Quote Originally Posted by Reynhart View Post
The collection of spell has always been a staple of BLU, as is the fact that some of them are tied to very specific and challenging targets. You don't have that with job actions.
This depends on how you implement spell learning. A suggestion I wrote long ago involved splitting Blue Magic between lesser spells from monsters that could be learned in the overworld and greater spells that would be learned from job quests (the job quest would involve the monster you'd learn the spell from; i.e a quest where you learn Bad Breath would involve a Marlboro). That said,
A BLM not doing all its job quests is lazy, a BLU not clearing Titania Extreme to learn one spell is not.
The blame for that can be placed on the devs, as they're the ones that decided BLU can learn abilities from primals. It's spectacle that creates an unnecessary hurdle.
Another staple of BLU is its versatility, which would make it hard to balance if it was supposed to be used in the same context as other jobs. Giving a DPS spells like White Wind or Mighty Guard is a problem, as are spells like lvlX Doom.
Looking at the spell lists for FFV, FFVI, FFVII, and FFIX, I wouldn't call BLU versatile. What I would call it is a mage with decent utility ranging from status ailments, some buffs and a singular heal (not counting Strago's access to Transfusion) but focuses on dealing damage. Depending on which game, damage types the other party members don't have access to.

There's nothing that says BLU absolutely has to have LvX Death, Self Destruct (as meme-worthy as that spell is), and a full-effect Bad Breath in order to be considered a proper Blue Mage. The more "unique" spells that have gimmicks (like the ones that involve your level vs the mob's level, random percentages and items in your inventory) aren't mandatory, either.
I'm pretty sure people would have been far more pissed to have BLU as a pure caster DPS and denied most of its versatility. OR would feel betrayed if there was no challenge in Learning the spells and they would be simply given to you by simply leveling.
You're limiting yourself to the system for the other jobs instead of looking beyond that. I mean hell, if I had been asked to implement BLU, the first thing to do would be implementing a unique system for learning abilities, then set up the ability spread for duties, then expand that for content like the Masqued Carnivale so that BLU would be able to run dungeons and raids with a balanced (if limited) kit, and have a million spells at their disposal for the Masqued Carnivale. Best of all is that it'd be easy to explain away by saying "this job stone gives you access to a limited number of abilities out in dungeons, but here at the carnivale we have these beacons that enhance your job stone so you can use a lot more spells".