Blue mage shouldnt be "Limited"

[Koka-Kola]

Blue mage shouldn't be limited for several reasons but I will do my best to keep it small. First of all the basic concept of a blue mage is to learn other attacks.

(1)Now this is true but even so the attacks are weaker than the original, that is to be expected since blue magic is just imitating other attacks.

(2)The core mechanic of Blue Mage is learning different spells with different elemental effects and debuffs. Yes we all know bad breath is horrible to get hit with but again, it would be weaker than an actual morbol.

(3)IF the issue is that it has too many spells then let me ask: Isnt that what a blue mage is supposed to have? Why should the class be held back because of what it was meant for? You see, many people have said Ol' blue was too powerful. For example we have "Level 5 Death." A skill that has a decent chance to kill enemies around you aslong as their level is a multiple of 5. I mention this now because it has something to do with the next one. Blue mage is loved for its ability to learn and explore, but to truly explore you must remove restrictions on "Limited" classes.

(4) Ah yes, here we are. Blue mage has been dubbed over powered....but is that true? only partly. As I said, spells like "Level 5 Death" can instantly kill enemies whose level is a multiple of 5 BUT most enemies that I cant 1 shot with any other class are immune to its effects (Just like missle, ultravibraion ect.) so why make it one of the few things holding it back from being an actual job.

(5)Blue mage can learn many.....many spells yes we are aware but to add balance (As this class was claimed to be unbalanced) there should be a "Tier" system causing you to only use a limited amount of rare spells (Similar to XI's "Blue points")


I promised I would keep it short so I wont go any further but to do this to such a fine class in any final fantasy game is a disgrace to the job itself as if its only purpose is to clean up after the last expansion.

[LeonKeyh]

None of those are reasons why Blue Mage shouldn't be limited. You're misunderstanding why it's limited and with your misconception you're trying to argue against those reason.

They could easily group blue magic spells together into stuff like "Filler Damage Attack", "Self Buff", etc and have you pick which spell you want for that specific attack and leave the customization at that.

The whole reason the job has to be "limited" is for the exact opposite reason than the moniker suggests.

Keeping blue mage separate from the other classes opens up way more possibilities primarily. Players can customize the exact blue mage that they want to play from a myriad of different choices. They can live a power fantasy of soloing at-level dungeons, they can have fun.

Another problem looping them into normal classes is that there will be a "best spell setup" and people that don't bring that setup would be ostracized and potentially hold back groups that they're in, that's on top of the fact that you can't get some people to do job quests that it literally tells you about to get new job abilities. You can't expect an average blue mage player (if it were a normal job) to keep up with figuring out what blue magic they can get and from what mob. You would have expert roulette Blue Mages just spamming Water Cannon.

I get that you wish it was a normal job, but promise you it's better this way. If they made it a normal job, they would have to strip most of the charm of playing the class.

[Curisu]

If he is not limited anymore then he wont be special and is just a other caster.

Also, BLU will never have the max level because it would break everything.

[Koka-Kola]

Comparing it to the other games blue mage was in, there were few limits and nothing held it back from doing content, so why now though. If it wasnt limited then it would still be special for learning spells. Currently the limited job status is making blue a dead end job. it's not even a job at this point, it's just content. it's a collection book. that's all. A blue mage should be able to have access to the same content as other casters. however I know for a fact specific skills are over powered. That's why it needs balance so it cant just take any spell without a cost.

Limited jobs should be real jobs. not side show entertainers.

[CKNovel]

I understand and I'm on the side that limited jobs shouldn't exist.

But if it wasn't limited we wouldn't have all the BLU flavor, just another caster.
White wind, Spammable stuns, Diamondback, those are also broken spells and the fun one such as death of missiles would be useless in "non-Blu" content.

You simply can't have both and SQEX made a choice they judged the closer to what a Blue Mage should feel like.

[P0W3RK1D]

Keeping blue mage separate from the other classes opens up way more possibilities primarily. Players can customize the exact blue mage that they want to play from a myriad of different choices. They can live a power fantasy of soloing at-level dungeons, they can have fun.

solo content and customizability can only carry a class so far before it becomes just another wasted effort, eventually Blu needs to have some way to play the current content, otherwise whats the point? "mom, why would you get me a Playstation 1 for my birthday? You do realize the playstation 5 is out right? I know crash bandicoot racing is fun, but whats the point of feeling fast, beating NPCs if i cant even play with my friends who all have the ps5"

Imagine if everyone wanted Dragoon to be released, it is one of the Final Fantasy common classes after all. and so after YEARS of practically Begging Square Enix to add the class they do -- Only for it to be announced as a Limited Job. There is a Game mode for it called the Dragon Arena in which you fight hordes of dragons in order to unlock skills and abilities, and you can even do dungeons with premade parties. But Dragoon will always be level-locked 10-20 levels under the current content, wont be able to play the main storyline quests, and wont be able to use the duty finder without a premade party -- and thus an entire iconic class was ruined and delegated as a useless mini-game. There are other ways to work around BLUs unique battle system -- but this aint it chief...

