How Blue Mage Could Exist in FFXIV

[Souji_Lashtail]

As a thought for the whip as a weapon, FFXIV has one big advantage over most MMOs. Canned animation. They use the same set of motions repeated, so adding a whip might be a little easier than in, say, DCU

[Kazrah]

As a thought for the whip as a weapon, FFXIV has one big advantage over most MMOs. Canned animation. They use the same set of motions repeated, so adding a whip might be a little easier than in, say, DCU

They have that for emotes and non-combat classes (all linked with PLD animations), but jobs all have predominantly attack animations exclusive to themselves. The other thing to factor in is not just the character animation, but the motion of the weapon as well.

Also, DCUO has far more canned animation than FFXIV, and what whip animations they do have are based off the generic 1-handed weapon animations.

[Nixxe]

While I agree with the title of the thread, this is also a prime example of exactly why BLU would not live up to everything the people who are really excited about the idea generally want it to be. What you've described isn't really a blue mage, so much as a feral black mage. It lacks the core element of the class that makes it so entertaining in other titles in the series, in particular FFV.

[Killtastic]

Blue Mage will, of course, be a tank released in whatever expansion let's us go to Thavnair.

[Nixxe]

Blue Mage will, of course, be a tank released in whatever expansion let's us go to Thavnair.

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.

[Souji_Lashtail]

They have that for emotes and non-combat classes (all linked with PLD animations), but jobs all have predominantly attack animations exclusive to themselves. The other thing to factor in is not just the character animation, but the motion of the weapon as well.

What I mean by canned animation is that each classes attack animations are non-dynamic in terms of timing. Same delay, the same pattern of attacks/swings, etc. (Ex. Auto 1, Down-right. Auto 2, Up-right. Auto 3, thrust). Thus animating both the person and the whip is a bit easier than animating it for a full-fledged dynamic system, with varying timings, etc.
Or they could go the same route that League of Legends did with Thresh, and animate dozens of permutations, but I doubt that. Too time-consuming and difficult.
As to DCUO, I meant that you have things where players are canceling attack into attack

[Kazrah]

While I agree with the title of the thread, this is also a prime example of exactly why BLU would not live up to everything the people who are really excited about the idea generally want it to be.

That's what the cutscenes are for and having the Blue Mage learn spells in that fashion. Yes, it's not exactly like it was in past games in the series, but that's not necessarily a bad thing jobs do require a minor degree of adaptation in order to fit within the confines of a new(er) game, lest it fall prey to similar conditions that impeded the production of FFXV according to its director.

-snip-

Okay, that makes more sense, but I'd still argue that even basic whip animations would still be a can of worms for this game, especially when there are enough options for a static weapon.

[Souji_Lashtail]

True, however at least FFXIV has fluid physics pretty well down, compared to some. As to other weapons, I'm curious as to what you had in mind.

[Dualgunner]

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.

It's a spellcaster that learns new spells by getting hit in the face. If you're getting hit and you're not a tank you're doing it wrong *looks at MNK and SAM*

But in all seriousness, after the success of RDM I am fully behind the team in any conception they have for BLU, be it fully faithful to the series or not. I feel making it a vengeance based tank would be the best way BLU could fit into XIV, however.

[ADVSS]

It's a spellcaster that learns new spells by getting hit in the face. If you're getting hit and you're not a tank you're doing it wrong *looks at MNK and SAM*

But in all seriousness, after the success of RDM I am fully behind the team in any conception they have for BLU, be it fully faithful to the series or not. I feel making it a vengeance based tank would be the best way BLU could fit into XIV, however.

I have to agree that the easiest way to put the lore into the job would be to make it a tank, though there were some blu like ff characters that either devoured the enemy to learn the skill or use lancet to do it, personally it would be cool for a colored mage to be a tank, the concept being that they get their power from the aether expended upon them, by monsters, or some other spells(absorption/reduced damage taken, up BLU guage), Obviously, like every job in here the skill list will be limited but they could definately make a caster like tank, Only question is the weapon

The look of the FFV original incarnation of BLU looks very tanky with the huge shoulder pads and blue cape, and sunglasses...hahaha well that would be interesting