How to expand Blue Mage: Exclusive Exploration Zone and Deep Dungeon

[Van_Ryker]

This has been on my mind for a time and the best way to stop thinking about it is to put my thoughts into words. TL;DR at the end.

1st Part: The New World – Blue to the Rescue

With the end of the world averted, eyes have turned to new business avenues. And the New World, a land with vast reserves of Ceruleum, is now being targeted by companies who wish to mine the natural resource “for the betterment of mankind”. But this invasion has upset the once balanced lives of local fauna and flora, which now does not distinguish between natives and invaders. As a disciple of Blue Magic, and intrigued by this exquisite land, the Warrior of Light answers the call to defend those who only want to live in peace.

How to Unlock: Clear the Masked Carnival Stage “Dirty Rotten Azulmagia” and Finish the MSQ Endwalker.

The idea of the exploration zone is to use systems already in game to fully make Blue Mage stand out by its versatility:

1- Eureka Elemental Damage: All BLU spells have an aspect to it. By using it in the exploration zone, the game would not need an Elemental Wheel but rather more slots to allocate spells or more preset slots to quickly change you repertoire. Non-limited jobs would be a bad choice to use (but still a choice) as their actions have no element or attribute (piercing, slash, blunt) to it, dealing way less damage than BLU in this instance.

2- Eureka Mutations and Adaptations: monsters changing due to the use of repetitive spell elements and weather changes, dropping different items and forcing players to actually pay attention to what spells they are using.

3- Bozja Field Actions: in case BLU level cap is never raised, devs could implement spells from 71-90 as actions you acquire by trading totems with defeated monsters/ cleared FATEs drops – NORMAL drops, not rare ones. This way, Blue Mages could have access to even more spells without having to change the hotbar setup. Some examples that come to mind are:
- Quintuplecast (from Seat of Sacrifice Ex)
- Divination Rune (from Dancing Plague)
- God Ray (From Crown of Immaculate)
- Heavenly Cyclone (from the SS Rank Forgiven Rebellion)

The idea is that the action would not necessarily be something that BLU could learn, just actions from content that BLU has no access at the moment but could still use in its exclusive content.

4- Weather Changing Map: currently, this does not exist in-game. Its the players actions, or their level in case of an exploration zone, that change (open/ close) paths in a dungeon. The idea here is that different weather would change the access to different parts of the map or add a new mechanic or buff/debuff. For instance, Blizzard would freeze lakes, rivers and any players standing still for more than 10 secs whereas thunderstorm would create random AOEs on the whole map.

Continued in the next post.

[Van_Ryker]

5- Weather Changing efficacy of Spells: as with the idea above, different weather would affect different spells. Heatwave would increase all fire-related spells in 50% (both from players and enemies) while reducing all water and ice-related spells in 50%. As it would affect dealing with specific weaknesses and strengths, teamplay would be highly encouraged.

6- Emergency Quests: something from old Diadem, it was a unique alliance raid; but here they would be FATEs that, upon completion, affects all players in the current map if completed or failed for a set period of time. If no one accepts it, it would still count as a failure. Some examples of results:
- Success: Flying unlocked | Failure: Mounts locked;
- Success: Totem Material Exchange reduced by ½ | Failure: Totem Material Exchange Locked;
- Success: stats increased by 15% | Failure: stats reduced by 15%

2nd Part: The Whalaqee Sanctuary

Away from all settlements, the Whalaqee Sanctuary awes visitors – intruders and protectors alike – with its sheer majesty. A natural wonder, as if carved in and through a vast canyon, it houses a quantity of Ceruleum that dwarfs many mines combined. But now the place teems with never-before seen activity, its guardians awakening to counter any and all they consider a threat. It is up to the Eorzean Blue Mages to quell the wrath of these unknown protectors of the land.

An Alliance Raid instance inside the New World map, much like Castrum Lacus Litore or Dalriada in Bozja. The greatest difference is that it would use the Variant system to introduce at least 3 different paths, each one with their particular objectives and enemies, to be done by a full party. Like with the current Variant Dungeon, the path chosen would be determined by the majority of players once in the instance.

