How Blue Mage Could Exist in FFXIV

[Dualgunner]

N
Why be excited about a blue mage that is a blue mage in name only?

Because I'm excited about Red Mage and how they somehow managed to make an amazing job when everyone said that it was impossible to get the job's identity right in the mechanics of FFXIV.

There was another job you wouldn't think would be a tank they made into a tank. I seem to recall its key mechanic being sacrificing HP to power attacks...but they changed it up so it would fit the tank role in XIV, using MP (Blood Gauge later) instead of HP. If they decide to make Blue Mage a tank I'm all for it. If not then we'll see what else they come up with.

[Nixxe]

Because I'm excited about Red Mage and how they somehow managed to make an amazing job when everyone said that it was impossible to get the job's identity right in the mechanics of FFXIV.

There was another job you wouldn't think would be a tank they made into a tank. I seem to recall its key mechanic being sacrificing HP to power attacks...but they changed it up so it would fit the tank role in XIV, using MP (Blood Gauge later) instead of HP. If they decide to make Blue Mage a tank I'm all for it. If not then we'll see what else they come up with.

So basically you aren't interested in an actual blue mage and are just so giddy over the idea of some random class called a blue mage being included that you'll happily take whatever is dumped in front of you.

[Kazrah]

Hm. Cool ideas, though I'd say the swashbuckler aspect has been swiped by RDM.

Not as much as you'd think, mostly because pirates and anyone using cutlass-style or tulwar-style blades never used the formal fencing style used by RDM.

We would just have to realize this isn't like 11 or the single player games, if you want BLU, know your skills are already set in stone of when and how you learn em.

This is pretty much what I was getting at with how Blue Mage would learn spells in FFXIV. Cutscenes to show the character getting hit by the monster ability, then getting images of how the monster uses the ability and then using that same ability against the monster. As for the Bad Breath example, I think I had it as an cone-based dot effect because it needed something extra in the AoE damage department.

So basically you aren't interested in an actual blue mage and are just so giddy over the idea of some random class called a blue mage being included that you'll happily take whatever is dumped in front of you.

It's called readaptation, because if devs followed your standards of logic, then we'd never have anymore new jobs.


As for everyone else, thank you so much for your suggestions! I'll definitely keep working on the concept with at least the majority of them in mind.

[LineageRazor]

So basically you aren't interested in an actual blue mage and are just so giddy over the idea of some random class called a blue mage being included that you'll happily take whatever is dumped in front of you.

It all depends on what you consider to be core to Blue Mage.

In my opinion, as long as it's a job that learns monster abilities and uses them as a core mechanic, it's a Blue Mage. The specifics of HOW they learn them are VERY flexible. With those requirements, it would be EASY to fit a Blue Mage into this game.

Others have a MUCH longer list of requirements for Blue Mage, many of which are specific to only a few or even just one of the other games in the franchise. Some insist that a BLU must be struck by the ability to learn it (this shows up in some FF games, but notably not VIII, XI, X, or XI). Some insist Blue must have hundreds of skills of which you can equip only a limited number at a time (this trait is unique to ONLY FFXI BLU). Some insist that you must be in combat with the monster to learn the spell (this was not a requirement in VIII; you could acquire the blue magic item without Quistis in combat and feed it to her later). Some say that learning a spell should be up to RNG - that you only have a CHANCE to learn, even if the mob uses the spell (this is found in only XI, and arguably VIII since the blue magic item only has a chance of dropping).

BLUs have a rich and varied history in Final Fantasy. The core nature of their job has never changed, but the implementation has changed, often radically, from game to game. It would have its own implementation and identity in FFXIV, as well; whether that implementation will suit your tastes depends a lot on what you believe is essential to a Blue Mage. Just be aware that what you consider to be essential is not necessarily what others do - and if what you consider to be essential is flat-out incompatible with the way jobs are implemented in this game, well, you will be disappointed. Frankly, though, your being disappointed is a small price to pay if the alternative is to leave BLU out of the game entirely.

[Wildsprite]

So basically you aren't interested in an actual blue mage and are just so giddy over the idea of some random class called a blue mage being included that you'll happily take whatever is dumped in front of you.

I had a response to this typed up but the response from LineageRazor words it better than I did

[ADVSS]

You're reading into it what you want to see.



This is a cloth outfit. There's nothing tanky about it.

Point made, esp considering Strago of the next installment definately

Personally however they fit it in I'd be ok with both camps making it a tank would be unique if they went with the gets hit learns aspect

Doing the kill monster to get its power would be okay too if they want to do the caster dps route

or even the fabled melee caster route by absorbing the enemies essence over time

any of these id be fine with

I am glad that RDM turned out this good I was expecting less. As stated before this makes me a little more confident that they could pull a BLU off well enough however they wanted to do it

[Claire_Pendragon]

Why would it be a tank? It was a slightly more resilient caster. That's it. If you put it in the front row to soak hits with your warrior, you were doing it wrong.

