BLU is finally starting to feel strong

[Cabalabob]

It may still not be as good as an Unsynced level 80 but it’s certainly starting to get to the point where it can hold its own against them and perform some pretty impressive feats.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zCet20Mmiuc

Basic instinct in particular makes it very powerful and I don’t even have all the new spells yet, some of which dwarf our old spells in potency. I look forward to seeing some of the broken things people will start to do with it soon!

[Shougun]

While I'll still be salty until blue is normal or full on solo god (or at least "THE solo job", which would be achievable likely if they make the job reach cap even if it has restrictions on joining certain content and maybe a few tweaks) I do want to give SE credit that the level 60 and 70 spells are far more inspired, creative and interesting in general than their 1 to 50 (I am speaking in the sense of when they were added, I am aware specifically Basic Instinct is not from a level 70 monster). Regardless of what they do with BLU, even if they keep it PF focused, I think it would be smart and add a lot more quality to the job by going back to their 1 to 50 and innovating on the kit. Maintaining that PF focus would be keeping me in a state of perpetual salt lol- I feel this is bad for the job, since it's meant death for the job after the content is not hot anymore from a patch, and personally is just a useless value to me for a job I really wanted to play as I do not care for PF designs and is not a content type I like in the slightest (would have used a normal job or a solo focused job FAR more, and as I said I think if you're not blessed with friends that match your time or always hitting the 'hot' part of the release then you severely damage your blue), as well I feel solo focused would have provided a much better opportunity for kit building and wild results which would lend far more to the idea of making it limited when it was a monster to all contents. Since it is currently, even if less balanced than a normal job still very clearly actually balanced which makes that whole 'limited' thing feel "...." (because they want to do the whole trinity and make people re-run old content with a bit looser restrictions in the same format as before, really makes the title "limited" stick and I'm not crazy for that lol).

Innovations to include making skills feel better (the self stun mechanics or casting time on movement based skills for example are good examples of "feels bad" mechanics), or the touching up the learn for a short while and then never touch again spells (the hyper basic X color plus Y potency spells that might as well just be spells that get traits to replace them) - with a goal of making a concept of general mechanical design, combos (whether explicit or implicit), and interactions far sooner and far more engaging (tis a limited job, this should be excuse go to hog wild, not be restrained or pigeon holed into a few spells). Rather than the massively spammy design of the job that is before having to get a large set of PF skills and before you have any sense of a job that as a "design"- which does exist much later and with a much larger spread of spells needed (than even normal jobs), but it doesn't exist in a quality way until far later than I think is any good for the job (and I would argue far latter than most normal jobs, which is awful- the saving grace being when the job 'syncs down' the kit doesn't, so once you get a half decent kit you don't lose a lot of it unlike a level 80 Paladin syncing down to level 10, but it's a limited job so I call that a limited saving grace, I don't think it excuses the fact the mechanics of the job are not great for that long and for many exceptions (if you dont have x y z)).

Back onto the new solo skill- I think Basic Instinct should come with a buff to skill learning (Basic Instinct makes solo'ing stuff that wasn't possible before possible, but honestly not that quick at least in comparison to your current jobs and the learn rate (edit: IF UNSYNCED, sync rate is different) is still painful enough that failing is like "...Thal do me now, right in the chocobo exit"). I believe, they should also consider an upgrade at later levels (perhaps via trait that you earn from the carnival) that turns it into Primal Instinct which gives you all three mimicry at once. So you can build however you want when playing solo- bringing a lot of that lost kit building concept I mentioned, at least when solo, as well as being able to have both tank and damage stance, without the nerf to damage, would really improve the solo experience from some of the more heavy hitting spells that kind of ruins the feeling of solo blue mage- as it's a bit papery, gaining that would really help the flow (gaining all three mimicry). So while I am still /incredibly/ displeased with the route they've picked for blue (in a general sense, not focusing on this patch- as I said I do think they're making more interesting spells at least) and still /greatly/ wish for more changes to the job I did want to say at least I think their 60 - 70 spells (counting spells not technically at that level but added at the same time) are far more interesting and should represent the entire job rather than just some of the job.

