What Weapon Should A Blue Mage Use?

[Bright-Flower]

For me it depends on the role.

If BLU was a caster or healer, I wouldn't really care.

If it's melee or tank, I'd like a mace or some kind of blunt weapon. The game has enough swords, let's get another blunt weapon user in there.

I can kind of see why people may want it as a tank because classic blue mage gets hit by spells to learn them. (Though many games have had other methods of learning the spells.) But I think a blue mage wearing Fending gear would look odd in a lot of cases, though that's just my two cents.

[Vahlnir]

For me it depends on the role.

If BLU was a caster or healer, I wouldn't really care.

If it's melee or tank, I'd like a mace or some kind of blunt weapon. The game has enough swords, let's get another blunt weapon user in there.

I can kind of see why people may want it as a tank because classic blue mage gets hit by spells to learn them. (Though many games have had other methods of learning the spells.) But I think a blue mage wearing Fending gear would look odd in a lot of cases, though that's just my two cents.

They'd probably need another gear type for them specifically, kinda like how DRG is still the only class with "maiming" gear.

[Deceptus]

They'd probably need another gear type for them specifically, kinda like how DRG is still the only class with "maiming" gear.

Could be maiming, or another physical dex based.

SE really messed up when they made MNK/DRG/NIN different and then put SAM with monk. Now they have to figure out how to balance 3 gearsets.

[LineageRazor]

The gunblade would work exactly like it did in all the other FF titles. Like a sword with a gun whose trigger is pushed on hit while in melee.

I think the Gunblade is used that way in exactly one FF game, and that's VIII. In XIII, Lightning backflips away before using the gun portion of her blade, and as for Garleans in XIV, they also fire bullets at range. I checked the Final Fantasy Wikia for other instances of gunblades, but other appearances either don't use the gun part at all or don't use the blade part at all.

As Mica pointed out, the whole concept of the Gunblade would be impractical in real life, but I suppose the rule of cool wins out here - just like with Whip Swords, another cool and extremely impractical weapon. Ooh, maybe BLU should have a Whip Sword!

I kinda wish they would start from lvl1...I mean, currently the first several dozen levels go rather fast thanks to the bonus experience from having a high class. They can just increase that bonus severely if they think that starting at 1 would make it take too long to get into the action with the new classes.

I do agree with this. I was disappointed when I learned that DRK, AST, and MCH were going to start at level 30, with no base class. That said, I do understand why the devs did it that way. Development for Heavensward was apparently a hellish time crunch, with the devs working themselves to the bone to cram in all of the new promised content. The new jobs were quite likely the most difficult of the new content, and would have been even moreso if they had to do a full set of class quests on top of the job quests. It was an easy corner to cut. It also set a precedent for future jobs, which is why RDM and SAM started at 50 (even though, to my knowledge, Stormblood development wasn't nearly the nightmare Heavensward was).

Additionally, they likely suspected that players would balk at having to start these new jobs from level one, considering that in addition to what it already took to level to 50, they'd have the trip to 60 (almost as long, thanks to the exp inflation) on top of that.

So, with those twin incentives (player impatience and ease of development), I seriously doubt things will change going forward. Any jobs we get in the next expansion will start at level 60. On the plus side, SE seems to have learned from Heavensward NOT to lock the new jobs behind expansion zones, so it is unlikely that players will need to play through three games' worth of content just to play as BLU!

[kikix12]

So, with those twin incentives (player impatience and ease of development), I seriously doubt things will change going forward. Any jobs we get in the next expansion will start at level 60. On the plus side, SE seems to have learned from Heavensward NOT to lock the new jobs behind expansion zones, so it is unlikely that players will need to play through three games' worth of content just to play as BLU!

Those players will still need to progress through the A Realm Reborn most likely.And it is the biggest slog in the whole game, really. The early levels aren't bad, but by the time you have to deal with Leviathan and such, the story quests go downhill fast in both quality and variety. As if that wasn't enough, if they will start as lvl60...Heavensward to boot as well.

