So, what is the hold up on Beastmaster?

[Valdegarde]

That is the point I'm making. BLU can never work within the normal rules of FFXIV because it has NEVER worked within the normal rules of a FF game. It has always been an outlier.

Absolute hogwash. My least favorite argument around Blue Mage, which utterly reeks of historical revision. Does Blue Magic in the series open up some unique broken opportunities? Sure, FF5 had a few things going on with like, Dark Spark fiddling with enemies' levels, FF7 had Beta and Matra Magic just be incredible spells for when you get them, there's the aforementioned Degenerator from 8, Limit Glove from 9 gives you a way to hit 9999 early if you don't want to grind Dragon Crest or Thievery.

But Blue Magic as a kit is far from being naturally defined as *the* "game breaker" in any game its in, there are far more broken things in each of those games that Blue Magic takes a back-seat to. FF5 is held up as one of the big examples of Blue Mage being broken, yet Chemists, Mystic Knights (Break sword!), Time Mages (Quick + sap?), even Beastmasters were all able to break the game more accessibly and easily. In fact, Blue Mage relies on Chemist for most of its level tweaking strategies, and that's even been patched out of releases from the mobile version on. Degenerator sure seems flashy in FF8, but junctioning Death 100 to your weapon accomplishes much the same without risk of epilepsy.

What does Blue Mage have consistently then, if it "breaking the game" is overblown, or at least downplayed versus other game-breakers in each game? Why, a very solid support kit, spells that hit weaknesses that aren't common to find, as well as affect statuses that may or may not have niche use, and usually a solid nuke that can hold up in endgame (grand delta, shockwave pulsar, annihilation, etc.) This is the only constant across all the games, and the only thing FFXIV needed to have aspired to. Heck, let's even throw the argument a bone and say that FF5 and FF7 Blue Magic is indeed the primary danger to game balance, well what about FF6, FFTA, FFTA2, FFX-2, FF Explorers, Bravely Default (Vampire), Bravely Default 2 (Catmancer), and a big one, FFXI? I count 8 examples of Blue Magic being a relatively nice, non-broken support kit compared to the two examples above.

Apologies if I'm coming across rather aggressive, I am just sick to death of this fallacious argument and I refuse to let Blue Mage's reputation be tarnished with outright lies.

[Deveryn]

What does Blue Mage have consistently then, if it "breaking the game" is overblown, or at least downplayed versus other game-breakers in each game? Why, a very solid support kit, spells that hit weaknesses that aren't common to find, as well as affect statuses that may or may not have niche use, and usually a solid nuke that can hold up in endgame (grand delta, shockwave pulsar, annihilation, etc.) This is the only constant across all the games, and the only thing FFXIV needed to have aspired to. Heck, let's even throw the argument a bone and say that FF5 and FF7 Blue Magic is indeed the primary danger to game balance, well what about FF6, FFTA, FFTA2, FFX-2, FF Explorers, Bravely Default (Vampire), Bravely Default 2 (Catmancer), and a big one, FFXI? I count 8 examples of Blue Magic being a relatively nice, non-broken support kit compared to the two examples above.

Apologies if I'm coming across rather aggressive, I am just sick to death of this fallacious argument and I refuse to let Blue Mage's reputation be tarnished with outright lies.

The argument still holds up here because it's a very different environment from most of the other games. Take a good look at the spell book. Those status effects generally have no use on bosses here. With the way things are, blue mage would lose a lot of its identity in the realm of the normal jobs, where they try to make it so no one job gets preference over another. The only effects we get to play with on boss encounters are those that affect outgoing and incoming damage. Beyond that, we get to slow or stun some things once in a while and they become immune to stun. What's left for blue to do after that? Nothing too special, but maybe it's a little flashy.

[Videra]

Snip

Exactly. Exactly. Someone actually gets it. This is ignoring the fact that the Mini-Game and Customization we currently have with Blue Mage can stay! I actually like it, I just want an alternative so that I can play my favorite job thematic in current, relevant content. And I'd happily take a standard Caster DPS for that. I firmly believe anyone who opposes the idea of having the OPTION to play BLU as a normal class with a normal, balanced kit is outright arguing for the sake of arguing. Hell, they could even make BLU the 'DNC' of the Caster group to keep its weird support vibe.

I want my old main in FFXI and favorite thematic to be relevant to the current game. Not an expansion behind forever.

[Deveryn]

Exactly. Exactly. Someone actually gets it. This is ignoring the fact that the Mini-Game and Customization we currently have with Blue Mage can stay! I actually like it, I just want an alternative so that I can play my favorite job thematic in current, relevant content. And I'd happily take a standard Caster DPS for that. I firmly believe anyone who opposes the idea of having the OPTION to play BLU as a normal class with a normal, balanced kit is outright arguing for the sake of arguing. Hell, they could even make BLU the 'DNC' of the Caster group to keep its weird support vibe.

I want my old main in FFXI and favorite thematic to be relevant to the current game. Not an expansion behind forever.

FFXI is still around. Have at it.

They're not doing an alternate BLU for main content. That would look very lazy.

[MagiusNecros]

Exactly. Exactly. Someone actually gets it. This is ignoring the fact that the Mini-Game and Customization we currently have with Blue Mage can stay! I actually like it, I just want an alternative so that I can play my favorite job thematic in current, relevant content. And I'd happily take a standard Caster DPS for that. I firmly believe anyone who opposes the idea of having the OPTION to play BLU as a normal class with a normal, balanced kit is outright arguing for the sake of arguing. Hell, they could even make BLU the 'DNC' of the Caster group to keep its weird support vibe.

I want my old main in FFXI and favorite thematic to be relevant to the current game. Not an expansion behind forever.

Yep I'm glad Valdegarde gets it too. What the minority voice of the forum fails to understand is that BLU isn't limited from content. Content is limited from BLU.

Given that BLU is a flexible job and everyone else is not.

[Cithaerias_pyropina]

FFXI is still around. Have at it.

They're not doing an alternate BLU for main content. That would look very lazy.

That hasn't stopped the devs from making lazy fixes before.

[Videra]

That hasn't stopped the devs from making lazy fixes before.

One can only hope. It's so sad BLU had to be an initially lazy, irrelevant after two weeks mini-game instead of an actual, fully fledged job.

[Videra]

FFXI is still around. Have at it.

They're not doing an alternate BLU for main content. That would look very lazy.

BLU was an incredibly lazy addition to the game in the state it launched in to begin with, you river troll.

[Deveryn]

BLU was an incredibly lazy addition to the game in the state it launched in to begin with, you river troll.

I'm not debating the state of it at launch. It sounded horrible, but it's not the case now. It's fun and different. Jamming it in with everything else would dilute it severely. Next time, maybe dispute something I actually spoke about and spare me the same old shit I've heard before.

[Sirren]

I say no more limited jobs ever!! I hate that BLU is stuck behind that wall!!