How Blue Mage defies the Job system in FFXIV, yet is Loved for it!

[@KyrialArthian]

Honestly, I think part of the problem for people who have never touched BLU is they hear the word "limited" to refer to it, and they automatically think "limited" means "weak" or just "bad", when really, it's limited in what it's allowed to do because it's TOO STRONG.

[@evandavis5223]

It's not being protected, it's contained.

[@mikoto7693]

Not all of us. Some of us understand that “limited” refers only to content. It’s a job cut off from the majority of the game modes that I primarily play in. Perhaps a bit like PvP is kept contained as a separate system. It’s that which turns me away from it. As one only part the way through Stormblood, I have plenty of other things to keep me busy.

[@k4g7]

@Baxi no its not...not even by a longshot....overwatch maybe.....but league??????? trust me there are some real scumbags over there.

[@nullprop]

​@@k4g7 different spectrums of toxicity. League takes part in raw toxicity and bullying, while ff14 players can be passive aggressive and entitled.

[@Polareon]

@@baxi3896 as someone who has played ff14 for 4 years and league for 10. ff14 is wholesome af compared to league.

[@dylangreen192]

They mentioned in an interview a Blue Mage battle royale mode that they once considered, where you start with nothing and gather spells from monsters from around the map before fighting each other. Could be pretty fun.

[@djdiamond5710]

👀👀👀

[@DeadSpaceWing]

No more BRs. Please.

[@shaamu2717]

Would be interesting to try and made deep dungeon similar to that idea, or add new mode for previous ones

[@chefffs]

@@DeadSpaceWing acting like you're forced to play it

[@CaramelKrystals]

I can't deny that current Blue Mage is fun but I still remember when I started playing this game around patch 5.2 I had searched up the jobs available in the game. When I saw Blue Mage I was so happy, it's always been a favourite of mine in Final Fantasy games. You can then imagine my disappointment when I found out you can't actually use this job in the MSQ or other main content. I would love for Blue Mage to be a full job but I don't want to completely remove the limited version either. Maybe someday we could have both but until then I'll enjoy Blue Mage as is.

[@Sacrengard]

yeah if they standardize it, they better keep the original

[@vecttin469]

I wouldnt mind if they added a option to play a non limited version of the class for standard content. So far the ground work is there and game play wise it would save on a lot of resources. Here's hoping something will change once we reach the new world in an upcoming expac

[@BeauxPhades]

I'm hoping this happens through a second blu job stone next expansion or something. They could even give us alternate dialogue choices depending on how deep we got into Martyn's schemes. "Hey adventurer have you heard of blue magic" "Yeah of course you're speaking to the Great Azuro the second!" "What"

[@SniperKing-O]

Since we're eventually going to the New World, it would be a great opportunity to introduce that places version of Blue Mage, while keeping Martyn's version as it is. :)

[@jamiekevingallagher365]

Speaking of an expansion in the New World, the art of Blue Magic does allegedly come from the New World, and there could be an interesting conflict between the Blue Mages we know and tease and the traditional magic wielders of the tribes of the New World (which could possibly be called shamans).

[@Invenbel]

I enjoy BLU because it's all entirely clown nonsense. "Yeah you can tank as BLU and your mitigations are actually insane but they're all on cast timers. Have fun" "Here, have an Esuna with 0 range but also is an aoe" "What if I removed all but 1 of your health?" "You can't limit break but here's 3 buttons that let you and your friends do 6000 potency each but also you die instantly"

[@neilkirby6160]

Who needs tank LB3 when you can just Diamondback?

[@gundampharmacist7348]

It also bears mentioning that when it’s allowed to and not facing bosses designed to be immune to everything, Blue Mage can play less like any of the Holy Trinity of roles, and more like the forgotten fourth member of the group - the mezzer. The ability to reliably stun, move, debuff and otherwise mess with enemies is a very rare ability in MMOs like this post World of Warcraft, but offers a unique ability for a party and the chance to break encounters in a way the devs never expect. My FC and I tend to do ‘elegy’ runs of content that’s about to become irrevocably changed or generally inaccessible at minimum ilvl - old Cape Westwind, old Steps of Faith, etc. In some of those, abilities like Hydro Pull, while not doing a lot of damage, have truly shined, allowing me - the only dedicated BLU - to tank in ways no one else can. The ability to switch roles *on the fly* when need be to cover for someone else allows for surprising recovery when need be. And Basic Instinct, I’m sure, will eventually save a run someday. Rather than forcing more classes to become like Blue Mage or vice versa, I’d suggest allowing Blue Mage to both have more support skills and have more chances to mess with various enemies. Being able to Sticky Tongue Omega would be absolutely HILARIOUS.

[@GayLPer]

Even better since Omega is a reskinned Gigantoad to begin with, so it's like you're using the frog move against the ultimate frog.

