Yeah XI's blue mage was the best in terms of story and execution (though most people strayed from non completely damaging spells when they had the chance to.) Blue Mage was never really that bad as they learned some of the good spells that BLM/RDM/WHM never learned (epecially hybrid spells.)

Khimari was still a Dragoon above all to be honest, the blue mage nature was simply because he needed SOMETHING for his overdrive lol.