Colour Me Blue - Blue Mage

Although no mention has been made as to whether Blue Mage (BLU) will eventually be implemented. It does seem like an obvious job for a future expansion that will inevitably appear.

With that in mind, I wonder. How can BLU be implemented into FFXIV and still stay true to it's image? The acquisition of new abilities and it's role in the party being the biggest conundrum.

The extensive history of FF has shown us that BLU acquires new abilities by battling monsters in the field and learning/copying their abilities. However in FFXIV the ability acquisition system does not allow for this. Perhaps BLU job quests could therefore be similar to that of the SMN's Austerities trials. Where the BLU would have to battle a special monster in a trial/duty and acquire a unique ability from them. Which would certainly be a fun and interesting quest line that works with the mechanics of the game.

However since BLU has such a unique set of abilities and lore, there are no real options for it to build off a base class. Most likely the implementation of BLU, much like DRK, MCH, and AST would again need to be via a job that starts at lvl 30, with no base class.

Not only that, but BLU is a very flexible job. The abilities it acquires from enemies have a vast rage of uses (DPS, DoT, Healing, Buffs/Debuffs) meaning BLU could actually be successfully implemented as any of the 3 job types (Tank, Healer, DPS) or a hybrid of these.

I will be very interested to see how the dev team tackles BLU in the future. I also wonder how the rest of you feel BLU should be implemented.

I picture blu working more like gau from ff6, you'd learn monsters as actions and when you use that monster you'd switch to the pet hotbar or some new BLU hotbar and have access to all that monsters moves. The monsters could be on a shared cooldown like a longer version of monks fists of wind earth and fire so you can't constantly swap monster family.

You'd learn monsters by killing one in the family and then you'd learn new actions for that monster family when the action is used on you by that monster. (Actions are learned after you kill it of course).

As for the role in the party I'd say damage dealer would be most likely, having a versatile mix of high damage single target hits (things like goblin rush), AoE (treant's lefstorm), DoT's and debuffs(wamoura poison dust). And also access to a small range of buffs and heals to increase their own and maybe the parties damage, such as haste (spriggan's jittering jig) and a small cure (wamoura's exuviation).

Regardless of how the base class is fleshed out, I think they would really benefit from having a skill like Relm's Sketch (in addition to permanent learning like Gau), where they gain a buff and the next enemy ability used will be copied, able to be used for a short duration (similar to WoW's DK Dark Simulacrum).

Obviously with damage nerfs or other effects, but would be really fun.

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

I picture blu working more like gau from ff6, you'd learn monsters as actions and when you use that monster you'd switch to the pet hotbar or some new BLU hotbar and have access to all that monsters moves. The monsters could be on a shared cooldown like a longer version of monks fists of wind earth and fire so you can't constantly swap monster family.

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That's a cool idea! By utilizing the monsters as pets, it could also allow for Beastmaster to be implemented as a potential base class for BLU. I guess the only problem there would be that is it treading on SMN's territory too much? The monsters would need to work differently to the Egi. Though I feel that is possible, as a number of MMO's have multiple pet classes.

*UPDATE* - Ah just seen your edited post. Yeah I think the monster family idea is cool and keeps it away from being too much like the Egi. It would be fun unlocking each monster family as part of BLU's quest line, and as you have shown there are plenty of monster abilities that allow BLU to work as any role. Perhaps BLU is the perfect candidate for this new potential "Hybrid" job role Yoshi has spoke of in the past.

I like the idea of the job quests making you fight certain monsters for an ability, while other abilities should be learned from field or dungeon monsters.

I really liked how BLU was handled in FFXI with the whole setting of skills with a maximum capacity and point value. For those who never played, you had a maximum number of spell slots and capacity points (These would increase with level). Certain spells were worth more points than others, usually based on how powerful they are. So you were limited by either the max number of spells, or if you ate up your capacity points with high point spells.
The reason I liked it so much was because SE didn't have to limit themselves on the number of monsters skills they made learnable without bloating the BLU's available spells. There was always a maximum number you could have set. I loved the customization of creating a spell build and having the freedom of changing it out of combat. I could change based on my need: more magic based spells, physical spells, healing, defensive, buffing, debuffing, dots? The BLU's traits even changed based on your spell combinations.

I think some of this could be used in this game. Limit skill slots to what is appropriate for the level and use the capacity system. Allow for a wide range of monster abilities to be learned.

I know the main issue would be having to learn spells while also trying to level, but for me, going out in search of monster skills was half the fun of the job.

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Originally Posted by HeavensSword

I like the idea of the job quests making you fight certain monsters for an ability, while other abilities should be learned from field or dungeon monsters.

I could change based on my need: more magic based spells, physical spells, healing, defensive, buffing, debuffing, dots? The BLU's traits even changed based on your spell combinations.

I think some of this could be used in this game. Limit skill slots to what is appropriate for the level and use the capacity system. Allow for a wide range of monster abilities to be learned.

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Yeah FFXI's BLU was truly unique. You could have a party of all BLU's and each player could fill either the Tank, Healer, or DPS roles perfectly. Purely based upon the skill sets they customized. Going around, searching for new monster skills to unlock was also very fun.

Wouldn't a class like that be extremely difficult and time consuming to balance out with the rest of the classes since we have three definitive roles? Roles being a Tank, DPS and a Healer.

I doubt they would go through the trouble if they can add a class with a defined role instead.

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Originally Posted by Jollyy5

Wouldn't a class like that be extremely difficult and time consuming to balance out with the rest of the classes since we have three definitive roles? Roles being a Tank, DPS and a Healer.

I doubt they would go through the trouble if they can add a class with a defined role instead.

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No doubt; I don't expect to see any real hybrids possibly ever in this game unfortunately, unless SE decides to ease up a bit. To be fair, we have some great relative balance at the moment.

First of all, hello all. I'm new to the forums.:D

I've seen these past months that FFXIV is adopting a lot of stance-related abilities and traits, and while this may bring a lot more options to the table, we still face the problem that we can't let a class alone act on behalf of more than one role and be good at both of them.

If they make them weaker at each, they're just useless. If they can do both, they're overpowered. However, as I said, stance dancing can still be good enough to let DPS, Healers, or even Tanks to go beyond their initial capabilities. Hell, sometimes it's possible for a SCH to dish out 300+ dps. So we're getting closer to hybridization.

That being said, I think they could just choose one role in specific and work from that. You see, Titan-Egi is "almost" useless during raids, but it's an excellent choice to do FATEs or treasure maps. I believe they could make BLU work by creating a similar kind of hybridization without compromising the roles themselves.

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Originally Posted by Jollyy5

Wouldn't a class like that be extremely difficult and time consuming to balance out with the rest of the classes since we have three definitive roles? Roles being a Tank, DPS and a Healer.

I doubt they would go through the trouble if they can add a class with a defined role instead.

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Originally Posted by HeavensSword

No doubt; I don't expect to see any real hybrids possibly ever in this game unfortunately, unless SE decides to ease up a bit. To be fair, we have some great relative balance at the moment.

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Even though Yoshi spoke of a possible 4th Hybrid role appearing in the future, I doubt we will see it anytime soon. But BLU would be a good candidate for that. Though if it were to have a play style similar to that of FFXI it would need to be simplified way down I think.

However there is no reason why BLU couldn't just be implemented as one of the 3 current roles. DPS does seem the most likely though.