A simple approach to a duty set for BLU (another "advanced job" writeup)

[ReiMakoto]

This is another idea thread for how BLU could be a normal job in the game, inspired in part by this thread here : https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...An-Approach%29 , however (hopefully) the difference with this one, which I believe justifies it being a new thread, is it is deliberately a “low effort” unlimiting attempt. What do I mean by that? Well not to knock the other attempts of this that I’ve seen, but for lack of a better phrase they seem to get carried away with unique mechanics or cool combo’s which essentially reinvent the job from its limited form. What I’m going to try and do here is develop a full job moveset which only expands upon on the foundation of its limited Job, whilst keeping true to itself (as meaningless as that sentiment is when it comes to a job that changes every instalment). Note, I will only be covering BLU as an MDPS, as that is what it is refered to in the job guide, and I do not think blu tanking or healing has enough depth to evolve to a real job.


Part 0- Current BLU (limited job)

Contrary to what some will try to tell you, the current version of BLU is already very close to being a normal job, with a rotation to match. When doing raids on BLU as a DPS where most of your gimmicks become useless, you fall back on your core rotation of optimal dps abilities.

This consists of your:
Filler: Keeping up a bristled Song of Torment, and spamming a filler skill (electrogenesis ect)
The Burst: Your various primal abilities +devour and magic hammer which go off at different cooldown intervals, generally taking the shape of a full moon fluted opener firing off all of your cd skills under moon flute and off guard, from there you can either then fire off everything on CD, repeating the opener at 6 mins, moon fluting every 2 mins, or you can repeat the opener every 2 mins by holding glass dance and magic hammer for the 2 min moon flute.

This is the core rotation I intend to expand upon in this write up


Part 1- Job Gauge

Being a full job means BLU would need a job gauge mechanic like the rest of the roster. My attempt at implementing this will hopefully solve one of the core issues of current BLU’s design. The filler. Currently after you’ve done your burst you are left to just spam your 1 main filler spell, which isn’t exactly the most engaging thing on the planet, and doesn’t make heavy use of the copious amount of filler spells blu has access to, which is why I wish to introduce the SPELLCHAIN and DOOM gauges.

SPELLCHAIN GAUGE:
To put it simply, this takes a form very similar to the dancers step gauge, at all times you will have 2 icons present on the gauge, which lights up once you begin combat, The first icon being the element you need to hit next (astral, umbral or physical), and the second icon being the element you will need to hit after that. Once you hit the first icon, the second icon will move into the place of the first, and a new element will take the second icons place. The aim for this was to add a little more engagement into BLUs moment to moment kit. What does hitting the correct elements do however? They fill the DOOM GAUGE.


Pictured: a very poor attempt at demonstrating the spell chain gauge

DOOM GAUGE
Simply put this is a resource meter, not dissimilar to ninjas ninki gauge. You fill it by hitting the correct sequences from spellchain then spend it on Doom abilities. The abilites are covered further below.


Part 2- The slots
What do I mean by slots? Well seeing as BLU has so many abilities that are functionally identical, I figured it would be best to go with a slot system to fill out so players could pick their favourite coloured filler spell, or make minor changes to their kit. Going forward we will have a colour coding system, where Green represents an unchanged skill from the limited job, Orange depicts a tweaked skill, and Red depicts a completely reworked skill.

Section 1: The Rotation Core
Slot 1: Astral Filler
Slot 2: Umbral Filler
Slot 3: Physical Filler
Slot 4: Sonic Boom
BLU currently is the only caster without some kind of movement skill outside of swiftcast, the intent here is to make sonic boom instant cast becoming BLU’s ruin 2 equivalent.
Slot 5: Bristle
Slot 6: Song of Torment
Slot 7: 30s Primal Skill (eruption/feather rain)
Slot 6: 60s Primal Skill 1 (Mountain Buster/Shockstrike)
Slot 7: 60s Primal Skill 2 (J-kick/Quasar)
Slot 8: 30s Charged Primal skill (currently only surpanakha)
Slot 9: 90s Primal skill (currently only glass dance is worth for a dps)
Slot 10: Devour
Slot 11: Magic Hammer
Slot 12: Off Guard
Slot 13: Peculiar light
I have both of these skills here, as one is just for aoe as they share a cd
Slot 14: Moon Flute
Slot 15: Condensed Libra
Complete Rework- For the next 15s, spells which hit the correct spellchain deal 50% more damage and generate double the amount of doom gauge, has a cooldown.

Section 2: Doom Skills
All Doom Skills retain their current effect (including how they're ineffectual on a large number of enemies), however inspired by death in FF11 (https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Death) they will deal potency instead if their death effect fails.
Slot 1: Missile
New Effect: Costs 50 Doom Gauge (arbitrary amount for now), When successful halfs the targets current HP, when unsuccessful deals high potency instead. Instant cast. Lowest potency of the single target Doom skills, but has no coodown so its a filler like NINs Bhava.
Slot 2: Strong Death Skill (Doom/Tail Screw)
The idea behind this slot is to have it be a gauge spender with a cd, but present 2 options:
Doom- Inflicts Doom on target, when the timer expires there is a low chance to instantly kill the enemy, if this chance fails it instead deals potency. Deals more potency the lower the enemies HP
or
Tailscrew- Reduces targets HP to a single didgit, if this effect fails, instead deals high potency.
With the idea being you take tailscrew for consistency, but doom is stronger if you get more casts with the enemy low on HP.
Slot 3: Launcher
No change other than gauge cost, ineffective on bosses
Slot 4: Level 5 Death
Chance to instant kill enemies whos level is divisible by 5, if the effect fails it instead deals potency. Deals more potency the lower the enemies HP, shares a CD with Doom/Tailscrew

