Two Months of BLU: Discuss!

[Valdegarde]

Rdm destroys low level dungeons, as they have strong aoe at a low level and have verthunder and aero which pumps out way more potency than any other job of similar level. Rdm actually just dominates level 50 and below, being the best single target dps and one of the best aoe.

Don't forget about Scholar on the healing end. AFK-Scholar is a meme for a reason. In fact, all of the 8 and 24-man clears done by a team of Blue Mages with great effort and lots of suicide have been done already with all Scholar (or all Warrior) teams.

[LineageRazor]

I haven't played BLU much since completing the Masked Carnivale. I occasionally toy with the idea of going back and trying for the special BLU achievements, but I have so much else to do that it continues to fall by the wayside. That said, I DID genuinely enjoy the puzzle-fights presented by the Carnivale; I only "cheated" and looked up the solution to a fight once (and it was such an obvious and easy solution that I felt bad for doing so).

I've definitely not played BLU as much as I would have had it been a regular job. I level every job to max, and BLU in particular would have been a strong contender for becoming my "main" DPS job (a position currently held by SMN).

I definitely feel that BLU is not living up to it's potential, and I dislike the concept of "limited" jobs in general. As much as I'd like to see BLU changed into a regular job I have little hope of ever seeing that happen; there are some fundamental things about the way it was implemented that simply would not work as a regular job, meaning it would pretty much have to be redeveloped from the ground up. That presents some serious obstacles in terms of money, manpower, and PRIDE - the last because it would entail admitting that they were wrong to implement BLU in this fashion.

I do occasionally still see BLU parties in party finder, and when I run Ex Primals for WT I usually leave slots open for BLUs to join and one or two often do.

I do believe that we would have eventually gotten BLU as a real job, had it not been added as a limited one. It's simply too popular for the Devs to ignore it forever. Unfortunately, we wound up getting the "here's your blu now shut up" version, which saddens me greatly.

[Auryan]

- snip-

I was a bit harsh earlier when I said that I didn't care for your ideas. I think a lot of it is interesting, they just don't align with my fantasies for these jobs. And I think that's why these kind of topics are so difficult to discuss since everyone has a job fantasy they wish could come true. And then reality hits and it just reaches an almost personal area.

And thanks for clarifying the part about the Bard music playing. I understand what you were going with now. Which is like I said earlier, all very interesting. Where I differ is that the ilvl part seems to walk back on the social interactions of the current BLU. I really loved that about the gathering part where people would just create parties to hunt for spells. It also was a blast getting to tank a dungeon as BLU and watching as the rest keep everyone alive with WW or crowd control. The fact that it was the job where people actually communicated with each other is what I love about it. And I want SE to nurture that.

I do like your shepherd idea, but feel that it's probably a better idea to put that as a brand new DoL job than a limited. Maybe as a part of Farmer. I've been reading more people mentioning an idea like that for a while now. I think you should theory craft some potential gathering or crafting jobs to add to the game. I would enjoy reading it.

[Shougun]

I was a bit harsh earlier when I said that I didn't care for your ideas. I think a lot of it is interesting, they just don't align with my fantasies for these jobs. And I think that's why these kind of topics are so difficult to discuss since everyone has a job fantasy they wish could come true. And then reality hits and it just reaches an almost personal area.

And thanks for clarifying the part about the Bard music playing. I understand what you were going with now. Which is like I said earlier, all very interesting. Where I differ is that the ilvl part seems to walk back on the social interactions of the current BLU. I really loved that about the gathering part where people would just create parties to hunt for spells. It also was a blast getting to tank a dungeon as BLU and watching as the rest keep everyone alive with WW or crowd control. The fact that it was the job where people actually communicated with each other is what I love about it. And I want SE to nurture that.

I do like your shepherd idea, but feel that it's probably a better idea to put that as a brand new DoL job than a limited. Maybe as a part of Farmer. I've been reading more people mentioning an idea like that for a while now. I think you should theory craft some potential gathering or crafting jobs to add to the game. I would enjoy reading it.

Totally respect that, also thanks for being so kind. My favorite forum interactions don't need to be in full hand clasped dancing in agreement just not like "YOUR IDEA IS DUMB DUMB" lol (disagreeing isn't that, I mean insulting each other of course). Being friendly trying to see eye to eye even if it doesn't mean full on board is more fun. Kalise I feel definitely has the more social idea so I can see why that's seen as a friendly concept. I did suggest you could take your OPness, or your underleveled-ness (due to missing skills), and still have fun with friends (either because you're duo-ing raids/savage/ultimate content or because you haven't collected enough spells) but you're right that the end result of a /very/ strong limited blue mage (in my vision of it) would reduce social aspect of the limited side (such that our fully decked out lvl 50, nearly or all skills learned, blue mages right now should easily be able to solo all lvl 50 ex and below content).