[@zamboozle3741]

I see that fourth "mezzer" type a lot throughout the Etrian Odyssey series of games, actually. Dark Hunters, Hexers, Nightseekers, and Harbingers in particular all come to mind, with skills that bind, poison, or otherwise generally debuff enemies. That series is actually really good about breaking up the "Holy Trinity" in a variety of interesting ways, though it's not really the kind of system I can see being adapted well outside of a turn-based combat format.

[@warmachine5835]

The idea of a "mezzer" role would actually add a really cool dimension to boss fights if, like BLU, you could reposition a boss about to do a mechanic to negate that mechanic. Forcing the boss to slide across the map so most of their cone AOE is pointed off the edge of the map would be an extremely unique way to resolve a mechanic, as would being able to do things like reflect damage back, or make trash pulls miss all their attacks for five seconds or something like that. It's a balance nightmare, of course, and BLU being the only job that can do it would mean BLU got a premium slot in most groups, but I'd like to see dedicated debuff classes make a comeback in MMO design.

[@TDSFounder]

BLU happens to be my favorite class. I love the versatility. And the fact that it was capable of breaking some encounters very fast.

[@fluffdafire157]

I kinda hope they add the blue mage subtypes from 6 and 9 in ( being artist and chef respectively) because I think it would be fun to have tank chef and the healer artist along with the og blue mage

[@MH4wheel]

Certainly could be fun. I think a lot of the people who are still on the idea of hoping BLU becomes more than a Limited Job is just because it's the only limited job. Perhaps if it got some friends to play with in their own limited duty it could win over some of the naysayers.

[@fluffdafire157]

@@MH4wheel yeah it would also allow them to maybe spread the spellbook out a bit more to get more skills we couldn't get before

[@RockR277]

I really enjoy the masked carnivale. Perfecting the capstone stages was some of the most engaging stuff I've done in the game. I really do wish there was more, especially since the second and third additions both gave us drastically fewer stages than the initially release. My only real issue with it is all the stuff you are required to do with a group. With no queueing system, and me being antisocial as all get out, I haven't actually done much BLU party stuff. I would like to see it become a regular without losing the limited job aspect. Have Martyn (or someone from the new world) come up with a set of spells that make it nicely attuned to fight alongside other disciplines and stick that into a second BLU soul stone, but keep the limited job functionality for the existing form of BLU challenges on the original BLU soul stone. Add it to the list of things that will definitely never happen.

[@OnyxShard1]

BLU should be allowed in Eureka imho, not only would it revitalize Eureka, but it would also bring new challenge for BLUs - strip them of all their spells and make them relearn spells through Eureka (Which as I've seen so far in Anemos and Pagos, is a good handful of them). Sure you wouldn't have your overpowered primal spells but that just means people would have to get more and more creative with what spells they pick and choose in there!

[@Sacrengard]

that is one of the purposes of BLU, revive old content that was dying out and keep new players engaged. Eureka was a pain in the @$$ but I bet playing as blue mage would be fun as hell and I would go back as such

[@SemekiIzuio]

Oh man just imagine soloing Eureka with blu mage xD sure you get your spells removed but once you get them back you be wiping the floor with everything lol blu is overpowered that's for sure

[@OnyxShard1]

@@SemekiIzuio They could always counteract BLU’s power by making everything immune to Deep Freeze and Missile. Not to mention you wouldn’t have access to spells like Moon Flute or Angels Snack as they’re Walaqee totem spells. All of the primal spells would also be unavailable to you

[@Drakon_Minaka]

That would be amazing dude. I love that.

[@zero69kage]

I don't think it would be possible but I would love it if we could eventually have the ability to customize or even combine our jobs. I've always thought it would be cool to have a Ninja with a little Dark Knight mixed in.

[@TheAgr08]

Dreams of FFXI subjobs. It wouldn't work at all in the system or audience of XIV, but it was fun to consider different combinations that made people stand out more.

[@KyrialArthian]

Yeah I think they learned their lesson to NOT do this from FFXI. Boy was that a nightmare for the devs and the community both...

[@abbie34]

you used to be able to do this with cross-class skills

[@gulhurme95]

When I started playing FF XIV you could mix some skills with other classes, I levelled PLD a bit just to get Provoke for my WAR

[@Tython82]

I don't think the Masked Carnival is meant to force you to play in a certain way, it's to teach you how to use those spells in various ways so that later on you can realize how to best approach content later on.

[@NatiiixLP]

6:38 To say there are "hundreds of unique combinations" is a bit of an understatement. With 24 out of 104, there are 231,932,907,116,637,360,000,000 unique combinations.

[@kreiveroriginal]

Blue mage my beloved 😁 thanks for covering it and I'm excited to see what other blue content we may get

[@kitsunehanyou09]

I don't remember which Liveletter it was, but I distinctly remember someone (either in the stream chat or the devs) brought up the idea of a Battle Royale styled PvP game mode but with Blue Mages. It does sound like a novel party idea and feels like only something a limited job could actually play with.

