How would a Blue Mage work in XIV?

[Prototype909]

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.

Don't forget that adding new Egis for summoner will be very difficult because any Egi that doesn't live up to the standard set by Garuda will be ignored and any that are better than that will cause Garuda to be ignored. They've backed themselves into a corner with a lot of the class/combat design decisions such as removing elemental resistances.

Removing a true support role from the game's make-up makes adding many jobs either unviable or would change their core identity leaving people feeling gipped (Bard being a DPS with the songs as an afterthought).

[Garlyle]

It wouldn't be difficult for them to implement a Blue Mage into the game, but in its current hyper-structred nature of character development, I fear would never even come close to feeling like a Blue Mage.

That aside though, every new class needs to A. fit into the DPS/Tank/Healer triad (sadly), and B. needs to also cover a gameplay variant/focus that isn't yet covered.

Maybe, maybe I could see it filling a niche as an AoE-focused DPS design - getting a variety of skills seen throughout the game's content that uses the same kind of AoEs that monsters use. Sacrificing single-target DPS for high AoE coverage and a little bit of supportive abilities. There have been suggestions about learning the moves over job quests, but I still feel like it'd almost be too 'fixed' - when one of the traditional aspects of Blue Mage is its versatility and the feeling like you control its growth and capabilities.

But I stlil don't think I'd necessarily want it, because I have a feeling it'd be honestly more just like something else flavoured as a Blue Mage, instead of actually a Blue Mage. A pale imitation. And that'd be... disappointing >:

[Grey_Cain]

As a class, Blue Mage would have all the slots it needs to have all of the iconically named abilities, and little else. It would just be for nostalgia and not a real job. That being said, I'm sure a fully-formed Class version where you have to Learn each ability instead of just having it handed to you would be a lot more popular than a limited/random Job version.

As a job, Blue Mage can work the same way that Mimic would work (replace Learn with Mimic): Learn the ability somehow (just about every implementation of Blue Mage has had a different way of learning Blue Mage spells), once an ability is learned have Learn replaced by the ability for X amount of time (10 seconds at most), use the ability, lose the ability and get Learn back. The other four abilities would just be either enhancements or a few iconically named abilities (Healing Wind, Mighty Guard, Goblin Punch, Aquabreath, etc.) that don't function like they do in other games. Learnable abilities would be limited, of course, and the other abilities should be able to cover for enemies that don't use learnable abilities.

No matter how you cut it, though, Blue Mage will be DPS. Blue Mage's focus has always been (throughout the entire series) primarily damage-dealing/debuffing with some off-heals and off-buffs.

[Synra]

How will they implement a blue mage in this game?

If SMN is any example, then you can expect BLU to be nothing like what you expect from previous games. The BLU will probably be a Job based off THM, so expect to get the same Astral Fire / Umbral Ice gameplay as the current BLM has. The BLU will get only 3 or 4 "blue mage" spells, but they will be earned in the class quests, not from the traditional method.

You can also forget about abilities like "Level 5 Doom". No way they will give players those type of powers.