Thread: Blue mage at patch 4.5

The game is just a game - it is a means of fantasy and escapism, and some of us have put many, many hours into it.

But for a real world analogy....

If I treated my Job as a Limited Job, it would be "UNM" ...

Unemployed.

Originally Posted by JBee

The game is just a game - it is a means of fantasy and escapism, and some of us have put many, many hours into it.

But for a real world analogy....

If I treated my Job as a Limited Job, it would be "UNM" ...

Unemployed.

It'd be a hobby.

Originally Posted by JBee

If I treated my Job as a Limited Job, it would be "UNM" ...

No. It would be a low-wage job with no prospects for a raise or promotion. Aka...what many people in the world can relate to.

I worded my post poorly, that's on me.

What I meant was... if I only did a limited number of my job duties in my current position, I should expect to be replaced. Not the best analogy, granted.

Originally Posted by JBee

I worded my post poorly, that's on me.

What I meant was... if I only did a limited number of my job duties in my current position, I should expect to be replaced. Not the best analogy, granted.

That still doesn't make any sense to how BLU is planned?

Originally Posted by Ilenya

That still doesn't make any sense to how BLU is planned?

One of Yoshida excuses for Blue being limited was that people would kick BLUs from dungeons if they didn't have the right spells, which would happen for any job, and will actually still happen with BLU in party finders since people are absolutely going to find the best 24 abilities that should be used.

Sorry, won't be continuing a subscription due to the limited factor. Will be the first to sign up if it can do current content and raiding and use random grouping though. Not much else to say other than, good luck everybody else!

Blue Mage being equally capable as a DPS, tank, or healer seems to be a common misconception. While yes, Blue Mage is known to posses powerful mitigation or healing through spells such as Mighty Guard and White Wind, often times, those two spells were all that Blue Mage had for support utility. Across several games, it's normal to see approximately 80% of their spells as offensive in nature, whether it be through direct damage or negative status effects.

SE knows this. There is a reason why it's been officially classified as a Magical Ranged DPS. And when DPS jobs can have support utility like Mantra and Troubadour, I wouldn't consider it remotely game breaking for Blue Mage to have spells like Mighty Guard and White Wind while being classified as a DPS job. I also wouldn't consider it to be a disservice to the identity of Blue Mage if it can't tank or heal as well as it can deal damage. The only case where Blue Mage was truly that diverse has been in FFXI.

The representation of Blue Mage in FFXI was a deviation from the norm. But in its defense, it could also be called an expansion of what came before. And it's quite clear that FFXIV is borrowing heavily from the FFXI representation. However, when you consider what it means to be a full-fledged tank or healer, and consider that Blue Mage has been designed as a solo job, is it even being created with those capabilities in mind? If Blue Mage were being designed to be the most flexible party job, it would be a different story, but it's designed to clear content on its own.

Being equally capable of dealing damage, tanking, and healing isn't something that is required of Blue Mage in FFXIV. At its core, Blue Mage has a consistent focus on DPS, and while it will possess mitigation and healing spells, those spells may primarily exist for its own benefit when it's being designed as a solo job.