Definitely reaches a personal area~! I agree, like I respect the simplicity of the other suggested idea here but it doesn't appear to be in a way that sparks my interest (which while I /want/ to be interested in blue, having liked it before, it's true that not all content has to be enjoyed by all players - myself included). That said I'm sure we can all admit sometimes we just don't "see it" until we feel it first hand - so I'm willing to admit I could be wrong, just not seeing it right now.

I might make a shepherd thread at some point then ! I have a few other threads I want to work on too though so not sure when lol. Like my chocobo upgrade thread I'd like to do a mog "update" thread in similar approach, new Sil'Dah raid idea, cid raid, geomancer mage tank (inspired by at least), open world remix for leve content pipeline (high value open world content, but doesn't mess with repeat-spam issues), a reinheart subligar quest idea (just a fun quest dedicated to our old translater), fix up and clarify my memory friendly glamour log and token replacement suggestion, and maybe add another concept to the tackle box pile lol. Also probably need to add a few lines to the Magitek thread once Noct's car comes out, and the airship/chocobo thread sometime soon.

Question, hopefully people don't feel too off topic but, is the reason for being concerned about the shepherd being built into limited because it wouldn't be fully featured or anything else?

One of the reasons I thought it might be neat is each of these "advanced jobs" coming with their own limited system (besides giving SE an excuse to add new systems to the game) could also mean different types of progression (like with Blue Mage you'd level faster due to the shared relationship to the limited side and it's exp bonus, but it balanced out due to looking for some of your DF approved spells). For a very "meh" example you can level summoner and that levels your scholar, this doesn't create massive issues - bad players be bad good players figure it out. So in this you could be a big fan of DoL but want a job to experience MSQ/combat too.

Certainly they could be separated but I believe you could get all the features you wanted to add to the DoL side under the Beastmaster job as well, and in this allow Beastmaster that feeling of being master of beasts (like blue mage would have the feeling of being able to learn hundreds of skills) while also allowing them to play part in normal content. The balanced side having the types of controls SE needs to make sure a job isn't OP or unbalance-able compared to other jobs. It would definitely be a different experience, I think, if you could make your DoL your "main" like that, and because it's a limited type "DoL" it isn't expected to follow the same rules as the other two DoL in how it works and can/can't do. Which is a good and bad thing, for example people who wanted to get into it without getting blue, red, yellow scrips vs perhaps people who did. If I get to writing the thread maybe I'd write it in such a way that the Shepard could be smoothly excised from the beastmaster and placed alone, if one (or SE) thought better to do that.

[Alleo]

Are you still playing BLU? How often? How long? Ever?

No I dont play Blue anymore.

Are you still enjoying BLU as a limited job?

Did not enjoy the concept of limited jobs before playing it and when I played it I knew exactly why I dont enjoy the concept.

The past two months, have you played BLU more this way than you would have if it was a normal FFXIV Job?

Have only played it on release, might have played it more if it was a normal job and maybe it could have even become my second job next to summoner if it would have been fun because I like mages.

Should BLU be improved on as a limited job or scrapped and made into a real job?

It should be made into a real job. There is no reason to have it limited, especially because its underpowered and not overpowered and because its kinda death "content" since people cant do much with it after reaching lvl 50.

Do you still see BLUs out in the open world or in the part finder?

Dont look much into party finder because I mostly gather and craft right now. But I also dont run into many blue mages out there.

Do you feel as though BLU would not exist unless it was a limited job?

That would probably be Yoshidas answer but I dont believe it. They just imo went the easiest way to do that and seeing how people on this very forum came up with better ideas quite fast, I d do believe that we might have gotten real job if people continued to ask for it and the devs not going the "cheap" way.

In the end this is just a strange way to implement it. They did not make it into a normal job because you need to learn spells by killing monsters and because it would be too overpowered. Yet you can get certain spells only through achievements and a vendor and they have no problem of stopping you with the questline if you dont have certain spells. So what stops them from doing the same for blues in duty finder? And its funny how they are seemingly not powerful at all, maybe even weaker than some other DD with the same gear..so how are they not ready for duty finder? The skills, especially the aoes seems to be kinda the same just with different names. And they say that its mostly a solo job and stops them from taking part in a lot of group content, yet most skills are hidden behind group content..Its like they dont even know what to do with it..

I just hope that they dont introduce another limited job in the future.

[Physic]

Yeah, its easy to make assuption when they just can't do it because of their limitation. If my aunt had balls we would call her my uncle.

Find me a single boss that fit a situational blue combo, remember that they have no damage type weakness nor elemental weakness and they are immune to every alteration. I checked, they at best can use 4 version of the same spell to do damage and spamming "low chance" skill in the hope it will instakill it. Such gameplay, much wow. But I'm maybe wrong here, I played it only the first day, capped it and let it rot because its useless to even bother looking for a rotation.

not at all. blue has interactive dmg spells.


sharpened knife combos with anything that stuns, which makes enemies vulnerable to stun, and some are, take big dmg. They have specific magic damage rotations while peculiar light is up. They have combos like dropsy to shock strike. They can set up a finishing combo with moonflute, various damagee buffs/spells and finish with self destruct, for tons of damage.