Another thought to make it 'the solo job' while not necessarily making it insanely OP (stronger than max geared max leveled unsynced jobs) is perhaps on basic instinct, or primal, (or related idea spell - perhaps blue mage can earn a series of passives and traits via solo challenges in and out of carnival, as a sort of solo progression system), is that you greatly enhance rewards from the dungeon- just everything. You might clear the dungeon slower than if you level 80 solo'd it unsynced but your reward for time equation would be in favor of doing it this way. That and they add some more spells that can help against mechanics, like I suggested Molt which would cause blue mage to create a molt (copy) of themselves at location which takes hate temporarily AND whatever marker was currently targeting you (can be a stack based spell with a decent cooldown and perhaps some way to accelerate the timer at some cost). Being able to displace some of the markers would massively add a unique edge to Blue Mage's ability to solo (and naturally be incredibly unbalanced, which is good if the job is meant to be limited).

Of course if it's got to be limited I'm still ultimately greatly biased to it being even more complex and weird like a Diablo 3, Hades sort of system where spells have their own wild effects that also interact with other spells on a sort of tag system and like in those games certain combinations will just melt your mind and it's great fun finding those (and is therefore solo design focused). Or the job be normal, or even more have and eat your cake be "both" normal and limited (in which case I don't really care if the limited side of the job is solo focused or PF focused, if it has a normal side- I've a bias naturally but I'd not care enough to write paragraphs on it lol). So to me the job came out as 1,000 steps backwards, and really just hurt my feeling about the whole game (negative experience painting the whole game, yes I'm aware the job is a fraction of the game), but I do see they've made changes here and there and improved their designs... I'm not sure I'll ever be happy with what they did or what they'll do and I never wish for another person to have this feeling about limited jobs (which is why I'm not excited for the idea unless they come up with something new or change their design philosophy for the next one) but.. eh.. at least setting aside by asuran mountains of sodium for a second I can say the job quality improves later on and they've touched some things up (don't mistake this as me being happy though, I still wish blue mage was removed from my normal job pane (dedicated to limited jobs section).. but who knows maybe they'll keep on with ideas like basic instinct and try to greatly improve that aspect of the job, or make it both lol).

[Cabalabob]

Back onto the new solo skill- I think Basic Instinct should come with a buff to skill learning (Basic Instinct makes solo'ing stuff that wasn't possible before possible, but honestly not that quick at least in comparison to your current jobs and the learn rate is still painful enough that failing is like "...Thal do me now, right in the chocobo exit"). I believe, they should also consider an upgrade at later levels (perhaps via trait that you earn from the carnival) that turns it into Primal Instinct which gives you all three mimicry at once. So you can build however you want when playing solo- bringing a lot of that lost kit building concept I mentioned, at least when solo, as well as being able to have both tank and damage stance, without the nerf to damage, would really improve the solo experience from some of the more heavy hitting spells that kind of ruins the feeling of solo blue mage- as it's a bit papery, gaining that would really help the flow (gaining all three mimicry). So while I am still /incredibly/ displeased with the route they've picked for blue (in a general sense, not focusing on this patch- as I said I do think they're making more interesting spells at least) and still /greatly/ wish for more changes to the job I did want to say at least I think their 60 - 70 spells (counting spells not technically at that level but added at the same time) are far more interesting and should represent the entire job rather than just some of the job.

While basic instinct doesn’t buff the learn rate it does make it possible to do synced content solo (as seen in the video and I also did that for kugane castle) and if you do a fight synced the learn rate is 100% so technically it improves your learn rate.

The bigger problem for me is certain fight design making it impossible to do fights solo such as Suzaku where it is impossible to pass phase 1 solo due to the ddr game requiring 8 people. I thought they’d learned this after they adjusted some old fights like Titan hard to be soloable but there are plenty more examples of fights where you simply can’t beat it alone not because of difficulty but because the mechanics are not designed in a way that you can beat them alone.

