Solo Job? I think not...

[ReiMakoto]

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

If you're spamming bristle then you're doing it wrong I'm afraid. Bristle is a 50% buff to your next GCD, so using bristle after every cast is a net loss, Bristle should only be used before song of torment (The only practical dps gain) or during fight down time.

[SWB]

It's just unfortunate seeing them deliver something the community has been vehemently opposed to in the past. No one like fate farming, no one wants rng drops on 4 year old content that requires a party, on what's supposed to be a "solo experience not scaled for party play" job. Which is only way to get blue mages only off global cool down non spell abilities.

Square enix didn't want a job that would be turned away because they don't have their whole tool kit, and then put these spells behind massive layers of rng, without even a reason to use them . Blue carnival can be beaten with field skills learned from 1-50. There is no reason to get the rest.

It's just painfully obvious there is a disconnect between what the community wants and what the devs are giving us, and I'd have thought they learned from 14's release how important it is to listen to their audience of what we enjoy instead of telling us what we should find enjoyable

[Mito123]

Blue mage should just be like any other job. It should not be limited. All they need to do is Nerf some op spells like white wind and others I can't think of at the moment and make it allow to play with current content. I thought blue mage was solo content and I still can't do anything solo. I have completed all of the content and obtained all the spells after 4 days since release and still can't solo anything. I believe if other players want to play solo they can do so with other ff titles except Ffxiv and ffxi. This is a mmorog not single player game. Don't combine the two. Otherwise your not pleasing anyone.

[Laphael]

I think SE just made 2 advertising mistakes.
1. They shouldn´t have called BLU a Job
2. They shouldn´t have said "Solo-Job"

The implementation of BLU is a new and fun side content with the main aspect of gathering spells.
I had lots of fun with 4x BLU grps synched in dungeons.
Its not supposed to last longer than 2-3 weeks for casual playtime.

There is of course room for improvement, like always. Primal drops are horrible... thanks Mr. Atma.
And some spells should have more potency in my opinion.
Also squadron should be allowed and at 60 Potd.
But i really like the implementation so far and Im already looking forward to around 5.1 when the next BLU content arrives.

[Dyvid]

SE should either make it a normal dps job or have the spell only learned in Open World content.

[MrKimper]

Just make it a normal dps job, nothing about the learning system feels like it would clash with regular gameplay, especially since they've SHOWN they can lock you out of quests/duties based on your skillset. Just make a rotation out of some of the skills and leave the rest for overworld fun.

Stop trying to stick to this vision of "BLU can only work in solo scenarios and they can only learn skills from getting hit." Just copy Khimari from X where he has to be OFFENSIVE to get his skills, let a BLU need to build up monster essence to spend on primal/high-level monster abilities.

Or keep what we have and just unlimit it, take a grab bag of skills tweak them so they have combos and just be done with it, there's no reason why we have to sacrifice an entire job to being essentially unfinished open world fodder. Let people who want to main BLU main BLU.

[RadicalPesto]

Blue Mage is such a minigame it feels like if they had named Lords of Verminion "Beastmaster" and given it a levelling system and a set of artifact gear but otherwise remained identical.

[Phoenicia]

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)

So much math, but you forgot the most important component.... No..... Weapon..... Damage...... It is the absolute most important stat in the game and BLU doesn't have it.

So even if you had 380 potency like the BLM's Fire spells, you have 1 weapon damage. Get on your BLM, and equip a level 1 weapon and cast fire, then equip a level 5 weapon and cast it again and see how big a difference that makes.

[Palladiamors]

So much math, but you forgot the most important component.... No..... Weapon..... Damage...... It is the absolute most important stat in the game and BLU doesn't have it.

So even if you had 380 potency like the BLM's Fire spells, you have 1 weapon damage. Get on your BLM, and equip a level 1 weapon and cast fire, then equip a level 5 weapon and cast it again and see how big a difference that makes.

I'm not trying to be rude here, but its almost like you aren't aware that they adjusted the stats garnered from armor to make up for the lack of a main weapon, on top of having a 50% main and mend. So no, a level 5 black mage weapon would not be a good comparison. Not even close. But without actually knowing the coefficients we can't make a good comparison.

[Phoenicia]

I'm not trying to be rude here, but its almost like you aren't aware that they adjusted the stats garnered from armor to make up for the lack of a main weapon, on top of having a 50% main and mend. So no, a level 5 black mage weapon would not be a good comparison. Not even close. But without actually knowing the coefficients we can't make a good comparison.

No I am pretty aware of the "higher INT scaling" and the 3 Maim and Mend traits instead of 2. The scaling is still terrible. Your 120 potency spells are still hitting like wet noodles at 50. At level 50 1 weapon damage was worth 7~11 of the main stat. The comparison was using a level 1 weapon where you only have 1 WD vs a level 5 weapon where you have 2 to see how visible the difference is. BLU does have a pretty bad scaling issue compared to the other jobs.