I Thought BLU Was Made For Solo Players

[Absurdity]

It stopped being about solo content the moment you hit Lv50 and wanted to obtain the first 49 spells due to the EX trial requirement back in 4.5.

The content for solo players was the Masked Carnivale. The reason why BLU is limited is because they saw the need to make "game-breaking" skills which don't work in 95% of content, yet standard BLU damage rotation is pretty much just another Caster with some slight nuances - basically the devs forced a self-fulfilling prophecy.

For what it is, 8-BLU raids are some crafty stuff, but tbh at this point I wish they would've given us a second job stone, call it "Memoires of the Blue Mage" that just acts as a standard Blue Mage kit with skills tied to levels and design more BLU sticks to work as normal weapons (with VIT).

Instead, now we have the dread of another job receiving "Limited" status on the horizon. I really wish they'd stop.

This is the biggest thing, I just find it utterly baffling that they want to create another job that relies entirely on the devs making new content for it to even give players any reason for playing it.

[chaotix69]

It adapted fine to the game. It's just something different.

Unlike this thread.

I hope you’re doing okay

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

This is the biggest thing, I just find it utterly baffling that they want to create another job that relies entirely on the devs making new content for it to even give players any reason for playing it.

Imma be perfectly honest, at this point I see anything Limited as a dooming label.

Solo arena challenges? Only for BLU now.
Spice and variety in your job kits a la skill trees? Only for BLU now.
Challenges to incentivize syncing old Savage content? You better be a BLU, bozo.

Besides the dread of having another job be potentially doom-labeled with Limited like Beastmaster when Summoner is allowed to have rotational summons, the re-dread that follows is having to guess what type of game design will also forever be cemented into "will never happen to non-limited".

When BLU came out I saw it as a handy Beta Test sandbox for them to experiment with game concepts like fast cast, ogcd cast, conditional effects, etc., but I stopped hoping at this point.

[Saraide]

Imma be perfectly honest, at this point I see anything Limited as a dooming label.

Solo arena challenges? Only for BLU now.
Spice and variety in your job kits a la skill trees? Only for BLU now.
Challenges to incentivize syncing old Savage content? You better be a BLU, bozo.

Besides the dread of having another job be potentially doom-labeled with Limited like Beastmaster when Summoner is allowed to have rotational summons, the re-dread that follows is having to guess what type of game design will also forever be cemented into "will never happen to non-limited".

When BLU came out I saw it as a handy Beta Test sandbox for them to experiment with game concepts like fast cast, ogcd cast, conditional effects, etc., but I stopped hoping at this point.

I would love to have solo arena challenges for other roles.

[Iselion]

I can't imagine this going well at all for another limited job. We got all of ONE more carnivale stage this expansion for blu and not that many new spells.

Can't wait for that to get spread even thinner.

[NekoMataMata]

This is the biggest thing, I just find it utterly baffling that they want to create another job that relies entirely on the devs making new content for it to even give players any reason for playing it.

In addition to this the devs seem to not like how we use BLU. Like one of the biggest benefits of BLU is being able to farm older content easier or being able to farm tomes during tome events easier. Pretty sure there's a statement from Yoshi P out there where he stated that it was clearly not intended for people to use BLU to mass farm tome events. Don't remember much but it wasn't anything more than just disapproval.

I can't imagine this going well at all for another limited job. We got all of ONE more carnivale stage this expansion for blu and not that many new spells.

Can't wait for that to get spread even thinner.

So about that... From what I can tell ShB and level 70 BLU mages got 1 carnivale stage and only 4 more spells(24 total). EW BLU got 1 stage as well, and 20 spells. There's obviously a decline, but I don't think it's as much of a drop off as people would like to imagine it as. I also think that BLU mage's design is a bit limiting and that they need to innovate some. We have 24 spell slots, it's really hard to add something that isn't just an improvement of an older ability, or add something that fulfils a new utility purpose compared to spells like loom, diamondback, flying s. and whatever.

I feel like they should give us a trait at level 80 or 90 for 6 more spells, maybe a trait for half the time on angel whisperer and generally be less afraid of adding in more overpowered abilities even if it's an upgrade from earlier, since BLU is supposed to be overpowered and fun.

[Atelier-Bagur]

In addition to this the devs seem to not like how we use BLU. Like one of the biggest benefits of BLU is being able to farm older content easier or being able to farm tomes during tome events easier. Pretty sure there's a statement from Yoshi P out there where he stated that it was clearly not intended for people to use BLU to mass farm tome events. Don't remember much but it wasn't anything more than just disapproval.



