How would a Blue Mage work in XIV?

[RyuDragnier]

Oh you people...it'd be easy for Blue Mage to work. Each class quest for it would require you to go into a different dungeon and finish it for a different move learned within. Level 30 Haukke Manor? You learn Dark Mist. Level 35 Sunken Temple? You learn Killer Sting. Level 40 Cutter's Cry? White Wind. Level 45 Dzamael Darkhold? Eye Laser. Level 50 Wanderer's Palace? Chef's Knife.

Or something like that, you get the point. Each completed dungeon = one skill seen often within (either from boss or normal mobs) learned. If they really wanted to go crazy with it, every single dungeon from Haukke Manor on (excluding hard mode dungeons) would have a different skill to learn.

[Gormogon]

It's possible in this system but the thing is that unless it can stand up to the classic feel of Blue Mages aesthetically.

/rant on.

Depending on design it can become lackluster and unappreciated for the old FF gamers. Kinda like how currently SMN isn't that visually appealing. People will play the job and they will have unique individual reasons for doing so. That's a given for sure but for everyone else that "might" have looked forward to the job it would be the difference between making it a main or not.

I've passed up on Paladin, Dragoon, and SMN because of the direction it took. No holy on Paladin is a major question mark for me since that's what has made the job stand out for me from previous titles. I prefer Lancer and Arcanist to their job forms because the job abilities are just unappealing.

Hoping that the expansion introduces sub jobs, not cross-class, and Paladins can get access to Holy.

/rant off

Blue Mage can be easily done as a job.

The first ability being Lancet which will help define Blue Mage as a job.

Lancet: Delivers an attack with 150 potency. Additional Effect: Absorb an opponents ability and convert 20% of the damage as MP/TP.

This ability can be tone down to category specific based on the bestiary. Such as Ashkin, Beastkin, Cloudkin, Forgekin, Scalekin, Seedskin, Soulkin, Spoken, Vilekin, Voidsent, Wavekin.

2 examples to give a general idea.
Attacking an Ashkin will give you the ability Malice: Call forth negative energy, damaging and silencing targets within an area of effect.
Attacking a Beastkin will give you the ability Reckless Charge:Rush headlong into foes, dealing blunt damage.

From there the next 3 job abilities you learn are from monsters that exist in Eorzea and 1 ability to boost the affect of those abilities and call it Convergence.

Bomb: Self-destruct: Sacrifice remaining HP to deal damage to nearby targets. Additional Effect: Leave 1 HP.
Cactuar 1,000 Needles: Deals 1000 damage divided among targets in range. Additional Effect: Applies poison for 15 seconds.
Chimeras The Lion's Breath: Breath forth Fire, damaging foes in a frontal cone. Additional Effect: Applies burn for 8 seconds and reduces healing.

Yet with the way FFXIV has been going about it I wonder what direction they will take this. Yet I'm not getting my hopes up.

[Espon]

Don't see how they couldn't make it work.

What they could do is make it a class that you can only unlock after reaching level 50, has no job attached to it, and no access to cross skills. This would give them full access to the world to seek out new skills and not make it quite a pain to level as it cannot be your first class.

Blue Mages will not learn any new skills while levelling up (aside from like a "Watch" skill to learn stuff) and the level requirements for dungeons can help limit them on what they can use early on. It would be up to the player to seek out enemies around their level that might have a possible skill to learn.

Skills don't have to be exact replicas of what monsters do in order to keep them balanced.

[Tupsi]

Don't see how they couldn't make it work.

Well...let's break it down?

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/B...l_Fantasy_V%29
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Blue_Bullet
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/B...ics_Advance%29
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/B...8Tactics_A2%29
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mage#Spell_List
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mage/Job_Traits (Setting spell combos give Blue Mages their traits)

Now, do you see a problem when you think about FFXIV ARR's battle system? Look at XI alone - The way they broke it down was allow you to set x amount of skills at a time, but the common theme with Blue Mage is Buff/Debuff and certain iconic spells like White Wind and 1000 Needles. Blue Mage most certainly wouldn't be like a Final Fantasy Blue mage if introduced.

Skills don't have to be exact replicas of what monsters do in order to keep them balanced.

They never are - In every FF game it's always nerfed down in varying degrees. In FFV, some are exact replicas though. It's just....as of FFXI Blue Mage is far too complex of a mage job to truly be introduced into such a simplistic battle system, the system is even more simplistic than older FF Games. They really have to change the battle system in order for something like Blue Mage to work if it's to resemble the Blue Mage we even know of. Issue is the limited skill count which will go higher as level cap raises, sure, but what base class would Blue Mage be that still makes it a Blue Mage? What job 5-7 job skills would make it a Blue Mage?