And I agree the new spells are all far more interesting and I feel like they should go back to the level 50 era spells and do some tweaking to bring them up to code. I hate the spells that solely exist to be used in the carnivale and have no practical purpose outside it. Things like loom which would become massively more useful with a simple tweak like removing the cast time. Or changing moves like mountain Buster and feather rain to offer more utility since they’re just worse versions of shock strike and eruption (even something as simple as adding increased enmity to mountain Buster to make it a better tank option than shock strike to make up for the fact it has worse range and adding a drain effect to feather rain to make up for it not doing all its damage up front).

[Shougun]

Ignore is a wonderful thing until people quote them.

I should have thought of that!

I don't mind some of the people who are here to clearly just goof around, but having the quality of being negative to other users and the game and still with the purpose of messing with others is a far less desirable mix that I want to read when I could read other people who are trying to engage or at least make a light environment lol. (Although it is true I write a lot, but... just don't read it then if you don't like it XD).

They now hold the honor of being my first ignore. I feel like a grown boy now! .

While basic instinct doesn’t buff the learn rate it does make it possible to do synced content solo (as seen in the video and I also did that for kugane castle) and if you do a fight synced the learn rate is 100% so technically it improves your learn rate.

The bigger problem for me is certain fight design making it impossible to do fights solo such as Suzaku where it is impossible to pass phase 1 solo due to the ddr game requiring 8 people. I thought they’d learned this after they adjusted some old fights like Titan hard to be soloable but there are plenty more examples of fights where you simply can’t beat it alone not because of difficulty but because the mechanics are not designed in a way that you can beat them alone.

And I agree the new spells are all far more interesting and I feel like they should go back to the level 50 era spells and do some tweaking to bring them up to code. I hate the spells that solely exist to be used in the carnival and have no practical purpose outside it. Things like loom which would become massively more useful with a simple tweak like removing the cast time. Or changing moves like mountain Buster and feather rain to offer more utility since they’re just worse versions of shock strike and eruption (even something as simple as adding increased enmity to mountain Buster to make it a better tank option than shock strike to make up for the fact it has worse range and adding a drain effect to feather rain to make up for it not doing all its damage up front).

Excellent points and I think I should have made a bigger deal about the sync thing. Yeah if you sync your rate is good and you are still quite powerful, I was talking about if you tried to do something unsynced so like if you level 70 a level 50 content with the ability on it would be nice if you had like a 25% increase chance or something.

Agree that certain mechanics are an issue, which is where the idea molt came from (to shrug off some markers), but other mechanics might need some tweaks and I do think they should consider that (even if they still keep a challenge to the mechanic, just not "impossible").

If people were very close to liking blue they should definitely go straight to earning Basic Instinct and just see if they change their mind. It can be a game changer to learning at least some of the skills (others are still a bit of a problem, but a lot more are possible now). I sincerely hope they continue considering thoughts like that, because blue, when you have more of your kit, is WAY WAY better than blue without it. And it's not about level, its about specific spells that require a party (well far less now but some still do). I don't think they should have the quality of your job directly relate to if you joined the content when it's hot, and they did a big repair in that concept with Basic Instinct (and I've an idea below on how to further repair that without ripping out PF ideas). If they improve 1 to 50 quality of skills and then just in general make progression of the job far more consistently attainable I think they're well on their way to just leaving people upset about it not being normal being the only ones unhappy still (and heck they could technically make it both, if they 'really' wanted.. but of course they don't have to).

Actually going off that idea lets say if you sync content you gain an increase in loot, but if you have Basic Instinct unsync you gain a small boost to learn rate (small being just a way to reduce huge amounts of repeats, but you still might have to repeat it). Increase in loot being something akin to an extra drop from each chest (pretty substantial), and perhaps 50% more tomes (Which can include moogle tomestones so players who really want to could use blue mage solo for that; although technically still a way better idea to do it in groups). I'm of the mind that completing content, like on the carnival, should award a token though - so then we say all sync content (carnival, dungeons, whatever) drops these blue tokens which can be used to purchase hunt tokens, grand company seals, perhaps some special mounts or music, new abilities potentially (or traits to abilities, like I mentioned Primal Instinct which gives Basic Instinct all three mimicry), etc (just by doing the content you get some of this reward). Then if you basic instinct you get a bonus to these tokens (so your group sync would be faster in general but the solo choice to farm these tokens isn't a full blown awful idea lol, letting players who can't get a group or don't want one to also "win" at least a little bit). Plus it adds more content concepts for people to do with the job (now you have some extra purpose to farm old content past learning the spells or getting Marbolo, since once you complete the job it becomes drop it until next patch, moogle tomestone, or, you need it for a FATE event).

