Blue Mage Confirmed?

[tymora]

Could always just have quests unlock ability slots and have us learn from mobs.

[Gemina]

Could always just have quests unlock ability slots and have us learn from mobs.

Sounds simple enough, right? But it is an entirely different blueprint for class progression in this game. When you boil things down, every class progresses the same way. They all gain abilities at certain levels, bread n butter abilities are gained via class related quests at certain levels. And other classes are leveled to cross applicable abilities into the toolkit.

If classes had individual progression, BLU would fit right in. But everything is wrapped up in a nice little bow, so we either change everything we know about BLU, or change the game to accommodate one class. Which do you think will happen? So when you mention something like ability slots, no class currently uses this. You have to think in terms of how to fit in BLU using the current engine, because that's what the devs are thinking.

BLU under the current engine would learn abilities naturally after hitting a certain level. These wouldn't be monster learned attacks but rather abilities that shape the job into which ever role it is assigned be it tank, healer, or DPS. This would leave its unique, monster learning abilities as specific class quests that will once again be restricted to the role it is intended to be played, and you only get one per quest.

That is not to say that they cannot do something with this that satiates BLU supporters and lovers. I actually think it would be really cool if BLU learned things just like everyone else, and those class specific abilities has you face off against a boss monster to absorb it's signature attack/buff/debuff/heal. White Wind, Bad Breath, All-Guard... You wouldn't get a large list of mob abilities to use, but the ones you do get seriously go a long ways in fulfilling whatever your role is in a group. Add awesome AF and done!

[SpookyGhost]

Sounds simple enough, right? But it is an entirely different blueprint for class progression in this game. When you boil things down, every class progresses the same way. They all gain abilities at certain levels, bread n butter abilities are gained via class related quests at certain levels. And other classes are leveled to cross applicable abilities into the toolkit.

Easy solution would be something I proposed a while ago, make each job quest give you 3+ options for monsters to train on. Then just have the job master (or an assistant) who's able to change the abilities @ 70 without needing to do all the job quests you didn't do. That way BLU feels customizable, has the whole "train off fighting monsters" thing, and you're not locked into your choices leveling up. It's not a perfect solution, but it's an example of how XIV could handle it without making BLU too rigid.

So you guys are ok with a butchered version of BLU so long as it makes it in?

Also tbh I'm not a huge fan of BLU but if they needed to rework Geomancer to fit it in, I'd be happy. :^P

[Jonnycbad]

Problem with learning outside of wuests is the almost 100% chance there will br players in your dungeon/raid who will be like "lol i didnt learn that one yet" and then be totally worthless.

Problem with being customizable is there will be an optimal build and everything else will be crap. Look how "customizable" cross-class skills are, yet there are optimal choices. The best they could do is allow BLU to take on different role settings BLU-tank, BLU-dps, BLU-healer. Maybe different stances depending on which mob type's spells you use or something.

[SpookyGhost]

Problem with learning outside of wuests is the almost 100% chance there will br players in your dungeon/raid who will be like "lol i didnt learn that one yet" and then be totally worthless.

Dunno if this is RE: me, but my proposal was that they're learned within the quests. So, say you're level 30, you pick up a quest and at one point in the quest you're given the option of training on 3 different types of monsters all giving 3 unique spells. This would continue on to 70 and give you a unique job quest chain that allows you to pick and choose what you prefer at the time. Say you feel like you're lacking in AOE damage and one of the monsters gives an AOE spell, you go for that one as opposed to a single target spell or CC. That's a pretty basic example, but hopefully that gives you an idea.

Problem with being customizable is there will be an optimal build and everything else will be crap. Look how "customizable" cross-class skills are, yet there are optimal choices. The best they could do is allow BLU to take on different role settings BLU-tank, BLU-dps, BLU-healer. Maybe different stances depending on which mob type's spells you use or something.