[@mikoto7693]

@Baxi What has made you so bitter about the FF14 community? This isn’t the first comment I’ve noticed.

[@burtwonk]

I really like the format of this video. You could call it a seminar, to complement the lectures

[@Koatl]

I've always had an idea where the game could require certain spells of you to queue a role. Ex. You need Aetherial Mimicry, Gobskin, Pom Cure, and Exuviation to queue as a healer, but the rest of your spells are free. If they really felt the need, they could ban instant kill spells as well.

[@gundampharmacist7348]

HAH! *ACCEPTANCE, AT LONG LAST!*

[@rugalbernstein5913]

A TEST OF YOUR REFLEXES!

[@missleiadragonitemaster7597]

I enjoy being able to spit fire at things randomly as BLU ^^ And let us not forget a BLU’s favorite pastime: Spontaneous Self Exploding!!

[@GayLPer]

While spontaneous self exploding is both fun and dramatic, I freaking love Final Sting because you just fucking palm someone, and then fall over.

[@seymour_]

I really hope that the forthcoming patch that adds more BLU skills also changes a bit more. Right now, BLU is fun, but it's also boring. So many of your skill slots are taken up by non-optional Primal OGCDs that you (mostly) use regardless of what your Mimicry will be (which, imo, mimicry should be an ability that's considered "automatic" instead of something you need on your hotbar which takes up a slot!), and it feels kinda bad that so many of our skills are 210 or 220 potency without much alternate interaction or use that you just spam over and over. I understand that it's unlikely/hard/impossible to come up with something similar to a "rotation" on Blue Mage, but it'd be nice if we had options that made it feel like there were casts that interacted with each other more to bounce between doing different GCDs instead of spamming Recolored Water Cannon Spell #22.

[@GayLPer]

To be fair, there are spells that are exactly what you describe - they interact with each other in a way that almost behaves like a combo. Except that they work based off of status effects. The problem being, these status effects also generate immunity. So on anything but trash, they quickly fall into uselessness, as their interaction ceases to exist until the target's immunity wears off. And then most bosses are just outright immune anyways so it's pointless.

[@LavanOutLoud]

(Peculiar Light or Off-Guard when up) > Bristle > Tingle > Whistle > (Physical Spell or Triple Trident if it's up) is my go to rotation. No immunity or diminishing returns and you get a good burst whenever Triple Trident is up.

[@seymour_]

@@LavanOutLoud Eh, that's kind of my point. After you blow your load on the Triple Trident burst for that it's more or less just spamming one GCD. BLU mage can be so much better than it is currently, especially to give it a more interesting and varied feel. Even Healers, with their two, sometimes three, DPS buttons feel more fun than BLU can often. There's a lot of potential there that's just not fully been fine tuned yet by the devs.

[@Katie-vv6ff]

yes blue mage is getting boring as is. also ff14 if it keep going as is i want to enjoy it more but can't

[@KalaamNozalys]

I kind of wish all classes had a "deck" of abilities to choose from (maybe with some specific categories, like say as a tank you have 3 defensive cooldown slots to fill at minimum etc) Maybe some abilities would be better for some content/fights, could be easier to play or more satisfying. But yeah would be hard to balance I imagine. It would be cool though. A DRK swapping Carve and Spit out for Scourge, Soul Eater for old Delirium (maybe with a different debuff, so losing blood generation and DPS for defensive utility)

[@jakelawrence6618]

That actually was a thing way back when with the cross class system. It obviously wasn’t balanced extremely well, but you get the picture

[@KalaamNozalys]

@@jakelawrence6618 Yeah I know I played back then. I was thinking of more "in class" options

[@BlackTungsten]

BLU is honestly the anchor that's keeping me in FFXIV. Every little bit of side/optional content that I've unlocked has been to further my love of this janky Megaman job that I've cherished since FF8; my first into the franchise. Why unlock this dungeon? There's a BLU spell at the end. Why unlock these trials? For the BLU log. Some of the fights in this game are genuinely terrifying for me, and I wouldn't dream of engaging them normally. Except, not that long ago, I tanked Tsukiyomi and my party won. But I wasn't a proper Tank, I was on BLU. I love exploring the world's bestiary, and the spellbook is like a photo album of cherished memories. I love the fact that the spells can be weird, and do peculiar things aside from big damage; like instant death or forced movement. I love that the Masked Carnivale takes all those unique items and crafts puzzles around them, forcing you to think about combat in completely different ways. I love that element types matter; which reminds me of all the older games I've played. And, since I come from the MMO City of Heroes, I love that BLU is the closest thing that FFXIV has to the Controller archetype; who can lock down the mob with holds and stuns and sleeps while the rest of the party mops up safely. I love how they took the FFV design, of capes and domino masks, and ran with it, creating a crazy set of stories revolving around BLU in this world being a performance art trying to be taken seriously by other mages. And, y'know, City of Heroes, so I just love capes and domino masks in general. I also love how Martyn is just the worst. He's a wizardly Professor Howard Hill. Thank you for taking the time to talk about this janky mess of a job! May we get more BLU content soon. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go work on getting my Morbol mount!

