Do you people even REMEMBER Blue Mage?Follow

you are correct about the blue mage, but don't forget FF3j, that was the birth of the job system as we know it today. Some people may argue that FF1 was the origin of the job system, but that is debateable considering how the jobs work in that game, and how you aren't able to really "change" your job (unless you count the upgrade...but that isn't really changing, thats just upgrading).

Word. Frog Drop was CRAZY powerful.

I remember Blue Mages quite well as having some of the most interesting stuff in pretty much all the games they were in. Yes, like most any mage by the end of the game you had some obscenely overpower summon, or physical attacker that could beat them, but again, that was true of any mage type.

In FF-VII I never once used white/black for anything other than to see the effect. I used enemy skill almost exclusively for any support spells I needed, and items for anything else. Next to maybe Knights of the Round, ES was my most used materia in the game.

FF-VIII I junctioned all my magic and never used any of it, again relying on items for any curing I needed. I think the only magic I ever used to aura to put my gunner guy into limit break in the final battle so I could spam pulse ammo. Unfortunately blue magic was only available in limits in this game so it was under used by me, although I made good use of it when I could.

FF-X was a tiny bit more balanced as at least I used LuLu thru about the first 1/2 or so, but past that it was pretty much Auron and Wakka all the way, especially after they got their break damage limit ultimate which were insanely overpowered. Blue magic was weak in this one, nothing overly exciting, especially in comparison to the melee who had insane power, but same was pretty true of the summoner, thf, blm too.

Right now I'm messing with FF-X-2, and here melee is again quite strong, but the gun-mage is still quite useful. Absorb a nice easy bit of damage and restoration for early game, and although I doubt we'll see this, the 4X damage of the fiend hunting skill is very handy at times.

So, as you can see, pretty much all magic types seemed unpowered in general to the physical stuff, the pretty much opposite of what we have in FF-XI where the magic remains very useful till the level cap, in many cases vital (no having 99 mega-potions in this game to replace that whm). However, despite being a mage-type, blue magic actually often still had it's strong selling points. FF-VIII had one of the few attacks that could break the damage limit. FF-VII had awesome support potential, and some good offensive stuff too.

In this game too it has some strong possibilities to play many a role, from DD to debuffer, not to mention bring some more variety to the mage ranks. I want to see some other jobs too, but BLU is definitely a good start in my book.

I guess the thing that I was considering the most was the value of the Blue Mage's attacks vs the value of the other party memeber's attacks, when adding in the difficulty of acquiring said attacks. Why use Strago, when you could cast Ultima or Fire 3, or just Jump + Dragon Horn + Dragoon boots? Why use Quistis' limit breaks, when you could use Squall's and potentially hit over a dozen times? Why use Enemy Skill materia when you could just smack the thing or use Knights of the Round?

It's just that Blue Mages have always been bad in terms of efficiency when compared with the input/output of other jobs/skills. That might not be such a problem in a game that works like FF XI, but I still think it will be a game played more for its novelty than for its usefulness. People may play it because they find it a fun job, but, SE, as said above, is not going to give players the ability to do one-hit kills, and I'm not seeing a Petrifying attack working well on IT. Also, spells like 1000 needles would be skewed compared to the stats that this game has. Your charachters, in most FF games have have far more than 1000 HP by end game, but in FF XI you don't get much HP, relatively speaking. So, I don't think they will be willing to let a Blue Mage do 1000 dmg, unless it's a level 70+ attack. Even then, it would likely take alot of MP and have a high cast/recast time.

I can also see alot of the buffs being like SMN buffs. Blue Mage may have Mighty Guard, but Carbuncle has Shining Ruby, along with things like Aerial Armor. Unfortunately, most of these SMN spells are not very efficient either, since the cost is both the high MP cost(90 MP for Aerial Armor) and the ability to use a different Blood Pact (60 second recast for all Blood Pacts). If Blue Mage could do these buffs without the high cost that SMNs face, I could see it having a place in a party. However, I wouldn't be suprised if they worked it like Blood Pacts, where you can only use the Job Ability of Blue Magic every 60 seconds.

SE tells us that is will be a job unlike the others, well i was wondering.. Maybe its connected to your NPC buddy.
That way it wont affect exp tactics (exeptions not included) and end game stuff.
just another quest to give your NPC more substance.

