Blue Mage Theories

[Destati]

I'm not terribly familiar with how Blue Mage worked in other FF games but my mind is swimming with possibilities.
My hope/theory is that this job will have a unique layer of customization to it, allowing players to mix and match various abilities freely. Certain combinations can optimize it for different roles, so it could be possible to play BLU as a Tank, Healer, or DPS. So maybe it will be similar to the Logograms system from Eureka Pyros (I haven't made it to Pyros yet so I'm just going off what little information I've gleaned)?
Of course if this is the case then people will undoubtedly find the "best" skill set to use rendering customization pointless, not to mention balancing the job would be absolute hell. But maybe that's why they're releasing it as a "Beta test" of sorts.

[LastFireAce]

Pretty sure is only lv50 so won't destroy this expansion, it get to 80 next expansion.

[Lufir]

I'm not terribly familiar with how Blue Mage worked in other FF games but my mind is swimming with possibilities.
My hope/theory is that this job will have a unique layer of customization to it, allowing players to mix and match various abilities freely. Certain combinations can optimize it for different roles, so it could be possible to play BLU as a Tank, Healer, or DPS. So maybe it will be similar to the Logograms system from Eureka Pyros (I haven't made it to Pyros yet so I'm just going off what little information I've gleaned)?
Of course if this is the case then people will undoubtedly find the "best" skill set to use rendering customization pointless, not to mention balancing the job would be absolute hell. But maybe that's why they're releasing it as a "Beta test" of sorts.

I like that you brought up the logograms, it could very well be that the developers instantly thought of Blue Mage when creating those combinations of logos actions. I wonder how the Blue Mage gauge will be. Could it be a monster gauge? Where using a variety of different basic monster type Blue Magic will unleash some of the bigger heavy damage Primal learned skills. I'm really curious!!

[InkstainedGwyn]

My pessimistic side says that for all they advertise this as being new and revolutionary, it's going to be the exact same as other classes, only instead of completing a quest you'll just have a hunt log; X enemy gives you X skill, with a present selection of 20 or so skills. That the level cap of 50 (or limitation to solo instances, depends on that definition, whether it's learning in solo instances or just using in solo instances) is because they don't want complaints about BLU unbalancing 4.0 stuff and who cares about pre 4.0 since we can unsync it anyway?

That being said, I see a lot of interesting ideas here, even if I'm a little too jaded with what I've seen in game so far. I just remember Eureka being praised as "unique and unlike anything seen before", and half a dozen other over-hyped promises, so I'm betting on the side of what I've seen before from SE. If they shake it up, I'll be happy to admit I was wrong.

I'm looking forward to BLU, don't get me wrong. I love the outfit and the concept, and I'll be happy when I get it. I'm just wary at any promises of "revolutionary new concepts."

[Freyt]

I don't really understand the point of a solo job, other than maybe farming some ARR primals or something.

[InkstainedGwyn]

I don't really understand the point of a solo job, other than maybe farming some ARR primals or something.

Well, given how vocal the fanbase has been about BLU, I can see them trying a solo class as a way to give into the demand, but not have to rework the game, since everything else is so homogeneously different from this concept. If they keep it solo, it counts as "new content" for people to do, whereas giving it to us as a standard class just means a week of levelling and then back into the current treadmill.

That's only if they keep it solo, however. The wording (as usual!) is vague enough that we won't know until tomorrow (or later) if it means "duties learned in solo instances" (so you're not fighting for mobs) or "only able to play BLU in solo duties". Until then, it's all speculation.

[kikix12]

I'm quite sure that there was a mention of only ONE Blue Mage exclusive duty. Some sort of masquerade, probably something that will let Blue Mage actually turn into enemies whose skills they got and play AS monsters.

Other than that, the enemies they will learn skills from will be normal duty enemies. Doubt they would go to the effort of changing up most of the duties from 15-50 to be doable solo at their level. We've seen Cutter's Cry and Shiva, but there are more than likely others as well.

And the skills are supposedly hard to learn somehow. Yeah, it is hard to go to a dungeon and get hit by stuff you should avoid that can outright kill you, even. Some may require other skills just so that you can survive them.

Well, at least that's what I hope for.

[InkstainedGwyn]

I'm quite sure that there was a mention of only ONE Blue Mage exclusive duty. Some sort of masquerade, probably something that will let Blue Mage actually turn into enemies whose skills they got and play AS monsters.

Other than that, the enemies they will learn skills from will be normal duty enemies. Doubt they would go to the effort of changing up most of the duties from 15-50 to be doable solo at their level. We've seen Cutter's Cry and Shiva, but there are more than likely others as well.

And the skills are supposedly hard to learn somehow. Yeah, it is hard to go to a dungeon and get hit by stuff you should avoid that can outright kill you, even. Some may require other skills just so that you can survive them.

Well, at least that's what I hope for.

The ambiguity is coming from the press release.

"Taking inspiration from previous FINAL FANTASY titles, the blue mage job will provide a unique solo gameplay experience in which players will learn monster actions and advance through blue mage-specific content."

Solo gameplay experience?

[xxvaynxx]

Why would they just make this job for solo content? seems kinda dumb to me.
I think its gonna get to 80 come 5.0.
We're digging too deep of what they said "level increase in future patches." they could just mean they're gonna up it to 80 on 5.0. Or maybe level it for 4.56/7

I'm sure a lot of people are gonna be pretty pissed that they can't technically "main" blu because its a solo only job.

For me all they're doing is giving us something to do before 5.0.
You all remember how boring the game gets near the end of last patch. Like...NOTHING to do for the next 3 months.

[kikix12]

The ambiguity is coming from the press release.

"Taking inspiration from previous FINAL FANTASY titles, the blue mage job will provide a unique solo gameplay experience in which players will learn monster actions and advance through blue mage-specific content."

Solo gameplay experience?

Well, the blue mage-specific content doesn't say how many of them there are. It can be one and it can be ten.

The "unique solo experience" may very well be talking about the learning part and how the job feels outside of duties. A class can have a unique solo experience while work just like every other in multiplayer experience. For example you may be able to switch actions from fight to fight in the overworld, while you have to set some based on a template of sorts to start a duty with no switching of them mid-duty itself.

Honestly, right now I'm playing a devils advocate, really. I am hoping for it to be usable in general duties, even if with a delay after patches. So I am taking full advantage of what is and what is not written there. After all, there is no "unique solo-only experience there, and you can play all classes solo, just that they are not unique in any way.

Why would they just make this job for solo content? seems kinda dumb to me.
I think its gonna get to 80 come 5.0.

I believe that Yoshida said that its level cap will be increased gradually with patches after expansion hits. That means that it's going to still be capped at 50, or 60, when 5.0 hits and probably get 10 more levels at 5,1; 5,2 and 5,3 or 5,2 and 5,4 or some such.