[@dustinhatfield8373]

I have two suggestions for how they could make BLU more relevant. 1.) Triple down on the limited job system and introduce more limited jobs. Create challenges that ONLY limited jobs can do together. 2.) Most attacks in the BLU aresenal share potencies and its only their elemental property that differs. Since that doesnt even matter to content outside of the carnival (and eureka i guess) they could give us "sync plates" where theres only a certain slot of moves available and you would need, for example, a dot, an aoe. A single target. Idk the exact setup but i think you get the idea. The really overpowered moves should be unavailable and theyd be limited to a toolkit on the same level as other jobs.

[@dustinhatfield8373]

@@tical2399 well you're definitely in the minority on that thought

[@jegudielyusha2866]

I recently got into blue mage. What prompted me was the irregular moogle tomestome farming from the 10th anniversary. I saw the potential to make farming relic easier. Also, a major bonus is that you dont lose your spells when you level sync.

[@PuppyLuvU2]

Great video! I love the class and hope we get a lvl raise sometime soon! Heres what I'd like to be added to the game....a blue mage party finder! Or a way to more simplify grouping for them. Or maybe they could customize special blue mage versions of dungeons to a more tailored class challenge so that the difficulty raises but not too outrageous of a way.

[@SynodicScribe]

Thank you! I do look forward to seeing what else Blue Magic might get up to in the future.

[@HaitaniMasayuki]

The "Limited Job" could offer a lot of interesting new play styles for other kind of jobs as well. Bozja's Beastmaster could be used as a monster-collecting thing with an Arena where you can duel other players (like in Pankration in FF11... I mean, like in Pokemon! :D) Or the Puppetmaster who builds his own mammet with all kinds of trinkets and modules. Although that would vastly increase the workload on the developer's side if you set up a new job + story + actual combat content...

[@ClexYoshi]

The joy of Blue Mage is the joy of Final Fantasy 5's original job system; the power to solve the game and break it in ways you devise, the method of combining the various moving parts of the game to solve open ended questions, and a joy that really is best found in single player games where you do not have to offer the courtesy of efficient gameplay to your fellow players. Yoshida knows this and signing off on this solution to this problem is absolutely correct; Let Blue Mage be the flavor that it is for the people who have that craving, and breathe new life into old content to boot; an ideal solution, if I've ever seen one.

[@lindthechaoticheretic8708]

To be fair to the poll, it's rare for any ff14 fan to admit anything about the game isn't perfect.

[@ardentdfender4116]

I just started. BLU today. Just at lvl 5. But I’m intrigued by the fun to be had with the uniqueness of the Job. It might be currently limited, but it’s something very different in content to do and explore with the job as well finding the spells.

[@SniperKing-O]

Still wouldn't mind having both the limited blue mage and another version of blue mage that's built like the other jobs at the same time. Both treated as seperate jobs, if you will. :3

[@hkoizumi3134]

I've gotten that Morbol Mount and also the Azure and Omega title by doing savage raid on all BLU. It's night and day difference in terms of skill level for those that did and didn't get those extra content. The savage Blue Mage raid really does teaches you the limitation of job and forces you to respect it lol.

[@Lazy7azarus]

Here is my take. If they were to keep blue mage spell acquirement the same. But slap a red/blue/green border on the skill icon. Role could be decided by which of the 3 you have more of in your hotbar. This will allow it to not only be unique, but extremely flexible.

[@michaelmcinturff9589]

So glad this popped up on my feed

[@Nuinwing]

I just got the achievement: "Violets are violet" and I can't remember when I last felt a rush like that in this game, taking Gogo down as fast as possible while avoiding all vuln stacks was hard and fun. Also recently the BLU flu has been infecting our FC and at this rate we will be doing full BLU raids soon enough.

[@HerrderRingeFan1]

True, I'm still in free trial but I felt the same when I got the "Champion of the Blue" Title for beating Siegfried fast, without taking damage and using all spell and damage types. also by definition BLU is the hardest Job to progress. Every other job has difficulty options once you failed the quest. With BLU you either beat the Carnival or you can't progress. Also some spells have requirements, like angels Whisper. You want the Spell? did you beat all carnival trials? no? then you can't have it.

