Blue Mage tank???

[KianaFhey]

I'm not sure if I've got this in the right spot or not, but in the middle of levelling my BLM and doing expert roulette as my PLD, a wild idea came to mind. What if we had the ability to play a dual wielding caster type tank??? The Blue Mage would essentially wear "of Casting" gear to maximize damage and be able to dual wield like the ninja, the job quests would give you your melee abilities plus whatever OGCDs square decided to throw in. You would have a separate ability book (actions and traits->actions) showing you what spells you could learn from monsters and possibly what mobs to learn them from. Yes the "of Casting" gear would limit the high HP pool for standard tanks but that's where spells that apply shadows (FFXI's occultation (grants caster up to 8 shadows to absorb attacks)) come into play as a form of decent damage mitigation. I know it sounds really broken but it would be cool to see it in game and how square fixes it to make it more bearable XD thank you for reading.

[Venur]

Wouldn't really make sense to make them tanks in the FF series I feel. The major problem I see with blue mage is they are pretty much like red mage role wise but with higher AoE dmg usualy.

They deal ok damage have ok heals and nice utility. In pretty much every FF with blue mage the class start out with some really strong heals/dmg spell making them at some point overpowered dealing the best dmg while having white wind like ability beeing overpowered heals.

Then later in the game they just become a support class.

With the over abundance of DPS/Support vs the only 3 tank and 3 healer class I could see SE making them healers but FFXIV really miss a melee healer and not a 4th caster healer wearing cloth.

[Claire_Pendragon]

There are threads already about this, and you'll get plenty fo people who claim BLU doesnt feel like a tank, and plenty who feel it does feel like a tank.

Most arguments stem from physical defense of a BLU more than anything. But since tanks arent really a thing in offline FFs, and there's other ways to survive physical dmg, this feels less like a legitimate point.
(And physical defense isnt as important as survivability. An example being NIN tanks in XI, who didnt have the platemail of a PLD WAR or DRK, and yet you didnt really see DRK tanks till much later, and NIN tanks in leather with evasion/haste gear to survive as a tank. If anything, the argument about "Fending gear" being restricted from them, might be the most reasonable counter argument, since SE woudl probably not allow them to use it, but want all tanks to use it.)
BLUs easily have some of the most survival out of the mages, with RDM being a close 2nd, in most FFs. (But some FFs they dont)

BLUs need to survive all attacks they learn, and with their buff spells, and usually equipped with light or even medium armors, they were always able to survive all types of attacks, and recover from it rather easily.

BLUs had some of the most reliable AoE, for low MP cost, and always moderate potency.
Where as SMN cost way too much MP for AoE, and BLM/WHM AoE was very low potency usually.
(RDM usually never having AoE, and lacked decent MP pools)

Out of all the roles, tanks always have on demand AoEs, and use them often.
Out of all the roles, the role that self heals, uses defensive buffs, aoes, melees, and ranges rather often, is mainly tank. (with RDM being next in line. but thats not a role, but a job within a role.)

The only questionable part, is the enmity.

Why would BLU have anything to raise enmity?
In which I'd say its "tank stance" wouldnt be for defense, but for learning BLU magic. Cant learn it, unless they are int hat "Learn" stance. and it increases threat, to encourage enemies attack them, so they can learn.
I'd then rename the current Mighty Guard, so they can use Mighty Guard as their "defense stance" but it comes at a cost. (Basically a DPS loss, but it doesnt have to be direct potency loss really, anything from MP, cast times, or other)

But thats about as simple as i can put it.

[KianaFhey]

When you put it that way, you could add a form of stance dance to the BLU as well. I like the idea of using MG as the tank stance, but it would have to be limited to using like occultation/semi weak heals. But now that I think about it there aren't many monster based heals in the game except "Sanguine Bite" that I know of from the wolf race? And if the BLU was to learn "Sanguine Bite" i almost feel like it would be as strong as an unbuffed "Souleater/Storms Eye". I may be wrong but that's all I can think of off the top of my head XD. Now as for the huge AOE they could put a DRK feel to it as well and say that the BLU couldn't use them unless they were n the attack stance only (unbridled learning/wisdom perhaps)? I feel like that would balance it out more..? Of course it would almost always be an off tank haha

[ManuelBravo]

hmmmm Doubt BLU will ever be a tank, too squish even with buffs just on armor alone should give people a hint. Perhaps as a type of close range support role it may work.

[Jhett_Magnum]

hmmmm Doubt BLU will ever be a tank, too squish even with buffs just on armor alone should give people a hint. Perhaps as a type of close range support role it may work.

