Would Blue Mage make a good tank?

[Dualgunner]

From what I have come to understand, not being a major Final Fantasy buff myself, the Blue Mage is a class that learns abilities from their enemies and uses them against them.

With that said, if Blue Mage were a tank it feels like they'd be a heavily vengeance-based tank; a lot of abilities that reflect damage like WAR's "Vengeance," but also an ability that maybe works like Jutsu where the command changes based maybe on whether or not the Blue Mage has been hit by a magic or physical, elemental or holy/darkness attack.

It would also be a mage tank, which I also think would be cool.

But I am no game designer, I'm just spitballing ideas ^w^

[Naraku_Diabolos]

It screams DPS. However, BLU could take any given roles. Whether healing, pseudo-tanking, and damage dealing. I think it will be a DPS caster. If that's it, it could still learn abilities. However following the rules from FFXI, you can equip a limited number of spells/attacks at a time. I thought if that were to happen, certain spells/attacks could make it a tank, healer, or DPS when equipped. So it could literally be anything based on what it has equipped. Then again, people will be saying they only want certain sets for endgame...and that's a whole can of worms.

[Dyvid]

Honestly it seems like a job that could do all three roles depending on skills set.

[MiniPrinny]

As far as traditional means of learning Blue Magic, which is getting hit by the ability in question... yes. However, their previous incarnations have lacked in tanking abilities to base the Job on. The two recurring defensive spells Blue Mage has gotten are Mighty Guard and Frog Song. Mighty Guard is taken by the second level tank limit break, while Frog Song would be essentially an interesting looking stun in all likelihood. From the one-off list of abilities...

Flash from FFV: Inflicts Blind (someone has this)
Vampire from FFV: Steals HP (sounds familiar)
Reflect??? from FFVI: Inflicts blind, silence, and slow on all enemies with the reflect status
Force Field from FFVI: Random elemental immunity all allies and enemies
Night from FFIX: Inflicts sleep on all enemies and allies
Absorb from FFX-2: Steals HP (again?!) and MP
Hastebreak from FFTA: Inflicts slow and stop on a single target
Roar from FFTA2: Removals all positive effects on the field (allies and enemies)
Sandstorm from FFTA2: AoE Blind and damage
Eerie Sound Wave from FFTA2: One-Ilm Punch that does no damage

I'm not going to cover Final Fantasy XI's spell list because it is massive, bloated, and full of things we've never seen before or since.

[Dualgunner]

Flash from FFV: Inflicts Blind (someone has this)
Vampire from FFV: Steals HP (sounds familiar)
Reflect??? from FFVI: Inflicts blind, silence, and slow on all enemies with the reflect status
Force Field from FFVI: Random elemental immunity all allies and enemies
Night from FFIX: Inflicts sleep on all enemies and allies
Absorb from FFX-2: Steals HP (again?!) and MP
Hastebreak from FFTA: Inflicts slow and stop on a single target
Roar from FFTA2: Removals all positive effects on the field (allies and enemies)
Sandstorm from FFTA2: AoE Blind and damage
Eerie Sound Wave from FFTA2: One-Ilm Punch that does no damage

Those all sound like they'd be intriguing abilities to play around with, actually. I also like the idea of a lot of skills you learn through the quest being skills you learn by getting your stuffing ripped out by monsters in the quest, but would a single-use skill that is based on the attack you just got hit by be a good ability for a tank?

[Nalien]

Given how Blue Magic traditionally worked, I think Tank is the best role for Blue Mage... They had to get hit by attacks to learn them, that has Tank written all over it.

Not sure how they'd actually work Blue Magic, though... Have the initial quest similar to Heavensward Jobs? So they can just go "You're already Lv50, you've been hit by plenty of attacks already, so you already know these basic Blue Magic spells", then have Job quests work on specific spells to replicate the old learning style of Blue Magic? Perhaps slap Blue Mage with no Cross-Class skills, and instead put Blue Magic in there?

I think it would make a really interesting Tank though... Would be nice to have a more mage based Tank, rather than the heavy armor ones... This game has a real problem with standardizing everything though... Tank gear is VIT/STR, where as something like Blue Mage should have VIT/INT gear, guess they made an odd exception with Ninja though. Honestly, if Dark Knight can be a Tank, then there's no reason Blue Mage can't be... No way we're getting the same overpowered mess XI got, it could fill any role, but it absolutely wont...

