Blue Mage and Summoner responses worry me

[Exodus-E]

They could have BLU as a class, and branch off into 3 different jobs with different roles. that way you can pick whatever role you want at any time, without dumping everything into 1 job.
ACN can fill any role basically...can heal, can use tank pet, and be DD. So there's no reason they couldn't do that with BLU, also.
Sure ACN is a bit OP at lower levels, but at end-game, not so much.

...or they could do just that with a single job.
Make it a DPS job with options, like the Arcanist class (DPS that can heal, rez', and manage pets).

If we don't get Hybrid roles for now, then DPS would definitely be its best bet.

[Fornix]

Is he basically calling us stupid?

He's merely indicating most players would not have the required skill. And that's just fact. There's a reason not everybody is parading through T9. Ramuh Ex with random PUGs having so many wipes. Etcetera.

Many players in MMO's already struggle enough as is with rather basic classes to play with. The dance by itself is difficult to memorize for a lot, and applying class specific best decisions to it is even harder. So let stand adding in a complex class to play. Many players will end up having gotten to lvl 50, unable to carry their weight, being ignored in being taken up into groups, etc. And keep in mind that MMO players generalize as well. So not only the players who lack the skill will be left aside. Merely not knowing a summoner may be reason enough to let them pass just not to risk the chance of another bad summoner.

[Fendred]

Is he basically calling us stupid?

Also not surprised about Blue Mage, the system in this game is too rigid.

I think he's probably concerned with adding any more micromanagement involving ability bars. The biggest problem with raiding right now is the UI. The more complex the class, the more time your eyes spend at the bottom of the screen looking at your action bars, which is away from the focus target or monster's health bar. Unless the player in question is a mutant that can look in two directions at once, it will cause them to miss cast bars and die. The only real solution would be to play in windowed mode so the entire UI is in view or to make announcements in the center of the screen like in the Cutter's Cry Chimera fight.

So he is avoiding turning the action bars into a WoW style clutter fest (as much as possible).

[Alberel]

For Blue Mage, think about it: the abilities you learned in FFXI made it to where you could, in theory, play just about any role in a party... but you were still a Blue Mage.

Apply this to queuing up for duties, and I'm sure the dilemma is obvious. You would get a BLU in a party, but perhaps they don't have all the skills needed to fill a support slot. Or they only have mitigation/tanking abilities active. Or maybe they hate healing, etc.

If you get a WHM that doesn't want to heal, you... kick them for a healer that is there to heal. Same thing for Warriors that want to DPS, but they have to queue as tanks because of the strict system.

So they would have to adjust EVERYTHING and break the whole system currently in place, just for BLU. Given they have already delayed 2.4 for NIN, I can't imagine how long it would take for them to even get close to having BLU. But I, like others, will wait and hope for that day.

Rift solved this problem with their hybrid classes by evaluating which skills and passives you had slotted (or unlocked on the skill tree in Rift's case) and determined your role based on that when queuing. Assuming that BLU would work similarly to XI (they unlock many monster skills but can only have a limited number slotted for use at a time) I see no reason why BLUs couldn't have access to all roles and just be forced to lock themselves into one when queuing for content based on skill selection.

[Duelle]

Even if we DID get a blue mage, it would have a handful of specific monster skills (one ever 5 levels) and a slew of generic class skills and likely wouldn't have the feel as a result.

BLU would actually be real easy to implement within the current game. Here's how I'd do it:

1) Instead of abilities, BLU would get something that would hold monster essences. The suggestion I made for BLU a while back was for recepticles
2) BLU would get a total of 5 recepticles (one for each job quest), and each recepticle would hold 3 spells upon implementation
3) Spells bound to the same recepticle would share the cooldown of the spell used. Ex: the lv50 recepticle would have Bad Breath, Final Sting and Grand Delta. If you used Bad Breath and BB had a 2 minute cooldown, the all three spells would be put on a 2-minute cooldown.

Assuming you went with this approach, BLU would enter the game (assuming a lv50 cap) with access to 15 spells. You'd still have to prioritize spells because of the shared cooldowns. It might even lead to people making unofficial sets of spells to determine what their DPS rotation would be. Increases in the level cap may then introduce abilities that interact with blue magic in some way and/or increase the spell capacity of the recepticles. This way you have a library of spells available to you while staying within the rules for job design the devs are currently following.

[Gramul]

I am not a fan of the over structured 3 role system for this exact reason.

[Asheilin]

Blue Mage was my fave in Xi. While SMN is lacking in what I feel makes a SMN, its likely going to continue to be my main...Until BLU is released.

[Lazearus]

At the rate SE is boxing themselves up with self-imposed restrictions like:

Over-simplified skills
Telegraphed break dancing dodging fights
OHKO mechanics (good that they're doing this less)
Holy trinity
No elemental resistance
Dev dictating what debuffs can be placed on mobs and what debuffs can be removed
Alternate methods getting hotfixed (partially due to players fault too)

It will be hard for them to implement hybrid classes like BLU and pet-based summoner since these won't fit into their rigid structure.

[skaterger]

So summoner actually being a summoner would require a lot of skill so that's why they can't really do it? what's wrong with having a job sololy for skilled players?

One word. Balance. They have been clear they want to make every class viable in the game by making their dps as close to each other as possible. By making one class significantly harder than it is to play than others (by having to control two characters instead of one), even less players would want to play summoner. Why would I want to press 20 buttons when I can press 5 for another class. Not to mention a higher skill cap would mean larger potential for bigger mistakes.

I'm all for high risk high reward class. If they made an incredibly complex class with the potential to deal 10% more damage if played perfectly but do terribly if not played well, I would jump to that in an instant. Since they seem to be bent on homogenizing the classes, then each should take a fairly equal effort to play.

[Nakiamiie]

I, too, am disappointed by the reply given during the live letter.

Things are way too simple! Of course, new players appreciate that simplicity, but it has to become more complex in the long run.
The way it is now, it's way too shallow.

Should at least introduce a system unlocked at lvl 50 that bypasses all those stupid restrictions. My character is the exact same one as everyone else, same gear, same stats, same skills. (95% of it anyway)
There is just so little manoeuvres right now with the customization we have if you don't want to weaken your character (i.e. stats have to be spent correctly, cross-class skills are limited and sometimes redundant and useless).

The graphics are awesome, the story is cool and interesting, the character development is... shallow, empty, missing.
This is the greatest flaw of FFXIV:ARR (even worst than the RNG fest!).

Please devs, keep the simplicity for below lvl 50 and unlock complexity for us after level 50!! T_T