The Blue Mage Argument at a glance

[Grimoire-M]

I think it's disingenuous to say that Caster DPS are stale and 'same old same old'. They're one of the most varied roles in terms of playstyle. Red Mage may be a simple 'bar filler' proc-based job right now but there are plenty of ways to expand on its design to make its core rotation and cooldowns even more varied and interesting, and it's movement and positioning requirements are unlike any other job in the game, making it one of the more reactive classes, while keeping things at a fair pace. Black Mage is the de-facto turret DPS and has the easiest base rotation but the highest fight-to-fight variance of any dps job in this game, giving it a wide skill gap. They reward greed and risk. Summoner is a reliable yet flexible damage over time/burst cooldown mage with the ability to alter most of their rotation around based on the fight's needs without losing much, if any uptime while peppering their enemies with a flurry of spells from themselves and their pets, they reward adaptation and planning the most.

What Blue Mage should offer if it were implemented into a core job is something between Samurai, Warrior, and Bard. A caster that bridges the line between man and beast, lashing out with monstrous magic that's almost uncontrollable. This idea is somewhat incompatible with their 'learn' mechanic, but it's how their combat should feel. What I imagined was them having one or two resources, their main one being more granular but prone to fluctuating, with a more stable resource to help build towards spike windows. Much like how Samurai prepares Iaijutsu, Blue mage would charge up, and release stronger blue magic. Where it borrows from Bard, however, is procs. Lots and lots of procs. Whether it's extra damage, or resources, or even just consuming more than you expected. It should feel like you're fighting to keep things stable, but your reward for it is seeing how far you can push it. Red Mage has some of this, but it's not likely to be tapped into. It should keep it's simpler identity and fix some of its problems. Blue Mage, however, should be the Rage Mage. In a way, it would be the opposite to Black Mage, who constantly drains and refills its mana bar at a consistent pace. Blue mage would try to keep its resources somewhere in the middle, lest they gain too much or lose what they have all of a sudden.