Alright, I Did It. [Blue mage Review]

[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.

[Saefinn]

I decided I'd give a few days of playing before I'd give my feedback on the job.

The job appeals to my 'job fantasy' of BLU, I am a lover of BLU across FF's and is my best geared and best levelled/skilled job on FFXI. I like the idea that they've broken the FFXIV job mould to bring something that can satisfy the job fantasy. Love the concept, love the story, love the lore.

I think SE were smart. They've added two jobs that are jack of all trades that people have strong opinions about, a risky move where there's people not happy about it regardless of what they do. RDM got the FFXIV job treatment, it flows really well and works well with the game's mechanics, but cannot be a jack of all trades because of how the game works. In BLU, however, they've gone the other way.
I get this may work to the disappointment of Blue Mage fans who wanted a FFXIV version of it. Beyond that, both sides got something.

It seems limited ATM, but if people wanted content to do once completing MC, put up some PF for old content synced, could be fun. But I think there's potential for this and think there are things SE might need to do to make this work in future updates, I have suggestions that aren't going to be game breaking.

• Limited Job Roulettes - Level 50, Trials, Raid/EX - give Mendacity/Genesis/other tomes. It gives an alternative option to the tomestone grind (if for balance sake, let them share a timer with their non-limited equivalent, so if you've done Trials roulette, you don't get the reward for Limited Job Trials). It also makes content for BLU/Other Limited Jobs in the future more accessible (to accommodate that people tend to DF rather than PF). Also it helps revitalise old content.
• A 'non-limited' version of the job. If you look at the potencies and accuracies of BLU's toolkit, in terms of DPS they're not that special. You'd only need to disable anything game breaking (1000 needles at a certain level, Doom, Missile etc.) - maybe allow them to be a tank as their DPS would be low with the current potencies and the fact they only have 1 healing spell. We don't have a mage tank yet and they have the tools available for it. Whilst I get we have high potency spells, but they're not that sustainable, Level 5 Petrify -> Drill Cannons gives 420 and Ram's Voice (with deep freeze) -> Dragon's Voice gives 310, they require the enemy doesn't resist or in the case of petrify that it hits (it only takes 2 misses and the enemy resists it after that) - so the higher potency stuff is not sustained. Versus RDM with their 270/310 Ver spells that can be dual cast. The 420 of Fleche and so on. All skills 50 & below for RDM. They do this, they could also do limited job versions of other stuff like SMN.
• Drop the idea of them being a 'solo' job. We have to group together to get our spells and we're not that superior at soloing stuff.
• Allow Masked Carnivale to give Mendacity - allied seals and poetics are a bit niche.

[Seraphor]

"Allow carnivale to give Mendacity."

The problem here is thinking of BLU as a SB job, its not, it's ARR content.
Once they increase the cap and update the Masked Carnivale, which they've confirmed they are doing, it will likely drop the currency relevant for that level.

By the time it catches up, Mendacity will be redundant like Lores and Esoterics.

[Saefinn]

"Allow carnivale to give Mendacity."

The problem here is thinking of BLU as a SB job, its not, it's ARR content.
Once they increase the cap and update the Masked Carnivale, which they've confirmed they are doing, it will likely drop the currency relevant for that level.

By the time it catches up, Mendacity will be redundant like Lores and Esoterics.

The logic behind my thinking is to give rewards that are useful to those who are level 70 doing level 70 stuff, rather than have Limited Jobs rely on nostalgia as a reason to pursue it, when it could have a use as alternative endgame content to break up some of the monotony of tomestone grinding and helps keep the job relevent whilst still being behind in levels & content.

[Sylvain]

I'm glad BLU has the majority or the low % learn in instanced content. Trying to learn with overworld mob was hell. Since the majority of the game is instanced content, what's the problem with finding a group if the entire game is basicaly that?

The problem is that some spell just have ridiculously low %chance to be learned and most content can't be solo'd. Which IS a big problem for a job that is meant to be solo.
I should be able to solo (or easily duo at least) all the lv 50 dungeons with a BLU friend quick enough to make the farming fun.

