How is BLU New and Innovative?

[Burningskull]

While every job can kill trash in the open world, there was no big incentive for it.
The incentive for BLU to do it (good exp method and spell learning) is new in FFXIV.

I can concede that. Incentive beyond leveling and crafting items is a good thing.

You have full control over what abilities you want to go and learn. You are actively playing while making your own gameplay style as you desire. Atmas absolutly don't do that, getting abilities from leveling don't do that, and getting them from job quests don't do that either.
Being free with abilities is new in FFXIV. (At least to that degree. Comparing it to the Logos system is ridiculous, as the scale is completly different, as well the gameplay implications and changes.)

Every job lets you control what abilities you use. The only reason people don't just Ice Mage things is because of the player base deciding what the best way to do things is. You don't think the player base will decide what the best actions are to use and in what order to use them will be?

An instanced arena designed to test your skills (literally) and skill builds while introducing the concept of enemy weaknesses is something new in Final Fantasy XIV.

You mean like a Raid is designed to test your skills? Or Stone Sky Sea? That's all this Carnival sounds like to me is a Stone Sky Sea that hits back.

I highly doubt that was genuine curiosity. You dismissed (or belittle to the point where you can dismiss) objectively new content and features, while sarcastically saying "the only new thing is being limited!".

I am curios. I have a hard time understanding things from time to time and this is one of them.

If killing monsters is your only comparative criteria to know if something is new or not, then I could be able to say that FFXIV is the same thing as Doom. Besides, it completly contradicts the argument in favor of making BLU a "real job": if all you do is killing monsters, doing it with a "real job" or a "limited job" is no different. The only difference is that I understand how ridiculous that is.
But the point that you can use that argument against itself proves how silly it is.

This game is designed around Battle Classes. You can't do the main story as a crafter / gatherer. You can't get to new areas without unlocking them through the MSQ as a battle class. You can't unlock trials, dungeons or raids, which you have to do as a battle class, without a battle class. Blue Mage is a battle class and should not be treated as side content.