This is a really common misconception, and it stems from XIV being so incredibly linear/vertical that there is literally only 1 BiS set of gear for each job and cross class not being varied enough to allow for actual customization. A really easy example, similar to the one I gave above, is say you're doing dungeons - clearly in this scenario you're going to value AOE damage over single target as the biggest time sink in dungeons is the time spent on trash. However, if you were doing a primal that didn't have a ton of add phases, you'd value single target more. There would be optimal choices for every encounter, sure, but there wouldn't be one universally applicable set of skills for every encounter especially with choices all the way up to 70.

[Laerune]

Just make it so:

1. BLU gets a Copycat/Latch ability at level 30 and to learn the basic BLU skills. With basic, I mean the skills that players would learn from their Class skill-line and not the Job one.
2. Keep Job skills for Job quests.
3. To learn the class skills, players need to learn it from random mobs, this will encourage players exploring the world to learn skills.
4. To help new BLU from dying, give them 3 basic skills to have that is unlocked by getting the job crystal.


This way BLU can be like the BLU that FF players are familiar and can still be a FFXIV version of it.


EDIT: If a BLU gets kicked from a dungeon, because they have not unlocked a certain skill, then this would be the same as a group kicking a tank for not learning provoke. Personaly, I think this will only encourage the BLU players to unlock them all and we all know how gamers love to catch them all.

[MistyMew]

I would never say never when it comes to any ffxi job coming to ffxiv. IF they are wise we will see blu, bst,dnc, etc all eventually make their way into the game regardless of lolore.

Mind you it scares the heck out of me how they would design it. the team is obsessed with ensuring 0 mobility for jobs yet forcing moves every 5 seconds, very slow to react pets, animations>reaction , timers upon timers upon timers and slow combat ;;

But again...you never know. I would LOVE blu here IF done correctly, very much hope it appears one day

[Savagelf]

i love see blu as tank mage Job myself but we have wait and see last years risen they hint on blue mage and red mage .samuria oh my.

[Nalien]

i love see blu as tank mage Job myself but we have wait and see last years risen they hint on blue mage and red mage .samuria oh my.

Tank is the best fit for Blue Mage IMO... For starters, the Job lends itself well to a counter-based tanking style already... Beyond that though, Blue Magic can mostly be buffs, rather than some form of combo or Black Mage style spell casting... It also offers the most variety in utility IMO... OK, it'll never main heal as a tank, but it can still have White Wind for the same reasons Paladin has Clemency and Divine Veil... As a tank it'll likely have some form of stance or stances to toggle between enmity generation and pretending to be a DPS... Tank Blue Mage can have a bit of everything... So could DPS Blue Mage though, but in the same way Summoner has a bit of everything...

[LadyVal]

Traditionally BLU learned their moves either from being hit by an attack, using a special attack on a monster, or from consuming special items, but I don't think any of those systems would work in our game. So I wonder if most pro-BLU players would like a combo with the FF Tactics Advance class Morpher. With that job you had a bank of monsters to draw abilities from and depending on the soul you equipped, you turned into that monster to perform single moves. So when you equipped the Lamia soul, you could use charm and petrify iirc, and when you equipped the Morbol soul you could use Bad Breath.

So I wonder if they could make BLU a fairly standard job, but upon getting the job you could equip (perhaps you got a box of monster soul crystals) a monster soul and that would give you three or four monster abilities. So say you equip a Morbol soul, it makes you immune to poison, lets you inflict poison, and generally gives you dot-based attacks. Or say you equip a Coeurl soul, you can inflict paralysis and use Blaster, or even a Dragon soul to give you cone-AoE attacks.

If the souls being offhand equipment ends up being too difficult to work with, maybe similar to AST cards, you can channel a monster's soul every three minutes. That way you still have a variety to work with, and the class can be balanced like a pet class since they would have so much variety. It's not exactly a traditional BLU but given how the job system works so far, it seems like a workable option to give players the chance to use enemy monster skills and still have a degree of customization and variety, which is what BLU really is about. Not sure if this will be a popular idea but after thinking about it, and how much I enjoyed playing with Quistis and Khimari and the Arcane Gunner in previous FFs, I think it sounds like a pretty fun middle ground between this game's system and traditional BLUs.