FFXIV: BLU Quick Review
There was already a level 50 BLU by the time I woke up in the morning on patch day. That being said, I’ve been taking my time and exploring the new limited job over the past couple nights. It’s pretty much what I expected it to be, and I’m having a good time with it.
I haven’t been trying to level very hard. In fact, I’ve been using the job to clear up old quests in the ARR zones that I left behind on my RP Alt. While I did clean up almost everything from Heavensward through Stormblood, I had tons of quests that I by-passed littering the old maps. I go there often, so I notice this just about every day.
I don’t really plan on leveling other jobs on Amon, so I knew when I heard BLU was starting at level 1, I would be using this job for quest cleanup. The fastest way to level BLU is by killing overworld enemies, and sometimes quests lead you to do just that.
So even though I’ve taken a slower route than optimal, I still hit level 27 last night on the job. I’ve capped about 15 skills (if you include the ones they give out) overall. Most of this was on my own, using this very nifty checklist guide. You can get a copy of it here.
Amoon and I grouped together to cap a handful more last night. And we got Syn to assist us with a Tam Tara run… which luckily net us the skill from the final boss on the first try.
In fact, the skill that took us the longest to get was Flying Sardine. Go figure.
It’s been great to see folks out in the overworld again (even if it comes with a bad apple every now and then). It’s been neat to see all BLU runs of dungeons and primals, too. Though I haven’t taken part of any of those.
In fact, the one complaint I do have about the job is that for one touted to be focused on solo play, a bunch of skills are locked in instances and things that you’d need to farm repeatedly with a group in hopes of getting.
Thankfully, I do have Amoon, who is interested in capping skills, to help. And Syn will usually unsyc stuff with us if we ask… but I don’t want to bother her for every little skill. And then there’s the matter of Extreme Primals, which I actually have never unlocked or run even under normal circumstances. I know that they can be soloed unsynced now, but it’s still a bit of a pain.
On the flip side, the job is a lot of fun, even without all those fancy skills. And it’s very powerful… as can be seen with this one mage who took down The Eyes Have It FATE boss with one cast of Doom.
Also, this has been a great way of leveling my chocobo companion (which was very much needed on my alt), though a nerf is coming to that next week sadly. And I heard that the Masked Carnival gives a pretty heavy sum of Allied Seals each week, which I will not turn down.
I’m looking forward to continuing to level my BLU this week and clearing up the quests as I go. It’s been a nice change of pace overall. Some folks might still be grouchy about how BLU works, but I feel like it has a lot of room to grow as long as the devs continue to support it on down the line.