This is currently not the case, we are simply too weak to do so and having 1 70 carry 3 BLU is the most effective way to learn spells. (which is dull for everyone)

Primordial also don't help, 5% chance is very very low.
Like, "on average" it will take 20 runs, that's a lot, and I feel sorry for those who'll run 50+ primordial

The main post review is, in my opinion, very good and actually quite neutral.
There was no "I wanted it to be X ways", it was a critic on what was advertised, a solo job with combo skills

It is a solo job (masked carnival) but the mean to acquire too many spells (half the book, required to complete the solo content) isn't solo. Grouping should be an option, and being carried by a lv 70 shouldn't be the best way to complete the book (nor to level)
There are spell combo, but most are weaker than spamming a stronger version. This could easily be adressed by simply buffing potency, but at the current moment, it's combo are weak thus uninteresting. (Boosting the combo potency could help BLU solo content)

Having a few spell locked behind group is fine, like the primordial spells. Heck, they could even promote BLU grouping by increasing the chance of acquiring a spell the more BLU there is in a party.
Like a stackable 5% per BLU in a party. See, this would be fine, because it wouldn't be half the book, and doing with other BLU would be better than doing it with 70's

The marking is also honest imo. 6/10
It could be better, definitely, but it's not also a total failure, I'm still having fun, I believe most people had some fun until they started seeing the glaring issue with what was posted.

It is important to give good (and neutral) feedback so the devs can adjust.

If everyone complain "you say it's solo but I have to party/be carried for half the book, that's not solo!" then they can adjust for the next tier (or simply update and boost BLU's spell potency)
If everyone complain that there are too many similar spells and combo aren't strong enough, they know it's something that needs to be adressed.

[NobleWinter]

I really wish all the spells had a Tier associated with them for combo purposes. In application, any Tier 1 Spell would cause the combo effect of any Tier 2 Spell. This combo effect could be increased potency or any number of things really but in my perfect world it would cause the spell to have an instant cast without any change to the recast time. Tier 2 spells could also combo into Tier 3 spells which in turn combo back into Tier 1 spells for an endless loop. This would encourage more varied spell usage and add a level of depth that is sorely lacking from the gameplay. If comboing spells correctly made them all Insant Cast it would make Blue Mage have incredible mobility which seems to fit the idea of a mage that learns enemy attacks. They should be capable of dodging the attack and inspect it from every angle. This hyper mobility from good spell choices peculiar for a mage could become a key part of their identity in FFXIV and be possible explanation for the lower potency in the bulk of their kit. Lorewise it could follow that the natural world has an endless rythym that both Monsters and Blue Mages align to.

[Kalise]

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.

Physical damage is relevant.

Not for Off-Guard, because Off-Guard just buffs all damage you deal (Except the fixed damage of 1000 Needles).

Whether something is magical damage or not is relevant when it comes to Peculiar Light. Since Peculiar Light provides a magical vulnerability debuff, it does not have any effect on physical damage, such as that from Drill Cannon.

[Blueyes]

Physical damage is relevant.

Not for Off-Guard, because Off-Guard just buffs all damage you deal (Except the fixed damage of 1000 Needles).

Whether something is magical damage or not is relevant when it comes to Peculiar Light. Since Peculiar Light provides a magical vulnerability debuff, it does not have any effect on physical damage, such as that from Drill Cannon.

My apologies. Off-guard wasn't the the proper example. The point I meant to make was that we have conflicting information about Drill Cannon's damage type, and by extension, conflicting information about Mountain Buster. From what I understand, when an action states that it "deals unaspected damage with a potency of X", under normal circumstances, that means it deals magic damage. Actions that deal physical damage ordinarily state that it "delivers an attack with a potency of X" which isn't the case with Drill Cannon. Basically, the "unaspected" property, which is included in Drill Cannon's action description, suggests that the attack is magical in nature.

If we take all information that we're given, from both the action description and the spell book description, Drill Cannon should be considered both magical and physical while dealing piercing damage. I'm hesitant to consider all of that to be 100% accurate under all circumstances, but it's possible. I'm more inclined to trust the action description, hence my suspicion that the physical aspect (that's only mentioned in the spell book) only applied while inside the Masked Carnival, but testing will have to be conducted to determine its properties.

After some limited testing, it would seem that it's the action description that's inaccurate, but verification from anyone able to conduct more extensive testing would be appreciated.