BLU as an "Unlimited" Job - Thoughts and Suggestions

[Factoree]

A lot of people have expressed that it would really suck not to be able to pull off those crazy spells BLU is known for. At the same time, though, if a BLU can just use those all the time they sort of lose their impact or otherwise be seriously broken. With that in mind I had something of an idea for a mechanic that could help tie things together for a balanced version of BLU.

Indulge me by engaging in some class fantasy:
As a user of blue magic, you wield a highly unique set of spells. Cherry-picking the best from your foes and wielding them as your own source of strength, you chain them together in ways other mages wouldn’t dream of. By applying a Blue Mage's intuition and ingenuity, you combine those seemingly disparate pieces into an art, a sum greater than the whole of its parts. FFXIV's blue magic synergies foreshadow a much greater sense of cohesion between blue magic spells that only a master can see: applying the innovative spirit of the Spoken to the curious magicks of nature itself, you can engineer the abilities never meant for man and use them better than even the beasts you learned them from. Through clever modifications of the underlying aetheric manipulation, you can ignore the costs of inefficient spells, cast lengthy incantations in a flash, and shrug off the side effects of reckless magic.

To give the gist first, my idea is basically this: a Blue Mage can have access to an array of extra powerful Blue Magic without necessarily having it be practical to use all the time.

Put heavy costs on those spells (high MP costs, severe cast times, or drawback side effects ala Moon Flute or Overheat) while making them very powerful. Naturally it's going to be no fun if you don't get to mix those spells into your combat style, so we have a mechanic: try to get around the limitations of those spells. I envision this working by using other blue magic to build toward one of three metamagicks: Focus, Haste, or Wisdom. The Focus metamagick lowers the MP cost of your next blue magic spell by a large percentage. The Haste metamagick cuts cast times to a quarter (or some other fraction). Finally, the Wisdom metamagick prevents the “recoil” effects of spells from going off.

By utilizing the right blue magic in succession or pulling off spell combos, you can fish for certain metamagick procs and use them for those spells that, while strong, might not be the most efficient use of your resources otherwise. I’m hoping this could be a nice way to include powerful, memorable versions of such spells such as White Wind, Mighty Guard (if it functioned more like a defensive cooldown than a tank stance), Beta, Trine and so on without letting it become overbearingly powerful.

I also think this would be a neat sort of parallel to the Red Mage: where the Red Mage uses very measured, efficient spells to make the most of their own aether, the Blue Mage could embrace the quirks of nature’s magic and work around them.

[Kalise]

A lot of people have expressed that it would really suck not to be able to pull off those crazy spells BLU is known for. At the same time, though, if a BLU can just use those all the time they sort of lose their impact or otherwise be seriously broken.

Well, if you compare it to the current combo that people actually use which is Ram's Voice > Dragon's Voice. That's not particularly hard to pull off especially given the complete lack of CD's on any BLU skills. If anything my suggestions makes combo's rarer (Because CD's) but usable on bosses.

Not to mention, you can still have crazy combos. For example, if you got some really strong skills with long CD's that need multiple elements on a target to get their combo effect. Or you can have some unique elemental debuffs that only have a chance to be applied when you use certain skills.

An example would be if BLU could access skills such as Void Fire, Void Lightning and other Voidsent skills and each of them only had a chance to apply the "Void" element which would be used for some powerful combo effects.

This isn't to mention other combos that could be created for non-direct damage spells. For example, what if there was a buff you had that could be consumed to empower Bristle? What if there was a combo you could do that would consume Moon Flute and bypass its Waning Nocturne debuff (Perhaps giving a damage buff to allies in the process, so that it resembles actual Moon Flute in previous games that would cast Berserk on an ally)?

>Makes blue unique because its not allowed in currrent content
>People want blue because its unique
>Literarly ignoring that as a proper job it would be more of a turret/buff snooze job then Black

you cant make that shit up

>Literally ignoring the fact that the only "Unique" thing about BLU is their learning system and that their combat isn't particularly unique
>Also ignoring the fact that BLU can quite easily pushed in a certain playstyle direction because their skills give them various aspects of potential unique playstyles

Like, you say that as a proper job BLU would be a turret like Black. But already many BLU skills are Cone/PBAoE's that means BLU would have to get up close with the mDPS in order to use them. They also have different radii on their skills, meaning they have to move around (Especially with Dragon's Voice which has a deadzone up close)

Right now they're a turret job because they lack any sort of mechanics or sense of direction (Also, any additional DPS skills are tied behind RNG Dungeon/Trials), so the best play is to spam one of the highest potency skills you have 24/7, to which Glower has the best range to do so.

If you actually have all of the skills on BLU, your rotation is more complex. Bristle > Off-Guard > Song of Torment as an opener as well as what you want to refresh every 30s. Then you have your Ram's Voice > Dragon's Voice for trash. With also Eruption, Static Strike and Glass Dance oGCD skills to weave in.

But just because not only are these skills not readily available to everyone and also because the content they can access doesn't demand them, BLU ends up being mostly Glower spam after leveling up with 1000 Needles spam.

Thus actually becoming a "Proper Job" would make them more interesting to play because as a "Proper Job" it would necessitate these skills becoming more accessible and thus more people would then have access to BLU's full rotation as well as content that demands it.