Solving the Fire Mage Problem

[Rongway]

The idea of rotating the spell functions was presented back at last FanFest Japan (thanks PhalanxField below for jogging my memory).

What I remember of it is a guest proposing to Yoshi-P that there could be elemental staves that rotated the spells so that, for example, a BLM could nuke with Blizzard, refresh with Thunder, and DoT with Fire. There might have been elemental resistances involved, and hence the staves being "required" BLM gear, which Yoshi-P would have shot down.

However, if it were 100% glamoury, and didn't affect gameplay, I would get behind an elemental shift option. If it's entirely about visuals and not at all about playstyle or different rotations, it would be a fun addition with no mechanical or numerical advantage given to any particular element choice. As far as new animations are concerned, we would just need Astral/Umbral Lightning orbs, Thunder IV, Burst (lightning's Flare), a chain lightning type splash (or even just a big crackly orb explosion) for Thunder II when in lightning nuke mode, and a single target ranged animation for Blizzard II when Blizzard is the DoT.

But besides the numerical, technical, and design aspects, there's also the matter of how such a system would affect other players. Seeing a "Fire II" cast bar in the party list would no longer immediately read "I hope this PLD is ready to spam Flash" and "Blizzard IV" would no longer immediately read "OH GODS PLEASE DON'T KILL IT YET". So while there wouldn't be any advantages among the BLMs choosing one element over another, there would be a reduced situation awareness for everyone else.