Quote Originally Posted by SwordCoheir View Post
They can now, but until a few patches ago they couldn't cast w/o their weapon out, so it's more of a unintended side effect rather than SE actually adjusting the mechanics so mages could gear swap. It still doesn't really give them any advantages and the slow pace of changing gear and being bound hurts them more in the long term. In either case it doesn't diverge from the point they won't go out of their way to fix something like blinking, unless they actually intend on full gear swaps mid-battle becoming a very integral part of the game.
That's not true, you could always cast with your weapon put away. I know because my LS used to hound me about putting my weapon away because I liked the way it looked when I ran with it out.