The blue token also might provide an item I think would add a lot of value to the death blue mage feels after the hot period goes down- that is you can spend some token to get some incense you inhale (I imagine like snapping a branch by someone's nose to awaken their potential, lol), that works only solo, which will cause you to gain massive damage reduction and some general increases to stats (with the intent of making it so you can solo even some of the more insane contents for their abilities). You could either price the consumable to be something you use seldom cause it's just really expensive (but each use basically helping you get an impossible spell otherwise) or it could be the consumable is reasonably priced but it does something negative like remove all loot (so you're going just for the experience of that area and or spell). Can't get a party to the raid but really want that skill? Try it with the incense.

Definitely 60 - 70 just feels like quality to me. Regardless of any design change in philosophy, ignoring any sense of people wanting to change what goal blue has, I strongly think if they remixed their 1 to 50 with the same quality and thoughts they made 60 to 70 with that the job overall would just shine a lot brighter. Like we mentioned with loom even, a movement skill is neat but loom is not.. because of the whole cast time and short distance.. just not a great feeling move skill - with a simple tweak suddenly loom is neat (way back when the job was new I also suggested loom might remove one debuff when used and gain a charge, to add some extra "ooooh" to it). You mentioned other spells as well where it's unfortunate that they're there JUST for their element type or to be replaced by other skills - I 100% agree. Regardless of any change to the "solo, normal, limited" that any player wants I think 1 to 50 becoming of the quality similar to 60 to 70 would just make the job better. Just a better job overall.

I can't say I'd ever purely pleased (wont say I'll never be though), and I try to be transparent on my feelings (so people can know why certain things bother me, and I try to show some emotional connection that occasionally causes difficulty in being happy with the state - revealing some irrational "grrr" lol), but Blue just screaming quality at all levels would just be a good thing.. no matter what happens to the job in those other parts people like to fight over.

Like if we just mention Basic Instinct in that quality clever that they're working with, the skill is obviously great for solo, but they also had it so you might clutch if your party was down. That's cool, double use spell. Well done! Naturally I have a personal bias that everything, every spell, has this nature AND with some more interactions but I know that's a lot harder to do. Interactions meaning when I mention Diablo 3 or Hades, where if anyone played that would know there is the spell and then a far deeper "spell in relation to other spells" concept. One legendary item lets you jump attack more than once, then another lets you cast this other spell at each jump, then you set your jump itself to apply a debuff on land, then you have another item that increases said damage type of said jump and has an interactions with the debuff you applied, these things just spiral out of control into a machine that clearly works together but not always is explicitly a combo. An explicit combo would be our 1 2 3 for example, they just go together in a line and that's that, meanwhile the implicit design would be stuff that fits together logically but yet didn't say "you have to do it this way", it just locks in without telling you that you had to. I think there is some sense of this, particularly as you move into 60-70, but I would love to see that idea get much stronger, just because then I think building kits would be a lot more fun to do (otherwise it's fairly obvious which kit is the kit you should use because you just pick the best spells without too much concern of the other skills). So like if we had a skill that turned all blue mage debuffs that were ignored into a generic blue debuff (or buff) that then can be used to charge / boost some other mechanic then you might see a debuff blue mage build that works (even against bosses). On that aside I also think if SE might think of some neat core twister passives that blue might see a lot of design opportunity fun for the players, like in FFXI blue mage given certain skills gained powerful passives. Here you might get rule changing/enhacing opportunties for hte kit.

