I don't understand BLU defenders

[Rowde]

I'm fine with this.

I love how every patch cycle there are SO MANY complaints about how everything is "cookie-cutter" and the same, yet when they do announce something different everyone still complains.

I have all jobs/classes at cap, so I plan to level BLU up regardless and judge for myself. I won't be surprised if BLU will eventually be able to DF, but it will have stricter requirements to unlock AFTER reaching max level (which will probably be 80).

[BillyKaplan]

But letting this out into the open where any moron can foul up a roulette would be a grave mistake.

They already do, that's the double standard here
And that's why most people don't just say to let BLU run free in DF, but to yes give it some sort of cookie cutter build, or limit its participation based on level + skills it had to learn. The example brought up by Yoshi-P in the fanfest is a problem of the devs' own creation that could've been worked around. On one hand I understand not wanting to mess with the queue, df and pf systems, epsecially for the one job, but then look at all the workd they already did for that selfsame job. It honestly feels like they stopped short of the mark and are now blaming the players for it.

[Burningskull]

You know how frustrated you get when there's people in DF that haven't done their job quests and don't have key abilities, or when you're doing level 31+ dungeons and people don't have their job stone equipped, or arrive otherwise gimped and do nothing but slow down or even prevent a successful run?

Imagine that, but with EVERY Blue Mage you see.

Unlike other classes, BLU learns skills from defeating enemies, which means going out of your way to fight certain mobs. The average DF idiot doesn't even bother learning a rotation with skills the game GIVES you, so what do you think the chances are of meeting a BLU who actually has the required skills?

BLU will be great for a little diversion from the game. A cool little side quest. A little adventure all of its own that guides you to getting the skills you need.

But letting this out into the open where any moron can foul up a roulette would be a grave mistake.

This is easily solvable by making the Blue Mage get their spells from mobs in a job quest.

[Reynhart]

BLU will be using DoM gear up to 50 which had INT and MND on it l so if it has any sort of GCD heal it will be able to function as a healer at least as well as an ACN/SMN can with Physic.

INT and MND gear are separated past ilvl70, so they won't have any MND bonus on their "end" gear.

This is easily solvable by making the Blue Mage get their spells from mobs in a job quest.

I fear it would greatly diminish the "roaming around to gather spells" feeling if your targets are predetermined.

Besides, you'll still be able to run content with a group, you'll just need to join a party beforehand thus having the opportunity of talking about what skills you have/haven't before being thrown in the content. Sure, for now, BLU will be capped at 50, but I suppose this is so that BLU is fully available for every player, even those without the expansions. And we still don't know how much "later" its level cap will be raised. Chances are that ShadowBringers content will be designed with BLU in mind, creating some weaknesses/immunities that didn't even exist yet (For example, since no job has a death spell, chances are no instanced boss has a death immunity)

[Dzian]

To be honest. I have no interest at all in blue mage. But I do question the decision to make it a limited jobor whatever.

Every job that already exists in game is built to be able to solo moderately well. So havving blu limited to solo content does nothing. When every job you already have can already do that content then why do you need a blu. It basically serves no purpose at all.

If they instead make all solo content balanced around blu then they end up pushing it to be almost mandatory if other jobs just aren't strong enough for that same content Which would in turn cause vast amounts of uproar and anger.

Now maybe this is because I'm not interested in the job but I just can't see the point in limiting it in such a way. it basically makes the whole thing worthless.

or maybe they're going to create content specifically for blue mages and gives us even less content per patch. 1 dungeon maybe...

[Duskane]

INT and MND gear are separated past ilvl70, so they won't have any MND bonus on their "end" gear.

true but there heal probably will scale of INT like red mage if they really want to push this "solo" job

[xbahax92]

I didnt know that BLU is out yet to judge how it works.

Even if so, there are buffs, healing skills and tanky skills that might be still superior to other DPS. (Aka White Wind, Mighty Guard)

Beside nobody knows if those skills are gcd, ogcd, have a cast bar, long cooldown, sharing cooldown or not. So stop making assumptions right now. You are just hurting each other.

[Blokeymon]

This is easily solvable by making the Blue Mage get their spells from mobs in a job quest.

And then you have cries of "This could have been something cool, instead it just follows the same cookie-cutter formula, when will SE give us something new?"

SE are damned no matter what they do.

[JBee]

I think for some of the more vocal supporters of this vision of Blue Mage it's more about having fresh content. I don't blame them that, and for that one aspect, I even agree. I'm not looking forward to the RNG based ability acquisition; same for the carnivale - but I accept I may be pleasantly surprised. Some people have their jobs capped - or at least the ones they care about - and they are in a weekly grind of tomestones and alphascape... and they want something more. They are the people who have consumed the content and are still hungry. It's not about it being specifically Blue Mage, it's about a new experience and a new carrot to chase. I can see that side of things for sure.

But on the other side, you have people who are specifically looking forward to Blue Mage. They may have played other FF games and liked that element of using the monster moves against foes, or flexibility, or whatever, and have been looking forward for the time when that would be available. And I would wager a large amount of them - after seeing how other jobs were rolled out - were fully prepared for the job to not quite true to form, but to be FFXIV's take on it. But it was still Blue Mage, and that's what they were waiting for. Some of these people had every intention of this being their MAIN JOB once it dropped, because they did in fact trust it would be good. After having the job teased as potential for a long time through playfully snarky comments in game to leaks to even the moment he walked out on stage in a blue costume... And then wham - it's not like the other 15 jobs - arbitrarily job 16 is different. It may not be bad, but it's not what this group of people wanted. It's not about the carnivale being good or bad, or how to acquire abilities - that's all incidental.

It's about how the one thing a lot of people were specifically looking forward to is now not going to happen.

It would be no different than if any other job with a history in the series were announced and it were being released as a limited, different experience. If they decided tomorrow that Bard was now a non combat class and only gathered sheet music via a match 3 mini game across Eorzea in order to get people out in the open world... If AST were released as a fluff tarot reading experience only... I could give silly examples for any job - point being a lot of people I have chatted with about it are of an extremely selfish mindset, unfortunately - I got mine, and I want something new, so stop complaining about BLU.

But I guarantee if a die hard Monk found out their job was being changed into a pilgrimage class, where they literally walk paths without violence to achieve goals, suddenly limited jobs are an issue. Hey, it's a stealth game and it's new content, so what's the problem?

[Lusavari]

My thoughts: While I'm in the "Wait and See before passing judgement, this could be good or bad" camp, at the end of the day, I sincerely feel Blue Mage might have been the wrong job to debut Limited Jobs with.

Beast Master/Beast Tamer probably would have been the optimal choice for this. In FFXI it ended up being a solo job, so something focused on solo content would not have offended as many people. This would have warmed people up more to the idea of limited jobs. A job like Blue Mage that has a huge fan base (but I personally have never really liked. Too gimmicky and unreliable) was probably the wrong job to start with. Personally, my hope is that Limited jobs can group up and do some other types of content of duties. This is a big risk. I would rather wait and see, and then be honest and constructive rather than reactionary.