A question for the BLU peeps

[LineageRazor]

Would it feel like Blue Mage to you guys if the White Wind spell was a Heal all type of spell, like Medica, instead of a spell that cures based on the HP the user has?

Yes. This is exactly what they did in FFXI, and Blue Mage there is one of the most popular takes on the class ever. I don't think that anyone ever complained that BLU was RUINED FOREVER because White Wind didn't work the same way it classically did. They accepted that the traditional White Wind would not work in an MMO like FFXI. As for this game, if they wanted to give a clever nod to the original version of the spell, they could have the potency of the cure scale with the user's HP, much like the damage potency from PLD's Spirits Within scales with the PLD's HP.

What if Bad Breath was just a DoT+vulnerability debuff instead of inflicting a bunch of status ailments (that have varied even in different FFs)?

Why can't it be both? Just have bosses resist the status effects, like they already do from other sources of those status effects.

What if Death, instead of one-hit-killing, just dealt massive damage (and maybe could be used to kill enemies outside DF)?

This, or take the example set in Eureka, where Death has a greater chance of working the lower the mobs' HP is. And, of course, bosses should be immune, including Hunts and FATE bosses.

What if 1000 Needles, instead of doing always 1000 damage, just dealt damage in a regular way (or maybe could just deal 1000 damage and just be accepted as useless in end-game, which is probably the way they'll do it anyway)?

1000 Needles is always an odd case. Their solution in FFXI was kind of bizarre. At the time BLU was released, 1000 irreducible damage was actually quite powerful, and so they nerfed that spell HARD - it was given a high HP cost, a high equip cost, a very long casting time, and something like a 90% chance of missing. It was kind of hilarious how scared they were of this ability. Naturally, 1000 damage is small potatoes in FFXI now, so the spell is worse than worthless. In this game, honestly, they could either leave it as terrible ability that only ever does 1000 damage, or they could scale it up in various ways (but, ideally, it should at least always deal an amount of damage that is a multiple of 1000).

I don't think that, by saying "If Death was too difficult to implement, we could accept if they didn't include it", is suddenly accepting that they take away everything else that a Blue Mage is. As was said before, even the Blue Magic spells' effects have changed from different FFs and some only appeared in some. Would it be that unreasonable to adapt them to FFXIV and not include everything? You still have a lot of iconic spells that could be included easily as damage dealing spells (with any other properties that they could decide to add for job mechanics), like Goblin Punch, Matra Magic, Aqua Breath, Flamethrower or as support spells, like Angel Whisper (to Raise) and Mighty Guard (to add some defensive buff to the party).

Yeah, this is exactly what I've been saying! BLU can still be BLU without cutting and pasting its mechanics from another FF game. It's not as though those games have been cutting and pasting from each other!

[TheHeavenAbyss]

Why can't it be both? Just have bosses resist the status effects, like they already do from other sources of those status effects.

Yeah, you're right. I just meant it as, if bosses are going to resist most status effects, have it at least leave them with a DoT (like Poison), to still be useful in boss fights (or not, not all skills are useful in a boss fight).

As for 1000 Needles, I'm not sure how it should be implemented. I guess if it dealt a fixed amount of damage it could be useful in lower levels but not higher, but if they added some debuff effect to the skill, it could still make it useful in end game content.