Thank you for making Blue Mage unique!

[SDaemon]

Please scrap your plans for blue mage and try all over again.

No thanks. Please keep it as is SE.

[Saefinn]

Well I think there are positives. SE are breaking the mould, which is what they have needed to do as things have gotten formulaic, otherwise they'll keep using the same formula and Blue Mage would be a very challenging job to do using their existing formula and there are other jobs that are the same in the Final Fantasy repertoire, so I admire that they're trying to work in a way for jobs to feel as though they ought. Now, as I feel they hit the nail on the head with RDM and SAM and with some of the job changes in Stormblood like BRD, SMN and PLD where I think they ended up moving closer to how those jobs should play, so I have faith they know what they're doing...to an extent, because there are jobs where they do not (MNK, MCH, WHM come to mind). And with SMN I think suffers from there being those who love the DoT mage with a pet (akin to WoW's Affliction Warlock) and those who want the focus to be on the summons as in more traditional Final Fantasys. This system does open up potential for an alternative version of Summoner to satisfy the latter without annoying the former.

How they've implemented the job itself sounds positive (it sounds like it may be a true-to-life Blue Mage). But I understand the controversy and is also why I have reservations of my own, as on who has long awaited Blue Mage, but I can see how this -can- work and hope SE do make it work. Their track record makes me nervous but I won't join the naysaying just yet. Once I get my mitts on it, I am sure I will have a better idea of how this will pan out.

[Luluna]

I am so happy they have chose not go down the route of the generic stick to the rotations option we have now. I love the game but the jobs are so bad and boring. Every skill and spell is almost the same on each job just a different name.

The jobs like RDM while fun having hardly any spells like paralyze, refresh are so restricted. I am glad that are letting you get exp from open world monsters.

I played Puppetmaster and beastmaster in XI for times I wanted to farm and solo. I also remember some people moaning over getting BLU spells in XI but its part of the fun. I am a bit older so grinding mobs and working for something was the norm for me.

[Rhivryn]

I think people are blowing it out of proportion. Balance for Blue Mage would be a nightmare, something like this would never make it in another modern MMO: too fun and unique. But they added it, true to what the Blue Mage is, and hey had to make certain limitations so it wouldn't break the game. The level cap is probably so they can see how much it breaks the game at a level that wouldn't terribly matter, so they can see how to proceed to bring it up to level cap. I think it's more than reasonable an impressed they actually did what they've done.

I think the best way to get it in a state to use the Duty Finder would be to make it choose a role (blu mage tank would be interesting if possible...) and to unlock the option to queue as a certain role it should have certain skills unlocked. You need the full suite of tank/healer/dps skills acquired to queue for that role. So it doesn't go into content it can;t do as well as another job of that role. Also, I'd imagine certain broken or strange skills wouldn't be usable in Duty Finder, and the skill should say if it is one of those. I'm excited to play Blue Mage.

[Oreos]

I absolutely love the unique leveling and skill acquisition aspect to Blue Mage. The thrill when you learn that spell after what feels like your 50th kill is pretty great.

But I want to use those skills I worked so hard for in group raid content. Allow me to gather all the crazy spells I want and use them however I see fit while on my own. And then establish certain skills and alterations to those skills that will be required for me to play with a group.

We can meet in the middle, here. It doesn't have to be one or the other.

[PatronasCharm]

I am super excited for the way Blue Mage is implemented, heck, it's a masterstroke for players like me, that's very casual, doesn't want to do Raid stuff, and just ever play a single job. [It will keep me subscribed longer... and perhaps when it drops it'll keep me subbed up until the new expansion, winning even more subscription money from me!]

The way it's designed is reminiscent of Blue Mage in FFXI, and I can imagine me and my buddy just going out and hunting for Blue Spells!

I am just curious to see if it'll have a Rotation / or a gauge.

Maybe they'll add Unbridled Knowledge gauge where Primal / Extreme Abilities are only accessible via the gauge being full.

Super psyched, am ready to play BLU, sad it's still a bit further out.

And the good news, imagine that this expansion adds 4 jobs, 2 "Limited" Beastmaster / Puppetmaster and 2 actual jobs like Dancer / Rune Fencer (Which I believe is that supposed DRK on the screen) and Gunblade class.

[Evogolist]

I see this as the devs way of exploring new play styles and seeing what works. It's just like what they said during the live letter, depending on how well received BLU is, it just may open the door for other classes from the FF series to be added later on down the road. While I do understand that vocal minority that are upset about the restrictions put on BLU, as a career BLU in XI, I can definitely identify with what Yoshi-P was saying in in the first example as I and maybe many other Blu's have experienced just that, being kicked from a party for not having certain spells, being asked and harassed to have certain spells set, and the list goes on.

However, his example/excuse also has a negative side to it as well. It shows that the team lacks trust in the community and is holding our hands a bit too much, hence why the game is in the state that it's in now. As for the issues with certain spells being used in dungeons and raid content, it's nothing that simple balancing can't fix. Level 5 death should never be usable against dungeon and raid bosses. Debuffs such as that and actions that can one-shot bosses, should be set to where the boss is either immune to them or only take a fraction of the damage that they received. As they slowly raise the lvl cap for BLU, I'll for the time being look at BLU as being in maintenance mode since technically it is a work in progress and hopefully by the time the cap for BLU has reached 80, they've changed their stance on it being allowed into raids and duty finder content.

One thing I did leave out was how BLU will be utilizing the elements in order to best defeat an enemy. It makes me wonder if we'll see classes such as BLM, RDM, WHM, and SMN return to being the true elemental users that they're known for in FF games. It also opens up the possibility of bringing life back to the open world. Seeing the reaction that FFXI is currently getting and the addition of Trusts come 5.0, maybe BLU's won't be going at it alone in the open world, grinding off of random mobs.

[Jkap_Goat]

I'm very happy with BLU Mage and I understand why it's limited, I'm not mad at all, I'm really excited about it. To me, this respesents true BLU and it's something really new that isn't stuck in a Trinity system. I would hate it if it was a generic caster with one unique spells like red mages( both can cast magical dps, except one has a better cure and faster raise), I would have really hated to learn monster spells though job quests and, by just going out into the world and learning all these spells is a unique experience that no other job can do. Thank you SE, thank you yoshida and Dev team.

[Skyskip]

Thanks for wasting your time and resources on a dead end job!

There's no place for something like this in an MMO. Make it a real job.

[SonKevin]

People who want BLU as a regular job, didn't really want BLU to begin with.

Change my view.