The Limitation Dilemma: Why Final Fantasy 14's Limited Job was a Mistake

[ForsakenRoe]

This is literally the argument people are making - that part of what makes BLU fun is that it's not at all balanced, so to make it work with the other 19, it would have to be balanced, and that likely means not overpowered and not fun. People have fun on BLU gathering up massive trash packs, freezing them, then shattering them, for example

And the argument that I'm putting forward is that it's actually not at all 'not at all balanced', to an alarming degree, outside of the couple of 'haha funny meme' things like Ultravibration on packs of trash. I still recall there being a bug or issue of some kind that meant that the first pack in Temple of the Fist was immune to freeze for a couple of days, so that reason also holds very little water to me (it's fixed now). Besides the 'its OP cos it can delete dungeon mobs' once every 2 minutes though, please read:

Blue mage has been adjusted as follows:
The following blue mage actions have been adjusted:

Water Cannon Potency has been increased from 120 to 200.

Flame Thrower Potency has been increased from 130 to 220.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

Aqua Breath Potency has been increased from 90 to 140.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.
Damage over time potency has been increased from 10 to 20.

Flying Frenzy Potency has been increased from 80 to 150.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

Drill Cannons Potency has been increased from 120 to 200.
Potency when target is afflicted with Petrification has been increased from 420 to 600.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

High Voltage Potency has been increased from 90 to 180.
Potency when target is afflicted with Dropsy has been increased from 130 to 220.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

Final Sting Potency has been increased from 1,500 to 2,000.
Player will now be inflicted with the Brush with Death status after use.
This action cannot be executed when under the effect of Brush with Death.

Song of Torment Damage over time potency has been increased from 25 to 50.

Glower Potency has been increased from 130 to 220.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

Plaincracker Potency has been increased from 130 to 220.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

Sharpened Knife Potency has been increased from 120 to 220.
Potency when target is stunned has been increased from 250 to 450.

Ice Spikes Potency has been increased from 25 to 40.

Blood Drain Potency has been increased from 20 to 50.

Bomb Toss Potency has been increased from 110 to 200.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

Off-guard The effects of this action have been revamped.
Off-guard now functions as follows:
Increases target's damage taken by 5%.
Recast time has been increased from 25 to 60 seconds.
Now shares a recast timer with Peculiar Light.
Duration has been reduced from 30 to 15 seconds.

Self-destruct Potency has been increased from 900 to 1,500.
Potency when you are under the effect of Toad Oil has been increased from 1,200 to 1,800.
Player will now be inflicted with the Brush with Death status after use.
This action cannot be executed when under the effect of Brush with Death.

Transfusion Player will now be inflicted with the Brush with Death status after use.
This action cannot be executed when under the effect of Brush with Death.

4-tonze Weight Potency has been increased from 110 to 200.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

The Look Potency has been increased from 110 to 220.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

Bad Breath Damage over time potency has been increased from 10 to 20.

The Ram's Voice Potency has been increased from 130 to 220.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

The Dragon's Voice Potency has been increased from 110 to 200.
Potency when target is afflicted with Deep Freeze has been increased from 310 to 400.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

Ink Jet Potency has been increased from 120 to 200.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

Fire Angon Potency has been increased from 120 to 200.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

Mind Blast Potency has been increased from 100 to 200.
Potency will now be reduced by 50% after the first enemy.

Peculiar Light Effect potency has been reduced from 30% to 5%.
Duration has been increased from 10 to 15 seconds.
Now shares a recast timer with Off-guard.

Feather Rain Potency has been increased from 180 to 220.
Damage over time potency has been increased from 20 to 40.

Eruption Potency has been increased from 220 to 300.

Mountain Buster Potency has been increased from 310 to 400.
Potency reduction after the first enemy is now fixed at 50%.

Shock Strike Potency has been increased from 310 to 400.
Potency reduction after the first enemy is now fixed at 50%.

Glass Dance Potency has been increased from 290 to 350.
Potency reduction after the first enemy is now fixed at 50%.

(source: patch 5.1 patchnotes)

Why did a class, supposedly 'too overpowered to exist in the normal constraints of FFXIV's battle design', need so many buffs? And why did they choose to limit the 'overpowered' side of the class, that being 'you can constantly run in and buffed-SelfDestruct to delete packs of trash'?