Another problem looping them into normal classes is that there will be a "best spell setup" and people that don't bring that setup would be ostracized and potentially hold back groups that they're in, that's on top of the fact that you can't get some people to do job quests that it literally tells you about to get new job abilities. You can't expect an average blue mage player (if it were a normal job) to keep up with figuring out what blue magic they can get and from what mob. You would have expert roulette Blue Mages just spamming Water Cannon.

Easy.
1. ppl have internet, they can look it up
2. SE can make their in game instructions on which mobs give which spells clearer, and they can even make a checklist/Map for the Bluemage Spellbook
3. if which spells BLU has are a problem then just add a dng restriction (you cant use duty finder to enter this dungen without at least acquiring X spells)

I get that you wish it was a normal job, but promise you it's better this way. If they made it a normal job, they would have to strip most of the charm of playing the class.

The meta is a shaky battleground my G, but by limiting BLU to this degree, especially after so many ppl (including me) have wanted it for so long you have already stripped it of its charm.

[Koka-Kola]

AMAZING IDEA!!

[Raikai]

I'm kinda satisfied on the premise of alternative gameplay, however:

1) Even with the separation from fighting with other jobs, why not keep BLU at the same level cap? Useful for outdoors activities, like FATE farming, or Maps parties, or even having them challenge the current dungeons by soloing them with Basic Instinct - I've tried with level 70 content and while is infinitely harder and much longer than with just a regular party, it's defnitely something fun to engage with.

2) Deep Dungeons available for solo Blue Mages - I'd defnitely sink in many hours of play trying to make through all of the floors, and even has replayability if you're interested in farming the sacks in there.

3) More incentive for Blue Mages to run their "endgame"... We always have the case of people mass running things for the first month or so, then it dies out when most already have their spells. One thing would be a daily Blue Mage roulette, but a much cooler thing would be something like Wondrous Tails, but for Blue Mage content.

4) The Blue Mage healing role defnitely needs attention. Most of the time you just spam Pom Cure, because given the squishyness of Blue tanks, sometimes a gcd not healing would probably mean death. The healer role needs OGCD healing/defensive spells to make tank healing marginally more interesting. All the other spells like Gobskin do very little for tanks.

5) Tanks still need to be less spiky, and the mitigation spells need to be instant cast! Dragon Force, Chelonian Gate, Diamondback, Devour all have close to 2s cast times, which make them extremely clunky to be used as reactive tools, especially if you're using GCDs as your filler attack.

6) This is more of a personal wish of mine, but Condensed Libra really feels like it would be much better if it was turned into some sort of dynamic Job resource/gauge. Something maybe inspired by Eureka's elemental wheel, in which it dynamically shifts with what you recently casted.

[Kemiko]

I'm just going to put it out there that I've heard as many things for and just as many things against the job to lose it's "Limited" status. Obviously, if it loses that status certain aspects of the job has to be changed since it isn't balanced against the others in current content. I think everyone would understand that and the only aspect of the Blue Mage that must be maintained is the ability to learn and use enemy abilities as your own. This hardly needs to be SPELLS - so it does not need to be a caster - but that has been the only constant for a Blue Mage in its various incarnations across the series.

FFXIV has done a fantastic job of cherry picking whatever the hells it wants as a job identity. The FFXIV Red Mage isn't at all what I'd consider to represent an iconic Red Mage or the FFXIV Dark Knight yet, here we are. They, more or less, work in the FFXIV universe so I just have to accept it.

I think if the team wanted to, they could most certainly could make the job work without it being Limited. I also don't think they want to. And on the subject of "the best" spellsets, let's be honest here. It already exists and even their minigame, the Masked Carnival, already dictates what you can and cannot use to complete it.

[Raikai]

I think if the team wanted to, they could most certainly could make the job work without it being Limited. I also don't think they want to. And on the subject of "the best" spellsets, let's be honest here. It already exists and even their minigame, the Masked Carnival, already dictates what you can and cannot use to complete it.

I honestly don't really see they lifting the Limited status of the job while keeping it as it is... Reason is that SE design team likes to have gameplay under tight leashes... Just look at the regular jobs and how you can't really customize playstyle. (E.G. all RDMs play the same, aim for the same melds, etc). Blue mages with their vastness of spells and different effects, and not even counting the 1hit KO ones, would certainly open for a lot of creative routes with the encounter design, which while not "overpowered" as it's spread out to be, could possibly trivialize some aspects.

And that is not really a bad thing. I'd really love different playstyle options among the jobs, but sadly it is not something that we got to see applied for SE's designs ever, and they do seem to labor in making this kind of design persist.