If it wasnt getting hit by the blue magic, it wasnt learning magic.
If you had it only in the back row, then you ran out of MP solely casting, rather than meleeing to save on MP when you can.
(If you kill something in a single hit with a melee strike, there's no reason to waste MP unless you need to, or it saved u MP in healing, in cases like AoE, or enemies requiring more than 1 hit to kill, and you aim for their elemental weakness.)
This also applied to RDM.
Why people bothered to cast spells on RDM, outside of healing between fights, is beyond me. It's just easier to melee. (Even more so in RDM case, when they cant AoE, but BLU commonly had potent AoEs for early/mid levels)

Also dont know why you wouldnt use mighty guard as BLU either.

But imo, the only way to both give heals/buffs/dmg/ranged/aoe to a single class, w/o either being broken, or discouraging them from using only 1 type of spell, is to be a tank.
RDM is discouraged from using cures, since it is a DPS loss for its intended role. (obviously fine in easy content)
Healers are going to be using heals more, and with the current changes, they will be doing less dmg, except in easier content, or when there are 2 healers.

PLD has ranged nukes, AoE spells, Single target and AoE weapon skills, self heals, and buffs.
It can pretty much already play like a BLU, except its self cures are a detriment to its ability to tank outside of easy content.

(which is why I'd personally change how White Wind works, so it wouldnt be a DPS loss, or liek DRKs blackest Night, at least have a means to make up for its DPS loss, with a "Catch up" mechanic)

[Nixxe]

It all depends on what you consider to be core to Blue Mage.

In my opinion, as long as it's a job that learns monster abilities and uses them as a core mechanic, it's a Blue Mage. The specifics of HOW they learn them are VERY flexible. With those requirements, it would be EASY to fit a Blue Mage into this game.

Others have a MUCH longer list of requirements for Blue Mage, many of which are specific to only a few or even just one of the other games in the franchise. Some insist that a BLU must be struck by the ability to learn it (this shows up in some FF games, but notably not VIII, XI, X, or XI). Some insist Blue must have hundreds of skills of which you can equip only a limited number at a time (this trait is unique to ONLY FFXI BLU). Some insist that you must be in combat with the monster to learn the spell (this was not a requirement in VIII; you could acquire the blue magic item without Quistis in combat and feed it to her later). Some say that learning a spell should be up to RNG - that you only have a CHANCE to learn, even if the mob uses the spell (this is found in only XI, and arguably VIII since the blue magic item only has a chance of dropping).

BLUs have a rich and varied history in Final Fantasy. The core nature of their job has never changed, but the implementation has changed, often radically, from game to game. It would have its own implementation and identity in FFXIV, as well; whether that implementation will suit your tastes depends a lot on what you believe is essential to a Blue Mage. Just be aware that what you consider to be essential is not necessarily what others do - and if what you consider to be essential is flat-out incompatible with the way jobs are implemented in this game, well, you will be disappointed. Frankly, though, your being disappointed is a small price to pay if the alternative is to leave BLU out of the game entirely.

FFV introduced blue mages and provides the framework for them. They are casters that learn mob abilities through getting punched in the face by them and half of the fun of blue mage is trying to figure out what can and can't be learned and then coming up with creative uses to do wonky and sometimes broken stuff. Anything else, whatever you call it, is not a blue mage. I really couldn't care less what other people think. They're free to be wrong as they continue to ask for something more akin to a feral black mage than a true blue mage.

If it wasnt getting hit by the blue magic, it wasnt learning magic.
If you had it only in the back row, then you ran out of MP solely casting, rather than meleeing to save on MP when you can.
(If you kill something in a single hit with a melee strike, there's no reason to waste MP unless you need to, or it saved u MP in healing, in cases like AoE, or enemies requiring more than 1 hit to kill, and you aim for their elemental weakness.)
This also applied to RDM.
Why people bothered to cast spells on RDM, outside of healing between fights, is beyond me. It's just easier to melee. (Even more so in RDM case, when they cant AoE, but BLU commonly had potent AoEs for early/mid levels)

Also dont know why you wouldnt use mighty guard as BLU either.

But imo, the only way to both give heals/buffs/dmg/ranged/aoe to a single class, w/o either being broken, or discouraging them from using only 1 type of spell, is to be a tank.
RDM is discouraged from using cures, since it is a DPS loss for its intended role. (obviously fine in easy content)
Healers are going to be using heals more, and with the current changes, they will be doing less dmg, except in easier content, or when there are 2 healers.

PLD has ranged nukes, AoE spells, Single target and AoE weapon skills, self heals, and buffs.
It can pretty much already play like a BLU, except its self cures are a detriment to its ability to tank outside of easy content.

(which is why I'd personally change how White Wind works, so it wouldnt be a DPS loss, or liek DRKs blackest Night, at least have a means to make up for its DPS loss, with a "Catch up" mechanic)

Getting punched in the face doesn't make them a tank. As I said earlier, they were only slightly more resilient casters. They weren't going to soak hits like your warrior.

[Kazrah]

Also dont know why you wouldnt use mighty guard as BLU either.

Probably because Mighty Guard is already implemented in the game as the tank 2-bar Limit Break. I'll give some time to let people go look that up.

[ADVSS]

Probably because Mighty Guard is already implemented in the game as the tank 2-bar Limit Break. I'll give some time to let people go look that up.

Yes but Final heaven used to be all melee lb, then every job got its own level 3, also phlegathron from LoTa used to have a different name, et al. SE has been known to change names whenever they feel like it. I think they even changed a couple monsters names before