Build YOUR Roadmap to the Blue Mage you'd like to see :)

[Shougun]

We've got a lot of feedback threads and uh:

Lol, no but really - we have a number of feedback threads but I'm interested in seeing people's idea of a solution and on what time frame they think it'd be fair. Most of our threads are "I don't like X" based (which is fine), so I was wondering what solutions might read like. Especially from some of the more prolific blue mage posters, but I'm interested in general as well of course.

If you disagree with someone's roadmap make one of your own and if you feel like it explain what you hope it would accomplish .

Hoping to see a more realistic and detailed road map than "fix blue mage" date: now. lol Even if I'm sure that's how many feel. Although don't feel like you need to write a whole book either, one liners are fine just hopefully if there are cheeky one liners there are some informative ones too . If you like how blue mage is you can still post a road map~! Perhaps how often you want to see spells updated.

Anyway here's mine:

Aside note first there was a level system suggested by Reynheart where in spells equal your ilevel of sorts, and so below you can scrap out limited blue mage materia/gear balance ideas with this system in it's place if you want. How that balances I'm sure might differ from their vision of it and how I see it but I'm a fan of this concept as it can make every spell worth collecting even if you don't intend to use it (for ilevel purposes). It also means people who want to play the limited side of blue mage don't need to worry about gearing it up much. If SE wants people to have it gear up lightly it could be the minimum level requirement of what you're wearing determines the max "ilevel" you get from your spells. Such that level 10 gear is 50 ilevel, 50 gear is 200, etc - but you still don't need to worry about getting current tier tomestone gear for example if blue mage ever catches up in level.

4.55

• Every cast of a learnable spell in instanced content increases the drop rate of said spell (buff shown on buff bar will show rate), such that instanced bosses have MINIMUM chance of 25% and each cast will increase that further. You may hold more than one "chance up" blue mage buff (perhaps to a limit of two), but the buff will not expire unless you either log out or successfully learn the ability (or cancel it). One run with many casts will be above 50% chance, two runs with many casts is pretty much guaranteed, three runs you win the lottery (and most likely impossible to have a fourth). Any suicide spells (like final sting) will have an enhanced % up per cast as they only cast that spell once. This system may apply to the open world, but I feel the starting chance and growing rate can be lower then - since it's easier/less stressful to pick up stuff in the open.
• Once a monster casts a blue mage spell you haven't learned then their nameplate will have a blue mage learn icon on it (either at the end within the name, or on top like the elemental notices). Now you know they have something you can learn and it's just about chance now. Helps with weird spells that might not be obvious they cast it yet as well ("did they use their buff..? I can't tell." Well now you can lol).
• Increase the potency of many spells, this is the first pass of buffs without rushing the team too hard to get it done by February. If time allows add many more interactions between spells. People can post their ideas on how to or not do that here.

4.56

• Add more potency, QoL, and interactions to the current blue mage kit. (feedback thread linked above). The balance target goal (imo) is that blue mage can solo any content that has a spell they need to learn, so long as they're the right level, have the proper gear, and spells. Naked blue mage with 1 spell vs EX primal is okay to have, a lot, of trouble, but a well geared and well kitted blue mage shouldn't evaporate so easily - imo. A smart player with a good kit of armor and spells should begin to make the game look broken (but in a fun way like via strong interactions, not a "press one spell win" way).
• Add materia slots to blue mage weapons. Consider making the materia more powerful for this weapon only, such that x2 for stats, and x3 (or more) for elemental resistances.
• Add power control sync to blue mage - I believe you might need two options but simply being able to "level sync" (like a FATE) on demand would be helpful. The other secondary option might be turning on a mode that prevents you from dealing more than 10% a monster's hp in damage from a single action. Side bonus could be when you level sync yourself you get a base bonus chance to learning a spell . These two systems together would future proof learning old spells and help players who want to control their experience.
• If not some deep code issue - unlock squadrons for blue mages.

