Next BLU update, please increase the number of active action slots.

[QooEr]

Currently Blue Mage has 24 slots to assign active actions to. With the number of actions BLU has at lv 70 it is manageable, if a bit annoying, to change sets as needed. However I fear that when Blue Mage updates to lv 80 and learns new spells, this will get exacerbated and I think it will get to the point where the 24 slots arent going to be enough to comfortably put the new actions.

I personally think a good number would be 36 active action slots, since thats how many slots two sets of controller hotbars can accomodate. I understand that perhaps 36 actions could be too much, so adding a way smaller number would also help a lot. Even an increase as small as 4 to the number of active action slots would be greatly appreciated and would make things a lot more comfortable.

Thank you for reading.

[Tulzscha]

Or at least more loadouts, that'd be nice too.

[Taranok]

I'd say no to more loadouts. Basically, 24 class skills is where classes can start to feel overbloated. Or rather, 30 buttons between class and role + sprint. Which, in EW, will be exactly 30 if the loadout size does not change. There's a number of reasons for this but the general gist is going above 30 can make a class start to feel really bad just due to the sheer size of the hotbars you need to handle the class. And a big part of the reason why GNB/PLD/SAM/BLM can feel pretty bad. Yes, BLM. The only reason they don't feel bloated is because more than 10% of their kit is currently literally useless.

[QooEr]

I'd say no to more loadouts. Basically, 24 class skills is where classes can start to feel overbloated. Or rather, 30 buttons between class and role + sprint. Which, in EW, will be exactly 30 if the loadout size does not change. There's a number of reasons for this but the general gist is going above 30 can make a class start to feel really bad just due to the sheer size of the hotbars you need to handle the class. And a big part of the reason why GNB/PLD/SAM/BLM can feel pretty bad. Yes, BLM. The only reason they don't feel bloated is because more than 10% of their kit is currently literally useless.

you can simply choose not to slot more actions if you feel overwhelmed with too many. blue mage isnt like other jobs because it has optional spells, and a lof of those spells are situational.
Moreover If AST, PLD, SCH, GNB etc can accomodate more than 24 actions its reasonable to at least have maybe 4 more slots to reach a similar amount of actions to those jobs.

[Taranok]

you can simply choose not to slot more actions if you feel overwhelmed with too many. blue mage isnt like other jobs because it has optional spells, and a lof of those spells are situational.
Moreover If AST, PLD, SCH, GNB etc can accomodate more than 24 actions its reasonable to at least have maybe 4 more slots to reach a similar amount of actions to those jobs.

Alright, I'll just casually remove buttons I need on a class and play very suboptimally. What kind of advice is this? No, seriously. And just because some classes are bloated too much doesn't mean that's reasonable justification to bloat any and every class.

[QooEr]

Alright, I'll just casually remove buttons I need on a class and play very suboptimally.

You can play blue mage optimally with 24 skills, no? Any extra skills are not needed if thats the case.

BLU isnt like other jobs because you choose what spells you bring, so it literally isnt like removing actions from your hotbar in other jobs from that alone. If i want to be flexible and add situational skills like bad breath or missile it wouldnt affect how you already play it, and you don´t need to be even remotely optimal in blue mage content anyways.

Bloated is also subjective. I dont think any of the jobs you listed are bloated.

[Rongway]

BLU isnt like other jobs because you choose what spells you bring, so it literally isnt like removing actions from your hotbar in other jobs from that alone.

You're meant to select the spells you need, and leave the ones you're not actually going to use at home. Put 32 on your bar if you must, but if you think you need all 32 of those spells at the same time, you are overgeneralizing your spells and need to prune them for the current activity.

Bloated is also subjective. I dont think any of the jobs you listed are bloated.

PLD, GNB, and BLM have the most buttons out of any red or blue job, with a lot of combinable, redundant, or useless buttons. These jobs are getting some button consolidations in EW, for good reason.

[Taranok]

You can play blue mage optimally with 24 skills, no? Any extra skills are not needed if thats the case.

BLU isnt like other jobs because you choose what spells you bring, so it literally isnt like removing actions from your hotbar in other jobs from that alone. If i want to be flexible and add situational skills like bad breath or missile it wouldnt affect how you already play it, and you don´t need to be even remotely optimal in blue mage content anyways.

Bloated is also subjective. I dont think any of the jobs you listed are bloated.

Your advice is tantamount to telling me that it's okay to run BLM with the ARR rotation. No enochian, no fire 4, no blizzard 4, no despair. Just fire 1 spam. Because you're specifically advocating for using fewer buttons than the class is designed explicitly to have and fundamentally altering the rotation.

That is a particularly extreme example, but it is fundamentally what you're saying. +8 buttons is a lot of buttons for a class designed around its cooldown burst, and pretending they don't exist would seriously harm you when the class would theoretically be designed around having these +4/8/whatever buttons.

Also, it's not subjective when classes were complained about for having button bloat back in HW, and the major offenders were in the 30 button range. Every last one. I am recalling a memory all the way back from 2015-2017 HW and saying: "We're in this territory again going into EW." And your request of more buttons (or at least, advocacy for it) would intentionally put BLU into this territory.

