Blue Mage: Thoughts on a Modernization System
So I wanna talk about the future of BLU for a sec...
We've exhausted discussions about how players feel with it being in this kinda limbo state where it's basically quarantined to its own content and excluded from everything else, but I think there's a way this could change in the future.
First of all, we know that BLU is going to get a level cap increase probably in one of the earlier 5.X patches. This means more spells of course as well as more Carnival content, but what if we got a new feature. For now, I want to call these Blue Missions.
Blue Missions are perhaps daily missions that you can undertake to earn a certain resource. We'll call it Blue Coins for now. You do these Blue Missions, acquire Blue Coins, and then have the opportunity to spend those Blue Coins. But what do you spend them on?
I propose a system called Blue Spell Refinement. The Blue Mage Spellbook is currently just a large list of all your Blue Magic spells in their natural state. What would change about this, is that now your Spellbook would include 3 additional tabs to a total of 4.
Limited Spells
Tank Spells
Caster Spells
Healer Spells
Each Tab will have an "Equip Tab" Option, allowing you to use that section of the Spellbook and that section only.
The Limited Spells tab is what we currently use as Blue Mages. This includes the option to equip 24 different, quirky spells with all kinds of gimmicky effects to be used for the Masked Carnival. A perk to equipping this tab is earning EXP the way we currently do against enemies out and about.
Tank Spells, Caster Spells, and Healer Spells are initially locked. This is where Blue Spell Refinement comes into play. Take Mighty Guard for example: A Spell that essentially functions as a Tank stance. After accumulating enough Blue Coins, you can spend them to refine Mighty Guard and acquire Mighty Guard+, a new instant cast spell that functions identically to the tank stances of the other tanks and is classified in the Tank Spells tab. This means Mighty Guard+ can only be used in this tab.
Naturally, you'll need more than Mighty Guard+ to tank effectively, so you'll need to go through the motions of Refining as many spells as you can to fill out the Tank Spells tab. Once it's been filled out, you can now equip that tab, and your Blue Mage will now be treated as a Tank role and can queue for content as such. This would mean that your complete set of refined Tank Spells will essentially function in a way comparable to a Paladin, Warrior, Dark Knight, or Gunbreaker.
The same is true, naturally, for the Caster Tab and Healer Tab. In any of these, you're restricted to those refined spells exclusively, but now you can participate with all other jobs in content up to that level.