Blu and Invites

[Aamalthea]

Well, I was curious. I was reading the "What Job should I Play?" thread, and I came across this:

" Description:
Blue Mage is easily the most flexible Job in FFXI. A player can customize traits and spells to play BLU as an impressive damage dealer, competent healer, workable tank, or even helping the support role jobs with additional debuffs. Given its popularity and the crowd of players rushing to level this Job, it has a somewhat spotty reputation, and invite suffers slightly as a result."

This has me a little concerned. I played a Blu when it first came out (when I left last time) and I got just high enough to start getting parties. I had no problems getting parties at the time, and then there would be more than 1 Blu in the group.

Coming back, I have to start over, and I plan to be a Blu again, and I was wondering if grouping will be something really tough to deal with. I know they can solo, which is a good thing as it's something to do while lfg, but is it really bad? If anybody remembers being a Drg back in the day and trying to lfg, is it as bad as that? I'm a level 4 Thf at the moment, and it's going to be quite a while before I get high enough to tell how long it's going to take me to lfg.

Of course, my mileage may vary as I work at night and play during the day and lfg is always hard for me, but I'm just curious.

[Silent Howler]

I don't think invites for Blu are that bad, at least on my server. Blu seems like a pretty likeable job. A few times I even got invites when I wasn't even seeking. The only other job I've gotten invites while not seeking was with was Whm, and everyone knows how that job is in high depend at lower levels.

[Sabaron]

Well, BLU is not really all that flexible in practice. It is in principle, but 99.99% of the time it is pigeon-holed as a magic-centered front-line DD job and nothing else. It is unpopular in (some) TP burns because of its rather high mp consumption and middling melee damage. It has good positioning versus the Colibri because Blue Magic cannot be mimed. BLU can main heal with great efficiency and DD. It has some tanking capabilities but does not excel at tanking especially since it has to take /WAR for Provoke to do so. Mostly it's just a DD. BLU is very enjoyable and you can get hired on as a main healer if there's a shortage, but usually if you're healing it will be just back up.

[Aamalthea]

Thanks you guys. I plan to be a Blu no matter what, as it was really fun and I miss it. Just wanted to know what I had to look forward to! Now, on to figure out what to sub...

[Gwynn]

Thanks you guys. I plan to be a Blu no matter what, as it was really fun and I miss it. Just wanted to know what I had to look forward to! Now, on to figure out what to sub...

Well, I haven't leveled BLU myself, so take this with a grain of salt, but most of the BLU's I've seen have subbed either /THF or /NIN for DDing. I've heard /SCH is good for main healing, as it boosts your Healing Skill.

[711rocks]

Blu is an amazing job that can accomplish a ton of wonderful tasks. However; like the others stated, people seem to think it is ONLY a DD (which is does great, don't get me wrong) but they can be too MP intensive. If you are blowing all your MP every fight, and then need to spend the next fight resting or are bothering for refresh constantly (which they should be getting anyway) people are turned off. In my last merit pt, which had thf, drg, blu, pld, rdm, and whm-the blu (who had nice gear and previous merits from other jobs) only parsed 22.87% of the damage. =/ In their defense, it was against colibri where the thf and drg had an advantage. There are SSs of Blus doing 3k to things like Cerb. It is a great job, it just has kind of a bad reputation because of too many players limiting it's capabilities.

[Phanex]

I think with the additon of Dancer, tanking might be easier for BLUs. With a provoke ability and the Aspir ability that dancers have, wouldn't that help the BLU tank out? I havne't lvled DNC yet, but from I'vre read, it seems it would work.

[Sabaron]

I think with the additon of Dancer, tanking might be easier for BLUs. With a provoke ability and the Aspir ability that dancers have, wouldn't that help the BLU tank out? I havne't lvled DNC yet, but from I'vre read, it seems it would work.

I agree completely. People keep wanting to go RDM/DNC and I just don't think that's viable in most situations. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to try it and probably have fun with it, but RDM's casting routine in most cases is far too rigorous for too much TP building. BLU on the other hand is always in the thick of it. /DNC adds much more front-line healer potential to BLU since BLU already has the lovely Healing Breeze front-line healing spell. With /DNC, BLU's TP can go towards recharging that ever-hungry BLU MP bar with Aspir Samba (if it lands with any sort of certainty) and nearby PLD and DRK will be very happy as well. I see a lot more potential in BLU/DNC than any other main with /DNC with the possible exception of Puppetmaster who will derive similarly high marks from /DNC if it proves, in general, to be viable to use Sambas off sub at higher level.

Edit:

I see from a bit of research that the accuracy of dances appears to be based on Accuracy. Therefore, BLU/DNC should have no problem landing an Aspir Samba since their main weapon skill is higher than main Dancer's dagger. I think this combination will prove most fruitful--it will make BLU a front-line ghetto Refresher and healer on mage mob camps such as beetle or colibri.

[VZX]

BLU is kinda hard to PT with.
When I was lvling my BLU, I always always need RDM in order to get PT works more than just a mediocre one. Tried it with BRD... It was not as effective where I need to run back to mage spot to get ballads

It's always be "no RDM -> expect sub par performance" for me

But If my PT got RDM, I can guarantee my BLU is the top DD (except if you bring other broken DD)

[IfritnoItazura]

Hmm. I wrote that bit about the invite rate when I was picking up chatters on forums and in-game about how bad the Blue Mages people invited have been, and actually saw many party leader reluctant to pick up BLUs because everyone and his grandmother are leveling it and the quality you get really do run the gamete.

With fewer people leveling BLUs now, it's not as much of a factor, but most BLUs only want to play DD and most people are only familiar with BLU as DD, so BLUs largely compete for the DD slots in party along with most other jobs. Plus, as others said, a BLU really needs a RDM to shine, so that's another consideration.

* * *

Not that there aren't bad BLUs out there still; just last week, a friend of my was complaining bitterly on the LS chat about a BLU in his party who apparently didn't use Head Butt at all--or many spells, period.

Don't be that BLU, and you should build up a solid reputation, and get repeated invites.

[Evion]

My level 49 RDM doesn't get invites flag up or down, so I'm especially sorry for any other jobs JFG... Tanks never wait for parties around Hades. Perhaps, if BLU/DNC was a competant tank, you won't have to worry at all...

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Personally, I've not worried about invites at all on BLU, I've spent 35 of 37 level soloing and staying current on my spells by at least 3 to 5 levels in advance.

BLU can be unattractive to PTs with BRD and CORs in them due to them being a frontline MP user and BLUs like to aggrivate the situation by not attending to thier own MP needs before barking at us to pamper them. BLU can access up to three layers of Auto Refresh from job traits, Sanction/Sigil buffs and gear. BLUs have no excuse not to take care of their own MP.

I much prefer to solo just to avoid the headache of PTs on this job. More beastmen seals for me if I solo, more chances to make gil. Relying on PTs would mean less chances to make gil, not more.

[IfritnoItazura]

I've found spells much easier to obtain when closer to the level of the spell. For spells I don't plan to use immediately after learning, it's hard to work up the energy to obtain them 4-5 levels ahead of time.

[Aamalthea]

The funny part about this, is in any game that I play I always want to be the soloer. Then, I played FFXI and was conditioned to freak out if I couldn't find a party all the time.

But then again, back in those days soloing was non-existent and even as a RDM it sucked. This is going to be one heck of an experience ^^

Thanks all!