Hints at Blue Mage in the level 60 ALC quest?

[Kowen]

Some dialogue from said quest:

Wiltwaek: We had believed our suspects were a crew of criminals. However, they are merely hired help, cheap and disposable. All but one─a single aging alchemist. This is our true mastermind.

Wiltwaek: Waoud is his name. He is feared in Thavnair, his homeland, for a complete lack of scruples and pursuing experiments no man should.

Those who played FFXI might remember that Waoud was the name the leader of the Blue Mages used when in disguise. Performing inhuman alchemy experiments seems like a theme that could very easily lead to Blue Magic. Attempting to imbue men with monster traits perhaps?

Is there any other mention of him in the game so far, or is this it for now?

[Lusavari]

The visual style of Thavnair, and their research into the souls of things, (Notably our Zodiac weapons) would suggest That would be the most likely place for Blue Mage, though I wonder what other jobs would come from there. Really, Blue mage may be easier to implement than they might think. Instead of allowing you to set subclass actions, that could be removed in favor for equipping spells learned as a Blue Mage, with certain core spells or abilities learned via questing.

[Cilia]

I don't recall any other mention of a Waoud in-game. Admittedly, I've not kept my crafting up in 3.0 though.

Well, does that hint at Blue Mages? Time for my favorite .gif (that I really should just put in my signature)...

[Alberel]

The visual style of Thavnair, and their research into the souls of things, (Notably our Zodiac weapons) would suggest That would be the most likely place for Blue Mage, though I wonder what other jobs would come from there.

Puppetmaster would make a lot of sense there as well since mammet cores are essentially artificial souls.

Really, Blue mage may be easier to implement than they might think. Instead of allowing you to set subclass actions, that could be removed in favor for equipping spells learned as a Blue Mage, with certain core spells or abilities learned via questing.

I've made this suggestion myself in the past. We know that the devs would like to implement jobs like BLU and mechanically the systems needed are already in place. The real issue is the hybrid nature of the job. A blue mage is a lot like a red mage in that they can perform various roles, and handling that with regards to the duty finder may be quite a bit of work. We would need some way for players to be locked into one role in a party.

Nice to see more references to old FFXI jobs though. I would be very happy if we got BLU in 4.0.

[Lusavari]

The problem is, as much as I'd love to see Thavnair show up... It's about time to free Ala Mhigo. I'm hoping for a multi-city expansion in 4.0 though... My money is on going to Ala Mhigo next, with Doma and Thavnair after that. Or we might get a break from the Garleans and go to Thavnair first.

[Xerius]

Instead of allowing you to set subclass actions, that could be removed in favor for equipping spells learned as a Blue Mage, with certain core spells or abilities learned via questing.

I don't understand why the dev's seem to think that every job needs to come from the same cookie-cutter mold as all the other jobs, I for one would welcome a job with a completely new progressions system, just like Blue Mage was in FFXI. Camping out the Blue Magic spells was fun in it's own way and it was an accomplishment to finish your list.

[Iagainsti]

I've stated before, blue Mage would be easy with the current system. The monster abiltities( I'm begging for goblin punch and mighty guard) would be unlocked through the job quests like any other job currently in game. Check out the thread "the 4th tank" for a collaborative hash out of how blu bst and pup could all be made with the current sytem

[Zohar_Lahar]

I don't understand why the dev's seem to think that every job needs to come from the same cookie-cutter mold as all the other jobs, I for one would welcome a job with a completely new progressions system, just like Blue Mage was in FFXI. Camping out the Blue Magic spells was fun in it's own way and it was an accomplishment to finish your list.

When the question was brought up in a previous live letter, Yoshi-P explained why: it's because some players might be excluded if they didn't have a certain spell learned yet.

And, while Blue Mage was depicted as versatile in V and XI, they could easily go the Strago route for XIV and make BLU a Caster job like BLM and SMN.

[Cilia]

I don't understand why the dev's seem to think that every job needs to come from the same cookie-cutter mold as all the other jobs, I for one would welcome a job with a completely new progressions system, just like Blue Mage was in FFXI. Camping out the Blue Magic spells was fun in it's own way and it was an accomplishment to finish your list.

If you understand why every role is expected to have specific subclass / additional actions, you already know why every role progresses and plays virtually the same.

If they add in BLU and require actual effort to maximize its efficiency, people won't bother with it unless it provides a substantial edge over everything else. It's either that or make it very similar to every other tank / healer / caster DPS job, which betrays the flavor of BLU's versatility.

I've stated before, blue Mage would be easy with the current system. The monster abiltities( I'm begging for goblin punch and mighty guard) would be unlocked through the job quests like any other job currently in game. Check out the thread "the 4th tank" for a collaborative hash out of how blu bst and pup could all be made with the current sytem

This isn't XI; please stop asking for every class from that game to be put in.

The problem with BLU is its versatility; it would be hard to keep its flavor intact while adhering to the strict combat roles XIV employs. It could be added, but would it be able to maintain its versatile flavor?

... not personally convinced on that front.

[Zohar_Lahar]

This isn't XI; please stop asking for every class from that game to be put in.

The problem with BLU is its versatility; it would be hard to keep its flavor intact while adhering to the strict combat roles XIV employs. It could be added, but would it be able to maintain its versatile flavor?

... not personally convinced on that front.

As I pointed out though, "versatility" hasn't always been a flavor of blue mages. Strago, for example, was very much a caster type, and could be used as a basis for BLU in XIV.