[Physic]

We've discussed this with you on other threads but BLU would not dominate these fields as much as you say. Yea they would be powerful in dungeons, but not horrendously broken. It probably would be good in eureka, but eureka is also an semi afk zerg rush, where things die very fast, so thats not too helpful. Trials and raids theyre a decent support dps because of peculiar light, that is all, we've explained to you before that white wind and diamond back does not a broken class make.

Their kit is not that strong, they are piss poor tanks, and have one healing spell, see my post history talking to physic for further details on this.

eureka is not an afk zerg rush, i am beginning to wonder how much you understand content outside of savage. Eurekan basic progress is about being able to fight enemies as many levels above you as fast as you can. Access to massive control, debuffs, and various instant death/control is huge. also having some of the highest spike potential in the game is pretty huge, and being able to straddle 3 roles is huge, as eureka scales well with various group sizes. Blu can be tank, healer, and instakiller/at the same, allowing the same size groups to kill more quickly, which means faster gains. When it comes to high end BA, they could fit any role needed(except status removal), in a place where you cant always preselect your groups. Even switching between roles on the fly.

In hoh top floors, where most of your enemies are regular enemies, they will have access to whatever debuff/control that is valuable on any enemy. They have blind, para, damage down, slow, silence, stun, gravity, push, pull, petrify, freeze and magic vulnerability. most of which can easily be maintained 100%of the time.

the ability to complete immobilize/control packs of mobs, with skills like ram's voice/faze etc negates needs for tanks during. the ability to instakill almost everything except 1 or two creatures in a regular dungeon, while being on a defensive with access to white wind, is extremely strong.

[JunseiKei]

Q1. Are you still playing BLU? How often? How long? Ever?

Q2. Are you still enjoying BLU as a limited job?

Q3. The past two months, have you played BLU more this way than you would have if it was a normal FFXIV Job?

Q4. Should BLU be improved on as a limited job or scrapped and made into a real job?

Q5. Do you still see BLUs out in the open world or in the part finder?

Q6. Do you feel as though BLU would not exist unless it was a limited job?

A1. No.

A2. Never liked it to begin with. The best thing about it was how quickly it leveled chocobos, but mine was already at rank 20. Leveling, I used the job swap exploit because if I wanted to level something in open world, I have classes I could very easily spam FATEs with.

A3. No. I can do roulettes and raid on a normal job.

A4. I'm indifferent at this point. I can see it being a nifty idea and fun as a minigame as it is, but its problem is it completely lacks longevity. The process of leveling and obtaining spells was supposed to fill this void, but those are probably two of the worst ways you could draw something out. If the job were much stronger, like comparable to a level 70's damage while being at level 50, and could do more things on its own, it'd probably be really fun just because of its ridiculousness.

A5. No - why would I ever be in the open world other than for hunts? There's nothing to do in the open world.

A6. BLU could exist as a normal job, but I do understand Yoshida's worry about the acquisition of spells (learning it through monsters and not just given) and being excluded from parties because you don't have certain ones. That's a legitimate concern and players are absolutely kidding themselves if they think it's not. Some people would argue the identity of BLU is learning spells through monsters and not just given to you through job quests while others are perfectly fine with that method. Others take it a step further and compare it to XI, though it has many features that simply do not exist in XIV and is akin to comparing apples and oranges. Full job, limited job, it doesn't matter, there'd probably be just as much complaints because BLU ultimately wouldn't be something X person imagined it to be (looking at you SMN).

[Physic]

A6. BLU could exist as a normal job, but I do understand Yoshida's worry about the acquisition of spells (learning it through monsters and not just given) and being excluded from parties because you don't have certain ones. That's a legitimate concern and players are absolutely kidding themselves if they think it's not. Some people would argue the identity of BLU is learning spells through monsters and not just given to you through job quests while others are perfectly fine with that method. Others take it a set fuyrther and compare it to XI, though it has many features that simply do not exist in XIV and is akin to comparing apples and oranges. Full job, limited job, it doesn't matter, there'd probably be just as much complaints because BLU ultimately wouldn't be something X person imagined it to be (looking at you SMN).

just want to agree here with the last part. people compare to ffxiv blue, but an ffxiv blue would also not be allowed here at all. it straddled too many roles, and also would have the same issue with spell learning and the duty finder. Ffxiv also was fine with weird jobs that didnt fit one particular role, or multiple roles, like bst, pup, blu, nin, dnc. And its subjob system allowed for a lot of diversity. Basically ffxi is pretty radically different, and many job combos could never be allowed in the current ffxiv framework.

[xbahax92]

Never touched it, wont ever touch it. I dont support limited jobs. This job quest will stay locked on my character til they remove limited job system or shut down the game.