Problem with BLU solutions

[whiskeybravo]

There are solutions. Acting like there aren't shows a startling lack of faith in the devs and a weird inability to adjust new ideas to existing systems.

This line of reasoning can be used on both sides of the argument, though.

1. Rebalance it/water it down

A lot of people would hate this. The current blue mage is exactly like blue mage. If that gets changed people would complain like they did with Dark Knight and Red Mage.

A lot of people hate this "non-watered down" version already, so how are we determining whose hate is right or wrong, or whose hate is more important? There isn't any way. We all share our opinions and *hopefully* SE takes this into account and makes adjustments so the playerbase isn't at each others throats about what they think is good or bad for the game. I'm just disappointed that SE has taken this step towards releasing "limited jobs" because the tradition this game has established is that we get to play the game using our favorite jobs from across the FF franchise. I suppose it was a faulty assumption to think any future jobs that were to be released would be fully playable in all the content available. But, the lack of transparency from SE doesn't help. I understand they want to keep somethings a surprise for us but when there's something big like this we are all going to have a lot of questions. Withholding their plans for BLU, or the future of limited jobs in general, isn't helping the situation.

2. Give Blue Mage two versions. One balanced for solo play, and one for group play.
Nah. Not only would it be too much work, it wouldn't be pracitcal. Where would you learn how to use group blue mage? You wouldn't have the same rotation. Hell, at this point we don't even know if blue mage has a rotation at all? With different traits and abilities it will be like a different job you never played. You can't fight raids with a job you can't use. Or at the very least you shouldn't.

There doesn't need to be 2 versions of BLU. It already has a unique gimmick in learning abilities via fighting monsters, it just needs another playstyle gimmick to differentiate it from the other casters. Just something that pops to mind, they could accumulate blue magic energy (job gauge) via a standard type of rotation using core abilities and then use that blue magic energy to perform their various array of blue magics as the situation dictates. This could be accomplished in a number of ways, with stronger abilities consuming more resources. As for the inability to ensure every BLU has all their abilities, there are ways to mitigate this, but also let's take a step back for a second and think about all the things we've been able to accomplish without BLU. If a BLU enters a NM raid or Alliance raid, them missing an ability like Mighty Gaurd isn't going to prevent the group from clearing. We don't have it now and are clearing content just fine. Let's say they are missing their highest damaging ability, half the people in Alliance raids are AFK and getting carried through the content anyways. No loss. As for raid groups, any diligent raid leader looking to recruit a BLU would be sure they have the most important abilities. It would become a standard for BLU's seeking statics to have as much of a complete kit as possible. Another thing that SE could do is limit job quest advancement by gating them behind abilities. Level 5 quest you must have 5 abilities unlocked. Level 10 requires 10 abiliites, so on a so forth until you max them out. There are many solutions.

3.Just let it raid as it is now.

First thing first. I don't recall it ever being said, that Blue Mage can't raid. It can't use matchmaking and will have cap of 50 in 4.5. But it was never said that once it climbs to the same level cap as the other jobs, it won't be able to enter raids with premade parties.
Got that? Okay. Let us assume that it can't enter raids, because it is totally not balanced for that. Unbalanced can mean two things. Either it is too effective or too ineffective. In the former case, nobody would let it fight. It would just be a chain of votekicks till serios buffs come and it becomes OP. In the latter case it would be a necessity and other DPS jobs won't see play. In either case it would destroy the raiding meta.

It's damage needs to balanced with utility like all other jobs are (ideally). That's really all that matters. Given BLU's identity it would likely be a middle of the pack DPS with unique support abilities. BLU's value has always been in it's unique abilities, not because they are the most overpowered job in FF franchise history.

4. Make the other jobs broken as well.

This doesn't sound all that bad on paper. Every job unique, inbalanced and fun. There is just one tiny flaw with this. It would require the complete rework of every job/class plus every boss encounter. That is an insanely large ammount of work for something that does not increase the ammount of playable content. Doing this only for Blue Mage to get into raids is disproportionate.

Again, since when has BLU ever been a "broken" job in an FF game? It's always been a middle of the road option, you'd never built a party of BLU's except perhaps for lulz. BLU can be as powerful as they want it to be within it's sphere of BLU content, that doesn't mean it has to be equally powerful outside of it.

So I invite all those against limited jobs, to consider all this and come up with a solution that actually works better than the one we got now.

There you have it.

[Mibgestalt]

This line of reasoning can be used on both sides of the argument, though.

Mmm, guess I should have clarified. A startling lack of faith in the Devs to do something they have already shown they are willing and able to do. I have significantly less faith that their idea of new and unique experiences is worthwhile enough to sacrifice Blue Mage as a class that can fully experience FFXIV, given how things like Eureka have turned out, and how most solo experiences in the game receive meager updates or are forgotten entirely. Maybe we'll gain the equivalent of 3 new Squadron dungeons every other patch for Blue Mage, but we'll miss on the things actually added in patches for Blue Mage. At least if they're past implementation of side content is any basis to go on.