[@MaddiAddiGaming]

I think one way to keep BLU's versatility if it were made less limited would be to add a 'queue as' prompt for BLU players, where they choose their role before officially committing to a queue. Of course this would still mean they would need specific types of spells on their hot bars depending on what role they choose, but it would still allow a BLU to have that freedom of choice. Of course I don't actually play BLU, because of how limited it is, but I've given it a lot of thought as to what would make it more appealing to me. I love the concept of BLU, but hate that I can't go into regular dungeons unless I get a full party together beforehand.

[@zaelheimricht4978]

Being a warframe "veteran" i can see why ff devs want jobs to stay on rails: if you give your players too many options, you take the risk of them finding and using exploits: two skills that aren't supposed to synergise but do, or that multiply each other instead of adding. Warframe is completly ridden with it and the devs barely know on which feet to dance.

[@Sacrengard]

only if devs dont know what they re doing, its a lot of work, but is not impossible to have a variety of options without breaking the game. And if it happens so what? it can always be fixed/adjusted

[@zaelheimricht4978]

@@Sacrengard remember what happened when they removed kaiten. Now imagine that on every exploits. People would lose their minds every patch.

[@Sacrengard]

@@zaelheimricht4978 and everyone is still fine and playing lol

[@SaltedMallows]

Eh Warframes ok. Every game has power fantasy opportunities

[@kurothefox6020]

I can say Blue Mage always makes me happy, just one day I hope that the Green Mages can finally appear in Eorzea eventually. (likely as tanks to keep things balanced out with how they usually work)

[@kozo61]

Another goated Synodic Scribe upload

[@SemekiIzuio]

I enjoy blu mage just because of the community and getting together to do it kind of like Eureka. You really need to go out there and set up parties and PFs use discord and play a fun job just for fun kind of like all healer runs those are fun!

[@Wanderingsage7]

I hope we're close to the next level limit increase.

[@belphe7621]

TBH, almost every job has a depth level of negative to .5/100, so it's nice to see any job that's like useful for more than one thing, in FF14. It would be totally great to que into parties with DF though since I'm basically too introverted and socially anxious to start a party finder or mostly anything...

[@rfygband]

I’m happy that some people enjoy blue mage but I just have never been able to get into it. I’ve cleared Bahamut and Alexander on it but it literally felt like I was pressing random buttons on it the majority of the time. I appreciate the idea of versatility and uniqueness but it feels like a mess with a structure or set rotation. Love the concept but FFXIV doesn’t really fit that design too well, at least for me. Either way, still glad it’s in the game for people that enjoy it and hope they make more content for BLU for those people.

[@xake1798]

They can just do a quest, gather these spells and after that you get the shackled blu job that is capable to play as dps in raids and you can just change to the current blu job for solo play or only blu mage dungeons

[@YourTrustyHonkey9716]

I think one of the best ways to make blue mage a raid and dungeon job would be to give a system similar to Asto's card deck, where you have a roulette table of abilites that are given to you that requires you to make alot of quick decisions, and its core kit could be a debuff DOT mage.

[@kennethpeterson7524]

Removing the level cap and adding a second, synced job stone (summoner/scholar style) that isn't limited would be an amazing thing. But sadly, I don't think it ever will :( Edit: call tye second job Blue Wizard, as a nice little ff1 reference

[@taylorgrimm9574]

I think the way they could make BLU a standard job and keep versatility would be to allow them to fit any job role. And that does include melee, caster, and ranged physical dps. Think of it similar to changing jobs but it just changes your spell/abilities and of course they are all still monster abilities. I know that would be a huge undertaking and would still end up like most other jobs in that they would have set skills but it would still allow for full BLU runs of content

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

I honestly wonder if half the way to make BLU normal game accessable would be to allow like a category system to the spells. Like the current star rank, allowing you to pack along a certain pile of skills per star rank, or alternatively you lessen the spell count in your active spellbook and then as you unlock spells you then start to get more 'classic' DPS mage spells like Manaward and Surecast. It's a potential to 'balance' it without removing the core heart of allowing four dweebs to spam Rocket Punch back at Greg.

[@surgeofgaming6405]

I would personally like it if Blue Mage got the Arcanist treatment for regular content where they learn all of the various spells in the game and are only allowed to use specific ones in specific roles.

[@JEL625]

With blue mage. You'd have to do something unique such as toggle able roles that are available in the duty finder. I'd like to see it be more fluid and be able to switch styles mid fight, but that would destroy the game design that's in place.

