Why do people want Blue Mage in this game?

[Blackcanary]

You never played FFXI BM could not use or of the skills the gained from mobs. There was a point system connected to the job so each spell took up a number of points so you couldn't just use all spell when you feel like it you really did have to be smart about it.

[Duelle]

All have the blue mage go out of their way to acquire skills I'd say that is pretty unique and a series staple for the job but ofcourse XIV being the special snowflake game has to say no to tradition.

Unlike some of the things I've seen people ask for around here, it's not for special snowflake reasons. It's because it clashes with the system in place for ability distribution, You're not going to have a BLU eating an item to learn a spell, nor eating the mob (outside of story cutscenes), much less learn spells by getting hit with them when most mob abilities only deal damage. You have to design abilities from the ground up to have effects and the synergy necessary to justify their place in the BLU spellbook.

That itself is not that difficult to put together (see my BLU writeup for an example). The issue is more ability distribution and picking skills that make sense along with a gameplay mechanic that ties everything together.

Don't even get me started on why Red Mage wouldn't work in this game either.

RDM can most definitely work.

[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.

[Warlyx]

the point of lots of ppl is that even if BLU gets implemented, the gameplay will be a watered down version, yeah u will use enemy spells....but will be limited in number and whatever spells SE decided to give u....

i still think that BLU would be cool , but how it the job fits into the game (endgame mostly)....uhmm... who knows....

[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.

[LineageRazor]

"I want the Blue Mage to be dumbed down because this game has babied me through linear progression and it's out of my comfort zone"
Gotcha?

Who said anything about WANTING this? I cheerfully lapped up every BLU spell in FFXI, even the ones that I knew I'd never, ever use. Time and again, I've been disappointed at how babying FFXIV tends to be.

In spite of that, though, FFXIV is still a fun game that I enjoy. It's why I still play. A lot of the old staple Final Fantasy jobs have changed a lot from what can dubiously be called "tradition" - but those changes are something I look forward to with ANTICIPATION, not DREAD. I'm genuinely fascinated to see how the old staples will evolve to fit within the framework of this game, rather than prepping my pitchforks and torches to storm the castle as soon as a job fails to live up to my unreasonable expectations. What will FFXIV's take on <insert whatever here> be?

And do some jobs fail to live up to my expectations? Sure. I was really hyped for Machinist, but was let down by how similar it was to Bard (and both jobs became a whole lot less fun with Wanderer's Dirge and Slow-ass Barrel). Edgar would be sad. Summoner, on the other hand, I actually find to be MORE fun than previous Summoner incarnations, enough that I don't even mind the distinct lack of flashiness.

Each Final Fantasy game has had its own take on the various jobs introduced throughout the franchise. Sometimes, there are similarities, sometimes the jobs are radically changed. THAT is what it truly means to be "traditional" in the Final Fantasy sense - each game is its own entity, with only a few references to tie it to previous installations of the series. Don't like how this particular game handles your favorite job? That's too bad; maybe there will be something more to your liking in FFXVI.

[RiceisNice]

When you're adding new jobs to the game, you want them to have an identity for themselves that doesn't turn out to be overly gimmicky (AST in the case of intially having a reliance on card buffs to make up for their weaker areas) but not share parallels to other jobs (MCH and BRD).

I'd be fine if blue mage gained their skills like any other job (leveling and class quests), provided it gives them an identity on their gameplay. As I mentioned before with the BLM example, they can take a break from the tradition of FF games (which are generally solo and turn-based) to give a new take in an mmo setting. Same with red mage, a jack-of-all simply has no place in an MMO if they cannot excel in any area (and if they can excel in multiple area, that's no longer a jack-of-all), but why not a spellblade dps? A blue mage could have a mechanic around using monster essences/aether to mix and combine an ability, or use them similiar to monk stances where it allows for progression of spell usage.

IMO, it's honestly an unrealistic expectation if you wanted jobs to be a 1:1 of their previous incarnation;s in the case of SMN for something as fast(er) paced as this, or a BLM having an elemental wheel where the game does doesn't allow for it (without sacrificing balance between other casters/dps)

[RocheKat]

RDM can most definitely work.

I will be shocked if Rdm isn't the melee version of Brd/Mch. They can take the RDM just about everyone wanted in FFXI and give it to us here.

It should be noted that most people are not saying the don't want BLU (that includes Yoshi P)... they are just saying with the design of FFXIV most options for BLU end up with a terrible version of the BLU.