You're meant to select the spells you need, and leave the ones you're not actually going to use at home. Put 32 on your bar if you must, but if you think you need all 32 of those spells at the same time, you are overgeneralizing your spells and need to prune them for the current activity.


PLD, GNB, and BLM have the most buttons out of any red or blue job, with a lot of combinable, redundant, or useless buttons. These jobs are getting some button consolidations in EW, for good reason.

SAM is also getting extra strength bloat. They're doing the dev's favorite passtime of taking an AoE/single target hybrid skill that has significant opportunity cost, and creating a dedicated AoE/dedicated ST version for those spells. Most of the bloat in the game can be chalked up to abilities like Foul/Xenoglossy, where in SB it was just Foul by itself, but then they decided to add Xenoglossy and add an extra button for absolutely no reason. An argument could be made because Foul wasn't instant cast, but they're removing that quirk anyways, so that argument is evaporating in smoke. Foul could have been made instant cast and its baseline potency upgraded and it would fundamentally sit in the same spot in the rotation for AoE and single target without adding an extra button to clutter a rotation that deals with barely 5% of your rotational needs (if you basically participate in the end-game of savage, alliances, or extremes, at all).

RPR looks like it also has a candidate dead skill. Soul Sow/Harvest Moon. Where you only acquire it by specifically casting a buff, like Monk chakras or the original design of Shoha. I look forward to the class having that fixed by 6.1 because no one likes skills like this where the majority of the time, you press it once, maybe twice, thrice if you're lucky (E6N/S). It's sad because the class designers literally made this exact mistake with Samurai 2 years ago.

[Grimoire-M]

Personally I think Libra needs a more generic vulnerability replacement effect so that we can shave 2 buttons and actually have some room for utility actions on DPS. Being able to hybridize is also one of the few aspects of the job I liked pre-70. The other problems with the job mostly stem from lacking spots on the tank and healer side of things. I think a minor defensive cooldown that could be used on allies and get a boost based on your role would add a lot. Adding some kind of MP management tool other than Blood Drain would also be helpful on tanks in particular. I'd also prefer it if we got instant-cast melee-only single target filler as alternatives to the current caster suite to round it out a bit. It doesn't need much more than that unless they're gonna do something to replace Moon Flute.

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

Personally I think Libra needs a more generic vulnerability replacement effect so that we can shave 2 buttons and actually have some room for utility actions on DPS. Being able to hybridize is also one of the few aspects of the job I liked pre-70.

Condensed Libra just needs a fail-safe. Some thing like the Blue Mage can not apply any one of the three Libra-type again, for the next 10 seconds after its application, which would make to fish for a certain one only as bad as up to a maximum fails of two, while also not have a negative side-effect on re-application, since the debuffs have a 30 second duration.

I think a minor defensive cooldown that could be used on allies and get a boost based on your role would add a lot.

You could just join the rest of us Blue Mages, that this concerns, on the demands for CactGuard improvement BandWagon. CactGuard could be very good, if the Dev Team would just do some thing with it, as it needs a fix, improvement, or even a full rework... Here is my own CactGuard re-design idea, from one of my threads:

My suggestions are fourfold. #1 / at least remove a big issue.. make it possible to cast on self. This alone would be a notice-able improvement that CactGuard needs. #2 / increase its base effect from 5% for 6 seconds, to 10% for 6 seconds. #3 increase its Aetherial Mimicry: Tank boost from 15% for 6 seconds, to 20% for 10 seconds.
and #4, a personal idea that I would love to see done with CactGuard. make it the first ever spell to have two different Aetherial Mimicry bonuses. I would love it if CactGuard had a Aetherial Mimicry: Healer bonus that completely changes its effect. My suggestion is "Additional Effect: CactGuard instead creates a barrier around self or the target that absorbs damage equivalent to a heal of 400 potency, when you are under the effect of Aetherial Mimicry: Healer. Duration: 30s. Effect can not be stacked with Scholar's Galvanize or Astrologian's Nocturnal Field."

for Blue Mage Healers, this would make CactGuard a barrier spell like GobSkin, but CactGuard would be single-target instead, and stronger than GobSkin,
to make up for it.
in the case that these ideas of mine would make CactGuard "too good", then for the sake of argument, and for balance, also double the MP cost of CactGuard from 200 to 400, give the Aetherial Mimicry: Tank effect a recast time of 30 seconds, the same recast time as Chelonian Gate and The Rose of Destruction, and give the Aetherial Mimicry: Healer effect a recast time of 15 seconds.

Adding some kind of MP management tool other than Blood Drain would also be helpful on tanks in particular.

We already have Lucid Dreaming and Magic Hammer, but I can comprehend what you mean... Would you rather suggest another spam-able spell, similar to Blood Drain, or a Spell with a CD, that could be similar to either Magic Hammer or Lucid Dreaming? either would work, for a purpose of MP restoration. alternative suggestion, could also just make Blood Drain and Magic Hammer restore more MP than what they already do.