[@sepphero9639]

My issue with the "classes need to be more versatile" sentence is just that i get the feeling only people that never really thought about it say that simply because the more choice to have the more choices people will do and the bigger will be the devide, like immagine seeing an ice mage in your duty roulette, now transfer that in way more likely since it isn't streamlined on all jobs, i immagine people would be sooo toxic. Also "you can play as bluemage what you want" feels like a wrong sentence because from my experience people will just straight of kick you when you don't have certain meta damage spells -_-

[@mareofstature]

I think it is possible to make BLU a standard Job with the tools we have already and keep some Versatility, not all but some. First implement a Role choice system unique to BLU, allowing them to choose a role when signing up for duty finder. 2 lock all instant kill spells and the like. Sorry but they will have to go, for fairness sake, you can get them back after the instance. 3 after the chosen role only allow spells that correlate to that role. Tank mitigation, healing spells for healers etc. However to keep versatility leave spells open for free choice, DPS will have the best time with this as you could do full physical build or lightning, water, fire whatever you wanted. But again no insta kill techniques maybe remove thousand needle as well. At least that's how I would do it, to push for it becoming a regular job. However I think there's a better idea to keep the class fun, interesting and versatile. Blue mage only duty finder/roulette, where blue mages can run their whatever build they please. I also think we can allow them in places like Boja, Eureka and varient dungeons where there's no role required. Might still need to make a few tweaks for those.

[@cicisstormshelter1076]

And yes, this is why no matter how far away I ran away from it, I always get sucked back into the black hole that is Blue Mage. 😆

[@Hoovinoyse]

Man I just wish they leaned more into Limited Jobs, like give me Gambler with slots picked by Triple Triad cards, or a puppeteer that lets you craft your own weaponskills. They gotta lean into it a bit more, and have stuff like a limited job roulette so that you don't need to enslave your friends to get the good stuff.

[@KyrialArthian]

I like how both your ideas were basically the two jobs added alongside BLU in FFXI (Corsair and Puppetmaster). If that was unintentional, even better.

[@odysseyisland2235]

Blue Mage is a pathway to many abilities some some consider unnatural.

[@DoktorWieg]

I kind of wish they'd freely allow you to take on roulettes with BLU if you've already cleared all the requirements, only allow you to be queued into dungeons and trials you've already cleared and, at worst, have people turn an option in the duty finder to allow limited jobs in the party. That would be for most of the regular content; I doubt they'd allow BLU in Extreme or Savage content.

[@GayLPer]

I'd just like it if queuing as a BLU automatically matched you with other BLUs, like a BLU-specific roulette system almost, rather than having to gather on party finder if you want to do literally any content.

[@kozo61]

I really love blue mage it's so fun

[@Null_Experis]

There IS a way to make Blue Mage viable in modern content. You know Aetherial Mimicry? Do that, but FORCE the player to take 3-4 "core" spells from the blue mage spellbook, and give bonuses/detriments to stats to bring them slightly more into line with the tank/healer/DPS role. You could even make it more free-form by making the 3-4 core spells be from a curated list of spells that perform the basic function this role requires. IE: Tanks require a hate management spell, like Frog Legs, The Look, and maybe they can add a third ability in the future (I'd imagine something like a Decoy ability that steals aggro from a party member, reverse-shirk if you will). Tanks would also require a defensive spell (IE, Chelonian Gate, Toad Oil, Mighty Guard, Devour), a party-buff or enemy debuff spell (IE, bad breath, ink jet, etc).

[@magiseth]

The best comment that I have seen suggested is to require a set of spells before a BLU is allowed to enter Duty Finder, and perhaps have some sort of requirement of spells that must be taken into said duties (not exact spells, more like "have an aoe damage", or "have 2 healing spells"). That's still difficult, but I mean, it was supposedly "impossible" to have male Viera, so while I think it would take a considerable amount of time and effort, the team could make it work. Would also raise the question if it's still right then to allow a BLU to have such massive XP boosts outside of DF content though. Also, whether they want to put forward that effort over creating other jobs that don't require re-coding a bunch of stuff, well...

[@XIVthFunyarinpa]

Bet you're excited for those variant dungeons

[@IgnusXI]

Square enix monitors lots. But it's also cool to legally beat the masked carnivale as a heal mimic blue mage that functioned like a healing gnb and monk lol.

[@Memilish]

You could do something like... BLU when used in normal content gets a set spell setup depending on the role they queue/mimic as, perhaps with some spells having altered functionality to fit the normal gameplay rhythm (for example, having a 30% DR spell as an oGCD Ability), and maybe go so far as to only allow you to queue the role once you have actually learned the appropriate spells for the setup rather than making it a gimme. That'd still definitely be a lot of work, and not putting arbitrary bullshit in the way of players playing stuff they want is most of the time a thing XIV is good about... But you could also spin it as a reward or even a goal for a dedicated BLU player to achieve? I dunno, probably a fairly common-ish line of thought too.

[@bloodlusthunter382]

I would love to see Blue Mage on PvP on e day, seeing as they managed to make regular jobs feel even better I'm sure they could find a way balance BLU on PvP so it doesn't feel so relegated to one type of content.

[@Sacrengard]

maybe just blu vs blu pvp !! imagine the chaos!!! fun!!!!

