Alright, I Did It. [Blue mage Review]

[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.

[GrenGarm]

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.

Spot on this. They would also just need to add some kind of "attunement" quest where the game checks if you have enough and the correct spells in order to participate in the Duty Finder. This should be trivial since the game already checks this for job quests and totems.

[Lambdafish]

Spot on this. They would also just need to add some kind of "attunement" quest where the game checks if you have enough and the correct spells in order to participate in the Duty Finder. This should be trivial since the game already checks this for job quests and totems.

I will concede that matchmaking may be possible in the future, as the Devs just need to assign a pseudo level to each skill for level sync. That doesn't stop BLU being a limited job though, because it still can't and should never be able to do deep dungeon, raid, or PvP.

Raid would be impossible on BLU because the job is not balanced against other jobs. There is a level of homogenisation in other jobs that means that they can be directly compared, BLU doesn't fit into that meaning that it would either be useless or heavily exploitable. When it comes to deep dungeon and PvP, the systems are simply not designed to accommodate the concept of BLU skills.

I will follow up by saying that if this is what the community wants then they are asking in the wrong way, there is a lot of complaining and not a lot of constructive ideas. A lot of bedroom designers who don't understand why "just make it a proper job" doesn't work, and are completely ignorant as to why BLU was designed the way it was. We need to create a discussion that is more constructive, otherwise all the Devs will see is that people don't like BLU and it's not worth any more Dev time

[Kalise]

I will follow up by saying that if this is what the community wants then they are asking in the wrong way, there is a lot of complaining and not a lot of constructive ideas. A lot of bedroom designers who don't understand why "just make it a proper job" doesn't work, and are completely ignorant as to why BLU was designed the way it was. We need to create a discussion that is more constructive, otherwise all the Devs will see is that people don't like BLU and it's not worth any more Dev time

What? Really? That's what you think?

Have you missed the many, many, MANY, posts that people have been making where they cover all the different changes that could be made in order to let BLU fit into normal content without breaking Raids/Deep Dungeons/Duty Finder?

Most of the direct complaints come from people like you that are complaining about the fact that people want BLU to be a real job instead of some half baked side content.

[GrenGarm]

I will concede that matchmaking may be possible in the future, as the Devs just need to assign a pseudo level to each skill for level sync. That doesn't stop BLU being a limited job though, because it still can't and should never be able to do deep dungeon, raid, or PvP.

Raid would be impossible on BLU because the job is not balanced against other jobs. There is a level of homogenisation in other jobs that means that they can be directly compared, BLU doesn't fit into that meaning that it would either be useless or heavily exploitable. When it comes to deep dungeon and PvP, the systems are simply not designed to accommodate the concept of BLU skills.

I will follow up by saying that if this is what the community wants then they are asking in the wrong way, there is a lot of complaining and not a lot of constructive ideas. A lot of bedroom designers who don't understand why "just make it a proper job" doesn't work, and are completely ignorant as to why BLU was designed the way it was. We need to create a discussion that is more constructive, otherwise all the Devs will see is that people don't like BLU and it's not worth any more Dev time

All of the constructive feedback and suggestions that Square could ever need have been provided 10 times over via every available form of communication, starting from the announcement of FFXIV as a game, to this very day, and of course spiking after the disappointing announcement of BLU as a limited job. If you're ignorant of that history, please educate yourself before commenting on BLU at all.

[Deceptus]

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.

Slight disagreement. They have too many spells that are carbon copies of each other. Random 120 potency aoe X here and there. Eruption and Feather rain are exactly the same (220 total pot) Landslide and Shock Strike are the same Damage wise (310 then reduced), but Shock is ranged so it wins 100% of the time.

[Blueyes]

Slight disagreement. They have too many spells that are carbon copies of each other. Random 120 potency aoe X here and there. Eruption and Feather rain are exactly the same (220 total pot) Landslide and Shock Strike are the same Damage wise (310 then reduced), but Shock is ranged so it wins 100% of the time.

I wouldn't say that having some spells which are carbon copies of each other is necessarily a bad thing (when there are so many) but that's just my personal opinion. There are usually minor variations such as elemental type and targeting behavior. Personally, I think what we have right now works okay as a starting point, but it would be nice to see them make better use of diverse spell combos in the future.

One thing worth noting about Mountain Buster is that it has twice the radius of Shock Strike. Shock Strike has a radius of 3y which is rather small. In a situation where there are multiple adds, it actually may be preferable to cast Mountain Buster as long as you can comfortable get within melee range. (I'll still need to test those spells to make sure that is the case, but that is my understanding.)

Though, I will agree that Feather Rain could use some help. It does the same damage as Eruption, but over a period of 6 seconds instead of instantly. Objectively speaking, Eruption will always be superior. Feather Rain does have a slightly longer range (30y vs 25y) but that's hardly worth mentioning.

[Mholito]

One thing worth noting about Mountain Buster is that it has twice the radius of Shock Strike. Shock Strike has a radius of 3y which is rather small. In a situation where there are multiple adds, it actually may be preferable to cast Mountain Buster as long as you can comfortable get within melee range. (I'll still need to test those spells to make sure that is the case, but that is my understanding.)

Though, I will agree that Feather Rain could use some help. It does the same damage as Eruption, but over a period of 6 seconds instead of instantly. Objectively speaking, Eruption will always be superior. Feather Rain does have a slightly longer range (30y vs 25y) but that's hardly worth mentioning.

Mountain Buster is also physical, which means it could end up stronger than Shock Strike depending on which buffs and debuffs your party has access to. I also believe Feather Rain ends up being stronger than Eruption if you have some Spellspeed on your gear, since Spellspeed increases damage from DoTs.

[Deceptus]

Mountain Buster is also physical, which means it could end up stronger than Shock Strike depending on which buffs and debuffs your party has access to. I also believe Feather Rain ends up being stronger than Eruption if you have some Spellspeed on your gear, since Spellspeed increases damage from DoTs.

Being physical means it isn't affected by Peculiar though.

[Blueyes]

Mountain Buster is also physical, which means it could end up stronger than Shock Strike depending on which buffs and debuffs your party has access to. I also believe Feather Rain ends up being stronger than Eruption if you have some Spellspeed on your gear, since Spellspeed increases damage from DoTs.

Oh I'm pretty sure the physical part of Mountain Buster is only relevant within Masked Carnival. Looking at Drill Cannon as an example, its ability description states that it deals unaspected damage, but its description within the spellbook will state that it deals physical and piercing damage with no mention of magic damage. We know Drill Cannon is buffed by Off-guard. I would have to test alongside a Dragoon friend to verify if it's also buffed by Disembowel, but I'm skeptical.