How Blue Mage Could Exist in FFXIV

[LineageRazor]

Honestly, the takeaway folks should take from this, and just about any other thread regarding new jobs in the game, is that when someone says, "I just don't think BLU would work in a game like this," what they're actually saying is, "I just don't think my own personal vision of what BLU should be would work in a game like this." Yoshi P himself is guilty of this.

All jobs, both those currently in the game and those being speculated about, are different in this game than they are in previous Final Fantasy games - often, drastically different, or missing mechanics that many would consider to be core to the job. WAR as a tank? DRK without self-harm? SMN with just three summons? WHM casting nukes that aren't holy element? (I was amused by the OPs insinuation that RDM without Doublecast would be outrageous - when the ORIGINAL RDM, in Final Fantasy I, lacked this ability! RDM in this game has it, but it certainly didn't HAVE to to be a RDM!)

Without a doubt, Blue Mage can exist in this game. It might not be the Blue Mage you're expecting. It might not be the Blue Mage that you want. But it can certainly work.

As for there not being any useful enemy skills in the game, I used to feel that way, back when I first started. Now I know better - while often subtle, and not much more damaging than a regular auto-attack, just about every monster in the game has at least one signature move they use, and many are ripe for use by Blue Mages. Plenty are not so subtle: for example, the snowball throw used by Zaghnals in Coerthas Western Highland (and other monsters of the same type) would make for a fine ranged aoe nuke. The bellow used by Mammoths could be an aoe stun move. Boss moves aren't even off the table - Amal'ja are summoning Ifrit all the time, so there's no reason a job quest couldn't send us in to Ifrit (Hard) to learn Flamethrower.

And speaking of learning, that may or may not even be an aspect of BLU in this game. It could well be discarded, just as DRK's self-harm was. BLU could learn monster skills just by leveling up, or by "learning" them during job quests as in the Ifrit example above. The latter seems particularly likely, as every BLU that bothered with their job quests would have a full roster of spells, and there'd be no concern about discriminating against them for missing out on one spell or another. At least, no more discrimination than ANY job would face for not doing its job quests.

[ShinShimon]

If Blue Mage ends up having virtually no connection to Blue Mages from past games, then why even have it? Better to have an entirely original class and identity.

[Bright-Flower]

If Blue Mage ends up having virtually no connection to Blue Mages from past games, then why even have it? Better to have an entirely original class and identity.

It can still have connections, it just won't be 'learn your skills by going out into the world and getting hit by monsters.'

It can still have the lore of studying monsters to learn their abilities. And can still draw upon many blue mage spells from past game to fill out its rotation.

[Vahlnir]

If Blue Mage ends up having virtually no connection to Blue Mages from past games, then why even have it? Better to have an entirely original class and identity.

They tend to at least keep the core concepts of a class intact so far. But...

It might not be the Blue Mage you're expecting. It might not be the Blue Mage that you want. But it can certainly work.

Best statement in this thread so far, imo.

[Starcake28]

Most enemies out in the world just have generic 'get out of the orange aoe' attacks.

More interesting attacks are generally reserved for boss fights, or on occasion dungeon mobs the one in Arboretum hard that will transform you. But in general, enemies out in the world in FF XIV lack unique and interesting abilities.

Whether I would like a traditional blue mage or not is irrelevant here, my point isn't that I would dislike it, but that it goes against the design of this game. It wouldn't fit. Every other job goes through changes to fit into FFXIV's strict trinity system mold. If blue mage is added I have no reason to believe they would be a special case, the one job not to bit fit into a tank, healer or dps mold. THey changed Dark Knight. They changed Summoner. They changed black mage, they changed red mage, they will change blue mage if it's added.

So wat if thy change blu long as its close Tht's all i ask i know its going to feel and look different because of fast action but rdm set up is close just the weapon skills r to low thy could hve set thm up right but thy didn't because thy trying to make rdm a range class but i believe thy going to fix it soon

[Starcake28]

Honestly, the takeaway folks should take from this, and just about any other thread regarding new jobs in the game, is that when someone says, "I just don't think BLU would work in a game like this," what they're actually saying is, "I just don't think my own personal vision of what BLU should be would work in a game like this." Yoshi P himself is guilty of this.

All jobs, both those currently in the game and those being speculated about, are different in this game than they are in previous Final Fantasy games - often, drastically different, or missing mechanics that many would consider to be core to the job. WAR as a tank? DRK without self-harm? SMN with just three summons? WHM casting nukes that aren't holy element? (I was amused by the OPs insinuation that RDM without Doublecast would be outrageous - when the ORIGINAL RDM, in Final Fantasy I, lacked this ability! RDM in this game has it, but it certainly didn't HAVE to to be a RDM!)

Without a doubt, Blue Mage can exist in this game. It might not be the Blue Mage you're expecting. It might not be the Blue Mage that you want. But it can certainly work.

As for there not being any useful enemy skills in the game, I used to feel that way, back when I first started. Now I know better - while often subtle, and not much more damaging than a regular auto-attack, just about every monster in the game has at least one signature move they use, and many are ripe for use by Blue Mages. Plenty are not so subtle: for example, the snowball throw used by Zaghnals in Coerthas Western Highland (and other monsters of the same type) would make for a fine ranged aoe nuke. The bellow used by Mammoths could be an aoe stun move. Boss moves aren't even off the table - Amal'ja are summoning Ifrit all the time, so there's no reason a job quest couldn't send us in to Ifrit (Hard) to learn Flamethrower.

And speaking of learning, that may or may not even be an aspect of BLU in this game. It could well be discarded, just as DRK's self-harm was. BLU could learn monster skills just by leveling up, or by "learning" them during job quests as in the Ifrit example above. The latter seems particularly likely, as every BLU that bothered with their job quests would have a full roster of spells, and there'd be no concern about discriminating against them for missing out on one spell or another. At least, no more discrimination than ANY job would face for not doing its job quests.

True he trying to keep damage balance which i understand but doing it like this game will never get better. Thy should add something tht make every player damage be different in game like tht did 11 also let us hide our material melt to jewelry etc

[Bright-Flower]

So wat if thy change blu long as its close Tht's all i ask i know its going to feel and look different because of fast action but rdm set up is close just the weapon skills r to low thy could hve set thm up right but thy didn't because thy trying to make rdm a range class but i believe thy going to fix it soon

The red mage weapon skills seem fine to me. With red mage they had to make changes, most notably reducing the amount of healing etc it can do compared to most games as they made it into a dps job, but I think they did a pretty good job. It helps as well that 'white magic' in this game includes wind and earth magic. Being a mostly ranged job but having the melee combo where we rush in for a three skill melee combo feels like a good way to represent how red mages usually have better weapon selection than other mage jobs in the series, without making it a full time melee job. I have no doubt that SE can capture blue mage well in the abilities and rotation it gets, I just doubt that SE is going to have you learn spells in the traditional way or give blu significantly more customization than any other job in the game.

[Derio]

I don’t see how Blu will be in 5.0 especially when they said they won’t do 3 job expansions anymore.

[Bright-Flower]

I don’t see how Blu will be in 5.0 especially when they said they won’t do 3 job expansions anymore.

We don't know what jobs are coming. If two jobs come in 5.0 one of them could be blue mage.

[Derio]

We don't know what jobs are coming. If two jobs come in 5.0 one of them could be blue mage.

Which would mean we would see 2 new dps jobs this expansion. Which is unfair to the tank and healer population