Why do people want Blue Mage in this game?

[whiskeybravo]

I don't really want to read all the pages I just had this thought real quick,

It seems feasible to retain the learning abilities from monsters a la class quests.

Fight a specific enemy that uses the ability and you learn it from them. Wouldn't apply to regular open world mobs or raid bosses or anything.

It would be one way to at least work-in the learning blue magic aspect of the job while making it compatible with XIV's current design.

[Yasuhiro]

Never really cared to pay attention but do enemies in this game have special attacks?
The only ones that come to mind are the summons and they use their signature moves

Maybe for a pre-Blue Mage job quest you take the stone which is in your inventory to these trials and learn magic that way.

[Zojha]

Never really cared to pay attention but do enemies in this game have special attacks?

Even most trash mobs in the open world have some sort of special ability >_>

Typically charged cone or circle attacks, self-buffs (celeris, fortis, etc), debuffs like poison, silence or similar, sometimes random insta-attacks too. Depends on the mob, really. Morbols still have their signature attack.

[Yasuhiro]

Even most trash mobs in the open world have some sort of special ability >_>

Typically charged cone or circle attacks, self-buffs (celeris, fortis, etc), debuffs like poison, silence or similar, sometimes random insta-attacks too. Depends on the mob, really. Morbols still have their signature attack.

Most of those attacks are stuff like "bomb toss" with no real special effect, generic attacks, I obviously meant signature attacks, attacks that are exclusive to that enemy type like a Malboro >_>

[Tanathya]

Depends on the player perspective. Some people feel that the current incarnation of BLM isn't true to tradition because they have no way to exploit the elemental wheel, as well as SMNS not dealing damage primarily from their egis (or having spectacular effects from the summons, or both). I feel that it captures the aesthetics of a DRK just fine through their animations, while at the same time giving them a distinct feel to their flow of combat through dorkside and mana.

BLM isn't true to tradition, but they still do what they're supposed to do and use those skills/spells. DRK doesn't, there's a *huge* difference there.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

DRK doesn't, there's a *huge* difference there.

DRK does do what it's supposed to. It's always been a heavily armored tank/DPS hybrid.

[Tanathya]

DRK does do what it's supposed to. It's always been a heavily armored tank/DPS hybrid.

Never mind, I'm just gonna link this, and I'm already sure what you're gonna take out of there:

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Knight

PD: Heavy armor =/= tank.

[Delmontyb]

It just wouldn't work not in this type of game.
I mean sure we could have it but with how you earn abilities in this game the blue mage job would be butchered and be a very heavy downgrade

It could work, and work very well. It would be a matter of learning skills, and choosing which ones to take with you, and equipping those skills, which could define what role your job plays.

The issue comes from the concern that some players wouldn't want to work to unlock all those skills, and I can understand that argument, but hopefully we'll still see this classic job make it's way into FFXIV... Maybe not with 4.0, but at some point in the future.

[PondHollow]

To get to the point, I want the Blue Mage because I want stuff like Bad Breath (which in FFTA required an accuracy buff to realistically use) and FF9's frog drop, which had to be leveled independently of the character. It has always been such a randomly thrown together fun set of gimmicks to figure out how to use, it's hard to argue that it would have an "optimal" rotation like many other classes. And thus Blue Mage can be special by forcing players to make a restricted choice from a palette of moves, and Squeenix can nerf it as they go along.

[Tanathya]

It could work, and work very well. It would be a matter of learning skills, and choosing which ones to take with you, and equipping those skills, which could define what role your job plays.

Agreed, and that's how I envision BLU.