Solo Job? I think not...

[SweetPete]

Now from the threads title I don't want people to immediately think I am unhappy with BLU and bashing it. I do enjoy the job and how it was implemented. My issue is Yoshi P said this job is not suitable for party play and is a solo job. if this is the case why can't I solo stuff? Dungeons, Primals etc... Also why is the potency for most of the spells so low? It's even lower than base skills of other job at level 50. I am confused by this. I hope they give us a good reason why. Feels almost like heavenward all over again when they implemented AST, MCH and DRK. The potency for their abilities were nerfed at the start. Was this intentional for BLU or is this just how things will be? Also why is Loom the most terrible spell... I mean not only do we have to set the marker to move but we also have a cast time before we teleport? Ridiculous. Why can't it be instant cast like a teleport should be lol. Anyway I am done ranting for now. I hope square looks at the data at least for the potencies and decide to buff these skills. For now we can't solo much of anything.

Sad sad sad

[Palladiamors]

I get...the experiment. It's a social experiment to try to repopulate lower level areas and to get people to talk to each other and group up. I get it. I don't like it. They could have done both. Having low learn rates from world mobs while still allowing the BLU to do dungeons in the Duty Finder or at least used squadrons. The class is not so broken that it couldn't be adjusted to be a regular job. Heck, they could even still gate it via levels as they worked on it.

[geekgirl101]

I too am greatly disappointed in just how weak blu skills are. For most 1000 needles is your friend but once you start trying to do anything beyond smashing open world mobs it's like trying to hack away at a concrete wall with a toothpick. Blu parties in dungeons and trials for learning skills are hopelessly underpowered and have to rely on unsyncing with level 70s carrying them, and some of the battles in the masked carnivale are brutal. The job was novel for the first few days but that's all it is, a novelty. It's got no real use unless you wanna farm seals and poetics for ventures, free teleports and topsoils.

[SweetPete]

Completely agree. This job is suppose to be sorta overpowered. Tails screw, doom, missle all have very low chance to strike. Although missle does seems to hit more often than the others. I’m just happy yet sad at the same time. I truly hope that SE will buff these spells.

[Hasrat]

What particularly stands out to me is a "solo" job having suicide skills. Seems a bit counter productive to solo play.
But, also incredibly amusing, especially seeing dead bodies in towns now.

Not really complaining, tho. I don't really waste energy on being upset with dev choices. They made something they enjoy, feels a bit entitled to think they should have made it the way I enjoy it instead.

[purgatori]

I'm very disappointed. I enjoy playing solo 98% of the time, and thought that BLU would cater to this even if it was excluded from the majority of activities in the game that I enjoy (e.g., MSQ). But locking the majority of spells behind instances---and not even allowing BLU to use his or her squadron to complete them---is hardly something that makes this a good fit for solo-focused players. Looks like the limited amount of time I have to invest in this game is better spent on getting tomes for my main job, so I've already abandoned BLU as a (for me) useless experiment.

EDIT: I should hasten to add that I don't want to take anything away from the people who ARE enjoying the job. I think that, for some portion of the community, BLU is/is going to add a great deal of enjoyment to the game. For me, though, it's not content that suits my playstyle.

[NobleWinter]

I think we have to allow room for more skills like Bristle to arrive. We have so much interplay between abilities already that allows for increases to potency on spells that I think it's safe to say more are on the way. Plus BLU was designed with the Blue Carnival in mind where enemies have specific vulnerabilities further increasing the potency of select skills. It is my hope that BLU will get a skill to scan enemy weakness in the future that can be used in all instances and open world too. If all enemies had specific weakness the lower potency of the skills would make a lot of sense. It's all speculation but Blue Mage could get really interesting in the future.

[Seraphor]

Even with room for more skills after 50 that could change things up, BLU isnt quite performing as it should at this level, so there should be some changes made.

This isn't about making it 'unlimited' but just balancing what we've already got.

1. Increase potencies of all primarily damaging spells (anything thats 100 or more) by around 30-50 potency. Not a lot, considering how it'd scale with the damage buffs and debuffs though it should be enough.
Then have the primal skills gain an additional 50 potency on top of that.
In addition, some spells need a shorter cast time, or not at all, like Faze. What use is a stun if you can't get it off before the enemies attack?

2. Boost the learn rate of skills found only in Trials. They're currently at 5%, but because its not a true solo job, you have to farm these with a party, and the fatigue sets in long before you learn the skill.
Ideally, double the rate to 10%. Doesn't sound like much on its own, however add an additional effect. If the party is all BLU and synched, then the learn rate jumps to 50%.

[Kalise]

I think one of the issues with buffing the potency on their skills, is that they get currently 5 levels of Main and Mend totalling 50% bonus damage/healing (Though, compared to other classes Maim and Mend II giving 30% it's less potent than it may seem) as well as a 100% uptime debuff of 50% more damage dealt to a target (Since 30s duration, 30s reuse time and reset of reuse if the target dies before it expires)

So, 130 potency from their filler skills goes up to 195 potency due to M&M, which is then amped up to 293 by Off-Guard.

With a buff of 30 potency, it goes to 160 base up to 240 with M&M to then a final output of 360 with Off-Guard. Which would be comparable to Fire I under full Astral Fire, except you know, BLU has basically infinite mana because all their skills (Sans White Wind) are pretty cheap.

Essentially, BLU is kind of screwed because of their massive scaling but it means that they suck before they get level 40+ for high rank M&M as well as treading a very fine line where minor shifts can take them from Healer level DPS to BLM DPS.

Really, they need to tone down either Maim and Mend and/or Off-Guard and buff their base potency. Probably OG more so than M&M, since I get the idea behind their many ranks of M&M (The fact that they don't get traits to upgrade the level of their skills, like how say, WHM goes from Stone I to Stone II to Stone III to Stone IV and thus goes from 140 Pot > 200 Pot > 210 Pot > 250 Pot in addition to Maim and Mend I into Maim and Mend II for 10% > 30% damage/healing increase)

Especially since this will only get worse as they get increased level cap and thus get more ranks of M&M (For example, next expac when they get level 60, they'll likely get a sixth rank of M&M making their 130 pot abilities do 208 base pot and get amped up to 312. While if a 30 pot boost was applied, they'd end up doing 384 pot, which is more than BLM's Fire I with full stacks)

[Tsubaki75]

I think we have to allow room for more skills like Bristle to arrive.

Not to get off topic but bristle bothers me, can this be a 10 sec buff with a cooldown instead of dark arts spam please