[@Endymion0021]

I loved Bluemage way back when it got introduced and you ran like a train of mentaly deranged chickes to clear the random elite mobs on the world map to get their spells, the only bad thing about that was that the learn rate of the spell was not clearly stated and low too boot. To make Bluemage a "standartised" class there would have to be a weighting system (either % of total spells or spells have values that have to count up to a thresshold) on the spells you bring e.g. you NEED the tank spell mightyguard and some others to queue for the tank slot, white wind and other heal/utility spells for healer, for damage... just put in whatever :) .

[@Kitkat5335]

I like Blu as a concept as it is a true jack of all trades, especially due to how mimicry alters spells. I do not like how limited it is, as it is very very limited in what it can and can't access. As someone who loved the hell out of Blu in FFXI, and have played Blu in FFXIV, I understand why it is limited. I just think in some cases it is too limited which really hurts the job enjoyment for me. While yes they give it a good amount of content, there is other content it can't do period which it wouldn't be over powered in that they just won't allow it in: Deep Dungeons, no daily roulette access (yes I understand why since they have no coding that recognizes the mimicry coding for role specific enemy attacks), or other content that other jobs can solo too but somehow blu is 'too strong' to be allowed in - all of which could be coded for if they wanted to do it. Just really annoys me that a job I would like to enjoy more, is so very limited in what it can do.

[@Max44321]

Blue Mage is the only class where you can make an actual build. You know, like in an RPG.

[@GayLPer]

I can think of a large number of RPGs that don't let you make builds.

[@masterclockwork4436]

I'll get to it eventually, last on the list.

[@TriToneTiefling]

Blue Mage is my favorite FF job. I do like how the job plays in XIV, but it being limited just so they can do gimmicky stuff was to me, not worth the trade off. I still pray that one day it will be free of its limited status

[@solarflaredragoon]

They should just make bosses immune to certain spells or effects. Much like how most stun spells/attacks and sleep spells/attacks don't work on bosses. That way Blue Mage can still sweep open world or base content but not be OP in PvP or Bosses in story/Raids. I think its very possible to keep Blue Mage fun while also allowing them to not be limited.

[@Monstergirl-ologist]

Only things I don't like about BLU is the MAsked Carnivale and how some really good spells are locked behind totems, forcing you to learn an exuberant amount of spells that you will most likely never use more than once.

[@Drakon_Minaka]

Honestly my only problem with BLU, and otherwise I love the job, is it's sense of style. Don't get me wrong, I love what it has, but um...well, after I saw the FF11 BLU mage's aesthetic? Yeaaaaaah...

[@kindaedgy3548]

I still think blue mages should be allowed in every content every other class is allowed to participate in: however it should be limited ONLY IN those content. Outside of that, blue mages should be left to freely play however they want to. Blue mages have to be the closest FFXIV has to an endgame outside of fashion. There really isn't much to do once you're through with the story, but blue mages offer almost the same freedom that other build-based MMOs do, but in a high-quality game. This makes it such a fun class to play in a game where devs are hesitant to give players too much combat freedom in fears of tipping the balance. Even if it means the content I get to participate in will be limited, I would choose blue mage over all the other classes in the game any day. I really hope they release a new limited job in the future.

[@imightbeaz]

It is? I figured it as casual floor tank sim with the self destruct spam.

[@samb123078]

The worst part about blue mage is the devs completely forgot about it. I love playing blue mage and how ridiculously OP they are at the same level.

[@MalandrosNyclo]

Blue mage is so fun.

[@SuperFanFiction]

If BLU is a regular Job... The devs will have to make GCD and OGCD skills for it... Trolls will use Final Sting or Self-destruct to KO themselves to make life of Healers hard and possibly make the Raid a waking nightmare.

[@cj_skywalker]

This video is outdated. The recent patch raised Blue Mage to Level 80 content in Shadowbringers with 20 new spells. ;)

[@coffer2504]

I have a good ideer to what can be done to blue can be a normal job first we lave it as I should be but if we say a max lv blue join a leveling and got in sastasha the blue can only use the spell Learn from weak enemis so a blue must be ready for both end game and begining dutys :)

[@xunaethernalij1445]

Blue mages sounds awesome to me

[@triumphoverdeath]

I cant wait for BLU to be a higher level

[@miamha]

Blue mage ultimate when? Imagine a boss gauntlet of gogo, alzumagia, and gilgamesh!

[@hristopavlov298]

The 'hundreds of unique spells' referred to here are 70 filler spells out of which you pick 1-2 to spam that all deal 200-220 potency. The other 40 are role related specifics that you would be better off to always pick as said role. There's a few gimmick spells that are hard coded to work for what they were made in very niche cases like dungeon thrash. As for the 'multiple ways to level it' there's two: get carried with the first spell only unlocked and be a dead weight or get the world stuff and solo/party for the rest. Illusion of choice. Soloing level synced is fun though.

