Alright, I Did It. [Blue mage Review]

[Kalise]

I think the best way, although I don't know how easy it would be to implement since I'm not a game designer, to fix blu's dmg is to make all spells magic dmg and just benefit from blanket dmg buffs like trick attack and magic dmg buffs the spells that have specified dmg types beyond just being magic benefit from piercinf slashing blunt dmg buff respectively and just add magic dmg and intelligence to the blu af weapon and make future weapons for blu thru its lvl ranges in the future.

Well, they don't particularly NEED to add stats to the weapon (Though, it would help them scale), they really could do that.

Ironically, I believe the reasoning they gave for not putting stats on BLU's weapons was because they "Didn't want BLU's to have to farm dungeons for weapons"

Well, specifically: (Source)

Famitsu writer: Do we need to participate in content to collect weapons?

Yoshida: We designed it so you aren't forced to do so. Unlike other jobs, the BLU weapon doesn't have any stats on it. If it did have stats, you would end up going to dungeons over and over again. BLUs have restrictions to "queue with randoms", so it will just be stressful.

So apparently, going to dungeons to get weapons (If you even bothered to do that given how fast BLU levels, you'd really able to get by on store bought stuff... If even that given that 1000 Needles AKA the only damaging skill worth anything levels 1-49 doesn't scale with stats at all) is "stressful" but farming Dungeons and EX Trials for the spells is apparently fine and dandy...

*Sigh*

Anyway, to fix BLU's damage... Make all their damage "Magical" with different elements in order to do Masked Carnival (Make their Physical damage skills just deal some form of Physical damage like Piercing or Slashing which, should only be the case for Drill Cannon? Mountain Buster should deal Earth damage, just like Titan-Egi)

Then nerf Off-Guard down to a more reasonable level of damage amp (Like 20%. Still more than other classes 10% damage boost, for the cost of only being single target because its a debuff rather than a self buff) and give them more reasonable potencies across the board. This should make it easier to balance them at all levels, so they're not utter trash while leveling up without using 1000 Needles, while also meaning they don't have some stupid scaling issues (Such as combo effects that triple the potency of a skill getting amped like crazy by the 50% boost from Maim and Mend and then the 50% boost from Off-Guard)

[Blueyes]

YAs for this further testing of Phys/Piercing damage, I'm afraid I lack the capacity... I don't have anyone I can call on to help apply the necessary buff/debuff to test with.

I think it might be safe to say that Drill Cannon inflicts piercing damage. Though my testing was limited, what I did was I got on Dragoon, hit a dummy with Disembowel, then swapped to Blue Mage. There did seem to be a slight increase whereas I didn't notice any change when using Peculiar Light.

It actually is an interesting idea to give Blue Mage different damage types to work with, but I suspect it will be a niche thing that may fall the wayside as more powerful spells are introduced. Physical and magical resistances (or damage reflection effects based on damage type) are fairly significant during certain stages within the Masked Carnival. Blue Mage has basic access to all damage types which should work well enough for any threats the carnival might through at them. We may see some more physical spells going forward, but it probably won't be a focal point.

So apparently, going to dungeons to get weapons (If you even bothered to do that given how fast BLU levels, you'd really able to get by on store bought stuff... If even that given that 1000 Needles AKA the only damaging skill worth anything levels 1-49 doesn't scale with stats at all) is "stressful" but farming Dungeons and EX Trials for the spells is apparently fine and dandy...

*Sigh*

Yeah, their explanation for cutting weapons out of the equation doesn't hold up, much like everything they've said about Blue Mage. Honestly, I feel almost certain that the real reason why Blue Mage lacks weapons was entirely determined by a desire to cut down on production costs. It's the most likely reason why Blue Mage was limited in the first place. "Should we invest into making LB3 for Blue Mage? Nah, let's just remove LB from Blue Mage entirely. Problem solved. PvP actions? Nah, cut PvP out too." I could go on...

[KageTokage]

I was under the impression that anything with an element would be considered magical damage and not physical but Fire Angon is apparently physical fire damage because it triggers physical counters like the one present in round 1 of the Azulmagia fight.

[Mholito]

I was under the impression that anything with an element would be considered magical damage and not physical but Fire Angon is apparently physical fire damage because it triggers physical counters like the one present in round 1 of the Azulmagia fight.

Fire Angon is currently mislabeled in the Blue Magick Spellbook. It does physical piercing/fire damage. Mountain Buster is also a physical skill with an element. It's blunt/earth.

[Blueyes]

I was under the impression that anything with an element would be considered magical damage and not physical but Fire Angon is apparently physical fire damage because it triggers physical counters like the one present in round 1 of the Azulmagia fight.

There are definitely some oddities in how some spells are treated compared to how they are labeled. When fighting Leviathan, I noticed damage reflection when casting Fire Angon and Drill Cannon, but not for Flying Frenzy, Sharpened Knife, or Mountain Buster. (All against Leviathan's head.)