Next BLU update, please increase the number of active action slots.

[QooEr]

I'd say no to more loadouts. Basically, 24 class skills is where classes can start to feel overbloated. Or rather, 30 buttons between class and role + sprint. Which, in EW, will be exactly 30 if the loadout size does not change. There's a number of reasons for this but the general gist is going above 30 can make a class start to feel really bad just due to the sheer size of the hotbars you need to handle the class. And a big part of the reason why GNB/PLD/SAM/BLM can feel pretty bad. Yes, BLM. The only reason they don't feel bloated is because more than 10% of their kit is currently literally useless.

you can simply choose not to slot more actions if you feel overwhelmed with too many. blue mage isnt like other jobs because it has optional spells, and a lof of those spells are situational.
Moreover If AST, PLD, SCH, GNB etc can accomodate more than 24 actions its reasonable to at least have maybe 4 more slots to reach a similar amount of actions to those jobs.

[Taranok]

you can simply choose not to slot more actions if you feel overwhelmed with too many. blue mage isnt like other jobs because it has optional spells, and a lof of those spells are situational.
Moreover If AST, PLD, SCH, GNB etc can accomodate more than 24 actions its reasonable to at least have maybe 4 more slots to reach a similar amount of actions to those jobs.

Alright, I'll just casually remove buttons I need on a class and play very suboptimally. What kind of advice is this? No, seriously. And just because some classes are bloated too much doesn't mean that's reasonable justification to bloat any and every class.

[QooEr]

Alright, I'll just casually remove buttons I need on a class and play very suboptimally.

You can play blue mage optimally with 24 skills, no? Any extra skills are not needed if thats the case.

BLU isnt like other jobs because you choose what spells you bring, so it literally isnt like removing actions from your hotbar in other jobs from that alone. If i want to be flexible and add situational skills like bad breath or missile it wouldnt affect how you already play it, and you don´t need to be even remotely optimal in blue mage content anyways.

Bloated is also subjective. I dont think any of the jobs you listed are bloated.

[Rongway]

BLU isnt like other jobs because you choose what spells you bring, so it literally isnt like removing actions from your hotbar in other jobs from that alone.

You're meant to select the spells you need, and leave the ones you're not actually going to use at home. Put 32 on your bar if you must, but if you think you need all 32 of those spells at the same time, you are overgeneralizing your spells and need to prune them for the current activity.

Bloated is also subjective. I dont think any of the jobs you listed are bloated.

PLD, GNB, and BLM have the most buttons out of any red or blue job, with a lot of combinable, redundant, or useless buttons. These jobs are getting some button consolidations in EW, for good reason.

[Taranok]

You can play blue mage optimally with 24 skills, no? Any extra skills are not needed if thats the case.

BLU isnt like other jobs because you choose what spells you bring, so it literally isnt like removing actions from your hotbar in other jobs from that alone. If i want to be flexible and add situational skills like bad breath or missile it wouldnt affect how you already play it, and you don´t need to be even remotely optimal in blue mage content anyways.

Bloated is also subjective. I dont think any of the jobs you listed are bloated.

Your advice is tantamount to telling me that it's okay to run BLM with the ARR rotation. No enochian, no fire 4, no blizzard 4, no despair. Just fire 1 spam. Because you're specifically advocating for using fewer buttons than the class is designed explicitly to have and fundamentally altering the rotation.

That is a particularly extreme example, but it is fundamentally what you're saying. +8 buttons is a lot of buttons for a class designed around its cooldown burst, and pretending they don't exist would seriously harm you when the class would theoretically be designed around having these +4/8/whatever buttons.

Also, it's not subjective when classes were complained about for having button bloat back in HW, and the major offenders were in the 30 button range. Every last one. I am recalling a memory all the way back from 2015-2017 HW and saying: "We're in this territory again going into EW." And your request of more buttons (or at least, advocacy for it) would intentionally put BLU into this territory.

You're meant to select the spells you need, and leave the ones you're not actually going to use at home. Put 32 on your bar if you must, but if you think you need all 32 of those spells at the same time, you are overgeneralizing your spells and need to prune them for the current activity.


