Add Blue Mages Already

[Cidel]

...and currently at 99 can tank just about any boss in the game that does not have a mechanic to penalize a party for having a Blue mage as a member (Yes, SE has made bosses that will wipe a group simply because you have a BLU in the party).

I don't have a stake in this discussion (yet), but could you elaborate on which enemies did this? I'm genuinely curious and might read up on it later.


It's seems like a terribly specific and rude move to design fights that way.

[Seku]

I don't have a stake in this discussion (yet), but could you elaborate on which enemies did this? I'm genuinely curious and might read up on it later.


It's seems like a terribly specific and rude move to design fights that way.

November 2017's Ambuscade. The boss for that months rotation would only have access to a move known as "quenching hammer" if any buff was on a party member and if BLU, RUN, PLD, or DRK was in the party. This would then drain the parties MP down to near 0 and in most cases 1-hit koed players that were not defensively geared. Unlike 14 where the super moves are predictable, 11 just throws them out at random. The main method of dealing with the boss just ended up being storing TP and having people skill chain instead while also keeping the Bosses TP at 0.

The only reason they did it is because currently a geared BLU can do anything (Heal, Tank, Melee-DPS, Magic-DPS) and is taken to just about every event. The only limit is that you have to know prior to going into the fight what your role is.
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Ambuscade_Archive

[Alistaire]

They should've announced BLU on April Fool's day to reinforce that it just isn't going to happen.

And now the job you've all been waiting for! Have you ever wanted all your moves to have a 3-second telegraph before going off? Have you ever thought "I want 100 different move names where 95 of them do exactly the same thing with 1 of 3 most common aoe markers"? Well your wait is over folks!

[Lord_Zlatan]

This.

In addition is the Blue Magic spellset to take into account.

There's not enough healing magic in there to warrant making it a healer, and while it could potentially be a utility DPS, we already have that in RDM, and nobody wants BLU to be a RDM clone.

The Blue Magic set actually lends itself very well to being a Tank. You have a good mix of mitigation and utility, and the damaging spells would thematically suit aggro generation as being flashy 'stolen' moves.

It does. Also, there were plenty of people that would PLD/BLU in FFXI because you could go into complete adamantoise mode and just take 0 damage.

I am also of the mind that BLU should be a tank. There are plenty of spells that could lend itself to tanking. A healer, however would feel a bit forced. And pls not another DPS ><

[Usho]

Not quite too sure why you're trying to say that BLU can't be a tank then you turn around and use FF11 as one of the main inspirations for the job, when it's been able to be turned into a tank since Day One and has always been a favored job for low man content and currently at 99 can tank just about any boss in the game that does not have a mechanic to pentalize a party for having a Blue mage as a member (Yes, SE has made bosses that will wipe a group simply because you have a BLU in the party).

Cause it won't. We had this debate about SAM pre-SB remember? Blu is a MAGE. Look at FF history and lore. BLU was never made for the tanking role despite having defensive and restorative spells, it's a CASTER.

If you're tanking a large group of mobs, do you think they are gonna just give you time to cast your spells while you attempt to hold aggro? Haha No. Your spells will get interrupted constantly and not even surecast will be enough with it's meh 30 sec CD for a 5 sec duration.

You can try to justify it being a tank all you want guys, but the reality is it's not and it won't. Just as much as you want Dancer to be a healer, it won't. But you can live in denial if you want. Remember the SAM tank debates? People complained and wanted it to be a tank. Guess what? It's a MELEE DPS. SAMs wear light/not so heavy armor and have some tankish kind of skills but its not a tank is it? DRK is a given as its a DPS but they probably wanted it to be a tank since Cecil's DRK in FFIV was more so a tank, while in FFXI they were a DPS job.

BLU is a Mage. Mages make for terrible tanks, especially in this game. That is the reality.

FFXI was bit more versatile since their was no real exact balance with the jobs, but even in FFXI BLU was never really tank material and most of time, ppl brought in blu for procs and their chain bursts. But in FFXIV, the game is plagued by the trinity system, there's no "subjobs" and learning blu spells in this game for sure won't be as interesting as in FFXI and FFV. And getting interrupted while trying to cast a spell, while also trying to hold onto aggro is a bad decision and it will be especially bad for newbies.

Blu has always been pure melee caster dps, and just like with SAM, if you think it will be a tank, then you'll be proven wrong, again.


GG.

[Jonnycbad]

Dunno if it was mentioned but allegedly the new lore book mentions that Mamool Ja originate from a landmass to the south and that they practice Blue Magic. Also near that landmass is Thavanair, which is a middle eastern style desert island. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised to see the FFXI themed Blue Mage appear in FFXIV. Hopefully that's the case, because FFXI's Blue Mage was the best incarnation of BLU in the entire series. They were silent and mysterious, they could fade in and out of space, they absorbed the essence of creatures they fought but always had an internal struggle within them to sort out the energy of the various beasts' souls they harbored within (with the help of their AF armor). When BLUs couldn't contain the beasts within they went berserk and turned into Soulflayers too. Overall, a really cool job.

[Jonnycbad]

Blu has always been pure melee caster dps, and just like with SAM, if you think it will be a tank, then you'll be proven wrong, again.
GG.

FF5: Blue Mage had average Strength and could equip a couple swords, but were better at casting.

FF6: Strago was a pure caster and his main weapon were Staves/Rods, so no...he wasn't a melee caster.
FF7: Enemy Skill materia could be used by anyone so I guess anyone could be a caster/dps.
FF8: Quistis was a jack-of-all-trades in terms of stats, but again, anyone could be a melee caster dps.
FF9: Quina had Fork and used Blue Magic, but his/her Strength growth and Fork damage was the 3rd lowest in the game, only above Vivi/Eiko.
FF10: Kimahri was a melee/caster I guess so this is true.
FF11: BLU was a melee/caster, so this is true.
FFTA: BLU was a melee caster
FFX-2: Magic Gunner was a total caster and didn't melee at all (weapon was a pistol).

So no, BLU was not always a pure melee caster dps.

Also, DRK was never a tank except in FF: Dimensions. DRK converts HP into Damage in every game it's been in except XIV, where it was changed to MP to make them a viable tank. Same could be said for BLU if made into a tank. They could make their main stat VIT, and their spells scale with the caster's "Vitality" or their inner essence combined with souls of enemy's they've absorbed/copied

[Lord_Zlatan]

DRK is a given as its a DPS but they probably wanted it to be a tank since

you undid your own argument right there.

SE can and will do whatever they want. They made the quintessential melee DPS class from another game into a tank.

[Rongway]

Magitek. [...]
Could also explain it being a mage in heavy armour and not requiring cast times, because it's magitek and not incantations and whatnot.

This is a reasonable possibility for how blue mage could be a heavy armor tank. We don't need another heavy armor tank right now, though; we need any kind of tank but a heavy armor tank. The people who want to play heavy armor tanks are already playing heavy armor tanks. We need a tank for the people who want to tank using a different tank type.

[347SPECTRE]

This game pigeon holes all tanks into heavy armor. As a side note, if Blue Mage were a tank in caster gear, they would potentially be behind in gearing compared to existing tanks because then they'd have to compete with the 3 other casters for gear drops in content.