To be finished in the next post

[Van_Ryker]

3rd Part: The Ceruleum Abyss

At the heart of the Whalaqee Sanctuary lies a crystalline whirlpool, untouched by civilization. Respectfully, you start going away, done with your duty here… only for a voice to call you as your companions are long gone. The surface of the water sparkles and your adventurer side takes a fast interest to it. What mystery has been hidden away on this corner of the world?

The Deep Dungeon, accessible after the player beats the Sanctuary raid – or, if really daring, after have been to all 3 paths of the Sanctuary raid – to be done in Light Parties or Solo. The differences from the other DD would be the use of:

1- Bozja Action Holder: in this Deep Dungeon, you don’t find pomanders. All the preparation has to be done outside and, once in, there is no way to replenish your resources. The Action Holder would function in the same way as the original, limiting how much you can take with you. That would make the farming in the map mandatory if anyone wants to brave the DD;
2- NPC Summoning: directly from the upcoming Eureka Orthros, the only item players would be able to find are Magicite to summon allies who, of course, are from the BLU MSQ:
- Martin: unlocked by default. Uses Hydropull and Self-Destruct. Players are not affected by the Hydropull BUT CAN suffer damage from the Self-Destruct;
- Azulmagia: unlocked by achieving the title “Perfect Blue”. Uses a set rotation of Magical Damage spells;
- Siegfried: unlocked by achieving the title “Champion of the Blue”. Uses a set rotation of Physical Damage spells;
- Gogo: unlocked by achieving the title “Of The Truest Blue”. Gogo will use his signature Mimic after the player 5 times, unleashing powerful actions according to what was used before.

While it seems excessive to have 3 NPCs locked behind very good gameplay, the idea is to have the playerbase put more effort in their Blue Mage. So no Savage clears, because they have its won rewards for doing them, but Masked Carnival should get a bit more love.

TL;DR: those are my ideas to make BLU have some solid content that can endure for some time and bring a bit more diversity if it remains a limited class.

[aveyond-dreams]

Nah, I'd rather see it become a full job please. No more wasted resources on limited jobs.

[Caddo]

Don't get me wrong, I love Blue Mage, but at this point I'd rather just see it overhauled into his own kit for PVE while also having the "Carnival" mode be what we currently have. Keep spell collecting but also require a certain amount of spells required before you can "properly" queue for group content. Pre-made groups would not need to meet the requirements. Bump it's level up as well. I just love how Blue feels but hate that it's so far behind at this point. At least push it to 80

[Deveryn]

I think they could do a lot more with less, but it'll be interesting to see what they do with the New World during 7.0.

[Johners]

If they wanted to expand the limited job system, we could've had beastmaster by now and much more BLU content that's not just sold savage tiers. But I don't even get why the system exists anyway and I'd much rather have more exploration, deep dungeon or whatever else content for my normal DoW/DoM jobs. It's arguably time to retire limited jobs entirely.

[Jybril]

And/Or make a full Job like it's suppose to be.

[Saraide]

And/Or make a full Job like it's suppose to be.

I might be showing my unfamiliarity with the series as a whole but isnt a big selling point of blue mage as a concept how overpowered it can get by employing rare spells? I feel like you cant get that and also have it fit as normally balanced job.

[DezereDawn]

I might be showing my unfamiliarity with the series as a whole but isnt a big selling point of blue mage as a concept how overpowered it can get by employing rare spells? I feel like you cant get that and also have it fit as normally balanced job.

While the game isn't the pinnacle of balance by any stretch, FF11 has proven you can absolutely make BLU work as a full job with access to all the same content as other jobs, while including its signature "learn abilities from monsters" shtick,

Frankly, i'd take a more limited toolkit that's usable in the regular game over the current iteration because at least half or more of the BLU Kit is currently the same thing with slightly different effects and animations, and is effectively filler, or used in one blue carnival fight then ignored in favour of a single set of abilities basically everyone uses for general purpose gameplay,

Hell, collection aspect could still exist with spells replacing others, same effect, different looks/aesthetic etc

at bare minimum, i want to run deep dungeons as BLU, even if it doesn't give me titles or achieves, just for the fun of it.