Why do people want Blue Mage in this game?

[dinnertime]

For jobs like Blue Mage and Red Mage to work, SE just needs to get out of their comfort zone and make changes to their usual routine for the job system.
And yes, balance is indeed an issue but let's be honest, imbalance between classes/jobs cannot be avoided. They're actually doing pretty well in balancing jobs here compared to FFXI which jobs there were just so, so imbalanced for a long time, but here in FFXIV every job is viable but in exchange, they're so homogenized.
We still do have jobs that aren't as good compared to other jobs of the same category, like Astrologian for example.

They've been playing it safe for a long time and players are growing tired of it. Remember the disappointment with early Heavensward of not only bringing nothing new, but giving also less of it compared to 2.x.

[Duelle]

And yes, balance is indeed an issue but let's be honest, imbalance between classes/jobs cannot be avoided. They're actually doing pretty well in balancing jobs here compared to FFXI which jobs there were just so, so imbalanced for a long time, but here in FFXIV every job is viable but in exchange, they're so homogenized.
We still do have jobs that aren't as good compared to other jobs of the same category, like Astrologian for example.

AST's problem is that it was designed from the ground up to be a poor-man's WHM/SCH (depending on sect) with a card buff gimmick. That's not a result of imbalance, but of wanting a new class to ape existing classes.

It doesn't help that some people lapped up the card stuff thinking it was going to be the most awesome thing in the world, only to see themselves shunned because AST's healing throughput (AKA that thing that is the most important aspect of a healer) was below WHM and SCH.

[Tanathya]

They've been playing it safe for a long time and players have grown tired of it. Remember the disappointment with early Heavensward of not only bringing nothing new, but giving also less of it compared to 2.x.

I think that's how it should be said. We were growing tired of the same overused formula a year ago, and it has gotten worse ever since the release of the expansion. By now, the general playerbase is already tired of it in my opinion and from what I see.

[dinnertime]

AST's problem is that it was designed from the ground up to be a poor-man's WHM/SCH (depending on sect) with a card buff gimmick. That's not a result of imbalance, but of wanting a new class to ape existing classes.

It doesn't help that some people lapped up the card stuff thinking it was going to be the most awesome thing in the world, only to see themselves shunned because AST's healing throughput (AKA that thing that is the most important aspect of a healer) was below WHM and SCH.

Man, I'm one of those people that hoped AST would be great because it could have either a regen or a mitigating shield alternatively, and the cards being really good but I was quite wrong. I am aware of how homogenized it is with WHM and SCH but still, I have fun playing AST and it's indeed viable, but I have to work much harder compared to playing WHM or SCH. There's just a lot of things missing and lacking about it.

I think that's how it should be said. We were growing tired of the same overused formula a year ago, and it has gotten worse ever since the release of the expansion. By now, the general playerbase is already tired of it in my opinion and from what I see.

That's more true, actually.