When I think of Blue Mage, I think immediately of FFVII and FFTA where you have to be hit by the monster's abilities (through forced or non-forced control). But the way that Blue mage plays in those games, is that learning the monsters' abilities simply gives you access to them: it's not everything the Blue Mage does. A lot of the time, they're very high-damage melee classes, because their sabers are damn good at that.
So thinking about how they function as a whole: they merge the magic they learn from monsters with their own martial skill. And your suggestion provides that, and houses it in a very XIV-centric way. And I really like your idea about the source of the ability coming from the experience itself, and learning to harness that, rather than magically learning to repeat the innate abilities of monsters.


One thing I would like to say: I think the Dragon Force cooldown time is rather overwhelming. But then, you have one use of it per fight, but you don't want it to be up for multiple fights in a dungeon as well, so I suppose it's balanced through that intention. Good stuff, though, and a good read.