Who knows...
I'll just wait till i can play it and decide then. I'm just scared that we'll see a explosion of BlU's the first couple months (if its a char. job).

For the people who think all BLU magic is all gonna be AoE, just take a SECOND to think.

BLU will learn enemy skills. Enemy skills are TP based. Enemy skills are AoE. After the BLU feels the effect of the skill and learns it, it STOPS being a SKILL and becomes MAGIC. It is no longer a TP based skill, but a MP based spell. Which means it will be DIFFERENT, but serve the same function.

I'm sure SE isn't gonna make all BLU magic AoE. It would be impossible to play, even in solo, if that were done. Upon converting the skill to a spell, it'll more than likely be reduced to target single mobs.

Also, BLU only sucks if you don't have good spells. BLU has always (minus the "Limit Break BLUs") had one of the most powerful and versitile magic sets in the game, IF you took the time to learn the magics.

I just hope they find a direction (Best Enfeebler? Enhancer? Endgame Solo?) for RDM before BLU comes out or we'll be out of a job. Mob debuffs make our Tier 1 kindergarten spells look like a joke.

Yes... but:
KOTR + MP Turbo
KOTR + MP Drain
KOTR + HP Drain
W-Summon

Mime
Mime

13000 damage, twice per character per turn for a total of 78,000 damage per turn, plus it completely refills your MP and HP every time.

Then throw in a
Final Attack + Life2
and your characters were immortal... if they died, they brought themselvs back with full health! : P

Yeah, blue mage has always sucked. You will not all have 1000 needles, you will get abilities that will seem like they should be cool and all powerful...but won't be.

I have never been sure why all these people ask for this job to be added. Always has been the weakest job option.

I have been kind of worried about Blue Mage...but reading this thread has helped me realize that FF fans really have loved them and enjoyed them. So, thanks for letting me realize that a huge segment of the population really does want BLU. I was really bummed out that SE was implementing a job based on a whiny, misinformed minority. I stopped reading threads about Blue Mages really quickly, since most of them had about as much merit as the people who endlessly whine about how DRK can't summon demons and Dragoons can't ride their Wyverns.

I admit that I've always been kinda sad that there has been no "blue mage" style learning of spells in FFXI- uber spells that you have to get hit by have been a classic in FF games since the start.

I just hope they don't flub the implementation of the job. I really hope that the system for using the mob attacks isn't all on a single timer like Blood Pact. I've always hated that because all it does is hammer SMNs into only using a tiny fraction of their available abilities. The fact that real MSN abilities can only be used every 60 seconds is one reason that SMNs are forced to main heal so much (The fact that no-one believes in avatar melee and the general "uncoolness" of healing vs. damage being the other reasons). I really hope BLU don't end up using the same 3 abilities over and over like SMN and just being yet another forced /WHM like BRD and SMN.

I also hope they don't make a monumental mistake like they did with Utsusemi- how was that they didn't realize that Utsusemi would be used to tank? If they had meant it to be that way, fine- but NIN and SAM have never lived up to what they intended and my confidence in their game design abilites took a huge hit.

TP for enemy moves would make the most sense (maybe even requiring less or more than 100 for more or less powerful abilities?), and not MP. MP would have many advantages (much greater player control) and disadvantages (BLU/WHM being used as yet another WHM wanna-be). Perhaps if BLU had a TP regen you could get over the limits of a timer while still making it a viable and fun sub-job?

Almalexia readies Demonic Howl.

...I love it! XD
Gonna take my BUM directly to Zvahl as soon as I unlock the Job!

why do some of you hate Blue mage it was a great job, and you people that didnt even use it that much stop talking down to it you never used it enough to really have any idea how that job is used it may be a little over powerd but it had its down sides like having to be hit with the skill like in FF5,6 and 7 soem of those skills were almost not worth risking it just to finish the list but even so they are just like the Red mage an all purpose mage that can go offencive and defencive so stop knocking it untill you tried it in FFXI you might like it

Edited, Wed Sep 21 14:50:12 2005 by Raleos

10 year necro, is that a record?

Whoever bumped this, thanks for making me feel old.