PLD, GNB, and BLM have the most buttons out of any red or blue job, with a lot of combinable, redundant, or useless buttons. These jobs are getting some button consolidations in EW, for good reason.

SAM is also getting extra strength bloat. They're doing the dev's favorite passtime of taking an AoE/single target hybrid skill that has significant opportunity cost, and creating a dedicated AoE/dedicated ST version for those spells. Most of the bloat in the game can be chalked up to abilities like Foul/Xenoglossy, where in SB it was just Foul by itself, but then they decided to add Xenoglossy and add an extra button for absolutely no reason. An argument could be made because Foul wasn't instant cast, but they're removing that quirk anyways, so that argument is evaporating in smoke. Foul could have been made instant cast and its baseline potency upgraded and it would fundamentally sit in the same spot in the rotation for AoE and single target without adding an extra button to clutter a rotation that deals with barely 5% of your rotational needs (if you basically participate in the end-game of savage, alliances, or extremes, at all).

RPR looks like it also has a candidate dead skill. Soul Sow/Harvest Moon. Where you only acquire it by specifically casting a buff, like Monk chakras or the original design of Shoha. I look forward to the class having that fixed by 6.1 because no one likes skills like this where the majority of the time, you press it once, maybe twice, thrice if you're lucky (E6N/S). It's sad because the class designers literally made this exact mistake with Samurai 2 years ago.

[QooEr]

Your advice is tantamount to telling me that it's okay to run BLM with the ARR rotation. No enochian, no fire 4, no blizzard 4, no despair. Just fire 1 spam. Because you're specifically advocating for using fewer buttons than the class is designed explicitly to have and fundamentally altering the rotation.

No im not. blue mage could have 100 action slots to put on your hotbar and youd still only use around 24-30 spells because a lot of them are redundant or extremely situational. If BLU had 30 action slots and you only needed 25 to do optimal dps you can get by not slotting the last 5. its nothing like intentionally dropping key parts of your kit in other jobs.

if you wanted to use the BLM example, its more like not putting blizzard 2 and scathe on your hotbar. when was the last time you used those skills?

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

I agree with and also feel that Blue Mage needs more spell spots than just 24. I would go for either 28 or 32, though. 36 seems like a bit much...

[Taranok]

No im not. blue mage could have 100 action slots to put on your hotbar and youd still only use around 24-30 spells because a lot of them are redundant or extremely situational. If BLU had 30 action slots and you only needed 25 to do optimal dps you can get by not slotting the last 5. its nothing like intentionally dropping key parts of your kit in other jobs.

if you wanted to use the BLM example, its more like not putting blizzard 2 and scathe on your hotbar. when was the last time you used those skills?

Mentor rouletting into the level 15 guildhest, B2 is very useful there. Also if I get thrown into Sastasha, Copperbell, or Tam-Tara or any other sub-freeze dungeon and the tank pulls at least 4 mobs to make it worth casting over a blizzard 1. It's not that uncommon for it to be a DPS gain, it's just also awkward and annoying to use.

And I still keep Scathe on my hotbar because it's useful for ARR content where it was designed to be an at-will fire 1 replace, well before the devs keep forgetting to upgrade it for the modern rotation.

Going back to your own point, if the class has that many redundant and useless skills, then there's no reason to even need to increase it over 24 to begin with. Or, better yet, the devs should just lock what abilities could go in what slot so that you're forced to use different styles of skills, such as 3 defensive skills, 12 DPS skills, 5 healing skills, or some other arbitrary delineation and subtype. Going above 24 serves no direct purpose, and arbitrarily saying "Just don't use more if they add more," is really, really bad advice.

[Rongway]

Or, better yet, the devs should just lock what abilities could go in what slot so that you're forced to use different styles of skills, such as 3 defensive skills, 12 DPS skills, 5 healing skills, or some other arbitrary delineation and subtype.

Tangent: this is the only way blue mage could ever be converted to a real job and still be a blue mage. Have slots assigned to specific types of actions, unlock slots as you level up, and require all slots up to a duty's minimum level be filled appropriately to enter.