4.56 - 4.58

• Continue working on the squadrons if that hasn't been changed.
• If some spells are ready then release them (just a few as reasonable, we don't need a deluge that leads to a drought later lol or some employees health risk xD). If not keep working on making the blue mage kit to make it more engaging (making more spells viable and intertwined) and less % based.
• Also while it may not be a valid task right now begin and make sure blue mage can when valid (level meets requirement) enter obscure places like Eureka, treasure dungeons, and deep dungeons (even if some of them restrict blue mage to premade/solo only).

4.55 - 5.0 or 5.5

• Program duty finder can check if you're missing job quests that have abilities as a reward. Leveling dungeons will be lenient to players and allow them to join even when missing spells, most MSQ too. Level capped content will ask players to finish their job quests (some MSQ will ignore this, some of the harder MSQ will not). For example a level 70-79 leveling dungeon will not require you to know any skill within 70-79 even if you could technically go do the job quest and have it for said content. However a level 80 capstone dungeon would ask the player to go get any and all missing 70-79 skills first. Introducing the system earlier will help players understand and get used to it sooner, blue mage will slide into this system neatly later but sooner can keep things smooth.

5.0 - 5.1

• Add to the level cap of blue mage if possible (60, +10).
• Add a few (6) "gold" bordered abilities (that will have a DF counterpart later, but not yet). Keeping the potency and interaction opportunities going. Some gold border abilities can be ones we've already learned (so you may see 2 old abilities become gold, 4 new gold abilities, and 1 normal - whatever break down works for SE).

5.2 - 5.3

• Level cap up (60 or 70, +10), focus on gold abilities (6-10) but adding general blue mage skills is good too if possible (just keep going as fast as possible without ruining the health and sanity of the team).

5.3 - 5.4

• Polish and prepare systems for DF, add more gold skills (6-10). If at level 60 cap then move to 70 here (+10).

5.5

• Level cap up (80, +10), there should now be 24 gold skills (after adding the missing gold skills ~6).
• Unlock all contents to blue mage under a two job stone system where their gold skills have a balanced DF variant (and can only be used while in DF mode), and while in unbalanced mode you can do whatever. Job stone flipping will manage their restrictions, hotbar, gear, and they will gain access to a battle cane when under DF mode.
• For weapons add a battle cane (which shares glamour options with the normal cane), for the team's sanity focus on adding current tomestone and raid weapons and ignore old content unless there is time for it. (No Ifrit cane at 5.5 release). Battlecane will have damage like other battle weapons (and will not have the x2 materia buff that the other cane has).
• Duty finder will not let you join in unbalanced mode, duty finder will not let you join if you're missing skills under the same rules other players have (as detailed above).
• May not join current end game content as an unchained / "OP" version of Blue Mage (must go as DF version). Of course you can pre-made/solo run content previous to "current" as your OP version.
• Blue Mage RNG has been taken care of and wont leave blue mages in a horrible position. At most you run an instance four times, literally impossible miss past that.
• Blue Mage spend less time leveling but more time getting skills, balancing out some of the time spent compared to other jobs.
• Any player can do blue mage side content without having a crazy geared blue mage main, and leveling is faster so the content isn't "blue mage main" only. Ensure balance of the carnival is focused more on skill usage and less on your gear, helping it be a side content for those who want it to be / stay that way.
• If someone wants I'll try to make a list of every issue blue mage could have (help me compile it ) and then how one may be able to solve it with as little pain as possible, but I believe with the RNG and DF covered most of the major pain has been revealed already. As for spell selection, we thankfully have the limited side of things - thanks to limited Blue Mage does get a huge array of skills (and can use them, outside of DF). Most of the issues present about blue mage with the help of a limited component (and some DF/RNG tweaks) melt away (aka limited component and a main component helps blue mage be a better blue mage than just a blue mage with main component or blue mage with just a limited component).

6.0

• For all the major primal content add canes. If there is time add for some of the other major old content, but otherwise just the primals and don't worry about going back anymore (no darklight cane).
• Add gold skills as needed to keep up with other job's abilities at release of expansion, other non-gold skills will be added as the team can find time and sees value in it.

6.+

• Side content abilities and carnival whenever SE feels like it.