Clearly I'm going way off on a tangent now lol. Main point 60 - 70 has a lot of genuinely interesting skills to review - my feeling of 1 to 50 was a bit like ... "not worth it" but if the entire job was similar to the best of 60 to 70 while I might not be grinning ear to ear (as I still had the dream to main it, or conquer old impossible content) I do think I would say "..eh it looks cool at least, even if I might not get to use it so much", and some subtle twists that are quiet clever and good for gameplay design. Like Ultravibration is perfect, they made this OP skill AND they added a cooldown so you don't spam it over and over and ruin the gameplay loop. Wonderful! An example of this thought was 1k needle became massively spammy because everything else in comparison was awful, this is a place where the loop could have been much better (being friendly to the idea of making each spell 'its own thing', maybe cooldown, maybe charge, maybe cast time, what ever adds to the quality gameplay loop and makes it exciting to learn that skill). Now they can look at 60 - 70 again just to see if there are any things they might sharpen up even more, but they're pretty neat in a general sense - I just hope they do that for 1 - 50 too.. I think the job will be better, for anyone and everyone, if they did that (doesn't matter if you're a PF blue, solo blue, normal blue, or both blue person). Also I kind of think the idea of Primal Instinct, and perhaps the loot buff opportunity, could add a lot of potential value for those wanting to use it off on their own without killing the PF idea entirely, as having all the mimicry would help build whatever you'd like and give you a bit more defense and sustain, and the loot buff (both in general even for PF groups and for the skill Instinct skill specifically to add value to your time). Going back on the Molt idea (ability to shrug off markers and temporarily draw attention), you might have it come with a very long cooldown or some other concept in PF but when you've got Instinct active it becomes the viable skill to do certain content that normal targets and wipes you in one go lol. If it's an Instinct or solo only skill it can be part of that skill group that you earn through challenges / token (if they do that idea). Another example of using Instinct in a way I think that could be neat is changing Angel Whisper to have the Auto-Raise that the skill is absolutely famous for (and one of the reasons I got even more salty about the job meant to be classic but then failed to deliver some classic designs due to balance). Here Instinct could allow the spell, in specific situations, the opportunity to be classic (and keep the cooldown of course).

[t0rn]

-snip-.

Dude. Why would you type all that out? No ones going to read all that and, worse, you wasted so much valuable time.

And it’s these same casuals who complain that MMOs don’t respect their time...

[Baxcel]

Dude. Why would you type all that out? No ones going to read all that and, worse, you wasted so much valuable time.

And it’s these same casuals who complain that MMOs don’t respect their time...

Ignore this person.. theyre a troll an only recently got unbanned from posting.. working towards a new one I see tho..

[Shougun]

Ignore this person.. theyre a troll an only recently got unbanned from posting.. working towards a new one I see tho..

Thank you lol. I did see they even have themselves a welcome back thread XD. I get I post long but no one is obligated to read it :P and I do try to put thought, care, and personal transparency in each post (hence why I describe feeling and bias sometimes, as I get I'm not the only one that plays this game).

[LaylaTsarra]

Thank you lol. I did see they even have themselves a welcome back thread XD. I get I post long but no one is obligated to read it :P and I do try to put thought, care, and personal transparency in each post (hence why I describe feeling and bias sometimes, as I get I'm not the only one that plays this game).

Ignore is a wonderful thing until people quote them.

[Undeadfire]

Blue Mage can do 2 Million damage tops in 1 blast atm. Basic Instinct > Whistle > Moon Flute > Off-guard > Final sting. With the buff to Mighty Guard it's more consistent keeping hate now for tanking instead of spamming The Look.

[Reksanden]

I've been able to solo sync all of the SB dungeons with spells but the Burn and Arboretum Hard (as those are the two I haven't yet tried) with assorted difficulty all thanks to Ultra Basic Instinct, Healer Mimickry, and being careful. It's been a ton of fun, and being synced means you learn the spell anyways. Shame that it'd be simply too difficult to do the same thing with the raids, but I'm sure that could be proven possible too - with patience, of course.