it would be nice if leveling was less exploitable

[Penthea]

Classes that come out that are normal do not tell us they're "designed for group content," which showed BLU was meant to be different. And of course we didn't say "You SHOULD only solo" because that's not the point. For a class "Designed for solo play" I'd expect it to get its piece on its own.

The "you should solo" comment was mostly aimed at those who were using that blu info image as a way to legitimise the use of the job swap xp exploit. Which is funny in itself because the mobs they're killing can be soloed by blu anyway.

"Designed for solo play," part. It does not feel like, to me, it did a good job being designed for solo play.

In what context? If you mean instances, then sure it's not viable for solo play there unless you out lvl the content by a lot. But in the open world it can be super strong. I have killed mobs 10 lvls above me with ease as blu.

However I did find out you can two-man a lot of level appropriate instance content as 2x blu, that you simply could not do with any other dps pairings. While this of course isn't soloing, it's still noteworthy.

For something to do more than it can originally do, it should be good at doing at what it originally did.

What do you mean by this? This is blu's first appearance in the game. It didn't originally do anything else than what it does now.

Both these images, also from the producer's letter on revealing BLU, show the BLU in Shiva and Garuda. In Shiva case, having the spell sure, but in both cases, ALONE. I wonder where people got the idea we could solo these?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think every time SE showcased a new class they showed the class doing combat on its own.