Section 3: Utility
This is the section with the most controversy about how many should BLU be allowed and what constitutes what slot, but for the sake of simplicity for this writeup, I will only include 2 slots
Slot 1: Low Utility (Faze, Bad Breath, Rams Voice)
60s cd, otherwise they function as they are in game
Slot 2: High Utility (White Wind, Diamondback, Gobskin)
120s cd, otherwise they function as they are in game


Part 3-Closing thoughts:

You’ll have hopefully noticed that I haven’t reinvented the wheel here, and this is a very streamlined approach to how to create a duty set for BLU. There is obviously room for improvement here, ive not included any new skills beyond what we have, and how they would interact with the rotation I’ve layed out here, but hopefully I will have shown here a way that everybody can win, that there can be an unlimited set alongside the limited set, with very few alterations to the limited form, which retains the jobs “identity”. I’ll edit this as I go along with any questions that people decide to throw at me, but until then, I hope you enjoy! Thanks For reading!

Edit: Additional Thoughts

Doom Skills: The chance for doom skills to hit could also be tied to enemies current HP (higher chance the lower the health) so its more "balanced" i.e. no hitting a vunerable dungeon boss right out the gate with a death.

[znushu]

All they gotta do in order to have BLU be allowed in the current "endgame" is to simply have the BLU Mage Log have as many options to pick as the Duty Finder, add in more spells for BLUs, give them a Job Gauge and a LB, Organize our Blue Mage Spellbook better, Allow us to easily switch out our hotbar spells without the need of using a macro, and finally allow us to run "Trusts" as well. They don't even need to prune our skills.

[ReiMakoto]

All they gotta do in order to have BLU be allowed in the current "endgame" is to simply have the BLU Mage Log have as many options to pick as the Duty Finder, add in more spells for BLUs, give them a Job Gauge and a LB, Organize our Blue Mage Spellbook better, Allow us to easily switch out our hotbar spells without the need of using a macro, and finally allow us to run "Trusts" as well. They don't even need to prune our skills.

They would need to prune some skill, Aetherial mimicry exists currently to pad BLU's dps to stupid levels as 100% uptime devilment, likewise I dont think final sting would be a good match for a duty finder set of skills a they would need to balance blu's output throughout the rest of the fight around the fact they can yeet themselves at the end.

[ADVSS]

I like that ypu're working with the skills and not trying to reinvent the wheel. From playing BLU more recently, i have to agree that really if there were combo chains on spells, or a gauge that worked with how BLU played, that it wouldnt really feel very limited. What end game BLU feels like at the current moment, is blasting oGCD about 4 of them for massive burst damage, then spamming 1 or 2 spells until eruption goes off cd. All they really need is either procs, or a sure way of landing a combo or anything really dealing with the filler, and it would feel solid enough.

[ReiMakoto]

I like that ypu're working with the skills and not trying to reinvent the wheel. From playing BLU more recently, i have to agree that really if there were combo chains on spells, or a gauge that worked with how BLU played, that it wouldnt really feel very limited. What end game BLU feels like at the current moment, is blasting oGCD about 4 of them for massive burst damage, then spamming 1 or 2 spells until eruption goes off cd. All they really need is either procs, or a sure way of landing a combo or anything really dealing with the filler, and it would feel solid enough.

I feel procs wouldn't suit BLU which is why i went for the system in my post there. But yeah filler is what i really wanted to tackle here

[Raikai]

I really like the idea of converting the current Condensed Libra spell effect into BLU's mechanic gauge. It honestly would be an interesting to have even now.

One thing that I've been thinking is about primal spells all sharing a charge system. Or maybe a meter called "Blue Mana" - the fuel for those Primal strong spells. They being affected by the Gauge spell effect bonus, but not making the gauge move forward, so you'd have to choose based on the stage you are.

Also Loom could totally be made insta cast and OGCD with 2 charges of their own.

[ReiMakoto]

I really like the idea of converting the current Condensed Libra spell effect into BLU's mechanic gauge. It honestly would be an interesting to have even now.

One thing that I've been thinking is about primal spells all sharing a charge system. Or maybe a meter called "Blue Mana" - the fuel for those Primal strong spells. They being affected by the Gauge spell effect bonus, but not making the gauge move forward, so you'd have to choose based on the stage you are.

Also Loom could totally be made insta cast and OGCD with 2 charges of their own.

That sounds cool, however the point of this was to speculate on how blu could expand upon its current foundation and not reinvent the wheel. The way that primal skills currently work is completely functional and imo fun, so what is to be gained from a system like this which would completely rework the core combat loop of the class? Loom being an movement ogcd however would be very cool.

[Raikai]

That sounds cool, however the point of this was to speculate on how blu could expand upon its current foundation and not reinvent the wheel. The way that primal skills currently work is completely functional and imo fun, so what is to be gained from a system like this which would completely rework the core combat loop of the class? Loom being an movement ogcd however would be very cool.

Fair enough... But adding to that, looking though a beginner's perspective, I wish Blu's tooltip would make the type of damage pretty obvious: e.g. a frame design with an elemental icon on corner... And also the Primal spells having in the tooltips the spells they share a recast time with.

The Blue Spellbook is getting a lot of pages. It will defnitely need a search/sort functionality.

Another thing that would be nice to have is your hotbar changing when you loaded a new spell setup. It really sucks to have to rearrange most of the stuff when you want to change roles. Maybe if you would be able to drag the Blue Magic spellbook "slot" into the action bars, instead of the spell itself?

[Raikai]

When is the next Live Letter, again? I'm pretty sure we'll get some updates on their plans for BLU. I'm honestly expecting an actual job gauge at 70, even if they don't change the Job's functionalities.