How BLU CAN be implemented in Content

[Shurrikhan]

like I am sure the devs haven't thought about that at all.

You say that sarcastically, but... is sarcasm actually warranted?

How many times have we been giving an implementation or addition to which the obvious (albeit rhetorical) question was "Did they think this through at all?"

[Dragon_punch]

So BLU being able to play any role and you think nobody gonna complain about BLU being the only job that can do everything? You also have the problem of people not having learned several of the spells in the set. The only way they could balance BLU is to make it a typical DPS job with set skills and you learn spells from Job quests.

[PatronasCharm]

So BLU being able to play any role and you think nobody gonna complain about BLU being the only job that can do everything? You also have the problem of people not having learned several of the spells in the set. The only way they could balance BLU is to make it a typical DPS job with set skills and you learn spells from Job quests.

It was a fun thought that came to me. Seeing, I'm assuming this since we haven't seen all the spells / abilities it can learn as of yet, it'll have a wide array of healing / defensive / offensive abilities / spells at their disposal; maybe allowing the Blue Mage to choose a specific stance (class) to go in. Especially in a "Trust" Party. They can become whatever role is needed, corresponding to the specific spells it chooses.

Imagine the Ability:
Diffusion >> Mighty Guard
>> AoE HP regeneration + Defensive Shield

or

White Wind >> AoE Cure

or

Cocoon >> Grants a defensive bonus of 20% for 14s

etc.

However it may be, I'm glad BLU is introduced, it's going to be a fun collect them all sort of job. Gotta Learn`em all Pok... err Blue Mage!

but again, I may be getting ahead of myself, I am just eager to discover BLU once its released!

[Derio]

Balancing would be extremely difficult. Ffxi is a prime example

[WellFooled]

Balancing would be extremely difficult. Ffxi is a prime example

FFXI, at least in its hayday, wasn't an example of balance being difficult. It was an example of developers not caring to balance anything.

How many years were dragoons underpowered? And not just by a small amount, but they had huge glaring problems that were easily fixed. Like the fact dragoon's 2 hour was to call they're Wyvern. That was always an underpowered and terribly idea, but it took them years to change it to something useful. The developers ignored the problem, but that one fix was an easy change that every dragoon in the world had been suggesting for ages.

Perfect balance is impossible, even with the bland stats and lack of customization we have now is unbalanced. DRKs have been underpowered for an entire expansion. Since perfect balance is impossible, I say we should have some fun and interesting choices to go along with that lack of perfect balance.

[PatronasCharm]

Balancing would be extremely difficult. Ffxi is a prime example

Playing BLU in ffxi now is completely different than what it use to be; you’d have to explore its i119 BLU era to see.

However the BLUs weakness (before the era of i119) was always MP. If they spammed too many spells their DPS would be reduced due to that fact alone: no mp = no DPS.

So pretty much an overzealous BLU spamming spells would result in more down time less DPS. In ffxiv they could limit it by MP / GDCs etc.

There’s always a way to balance, but again whatever SE chooses to do in the future I’m just glad and grateful we get to play BLU.

[Bacent]

Honestly I like the direction they're going with Blu. People have asked for some solo content in this game. It gives people something to do during server down time when it isn't very populated late at night. I like the fact that we might need help from friends to go into certain dungeons/instances to possibly learn some new skills. It's gonna give some life to the older areas, trying to figure out what all of the 49 spells Blu can learn are. I don't want Blu to be another 'cookie cutter' class. 'Balance properly-ish to make raid worthy' blah blah blah.

Not everyone needs to raid to enjoy a game. Not every class HAS to stick to the same copy/paste stuff to be another version of existing stuff. I WANT Blu to be different. What I've seen of the class so far looks UH-MAY-ZING.

[WellFooled]

Honestly I like the direction they're going with Blu. People have asked for some solo content in this game. It gives people something to do during server down time when it isn't very populated late at night. I like the fact that we might need help from friends to go into certain dungeons/instances to possibly learn some new skills. It's gonna give some life to the older areas, trying to figure out what all of the 49 spells Blu can learn are. I don't want Blu to be another 'cookie cutter' class. 'Balance properly-ish to make raid worthy' blah blah blah.

