I was encouraged to crosspost this from the subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...the_blu_party/
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Late post because of the holiday, but now that the initial shock/hype around BLU has died down some, and I've had some time to think about it, I wanted to toss my hat into the ring. To be upfront, I can see that they're trying to go in a new direction, and personally I feel this direction is underwhelming, given their track record of content.

To begin with, here's what we know about Blue Mage:
  • First Limited Job
  • Level cap of 50, raises upon future patches
  • New Job Quests on release
  • Ranged Caster
  • Designed for Solo Play, "Not Suited for Parties"
  • Inaccessible Duties:
-Duties Requiring Matchmaking
-Roulettes
-PvP
-Deep Dungeons
-"Other duties not listed may not be accessible by blue mages"
  • Progression via open world grinding intended
  • Masked Carnivale, level 50 arena gauntlet for BLU only
  • "Rarely" learns techniques by witnessing them.
  • 49 abilities upon release, 24 equippable

So what we're given, is a job that appears counter intuitive to the MMO aspect of a MMORPG. While I don't deny there aren't solo players out there, and those that are excited for this content, I can't help but be underwhelmed by it. I can't think of any open world content that BLU is limited to that isn't soloable easily by any other job, albeit every other job lacks the flavor that BLU will bring.

Aside from what could potentially be a larger scale atma grind, the only point of interest in BLU content is the Masked Carnivale, which we know nothing about besides bringing in elemental resistances and testing the abilities a BLU has earned. We don't know the rewards or replayability or even if there's a leaderboard for this content.

So, given all that why could this be a good thing? It could mean they're going to focus on expanding solo content. This could mean new exciting things, and something to breathe much needed life into older unused areas. This could also gateway to updating older areas with things such as flight which I know is something that many would like to see. This could also add some unique flavor to XIV, instead of just throwing a Final Fantasy coat over traditional modern MMO activities.