FFXIV: Limited Job and why it doesn't work

[Shougun]

People always compare it to FFXI version, but this isn't XI version - what worked there, doesn't work here, that's why they didn't want to add it in the first place. But they have this tendency to do everything that players shout for, so we got BLU....not quite as they wanted it, because it can't fit into the role system, without ruining it. I don't think they have any intention of adding more limited jobs, just BLU, because it doesn't fit into the system, so it has its own system. If it could fit in, they would already done that.
It's troublesome to balance one new job, but BLU with its huge pile of skills, would be impossible to balance for normal content, without it being OP or UP, or just weird and gimmicky - what's this person even supposed to do??

The recent abilities are much better, imo, than the FFXI version, some of the 50 era skills had flecks of that but I was overall rather disappointed with those skills, 60-70 I think should represent the entire job (and skills that are like the 60-70 are the ones I'd say are consistently shining better than FFXI's). One of the things though that might have been quite fun to preserve, maybe not 1:1, but the passive sort of system could have made some interesting opportunities to mix up the gameplay loops. I think also referencing Diablo 3 and it's passive system (consuming legendary items to equip them later, and also how that system can clearly mix with your gameplay choices and evolve your style as you go along). Could have added an extra wild element to blue mage. Of course balancing such a concept to PF may have been difficult though.. but I think at least in a solo situation it could be very fun. I can imagine wild effects like self inflected lich status, or a passive every other spell's cast time is cut down by 2s (blue mage fast cast).

I do want to note though that people mention big book of spells like that's a blue mage requirement but in the games where blue mages had big books often other jobs, usually multiple, had the same circumstance. Similarly many other jobs also had gimmicky spells, like white mage reflect or casting raise on the dead. Blue mage was often wacky due to the pacing of their gimmicks and the large spread of seemingly unrelated effects with most skills having an effect beyond 'element + damage' (due to them taking monster skills). That isn't to say some people can't really like the big list or gimmicks, but if a white mage or black mage, or heck summoner lol, can become normal (famous for multiple gimmick spells and huge lists) then so too I would say it is fair that Blue Mage could have well been "blue mage" and yet also a normal job. Since the elements people reference that can't be balanced are not really exclusive to blue mage. That isn't also to say one can't relish the gimmicks instead, again, by being limited, though I think both limited and normal.. would have been nice, just that.. I would full stop argue that the idea of big list or broken spells is not specifically a blue mage thing and has been a feature in many jobs for different situations (and so you don't have to represent those concepts in order to have the job be well represented).

Personally a big list can be neat, but given, at least the 1-50 skills, and maybe only a few of the 60-70 skills, are largely non-useful . . . I would say it's not taking great advantage of that, at least for the moment. I'd love for that to be wrong (like hope it changes)- I think if they remixed their 1-50 to be consistently more interesting at the time of attaining and maintain as much as possible without doing big brain rocket to the moon calculous into the future as well. Ideally skills do three things: are neat to try right away / aka fun to use, have a potential impact of value beyond just fun to use, and then will again later when viewed in a large scope of things (aka, fun right away, useful value right away, useful value when considered in context with other abilities but that doesn't have to happen right away- viewing games like Hades, Diablo 3, or many other Rogue-like/lite games that often have combos appear to skills yet those skills had already been useful from the get go). The first release skills I feel regularly fail the majority if not all three criteria I feel would be ideal (for example some skills were useless right away, not fun to 'use', and never became useful later, some skills useful right away but not fun to use), though later added skills pass and hit all three 'yes' more often. One idea that I saw that could have made it exciting even if a skill was 'meh' was as you learn skills your power level increased, which would encourage doing a complete collection and help you do some more difficult fights if you needed (helps the filler skills, though ideally there are no filler skills lol).