[@Sacrengard]

funny how its called "limited" job... while they are actually limiting the other jobs from reaching their full potential just to keep them standardized. Blue Mage is unlimited, has unlimited potential, its an unlimited job really

[@JoelBurger]

People "loved" it so much that they quietly stopped talking about the possibility of adding more limited jobs.

[@flameonboi]

I want a blue mage roulette lol

[@sonicroze]

I don't think I'd like BLU to become a regular job. Its job is literally to break the game. Finding over powered combinations of spells is essentially order of the day. They can also participate in content with pre-made groups so that's always on the table. It's a bit like Triple Triad (which is what got me to push Blue Mage). Not everyone's into it, but those that are really dig it ^-^ It's also okay to not like all the content the game has to offer. You're welcome (I gave my input on the KZbin poll).

[@devxved]

I wasn't playing then but wasn't bards casting change even earlier?

[@SynodicScribe]

Bard was gained a casting bar in Heavensward alongside the release of Machinist. But that bar was removed. Meanwhile Machinist's kit is fundamentally different from its start. Something more than one job has in common now.

[@myriri3687]

Realistically you could just slap blue mage in as is for the most part and rely on the players tendency to optimise to prevent them making it nonfunctional in specific roles or too much of a detriment. Perhaps lock away certain abilities either until certain levels or entirely.

[@Kitsune10060]

i just want a higher level cap and more spells to run down. and something besides the masked carnival to do

[@GayLPer]

I mean, there's raiding as a BLU. Go for the Morbol mount and the titles. Fill out your logbook and get to 94/94. ...Though tbh after that, you only have the masked carnivale left, really. Kind of like how in raiding on "real" jobs, you only have running them over and over again for gear when you're done. The "downside" of being capped 10-20 levels behind is that your endgame gear can be pre-prepared ahead of time.

[@warllockmasterasd9142]

Blue mage got a Meta for farming but else you are correct.

[@Fantasygod930]

( Sorry if this is long ) As much as I love all the jobs in ffxiv blue Mages is on the top of my list of one of my favorite jobs but it's so annoying that we can play it for limited time and we can't play for the story I want to play as a Fantastical blue mage fighting the final days and saving the world with my anime powers plus I would like to see a kind of minor patch that removes all the jobs besides like the common ones like fishing and only let you play as blue mage obviously this would upset people and maybe cause the player base to drop Maybe but it should be more of a limited test then a outright patch like maybe make a version of the game that only let you play as blue mage I'll let you go through a bit of the A Realm Reborn storyline and some of its content as well some of the endwalker mechanics that would be interesting and to see how many people will book on to this limited game and and see if they a like that version better or the ffxiv we already have I think the blue Mage one would be pretty high but it might cause a splinter in the community which is not good for anyone no matter which side you're on

[@mikoto7693]

I’m one of those that, overall, doesn’t like the changes that Endwalker made to Summoner. I appreciated the simplicity of the new skills but hate the lack of persistent Egi primal.

[@luckyhands4995]

i miss the way blu played in xi,call me old fashioned

[@SynodicScribe]

I know what you mean. haha

[@dullahandan4067]

I can feel that love becoming hate by the vast majority of players as the current Yokai event goes on.

[@Adonteon21]

Keep Dreaming

[@princessprincess0039]

Why can't we have both? We can still keep the gimmicky BLU and have a standard BLU too. I see nothing wrong with that at all. I definitely won't mind if BLU ends up being the new caster for 7.0. Wishful thinking I know but, a girl can dream.

[@theclawyaww3740]

They are cowards for not letting us Blue Mages play normal content

[@IosLocarth]

Honestly Blue Mage is a little weird because the core identity of the job is basically tied to hunting for the skills and there's no way to keep that and make the job fair when compared to the others. All the other jobs are ready be raised on as soon as you hit max level and get the gear but if you had to level the job, get the gear AND go hunt overworld mobs/ dungeon mobs/ bosses for your skills it just wouldn't be fair for that job unless it outperformed every other job by far which would make it the only job worth using. Even beyond that, BLU is also usually known for having like 1 or 2 actually useful skills, a few situational skills that can trivialize specific fights and then a bunch of filler nonsense. That, again, doesn't really work in an MMO setting. I feel like having this job be limited is the best thing for it and opens the possibility for more limited jobs for the other whacky ass jobs that usually are either stupid busted or useless with no in between like beast master and freelancer

[@warriorfromhammerfell1557]

It's a shame since the Blue Mage is one of the most, if not the most, interesting jobs in the entire FF franchise

[@acgearsandarms1343]

XIVth like.

[@Wanderingsage7]

Sadly to make other jobs as flexible as the Blu mage, they'd probably have to upend a lot of coding. To the point that it might be easier to make a separate game entirely, I say not knowing a damn thing about coding other than it's complicated.