How Blue Mage Could Exist in FFXIV

[Claire_Pendragon]

With Blu. The class quests could be instanced fights against mobs you learn moves from. That's not an issue. The issue people bring up is "customization" doesn't really work in this game. So how about this. Blu as dps. Most of your class quests end up teaching you 2 different moves under two different skill trees. Each skill tree is only open under a certain stance. One stance is better at single target dps and are mostly weapon skills. The other stance better at aoe and party support/buff and is more caster based. Switching between the two stances could be either like AST (battle locked) or like clerics.

besides the "Jack of all trades" style, It's better to save that for RDM, so I've pretty much said similar to what you said. But more so "Melee vs Ranged"

We have Combo using melee builds, Ranged casters, and ranged casters with support.

Simply equip abilities u want to use, and they have stacking bonuses, so that you'd be encouraged to pick 1 style of build, but enough customization you can have a few ranged on melee, or in reverse, for situational use.
(If you make a range build, and have a melee DoT, which has great potency,you'd use it if you're in melee range, but you wont always use it for example)

Lastly, single target vs AoE, I'd imagine the ranged support build better for AoE, as it would require the teams DPS to contribute to the overall dmg, while doing mainly AoE attacks. (As similar to what you said, if not exact)