Not everyone needs to raid to enjoy a game. Not every class HAS to stick to the same copy/paste stuff to be another version of existing stuff. I WANT Blu to be different. What I've seen of the class so far looks UH-MAY-ZING.

You're absolutely right. Blue mage sounds amazing, which is part of the reason why such a large group of us are upset. We want all of what its offering. We just also want that as a full job and not a limited one.

[NocturniaUzuki]

So BLU being able to play any role and you think nobody gonna complain about BLU being the only job that can do everything? You also have the problem of people not having learned several of the spells in the set. The only way they could balance BLU is to make it a typical DPS job with set skills and you learn spells from Job quests.

Fun fact. Every role can already do everything. You just need to customize for it, and it may not be ideal. It's especially easy to do this in non-savage content. Tanks can just DPS. DPS can be the tank. Healers can just DPS. Though some combinations are more or less advantageous than others. The mindset that tanks only tank, healers only heal, and DPS only DPS is short-sighted as hell. But when 99% of the playerbase only ever interacts with the most recent raids in standard party formats, they never put themselves in situations where roles break their standards.

Anyways, BLU being hybrid is fine. Maybe it won't be perfectly shoehorned into one role. That's fine. It can do everything - but not as well as everyone else. The differences get offset by how the rest of the party responds. BLU tank does more DPS than WAR, but needs special attention to survive? No problem. It just hurts the healers' ability to DPS, as they are having to throw out more than just regens to support the tank through boss autos. That DPS is made up by the BLU damage. Same deal if the BLU queues as healer. Maybe you just need to put more pressure on the other healer (you can already solo heal all Savage content, and some or all ultimate). And if the BLU is DPS? Well, maybe they being less DPS, but the DPS loss is offset by their ability to bring party utility.

When people see things only in terms of strict DPS numbers and shoehorn party roles, then yes, BLU is going to look like it can't raid. But if you actually look beyond that, it is perfectly fine as an imperfect raiding class.

Also, people may boot BLUs unnecessarily. But that's a people problem, not a design flaw. Same reason people think restricting content to i390+ will somehow get you better players. Maybe it will on average, but you're also keeping out some amazing players who just don't care about speedfarming gear.

[PatronasCharm]

Fun fact. Every role can already do everything. You just need to customize for it, and it may not be ideal. It's especially easy to do this in non-savage content. Tanks can just DPS. DPS can be the tank. Healers can just DPS. Though some combinations are more or less advantageous than others. The mindset that tanks only tank, healers only heal, and DPS only DPS is short-sighted as hell. But when 99% of the playerbase only ever interacts with the most recent raids in standard party formats, they never put themselves in situations where roles break their standards.

Anyways, BLU being hybrid is fine. Maybe it won't be perfectly shoehorned into one role. That's fine. It can do everything - but not as well as everyone else. The differences get offset by how the rest of the party responds. BLU tank does more DPS than WAR, but needs special attention to survive? No problem. It just hurts the healers' ability to DPS, as they are having to throw out more than just regens to support the tank through boss autos. That DPS is made up by the BLU damage. Same deal if the BLU queues as healer. Maybe you just need to put more pressure on the other healer (you can already solo heal all Savage content, and some or all ultimate). And if the BLU is DPS? Well, maybe they being less DPS, but the DPS loss is offset by their ability to bring party utility.

When people see things only in terms of strict DPS numbers and shoehorn party roles, then yes, BLU is going to look like it can't raid. But if you actually look beyond that, it is perfectly fine as an imperfect raiding class.

Also, people may boot BLUs unnecessarily. But that's a people problem, not a design flaw. Same reason people think restricting content to i390+ will somehow get you better players. Maybe it will on average, but you're also keeping out some amazing players who just don't care about speedfarming gear.

I absolutely agree with this: and to add: we could be also over exaggerating our speculations / expectations a bit since we haven't exactly seen what SE is going to do with the job. If it's just a "test" phase and they'll eventually implement and unlock all content if certain criterias are met to let it Raid / Roulettes etc..

We'll see! March can't come soon enough!