So about that... From what I can tell ShB and level 70 BLU mages got 1 carnivale stage and only 4 more spells(24 total). EW BLU got 1 stage as well, and 20 spells. There's obviously a decline, but I don't think it's as much of a drop off as people would like to imagine it as. I also think that BLU mage's design is a bit limiting and that they need to innovate some. We have 24 spell slots, it's really hard to add something that isn't just an improvement of an older ability, or add something that fulfils a new utility purpose compared to spells like loom, diamondback, flying s. and whatever.

I feel like they should give us a trait at level 80 or 90 for 6 more spells, maybe a trait for half the time on angel whisperer and generally be less afraid of adding in more overpowered abilities even if it's an upgrade from earlier, since BLU is supposed to be overpowered and fun.

I would just advocate for more blue mage content. Or better yet blue mage activities and challenges that are in seasonal rotation for both blue and endgame rewards. We put in all the work to level and learn all the spells but they cant be bothered to update the Masked Carnivale with more trials or expand on it for party based challenges and just rely on Blue Log that hasnt been updated for aeons at this point?

Especially with how insulting they locked behind a blue weapon in content they cant do. If theyre start doing shit like that, how about create a weekly system where you have challenging fights both soloable and party wise that if you complete them all gives you an extra savage loot or you get some upgrade reageants or tokens or whatever.

Why is this game so afraid in incentivizing gear rewards (which is arguably the main driving force for endgame) in other pieces of content? Just look at current WoW in how they allow you to earn endgame gear rewards in all sorts of content both quests and outworld. The more I think about this the angrier I get at how mediocre this "MMO" is in terms of encouraging for you to play it.

[NekoMataMata]

I would just advocate for more blue mage content. Or better yet blue mage activities and challenges that are in seasonal rotation for both blue and endgame rewards. We put in all the work to level and learn all the spells but they cant be bothered to update the Masked Carnivale with more trials or expand on it for party based challenges and just rely on Blue Log that hasnt been updated for aeons at this point?

Especially with how insulting they locked behind a blue weapon in content they cant do. If theyre start doing shit like that, how about create a weekly system where you have challenging fights both soloable and party wise that if you complete them all gives you an extra savage loot or you get some upgrade reageants or tokens or whatever.

Why is this game so afraid in incentivizing gear rewards (which is arguably the main driving force for endgame) in other pieces of content? Just look at current WoW in how they allow you to earn endgame gear rewards in all sorts of content both quests and outworld. The more I think about this the angrier I get at how mediocre this "MMO" is in terms of encouraging for you to play it.

More content would be nice. I wish they'd just unlock the BLU log. The only thing stopping me from tearing through the BLU log is the fact that duties must be completed with a full party. Most people don't even care about the BLU log, I usually see people asking for the weekly targets in PF at the start of the week and during the weekends, but there's not that many listings.

Maybe it really is down to rewards. Allied seals seem to be BLU's choice of currency, but I'm always at cap. They could do something with that at least too.

[Atelier-Bagur]

More content would be nice. I wish they'd just unlock the BLU log. The only thing stopping me from tearing through the BLU log is the fact that duties must be completed with a full party. Most people don't even care about the BLU log, I usually see people asking for the weekly targets in PF at the start of the week and during the weekends, but there's not that many listings.

Maybe it really is down to rewards. Allied seals seem to be BLU's choice of currency, but I'm always at cap. They could do something with that at least too.

Yeah thats the key here; giving players the option to do it solo or with a party, perhaps even adjust reward payout based on either method. Im saying they need to start implementing current endgame rewards from Blue Mage; so that it incentivizes players to pick up and play the job if it meant that getting access to this content allows them to get useful rewards for gearing alt jobs for raiding. Of course this doesnt mean that it should solely be this for Blue Mage endgame, definitely we would like to have unique rewards and cosmetics tied into completing challenges and activities with the job but the BIGGEST problem with this game is that just in general they dont dedicate resources to keep their side content systems relevant with new reward cycles.

I'm no expert in maintaining an MMO but you figured if the intention for Blue Mage is to have its updates you figure they'd do a better job and making sure players are able to play it frequently? This is not about always bringing in more and more content, its really just keep the job relevant for both casual and endgame even if they cant fully participate in the current. This is not something that should hastily be abandoned the minute you get your new levels and spells.

[Absurdity]

Why is this game so afraid in incentivizing gear rewards (which is arguably the main driving force for endgame) in other pieces of content? Just look at current WoW in how they allow you to earn endgame gear rewards in all sorts of content both quests and outworld. The more I think about this the angrier I get at how mediocre this "MMO" is in terms of encouraging for you to play it.

I find it funny at this point. WoW, the hardcore raid-only MMO, is now giving you the ability to get endgame raid-level gear from just casually playing the game and plans to expand this to even more solo content with Delves in the next expansion.
While XIV has suddenly become the "raid or bust" MMO when it comes to gearing your character.