So I'd argue that, no, the class is not 'overpowered'. Not even close. A theoretical White Wind that can restore everyone to full HP on a 5min CD (assuming the BLU is full HP at time of use) wouldn't break things any more than SMN having access to a 700p AOE regen every 2min, and 1400p of singletarget healing on the same 2min point. Or DNC's 'technically 600p if you stack' every 60s, plus 500p from Improv, plus up to 10% of max HP as a shield (this is even more egregious than regular healing, because shielding can save you from overkill oneshots where flat healing cannot). And even if it WERE overpowered for whatever reason, as Zebraoracle said, have it scale to a max potency like Essential Dignity does, but based on the caster's HP rather than the target's. And then append to the 'additional effect when unsynced' an extra bit that changes how high the maximum potency can be. eg:

White Wind - Cast 2.5s, Recast 300s
Restores HP to all nearby allies. Potency increases as caster's HP increases, with a minimum potency of 300, up to a maximum potency of 1000.
Additional Effect: While Unsynced or participating in the Masked Carnivale, potency is removed. Instead, restores amount equal to caster's Current HP.
Additional Effect: While Unsynced or participating in the Masked Carnivale, Recast time is reduced to 2.5s

And you'd have to be giving up a DPS slot in that 'zero healer TOP run' to get that White Wind. Who are you swapping out, the SMN? The DNC? The RPR and their 250p every 30s from Arcane Crest? Or how about the Monk, so you don't have Mantra? Even then, by my design choices, BLU would be super support heavy, and thus it's RDPS would be comparable to a RDM or SMN, but more slanted towards it's raid contribution. So while I personally would see the MNK as the 'smallest loss' from a HPS perspective, the question then becomes 'do you still have the DPS to clear, with one missing Melee LB, and all those weakness stacks on people?' And considering how close the enrage was in that video, I'm gonna go with 'no, absolutely not because this is Meleewalker'. You need the DNC for the ranged LB, so it's the SMN and RDM. RDM was needed for the raise spam, so it's only the SMN that could possibly be swapped out. And I imagine that an AOE regen every 2m is gonna be a lot more use to the group than a 'fully heal everyone' every 5 min

edit because rereading things:

P3S actually had more healing requirements, but again, that specific mechanic required _A_ Healer Job for either LB or for AST to use Macrocosmos. It's why the encounter couldn't be 0 Healer cleared. But with this setup, you'd be able to 0 Healer clear it with a BLU. PLD or WAR (or both) and RDM or DNC (or both) could pump healing into it, then White Wind, then GG.

This part stands out. If we went with Zebraoracle's version of White Wind, that of 'scaling potency' rather than 'exact 1:1 HP restore based on current HP of BLU', then you wouldn't be able to 0heal P3S with a BLU. Life's Agonies applied a pretty nasty Healing Received Down debuff, making it harder to heal to full. Macrocosmos was able to instantly resolve the mechanic, because the damage that took you to 1HP was a blast of 999999 damage. A theoretical White Wind that scales up to 1000p, at full BLU HP, would require you to have multiple GCDs sacrificed on Clemency and Vercure, not just one, probably like 2-3 of each, and then because this White Wind is a potency heal, it too is affected by the debuff, meaning it'd heal for less as well, nowhere near enough to 'fully heal the team'. I don't remember exactly what % reduction the debuff applied, but even if it's as low as 20% (anything lower and you probably wouldn't even feel the impact of it), that puts the heal at 800. Quick check ingame on my 656 WHM (still stuck with Golbez weapon, healer life), my max HP is 73k, and a non-crit Cure 2 (800p) is 23k to 24k. You'd have the party at 30% HP when they die to the doom.

edit2: if a PLD Clemency'd a RDM to full (getting half of the effect to themselves as per Clemency's bonus effect), and a WAR used Bloodwhetting to do the rest of the PLD's HP (plus themselves, with Equilibrium and Thrill for extra healing), then the PLD covers the RDM for the raidwide after, I assume those 3 would survive. After that, it's a case of machinegun ressing the team, and beating the enrage because you have zero healers, and therefore 2 more DPS/tanks to work with for more damage (so the boss should be lower by then, or you skip entirely). So yeh, I don't think Life's Agonies would actually be the thing that prevents a 0heal run in that fight. Might be the add phase if anything, those birds got some sharp beaks