[Espon]

Well...let's break it down?

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/B...l_Fantasy_V%29
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Blue_Bullet
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/B...ics_Advance%29
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/B...8Tactics_A2%29
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mage#Spell_List
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mage/Job_Traits (Setting spell combos give Blue Mages their traits)

Now, do you see a problem when you think about FFXIV ARR's battle system? Look at XI alone - The way they broke it down was allow you to set x amount of skills at a time, but the common theme with Blue Mage is Buff/Debuff and certain iconic spells like White Wind and 1000 Needles. Blue Mage most certainly wouldn't be like a Final Fantasy Blue mage if introduced.



They never are - In every FF game it's always nerfed down in varying degrees. In FFV, some are exact replicas though. It's just....as of FFXI Blue Mage is far too complex of a mage job to truly be introduced into such a simplistic battle system, the system is even more simplistic than older FF Games. They really have to change the battle system in order for something like Blue Mage to work if it's to resemble the Blue Mage we even know of. Issue is the limited skill count which will go higher as level cap raises, sure, but what base class would Blue Mage be that still makes it a Blue Mage? What job 5-7 job skills would make it a Blue Mage?

No, I'm not seeing a problem. You're just linking a while bunch blue mage stuff from games with turn-based combat systems.

And I already suggested they wouldn't have a base; who says they need to follow the style of the other 9 jobs? All it needs is to be able to learn the abilities it needs to be able to fulfill its duty properly, which they could obtain from the various enemies with learnable abilities. Not every skill has to be available to them, either.

[Tupsi]

No, I'm not seeing a problem. You're just linking a while bunch blue mage stuff from games with turn-based combat systems.

And I already suggested they wouldn't have a base; who says they need to follow the style of the other 9 jobs? All it needs is to be able to learn the abilities it needs to be able to fulfill its duty properly, which they could obtain from the various enemies with learnable abilities. Not every skill has to be available to them, either.

Not every skill is available to any Blue Mage in FF history - That's why I linked those, if you chose to click you would know that Blue Mage isn't really "pin pointed" towards an exact role since their main efficiency comes with having sometimes unique abilities not found with any other class whether it's a melee type or a mage type. Who's to say it'd be like the others? It kind of has to fit into the battle system and unless Blue Mage comes after major revisions to the system, very rarely does an MMO introduce a class that plays COMPLETELY different from anything that already existed, especially this type of MMO.

That's why I said look at XI alone, because it's the perfect example of "playing differently", because it had it's own interface and it was purely built around the spell set you chose. While there's a "preferred build", you don't naturally gain traits or skills as you level. This game uses the "armoury system", so it does kind of have to follow the pattern, otherwise you said exactly what the number 1 issue is: They would have to do something different in order to work.

[Espon]

It kind of has to fit into the battle system and unless Blue Mage comes after major revisions to the system, very rarely does an MMO introduce a class that plays COMPLETELY different from anything that already existed, especially this type of MMO.

You do play this game, right? Why do bards do damage with a bow? Why is Thunder a DoT and not a nuke? Why are Scholars now a healer pet class?

That's why I said look at XI alone, because it's the perfect example of "playing differently", because it had it's own interface and it was purely built around the spell set you chose. While there's a "preferred build", you don't naturally gain traits or skills as you level. This game uses the "armoury system", so it does kind of have to follow the pattern, otherwise you said exactly what the number 1 issue is: They would have to do something different in order to work.

Again, what's the problem? Why would it be impossible for them to add a system where you learn skills from enemies instead of when levelling up? I doubt they hard-coded the game to work that way.

[Seif]

What's basically hard for many to understand is that the different playstyle they're hoping for a new job to bring will be mostly just another visual skin over the existing roles.

Personally I don't have strong feelings for new jobs either way.

It's good that they add stuff because people want it but will it really bring anything new to the game besides slower developement. ( pvp balance, all levels of gear and added need for more weapons in each future patch from now until the end of arr)

I just feel like there's very little they can do in the form of new jobs that won't feel like a disappointment.
Having said that some jobs fit better the "only 3 real roles" format than others.

[Duelle]

Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but someone suggested using Khimari as a base for XIV's version of BLU. I went more the way of flayer => Blue Mage taking a similar approach to my RDM concept.

[Sub-Xero]

Step 1: Add "true" support classes to the game.
Step 2: Turn four-man content into at least five-man content with the additional slot(s) set for support classes.
Step 3: Add BLU as a support class.

That's about the only way I could see Blue Mage working in this game.