How Blue Mage Could Exist in FFXIV

[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.

[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

[Kazrah]

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.

Given that I had set it from Thavnair and how Thavnair appears to have that Near Eastern theme, the prime choice was the saber, using a martial style of one hand holding the weapon and another hand placed on a sheath at their opposing hip (almost like Samurai) unless they were to dual-wield sabers. The overall goal for that type of weapon was to have a fighting style matching what you would expect of a swashbuckler or anyone using a sword that would not be as effective with thrusting attacks.

Other options included a scepter (effectively a really ornate club), dual sabers, a even a pole at one point. I did consider the whip though, but kept thinking about what sort of style and animations would be required for it as well as what games I had played that had whips or chains as options and preferred more static alternatives.

Before I posted it to the forums, the concept had a saber and a spell focus that looked like a jeweled buckler, then it was just a jeweled pommelguard and then removed completely.

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*

Once. They learned by getting hit once.

Actually the main reason why I didn't make it a tank was because I never felt like it had enough of a toolkit for tanking. Sure, some examples like White Wind and Mighty Guard (a.k.a. the tank 2-bar Limit Break), but there's really not much more than that. It was also traditionally never that tanky, only being sturdy enough to take just as many hits as any other typical melee job, hence why I kept it to that role and tried providing more support components.

[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)

[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.

[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.

[Nixxe]

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.

No, that's not what cutscenes are for. Cutscenes cannot, will not make up for the loss of its quintessential features.

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.

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

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

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



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

[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.