative: Keep Limited Jobs, but make it so that they're not 20 levels behind. Lagging behind one expac would be enough to keep the previous content decently relevant.

Finally, all of my forum bitching has paid off.

[TeraTyrantShadic]

Finally, all of my forum bitching has paid off.

Congrats, now its time to make a normal job. However I'll still voice out my concerns about the Level 60 Blue Mage and my opinions may change when we do level 70.

[PangTong]

I don't see them ever backing out from Blue Mage as a limited job if only because making it limited was the whole philosophy behind originally implementing it. I think people mistakenly believe that they made Blue Mage limited because they thought there was no way they could balance the job otherwise, when in reality it's the other way around. They made it limited so they didn't have to care about balance in the first place. Everything I've read from Yoshida about Blue Mage suggests that the motivation behind making it limited was specifically so they could get creative with its implementation and actions, rather than its unusual actions forcing them to make it limited. They were well aware of ways they could have implemented the job "normally", but their thought process was that if it was simply a normal job which didn't have any kind of special learning mechanics then why even make it Blue Mage.

Personally I would like it if Blue Mage was just a normal job since I think for a lot of people just the aesthetic aspects are more important than whether the job is "authentic" to its other incarnations. I don't see them doing this though because I don't see a real way the current system could be adapted for normal content without it being extremely wonky. Blue Mage doesn't even have normal weapons or damage calculations for starters. They would essentially have to create a parallel "full" version of the job that was completely separate from its limited systems, which you could somehow toggle on or off. Essentially they'd have to run both "limited" and "unlimited" Blue Mage as two separate things in tandem while allowing you to swap between them in a way that makes sense and is balanced for the game's content (just as an example of potential problems, Blue Mage levels way faster than other jobs), which I just can't see the devs doing. At best, BLU might one day be allowed at the current level cap in its limited form, but it'll still probably be blocked from high-end duties.

[Shougun]

Finally, all of my forum (yeet) has paid off.

They're going faster than I believe they originally said. I half wonder if they accelerated it so they could either let people more easily solo to get their own spells seeing the issues they made relying the job onto PF whims Orrrr if they're moving to add the 'both' concept. One suggestion I had hoped for was that they could introduce limited jobs at 5.5, 6.5, etc, but by the end of that expansion they'd have completed given it the kit it needs to be normal as well. Such that they find a way to introduce weird jobs in a more identity driven format (limited) and still given a thematic format (normal) while also giving player 3 jobs (instead of 2) each expansion (2 at release, one at the end). Simultaneously it would stretch the development period out on a different scale than the other jobs which might make it a bit less crunch stress to achieve. May even offset it so the next limited job is released, for a while everyone will do that, then at like 5.55 they'd unlock the normal, which would revive content further as well as make balance issues less scary (as people are now just goofing off until next expansion, and at the next expansion big balance changes are allowed to take place so SE can respond to issues with their full power).

Of course that's still all very pipe dreamy, but eh.. I get a wiff of that 0.5% potential incoming lol.

I don't see them ever backing out from Blue Mage as a limited job if only because making it limited was the whole philosophy behind originally implementing it. I think people mistakenly believe that they made Blue Mage limited because they thought there was no way they could balance the job otherwise, when in reality it's the other way around. They made it limited so they didn't have to care about balance in the first place. Everything I've read from Yoshida about Blue Mage suggests that the motivation behind making it limited was specifically so they could get creative with its implementation and actions, rather than its unusual actions forcing them to make it limited. They were well aware of ways they could have implemented the job "normally", but their thought process was that if it was simply a normal job which didn't have any kind of special learning mechanics then why even make it Blue Mage.

Personally I would like it if Blue Mage was just a normal job since I think for a lot of people just the aesthetic aspects are more important than whether the job is "authentic" to its other incarnations. I don't see them doing this though because I don't see a real way the current system could be adapted for normal content without it being extremely wonky. Blue Mage doesn't even have normal weapons or damage calculations for starters. They would essentially have to create a parallel "full" version of the job that was completely separate from its limited systems, which you could somehow toggle on or off. Essentially they'd have to run both "limited" and "unlimited" Blue Mage as two separate things in tandem while allowing you to swap between them in a way that makes sense and is balanced for the game's content (just as an example of potential problems, Blue Mage levels way faster than other jobs), which I just can't see the devs doing. At best, BLU might one day be allowed at the current level cap in its limited form, but it'll still probably be blocked from high-end duties.

I don't even think that was their real motivation, I think they wanted to create PF job. Because if you believe it was for full 'original' (true blue as some people have called it) creative vision then why did we get the trinity back, something they had just escaped and drastically limits your build options, why is Angel Whisper 'the' worst variant to have existed in the FF series, why did they nerf some of the OP skills because they were too OP (besides the doom stuff, also consider something like Fire Angon is a shadow of it's former self), that this also applies to other reasons given "we don't want players to have to get spells or be judged to do content in party settings, so we're going to force content behind a party setting (LOL?)", etc, etc.

I do believe they got more balance freedom using PF over DF, so sure part of it could be going original, but I don't believe that was actually the ultimate goal behind the doors - PF content I think was (as you can see they even added exclusive rewards to completing the job in such a way, which include the best spells and mount). Original blue or true blue or whatever people want to call it would be best suited to have had no party content be balanced onto it, if that was the 'goal' (full power, full creativity, full blue magic spells) and yet they did balance in some ways for PF (so again, I don't believe true blue was the most 'true' goal of their blue mage vision, or at least I don't think they followed through with that goal to the fullest extent if that was their goal). I hope that changes though if they're going to keep blue limited, if the desire was original / full creative power then by all means do that. Go crazy, don't let PF limit things either, give angel whisper it's full power (at least auto-raise or full life / cleansing aspects, but making it have cooldown and be a generic raise.. big huge oof), don't design it with PF focus if creativity and 'true blue' was the original intent. Otherwise, yeah I really do hope they make it normal (can be both normal and limited, as the limited side could easily facilitate much of the growth of the normal side).