Blue mage is a waste of potential, change my mind.

[Auryan]

I think at this point, Square Enix should make a poll on the Lodestone website and put up a vote and ask the community itself. Should Blue Mage remain a limited job? Or should it be converted to a normal job? Along with an explanation of the implications of both paths. Sometimes, it's best to see what the community thinks collectively to see how to proceed forward. They did this before during A Realm Reborn about unreleased job classes. I don't see why they can't do it again.

It would be a largely useless poll. They have stated that they aren't interested in BLU (and several others) as a standard job, nor would they even entertain the ridiculous suggestion that BLU can be all of the above like so many armchair game designers keep bringing up.

They don't have to change direction for BLU at all. They have not once called BLU anything other than a success. Why would they even attempt to change something that they a) are continuously supporting and b) has been worth the investment?

[Volsungr]

I think it's fun and I enjoy the comedy of it. Also doing a full blu run of Syrcus Tower was pretty epic and while it was difficult, it was also rewarding. I think the reason BLU is so 'limited' was because for it to be a real contender it would have to lose some of what makes it unique to make it a viable job for current content. There's no real rhythm to it. Just... Bristle/Whistle + skill, DoT, ad infinitum. I think in the end it would end up like Redmage: a job that's a mix of two that we already have. Yay.

It could be better but I'm enjoying what there is so far. At the very least blu log encourages PF parties for full blu clears. Those are always fun. Carnival is meh for me. I wish less of the spells were locked behind it.

I highlighted the part where i think is one of the potential of making blue a real job, and i think that's one of many point that OP trying to make. it's functioning perfectly in normal dungeon/alliance raids/savage raids, we even have achievement for doing so, they definitely can be tuned potency and skill wise to cater to normal team composition, and it's overall very fun to play with.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

How would Blue Mage reasonably be turned into a real job, though? What about people who queue for content while, hypothetically, only having Water Cannon or a few other similarly useless spells? What about the aggro abilities Blue Mage has that could possibly interfere with what a Tank is doing? What about spells like Missile, Launcher, Level 5 Death, etc.?

[Auryan]

How would Blue Mage reasonably be turned into a real job, though? What about people who queue for content while, hypothetically, only having Water Cannon or a few other similarly useless spells? What about the aggro abilities Blue Mage has that could possibly interfere with what a Tank is doing? What about spells like Missile, Launcher, Level 5 Death, etc.?

According to some posters, they're going add all of the essentials in and around the starting areas. You know, the devs have nothing better to do than adding boss abilities to some random lvl 4 trash mob, as they are wont to do. And who can forget about making things mandatory in order to have access to DF, because people just love that and totally won't ignore the only job with these restrictions.

[JiSH]

How would Blue Mage reasonably be turned into a real job, though? What about people who queue for content while, hypothetically, only having Water Cannon or a few other similarly useless spells? What about the aggro abilities Blue Mage has that could possibly interfere with what a Tank is doing? What about spells like Missile, Launcher, Level 5 Death, etc.?

Personally i just want Blue Mage as a Caster DPS, no tanking or healing shenanigans. For me it's okay to just cut down the job fantasy and accuracy(compared to other Blue Mage iteration), and make it a streamlined like other FFXIV job, as i just want a functional job. Though i want the current skill system to be completely rehauled to be streamlined, if you've played Blue Mage for a while before you know Water Cannon is not Blue Mage's main GCD, but Sonic Boom, which makes the Job kind of like Healer which spams one skill while pressing OGCDs when they're up. As for skills like Missile, Launcher, Lv 5 Death, etc. personally i'm okay with them to be just cut out from the skill pool completely, or just nerf them to make them usable.

[Volsungr]

According to some posters, they're going add all of the essentials in and around the starting areas. You know, the devs have nothing better to do than adding boss abilities to some random lvl 4 trash mob, as they are wont to do. And who can forget about making things mandatory in order to have access to DF, because people just love that and totally won't ignore the only job with these restrictions.

essentials like basic GCD won't hurt though. They can make it like, for example our basic GCD was taught by Martyn. then after certain level Martyn taught us that we can learn from monsters, yadda yadda. They really don't have to make the whole limited jobs system with its own exclusive contents if they are not interested. This whole thing feels like they are trying to do it half-assedly just because people were asking for it. might as well delete it altogether to shave off some expense if it were to be the case and just spend the budget elsewhere, IMHO. the fact that we've been getting only 2 new jobs and rarely new race after heavensward speaks volume that they spend too much resources on said matters.

[Alysella]

How would Blue Mage reasonably be turned into a real job, though? What about people who queue for content while, hypothetically, only having Water Cannon or a few other similarly useless spells? What about the aggro abilities Blue Mage has that could possibly interfere with what a Tank is doing? What about spells like Missile, Launcher, Level 5 Death, etc.?

They can add trials that you can only clear with certain skillsets that you acquired. So for example. To be able to queue as a tank , you should only be able to complete the tank trial which require tanking skills. Same with healer and dps roles. They also need to change some skills so it can fit into the party

[Volsungr]

They can add trials that you can only clear with certain skillsets that you acquired. So for example. To be able to queue as a tank , you should only be able to complete the tank trial which require tanking skills. Same with healer and dps roles. They also need to change some skills so it can fit into the party

I think this suggestion is a bit counterintuitive because that means they have to develop another system for every dungeon/trials. It's a shame that there is no workaround that except to have Blu mage gets their monster skill after reaching certain level, much like other job's "Job Quest" skills. Until today we still have people with general jobs who aren't performing as expected in dungeons and trials, some don't do job quests, queueing as Class instead of Jobs on high level dungeon, etc. So it's not just blue problem anymore, it boils down to the player if that's the case.

[Alysella]

I think this suggestion is a bit counterintuitive because that means they have to develop another system for every dungeon/trials. It's a shame that there is no workaround that except to have Blu mage gets their monster skill after reaching certain level, much like other job's "Job Quest" skills. Until today we still have people with general jobs who aren't performing as expected in dungeons and trials, some don't do job quests, queueing as Class instead of Jobs on high level dungeon, etc. So it's not just blue problem anymore, it boils down to the player if that's the case.

Or they can just give you the basic skills that you need for each role in the beginning like tank stance, basic heal since they already gave us basic dps skill. You can get more advanced skills from trials and raids. Because from what you said, its more to the player itself instead of the class flaw.

[Mariel_Crystallie]

Or they can just give you the basic skills that you need for each role in the beginning like tank stance, basic heal since they already gave us basic dps skill. You can get more advanced skills from trials and raids. Because from what you said, its more to the player itself instead of the class flaw.

this sounds more plausible IMHO, at its roots and based on previous iteration of final fantasy, blue mage is a versatile class. so giving players choice at the start gives some fresh air to the game. they've done it with smn sch so no reason they can't do it again.