Alright, I Did It. [Blue mage Review]

[Rosenoire]

Personally, I found farming overworld mobs for learning spells incredibly tedious after the 20th time watching a boar use Bristle and failing to learn it, which followed 45 minutes of grinding killer wespes in La Noscea only to either die or not learn the skill. I only got it after telling myself, "If I don't learn it this time I'm going to sleep, because this is annoying." But that's RNG for you.

I was pretty much over the RNG after my 108th run of SusanoEx with no dog, but at least that's optional content. Gating necessary job abilities behind RNG is a poor design. But if you get all of the skills from the job quests, like every other caster, then...you're like every other caster, only with blue artifact armor. Being wedded to the trinity of tank/healer/dps is also not optimal for a class that traditionally has been able to fill multiple roles.

I feel badly for people who really wanted BLU and got this. I just don't know that it's possible to implement the class in its iconic form from other Final Fantasy games within the framework of FFXIV.

[Blueyes]

Honestly, I believe the only reason why there are spells with such an abysmal learn rate is to slow down progression. If Blue Mage had access to all content, they could scrap the RNG entirely because there's actual content for it to do after collecting all of its spells. But since there is so little for Blue Mage to do, SE has intentionally given spells a low chance of being learned purely for the sake of keeping Blue Mage occupied when there's nothing else to do.

[Lambdafish]

So, the easiest solution, would be to have similar skills attainable through much less annoying means

Whether it was or wasn't possible before (I don't believe it is possible in way that would satisfy people more than what we have), it most certainly isn't possible now. To change current BLU in such a way would be an overhaul akin to making a brand new job, which I would rather they didn't do.

[Kalise]

Whether it was or wasn't possible before (I don't believe it is possible in way that would satisfy people more than what we have), it most certainly isn't possible now. To change current BLU in such a way would be an overhaul akin to making a brand new job, which I would rather they didn't do.

It really wouldn't be that hard.

We already know they're planning on adding (A considerable amount of) new skills to BLU come the next update for the job.

They just need to make some of those skills comparable to the current "Must haves" and then put them in the Overworld or as Totems. Then it's done, literally the entire design I outlined for making BLU both not restricted while retaining the essence of BLU (If we assume that the current implementation is capturing the essence of BLU) is successfully created.

Just add more skills, make some easier to get. Just like they have now. The only thing you need to do is make it so that the easy to obtain skills aren't just garbage like Final Sting and at least have some that are like actually relevant skills such as The Ram's Voice.

Then it's just balance changes to the trio of problematic skills, which hardly needs an overhaul to the entire BLU.

[Blueyes]

Whether it was or wasn't possible before (I don't believe it is possible in way that would satisfy people more than what we have), it most certainly isn't possible now. To change current BLU in such a way would be an overhaul akin to making a brand new job, which I would rather they didn't do.

That's drastically overstating the amount of work that would be required. All of its assets are already present. Blue Mage does not need to be remade from scratch. Learning spells from monsters can stay. Spell customization can stay. The vast majority of its spells are perfectly fine the way they are. Very few of them could be considered broken or overpowered. As long as those few spells are kept within reason, we're left with a DPS that contributes fair damage and some support utility.

Now the RNG aspect of learning spells would also have to be addressed. Particularly, spells from dungeons and trials. There should be a consistent and reliable means to acquire those spells which can be handled with purchasable totems.

[Huntrss]

For me, the issue is that if I go into Royal Menagerie as a DRK and didn't bother to do my level 70 job quest to get TBN, that's my fault.

If I try to queue as a BLU without a skill that I spent an hour spamming a dungeon for and getting screwed by RNG, that's...not necessarily my fault.

As long as there is an RNG element to learning the class abilities, you'll run into the issue where people are playing the game as designed (i.e., not trying to be cute and not equipping job stones or playing "ice mages") but still don't have the abilities that the game and other players expect you to have. So you take away the RNG and have Blue Mages learn all of their class skills from a trainer. So...what makes them different from any other mage class in the game?

Yes, RDM was changed. I main RDM, and I mostly like it, but I kind of miss the support aspect to the class. That's not possible, because FFXIV sticks to the holy trinity, so there's no real primarily support class. It seems like many of the people who wanted BLU want both the iconic aspects of the job--learning magic from monsters--but also want it to fit exactly into the existing model for leveling jobs and learning skills so that it's not excluded from current content. I'm not sure it's possible to make both work.

Believe me it's possible to to do it but the way you get totems for Blue kinda like that and go out hunting which if you played Hunter class in WoW you get the idea same effect except spells. Like I said Blue can heal, give up it's life to heal another but it can't Revive. a lot of people are going why can't revive me and here Red mage Reviving Everyone and healing too.

[Deceptus]

They need to definitely have some OGCD's.

I did a test, and with Off-Guard up, a BLU is the equivalent to a Jolt 2 spamming RDM (Int being within 5 points) without the dualcast. Their ST damage is just really low and tied to hard casts.

[Liam_Harper]

A minor point on Mind Blast is that is has a much faster cast time (about twice as fast) than Glower. This does mean something if you need to run around aoe'ing things and dodging casts, you have more chance of getting your cast off without interruption. It also means it isn't quite a 100 vs 130 potency comparison when spamming it, since you'll get more casts of Mind Blast off.

Tiny point aside, I do agree.

What really gets me is that I'd be fine bringing Blu into group content if we were actually encouraged to do group content as Blu. As it is, the most optimal method is have a lv70 carry you. There's just no reason to put that toolkit to solid work trying to down Ex Garuda or HM Titan or w/e in an All-Blu group, especially since some skills can take 70+ attempts. Blu has absolutely no point outside the Carnival.

[Kabooa]

A minor point on Mind Blast is that is has a much faster cast time (about twice as fast) than Glower. This does mean something if you need to run around aoe'ing things and dodging casts, you have more chance of getting your cast off without interruption. It also means it isn't quite a 100 vs 130 potency comparison when spamming it, since you'll get more casts of Mind Blast off.

GCD is the same. You aren't getting more Mindblasts than another basic spell, and Ram's Voice stuns things for 10 seconds.You don't have to dodge if there's nothing to dodge.

[Mortex]

Blue Mage his weapon is the ability Off Guard. And the 50 % passiv magic increase but yes he lacks a lot of stats from the weapon.