And that's a very short-sighted point of view. I'm not saying that they should make separate classes. They want to remove the class/job system. But they should still start from 1. Eventually we'll have a horde of jobs with very little content to them, unlocked far into the characters progress, that you will have no time to play any but the last few pieces of content with. And you will need to do a lot of grind for them.

It's "good progression" from the point of view of a current player...but what about the new players? Ask yourself this. Few years from now if you came across this game and read about all these cool jobs, then realize that you can't play most of them until possibly months into the game...would you be interested? Not to mention, it directly counters the intention behind removal of cross-class skill. They were removed to prevent the need to level unwanted classes to have the skills "needed", even though those skills were at mid levels. But now we'll have classes that will have you play unwanted classes to even be able to play them at all, effectively aside.

It is just horrible design. What is done is done and shouldn't be changed...but new classes/jobs/whatever should be made from scratch available at character creation provided the player have the expansion unlocked. As I said, the experience bonus from having a high-level class is a significant increase in speed of leveling them. Just extending those bonuses to ALL experience gained, including from roulette bonuses, levequests etc would allow the leveling to be very fast. And if not...add more bonuses. We're talking about someone that have a high-level class already, not making it easier for rookies that are just learning how to play the game. They don't need to go through that slog without any of the quests that help (and no, side-quests, even if they are available still, don't help seeing as they are less efficient than just about anything else in the game).

[Bright-Flower]

The only thing I see stopping them from doing all jobs at level 1, aside from them maybe thinking it's weird to have a job at level 1 considering the prestige that comes with most jobs lore wise, is class/job quest content.

I don't see them wanting to write blue mage quests from level 1 to 80.

Functionally, every job as to work at level 1 anyway because of POTD/HoH so gameplay wise I don't think it would be a problem. Just a matter of maybe lore, and having the quest content to pad out for eighty levels for the new jobs.

[Edax]

I think the Gunblade is used that way in exactly one FF game, and that's VIII. In XIII, Lightning backflips away before using the gun portion of her blade, and as for Garleans in XIV, they also fire bullets at range. I checked the Final Fantasy Wikia for other instances of gunblades, but other appearances either don't use the gun part at all or don't use the blade part at all.

As Mica pointed out, the whole concept of the Gunblade would be impractical in real life, but I suppose the rule of cool wins out here - just like with Whip Swords, another cool and extremely impractical weapon. Ooh, maybe BLU should have a Whip Sword!



I do agree with this. I was disappointed when I learned that DRK, AST, and MCH were going to start at level 30, with no base class. That said, I do understand why the devs did it that way. Development for Heavensward was apparently a hellish time crunch, with the devs working themselves to the bone to cram in all of the new promised content. The new jobs were quite likely the most difficult of the new content, and would have been even moreso if they had to do a full set of class quests on top of the job quests. It was an easy corner to cut. It also set a precedent for future jobs, which is why RDM and SAM started at 50 (even though, to my knowledge, Stormblood development wasn't nearly the nightmare Heavensward was).

Additionally, they likely suspected that players would balk at having to start these new jobs from level one, considering that in addition to what it already took to level to 50, they'd have the trip to 60 (almost as long, thanks to the exp inflation) on top of that.

So, with those twin incentives (player impatience and ease of development), I seriously doubt things will change going forward. Any jobs we get in the next expansion will start at level 60. On the plus side, SE seems to have learned from Heavensward NOT to lock the new jobs behind expansion zones, so it is unlikely that players will need to play through three games' worth of content just to play as BLU!

I think it would make more sense that in the expansion that goes into Garlean, we get an Imperial to teach us the job with the gunblade. I think Lightning was a Commando? Not really suitable for a blue mage lore wise.

[NessaWyvern]

Quistis uses blue magic and a whip, whips could be an interesting weapon in this game, as a long-range melee weapon

[Edax]

Pimp Cane

Sweet, we get our Pimp Canes!

[Vahlnir]

Wasn't expecting a cane, but here we are.