6.5

• Beastmaster is added as a limited pet class Shepard sort of DoH job. It is full planned to add beastmaster as a optionally main job later, this is said at the release of the job. This schedule (hopefully? lol) would help SE release three jobs each rotation (2 from an expansion and 1 from in-between two expansions X.5 to Y.5).

7.5 (or earlier)

• Beastmaster can be played as a side Shepard monster gathering pokemon farm etc experience, but can now also be played as a balanced job in any and all content.

8.0

• Major old beastmaster weapons added, too old and non-major weapons ignored (beastmaster design only looks forward now).

Puppetmaster next~

So given a X.5 to Y.5 release schedule, (like 4.5 to 5.5) would people be okay with limited jobs becoming advanced jobs? Would we be excited to see weird side content related to a job, but also be able to play it later? Or no. Lol.

Hope to see what other people think are good timelines and what that might entail, doesn't have to be in my format btw.

Other's Maps:

• Valdegarde
• Lambdafish
• Alexandre_Noireau
• Dyvid
• Shurrikhan
• Freyt

[Teraluna]

We got quite a bit of road mending to do.

[Shougun]

Your road map makes me sad, where's it going? lol

We got quite a bit of road mending to do.

Oh, this is SE's road map XD? Point of thread is post yours though :P

[KokonoeAiyoko]

I honestly hope it doesn't get combos but instead has something unique.

[Shougun]

I honestly hope it doesn't get combos but instead has something unique.

When I say combo I meant interaction between abilities, are you suggesting drill cannon doing more damage against petrified targets is bad or that you don't want a "1 2 3"?

Ram's voice / Dragon's voice is another example that we have currently (dragon does more damage to those hit by ram's voice). If you have an idea for a unique mechanic that isn't either of the above please feel free to post that to the ability thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...d-Job-Focus%29 .

1, 2, 3 only because I'd like to see more fresh concepts.

If you mean interaction between enemies, weather, elements, status effects, etc. then yeah I'm all for that.

Changed wording to interaction to be clearer . I realize combo is already a wording in the game so it was my bad for picking an already in use for a specific mechanic word lol.

[KokonoeAiyoko]

When I say combo I meant interaction between abilities, are you suggesting drill cannon doing more damage against petrified targets is bad or that you don't want a "1 2 3"?

Ram's voice / Dragon's voice is another example that we have currently (dragon does more damage to those hit by ram's voice). If you have an idea for a unique mechanic that isn't either of the above please feel free to post that to the ability thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...d-Job-Focus%29 .

1, 2, 3 only because I'd like to see more fresh concepts.

If you mean interaction between enemies, weather, elements, status effects, etc. then yeah I'm all for that.

[Valdegarde]

If I were to be as realistically content with my favorite job's implementation, I would say something like...

1. Update the level cap to 60 sometime before Shadowbringers, responding to fan feedback and balancing some current spells while allowing some new spells to fill in some gaps. Test this by removing some restrictions, such as possibly some duty finder instances but not roulettes. Add a limit break and allow access to Squadrons and (maybe) Palace of the Dead. In unsynced content, Blue Mage can utilize all of its spells while in synced content some are locked off. Perhaps one way to do this is to add another duty finder condition to unsynced, like "unsynced party + unsynced blue mage spellbook set"

2. Upon Shadowbringer's release, update the level cap to 70 and test some roulettes, possibly trials or normal raid. Leveling dungeons might be reasonably forever locked off, but 50/60/70 might not be. I wouldn't die if not though. Continue to add spells, maybe increase the spellbook cap to 28 or 30 or so. Consider a PvP capable set.

3. No later than the second raid tier (5.3?) bring Blue Mage to 80 and allow them access to current things based on what worked and didn't work prior. Perhaps give a grace period of a week or two so that there's no grief about something bugging world first clears, but from this point forward Blue Mage is looking pretty close to a normal job, fulfilling perhaps something like a caster Ninja role. Now it only needs to worry about new spells and balancing once an expansion, although possibly Masked Carnival could get some more stages every other patch or so. By this point a Carnivale savage might be interesting.

[Nedkel]

1 > 50 in 1 hour.

[Lambdafish]

As someone who has always supported the current implementation of BLU, I don't want to see the core of the job changed like others, however, the job could really benefit from some QoL.