[FoxyAreku]

Given how Blue Magic traditionally worked, I think Tank is the best role for Blue Mage... They had to get hit by attacks to learn them, that has Tank written all over it.

Unless they're going to be learning something new from every fight they go to (which lets face it, isn't going to happen in this game), that actually doesn't make sense at all.

If BLU is ever in this game, they will learn skills from class quests mostly, and that'll make it just be a DPS.

[Nalien]

If BLU is ever in this game, they will learn skills from class quests mostly, and that'll make it just be a DPS.

How will that make it a DPS? That's a huge leap in logic, same as mine... It's a Job that could technically do anything...

Blue Mage is a mage Job that (should) learn spells by taking them to the face... It should be tanky as a result... Whether it actively learns them, or just gets them through a quest (which can still simulate taking moves to the face to learn them), it's lore should still be "A mage that takes enemy skills to the face and lives to throw them back", that's Tank material. Or would we prefer another mage that goes out and defeats stuff to learn new skills? Because that's how Summoner works with its (might as well not exist) Egi...

Not sure why people want to turn cool jobs like blue mage, mystic knight, and samurai into a tank. They even wanted ninja to be a tank before it was implemented to the game as a DPS. It's boring, bros.

The concept of a mage Tank is infinitely more interesting than the three heavy armor melee Tanks we've currently got.

There's a list of possible Jobs they could add, and a list they've even suggested... Samurai as a Tank would be thematically no different than Paladin, Warrior or Dark Knight. Red Mage and Blue Mage would make the role a lot more interesting...

They're not going to not add new Tanks... So I'd rather they mix things up... Likewise, I don't want the next Healer to be something standard, I'd rather see something like Dancer fill the role, because that wouldn't be another mage Healer.

Repetition will kill this game, already bad enough with have Bard and Machinist as near-identical Jobs... I'd rather not see Blue Mage go through the same motions as Summoner, and I'd rather not see a new Tank/Healer be near-identical to the current three... Another mage DPS that throws enemy moves at enemies? How is that honestly going to be more impressive than Akh Morn? It isn't. Give me a unique play on the Tanking role instead.

[FoxyAreku]

How will that make it a DPS? That's a huge leap in logic, same as mine... It's a Job that could technically do anything...

Blue Mage is a mage Job that (should) learn spells by taking them to the face... It should be tanky as a result... Whether it actively learns them, or just gets them through a quest (which can still simulate taking moves to the face to learn them), it's lore should still be "A mage that takes enemy skills to the face and lives to throw them back", that's Tank material. Or would we prefer another mage that goes out and defeats stuff to learn new skills? Because that's how Summoner works with its (might as well not exist) Egi...

Because there's no reason for it to be tanky if they are going to learn skills from class quests, the only reason they would need to be tanky would be, as I stated, if they were going to learn a move from every fight they go to. Which...isn't going to happen, as I also said.

Blue mages have always had mostly damage skills, with just a few supporty/healing/buff abilities on the side. DPS just makes the most sense, you don't need to be a full-blown tank to take a few hits...

[Nalien]

Blue mages have always had mostly damage skills, with just a few supporty/healing/buff abilities on the side. DPS just makes the most sense, you don't need to be a full-blown tank to take a few hits...

The concept behind Blue Mage as a Tank is based on counters, though... They could easily have a skill (or more) that directly takes an enemy skill and throws it back at the enemy in real time, and work plenty of similar skills into the Job. Ninjutsu updates based on Mudra combination, we could feasibly have a skill that lets you "absorb" the next special attack, then updates to let you throw that back at the enemy. Rather than dodging Bad Breath, you could take it to the face and throw the animation back in the Malboros face.

If we're sticking to past titles though, turn Warrior and Dark Knight into DPS, because Paladin should be the only Tank, and that's based off a single skill (Cover), since Tanks really didn't exist outside that... We're going to be getting new Tanks either way, there is zero chance we're only getting DPS from here on out, so... Some "established DPS" Jobs are going to become Tanks, I'd rather see something different and unique, like a mage Tank (and Blue Mage beats out Red Mage here, because of the whole Blue Magic thing), than something like Samurai which would just be a rehash of current Tanks. Beastmaster as a pet based Tank is the only other Job I can pick off the top of my head that could work, but if the Rising event is anything to go off, Red Mage, Blue Mage and Samurai are on the table next... Red Mage would be best off as a Healer, since it can retain its White/Black Magic that way, and Samurai as a Tank just strikes me as a great sword wielding Warrior, while Blue Mage would be a less impressive Summoner...