This. Essentially Gun Mage from FFX-2. BLU would be severely limited as a tank.

[kashi11]

I was just thinking about this the other day! Would love to see it wield Twin Hooks as a weapon. Give it something similar to dark dance, but increase damage reduction by X amount after Parry an attack.

Could have an AoE abilities where you hook swords together for wide swings and pokes with the hilts for Aero generation. Also white wind being a Regen version of divine veil, and mighty guard being similar to a weaker tank Limit break, or even similar to the blackest night on a long cool down but effects the whole party for longer duration (stoneskin 2)

[Claire_Pendragon]

but it would have to be limited to using like occultation/semi weak heals. But now that I think about it there aren't many monster based heals in the game except "Sanguine Bite" that I know of

White Wind is in the game, and the more famous one. (More on that in a min)

too squish even with buffs just on armor alone should give people a hint.

Base defense in this game hardly make a difference. (its why people saw +20% defense from Foresight as weak, and not a means to survive physical tank busters, At best, only worked when I stacked it with -10% dmg taken, and even then, sometimes i still died.)

As a tank in the MSQs, I felt like the solo fights were far easier as a tank. Then semi easier as a healer, and the hardest as a DPS. (DRG didnt feel any easier than BLM in how quickly the dmg stacked up on me.)
While defense does help, the high max HP is the biggest reason, followed by self healing.
I can play BLM, SMN, and RDM, with the same gear, and RDM is easily going to feel liek im "not squishy" compared to what feels like squishy BLM/SMN, due to self healing.

Looking at WAR, who uses "+Max HP" as a tank stance, alone shows that defense isnt all that important.
-X% dmg taken is king for tanking, followed by max hp and self healing.

In caster gear, that would give them good Magic Defense.
Using VIT accessories, that can slightly help their max HP, but they would have to have a natural high HP base, like the other tanks do out of fending gear. (Main issue here, is that it gives STR not INT for the secondary stats, unless we make both STR and INT add together for the dps of the BLU)

So this leaves Tank stance to be the main means of closing the gap. (personally I would want the tank stance to be a 0.5s cast, perma buff, until turned off.)
I'd also like to see a 2nd buff needing to be cast every so often, to raise general mitigation. (If we make an AoE White Wind, which acts liek a weaker Medica2, it acts as both threat, and helps lower the amount of healing healers need to do, both on them, and the group. If not that, then something like the blink spell, for higher evasion. Its not reliable for tank busters, but helps on general auto attack dmg from trash mobs)
Currently Tanks have something around 20-25% mitigation/max hp increases.
And then the go to mitigation of rampart, and some other higher potency mitigation, and a "short CD" mitigation on ramparts level. (ignoring the invincible one for obvious reasons)
Id like to see something more like The Blackest Night, where you cast a buff to mitigate dmg, but do so often. Give it a short CD, and it can be a mini Inner Beast.
But since it takes up a GCD, and does no dmg, the lost dmg would be in the tank stance, in how it doesnt reduce as much dmg as normal tank stances usually do. (same with having to cast white wind/blink equivalent)

Those alone would make BLU tanky enough, and thats not including the FFTA version fo BLU, using Damage MP to be an unkillable god.

[Rufalus]

One day I had a weird idea that BLU is the only new job they release in an expansion, but it's also the only job with 3 specs. Tank BLU, Healer BLU, DPS BLU.

So it's more like getting 3 new jobs, but less work for the dev in designing gear, animations, job quests etc. Gear, quests and some spells are common to all 3 specs, but there are some role-locked spells too of course to satisfy the demands of each role.

You can't switch role during battle or during an instance, it's still something you set before queuing for a duty so it's not a game breaker. Bring back lots of classic blue magic like mighty guard, white wind, magic hammer, goblin punch.

And there only needs to be one version of blu for pvp, the caster dps spec.

[kashi11]

One day I had a weird idea that BLU is the only new job they release in an expansion, but it's also the only job with 3 specs. Tank BLU, Healer BLU, DPS BLU.

This is genius! One would just equip different soulstones of different BLU mages who sought to learn the arts of monsters, one BLU soulstone of healing, one of slaying, and one of fending. Could make the stones green, red, and blue respectively. The job quests could come from an expert on blue mage lore, and you are tasked with reliving the adventures of past said blue mage to empower the soulstone. Could even be added to the game that BLU is a lost art, and the tomes detailing their exploits were recently uncovered.