5.0:

- Squadron dungeons enabled for BLU. (Dev time may impact this, would also accept this in any later patch, so long as we have dev confirmation that they are willing).
- Skill adjustments to nerf 1000 needles, and make other skills more useful.

5.1:

- Level cap updated to 60.
- Totem reward is given at original 49 skills obtained, which unlocks leveling roulette for pre-50 dungeons and the level 50 portion of the level 50/60/(70?) roulette.
- Another Totem reward is given at all skills obtained, which unlocks leveling roulette for pre-60 dungeons and the level 60 portion of the level 50/60/(70?) roulette.
- New challenges added to the Masked Carnival.

5.3:

- Level cap updated to 70.
- Totem reward is given at all skills obtained up to this point, which unlocks leveling roulette for pre-70 dungeons and the level 70 portion of the level 50/60/(70?) roulette.
- New challenges added to the Masked Carnival.

5.5:

- New Limited Job released, along with new "limited raid" (masked carnival equivalent) that can be participated in by both BLU and the new limited job.


This means that by 5.3, BLU can participate in roulettes in a balanced way while also retaining the core side content aspect that it was designed for. The next limited job incorporating BLU into it's "raid" also expands the idea of what a limited job is and builds it up as a parallel to the existing job system with its own parallel endgame. Also at some point, rename the mechanic, calling it a "limited job" is demeaning and doesn't sell it very well, something like "Disciple of Collection" sounds better, and also allows for the discipline to have its own category in shop vendors for gear and glamour, and be given more freedom in how it is defined as a role.

[Alexandre_Noireau]

4.55

Blue Mage and all it's related content removed from game. Apologies from the developing team for this miss managment issued. A new EXP ring for levels under 60 issue to all players that had leveled Blue Mage to level 50. Blue Mage to be reincorporated later into the game after Shadowbringers release as a full fledged job.

5.0

Combat System and Party System changes.
- Combat now considered Element and Passive stats much more, also, a more diverse variety of enemies, including bosses, are vulnerable to new and old status effects, stat modifications, etc.
- Party System change: Light Party 5 players, Full Party 10 players.
- New role added: Support. Hybrid Roles of Support + DPS, Tank or Heals that fill the new 5th slot for Light Party and the 9th and 10th slot for Full Party.

Role Support:
Support jobs offer huge buffs and enfeebles to allies and enemies, they come equiped with a suit of diverse skills that allow them to be a kind of Hybrid class between support + healer, DPS or tank roles. For this reason, all role skill will be removed from the current roles and added into these new Role jobs as part of their main arsenal.

New Support Jobs at 5.0 release:

Blue Mage - Support + Magic DPS and passive healer.
Riskbreaker (We need more vagrant story here!) (Gunblade) - Support + Melee DPS and passive tank.
Viking - Support + Tanking and passive DPS.

(By passive, i mean, slow non bursty DPS/Heals/Mitigation, is there, but cannot hold for +2 minutes of constant combat)

Blue Mage comes with several famous Monster Magicks, minus the more silly ones. It's role in the party is to enfeeble enemies with debuffs to their resistances and stats while doing average DPS from range and have a few shield and passive regen skills as an extra service.

5.1
The Masked Carnivale is added to Gold Saucer. Only Blue Mage jobs can participate on it. It incorporates the more silly unbalanced skills and re-uses the current skill acquisition system with some modification, instead of being RNG based acquisition it will be a progress bar that counts either Seeing the Skills or Killing the monsters. This Carnivale will allow Blue Mages to get the more powerful Monster Magick but only for shows (here is where we reintroduce the whole questline now) and they would mostly like, real Monster Magick + Special FX to allow Blue Mages to more like "Simulate" these "sillier" skills during the exhibitions rather than truly learning skills from Hydaelyns literal Gods.

Further classes will be added to all roles, and the whole concept of a "Limited Job" gets scrapped - The new concept to add is "Job Challenges" where new trials like the Masked Carnivale are added to all different classes with time, like jump platforming trials for dragoons, 1vs1 arcadey fighting simulators for monks, laser tag for Machinists, etc, let imagination run rampant with that.