Blue Mage: A Guide for How they Should Exist xD

[Rawrz]

If they do BLU in this game, you're gonna have each Job quest being simply a quest to learn your Blue Magic spells. 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60 would all be different Blue Magics that you would learn through a quest battle, fighting a monster that uses the particular skill you're about to acquire. Outside of that, they'd more than likely be picking up weaponskills and cooldowns through leveling up, as was said before. The base Job would be just another Job in the game. The Blue Magics would make it unique in that they'd have special unique effects. They could also take the approach of dishing out even /more/ skills via Job quests - some Jobs get two abilities at certain points (not exactly abilities, but SMN gets a Garuda quest and a Titan quest independent of the new skill they learn from a separate one).

So yeah. It's highly unlikely that a Blue Mage would be very Blue or very Mage pre-30, since that's when every Job gets their quintessential Job Skill that makes them the Job and not the Class - even AST, MCH, and DRK pick up Diurnal Sect/Draw, Hot Shot/Rapid Fire, and Grit/Darkside at 30. So, yeah.


Aside from that - you seem to have kinda missed how Jobs in this game function primarily off of GCD rotations, and that seems to be missing from this concept.

xD The rotation would be

Buff with Internal Release, Crave, King's Oath. Cast Aquabreath, follow with Thunderbreath to increase potency and duration,Twister, fill with Frog drop, using Magic Hammer and Frost in the OGCD, use Mustard breath when Aquabreath is about to fall off to gain potency from Thunderbreath, continue with Frog Drop. Mad Hunger sets in. Feast + Hunger's Drive to Gap close or Feast + Delicious Sever to deal a massive DoT that will be up until the next blue magic duration is over.

So a rotation is there, but its just a concept. (Either way this was a fun activity xD)

[Rongway]

They could also take the approach of dishing out even /more/ skills via Job quests - some Jobs get two abilities at certain points (not exactly abilities, but SMN gets a Garuda quest and a Titan quest independent of the new skill they learn from a separate one).

An interesting consideration would be if Lvs 1, 15, and 30 granted Form abilities that swapped out your "pet bar" actions. Like Beast Form might allow casting of a limited selection of enemy skills from beasts and critters; Monstrous Form a selection of enemy skills from amorphs, voidsent, etc; and Machina Form a selection of enemy skills from mechanical constructs. Like the ACN pet bars, not all abilities would be available immediately, and abilities could be placed on non-pet bars as desired. Unlocks could be level based for basic enemy skills and quested for the heavier hitters and more mechanically involved abilities. Such a system would allow a blue mage to have access to more enemy skills than the usual one per quest, and would allow many of the quest ability slots to be used on support cooldowns and such.

[Rawrz]

I still think this would be a fun concept. The act of learning the skills would be secondary to how they would be used in fights at end game.
They could require the skills to be learned from a level/Hunting log Requirement, made especially for Blue Mages.

The Class design is a cross between Cleric Stance, Umbral Ice, and Enochian.

Cleric Stance, because of swapping INT/STR with the Mad-Hunger buff.
Enochain, because to be effective youll want to keep up your Blue Magic as much as possible to increase damage by its effect.
Umbral Icce, because Blue Magic is the means to their MP regen. Losing it, is like gaining astral fire in the negative sense, as your MP will drop to a punishing amount. Youll be able to cast a single skill after, but you wont get the damage up.

This is a class that requires you to stay active, planning when you can come in for a bite of Blue Magic. You have access to a Gap Closer, a burst physical, an AOE and a DoT. You have lots of options on how you want to spend your physical hit.

The Magic damage portion, involves juggling 3 DoTs that enhance each other, but not in a faceroll way. Being able to switch between AOE and Single target on your core skills, reduces button bloat, but still makes you ask if its worth doing, because of the stance lockout (Think Cleric Stance.) You also have skills to weave in to add extra DPS, like Magic Hammer and Frost. Doom is there to increase Party DPS, but not take the role of Ninja in Openers, as you can only use it to push dps after a certain percent.

Skills like Mighty Guard, White Wind, and Angel's Snack help the healer's stay in Cleric Stance longer. Imagine weaving in an Angel's Snack after a Frog Drop (Think Ruin II) to cleanse the Warrior from his pacification. Mighty Guard before a raid wide AOE and White Wind would be a micro Indom, filling the role of Mantra (Healing for 150 potency AOE instead of boosting the healing.

You have some self heal coverage with White Wind and Digest. Cocoon to increase your defense, Night to help with crowd control to sleep those around you.

This class fills the role between Black Mage and a DPS oriented Scholar.

I also changed some of the order of the skills around to emphasize the Blue Magic skills as the Job abilities.

[nexas506]

Every job quest should have you go out to "study" a monster to learn it's skill. And it should learn weapon and support skills on its own.

[Rawrz]

Every job quest should have you go out to "study" a monster to learn it's skill. And it should learn weapon and support skills on its own.

People are concerned with how the skills would be learned, over how the skills will act in game. The thread is more about character design, than how your blue mage will specifically gain the skills.

[Yuni_Queen]

I quess the skills would be normal skills you gain from leveling or class-quests.
Nothing else.

As for WHICH skills those should be, i am giving you Goblin Attack and Sommersault for lvl 1 and lvl 2.
Give me note when you will be leveling, i will come with popcorn.