Blue Mage the All rounder?

[Silver-Strider]

Snip

I'd be down to try reworking BLU's skills into something that could actually be usable to an extent. There's a plethora of skills that could be reworked, if not outright scrapped that you could fairly easily make BLU into a viable Caster, Tank or Healer.

Caster DPS:
Since BLU already has a wide variety of elemental attacks, most of which already combo into other skills, that theme should be expanded upon. Let's add a job gauge that builds up towards unlocking a Primal Ability if we build the gauge far enough into that Primal's affinity. So, if I use Bomb Toss > Flamethrower > Fire Angon, I could use Eruption as a finisher combo skill. Since we removed several skills, we can use these spots to introduce skills that would better serve a Caster DPS role.

Tank:
We already have Mighty Guard as a Tank Stance, a pseudo invuln Skill with Diamondback, a Vengence-esque skill with Veil of the Whorl as well as Ice Spikes, a gap closer with Flying Frenzy and an Emnity Skill with The Look. BLU Tank literally has so much potential already available to it as is that adjusting the odd handful of skills it has available to it to form a coherent Tank Rotation would be near child's play. It would literally be as simple as just making Mighty Guard make all BLU skills build Emnity that you could probably already make BLU tank work fairly well, if their gear wasn't locked to Caster only (easy enough to fix if they make all BLU gear a blend of VIT, INT and MND since its already exclusive to BLU anyway).

Healer:
This one would probably be the hardest role to fill out fully. In terms of Healing, BLU has White Wind and Transfer, the latter of which could just be adjusted to be a non-lethal single target heal. After that though, there's not much else to work with as is. There are a rare handful of enemies that use Healing abilities on their allies, such as the Wamoura from Lost City of Amdaphor but they're extremely rare so it would require a bit of finesse to actually work out a manageable Healing toolkit from what's currently available. Hell, apart from Wamoura's Healing ability, the only other Healer type skill that I can think of BLU could learn would be Stoneskin, which ironically could replace Level 5 Petrify as the same mob that uses Level 5 Petrify also uses Stoneskin but I'd be a very salty WHM myself if that happened. After that, IDK Whaalaqee totem the rest I guess.

The potential is there, there just needs to be a way to rework some skills or flat out replace them for skills with actual practical usage.

[Duelle]

ideas for roles

I like several of your suggestions here.

Something I was thinking about was introducing totems to sort of "lock" BLU into a role for dungeons and raids. Like have one that is for the tank role, but can only be used if you have specific spells in your spellbook. I'm compelled to leave BLU as is in the overworld because the current implementation seems to be built with overworld mobs in mind.

Connecting to your post, you could also add a totem for magic DPS that enhances or adds properties to certain spells in the kit. I personally wouldn't go for sticking to an element, but would play on the relationship between certain spells or expand on stuff like Toad Oil => Self-destruct or Aqua Breath => High Voltage.

[Katie_Kitty]

Could blue mage work similar to the crystal exarch's role?

I don't see why it should. If anything it should be RDM filling that role but no we get this weak watered down black mage with a melee combo instead.

[Jandor]

Could blue mage work similar to the crystal exarch's role?

I suppose it could, why should it though?

[LariaKirin]

Wasting even more development time on this failed job is the last thing we need.

[Silver-Strider]

Wasting even more development time on this failed job is the last thing we need.

They've already wasted the time working on BLU. Might as well make that wasted time be as productive as possible.

[RightfulKing]

A lot of the ideas presented in this thread are... so good!!! I wish Square would actually be creative enough to implement something like this.

[Archwizard]

I mean personally, I would be fascinated by a BLU full job that was played as a tank.

A) BLU historically is a job where its core mechanic is based around taking a beating in order to adapt and grow more powerful.
B) I think it would be cool, purely for the aesthetic, to go into a dungeon with a WHM healer, BLM and RDM DPS, and BLU tank to fill out a complete mage group.

But, I also understand the adaptation element would have been impossible to implement as a full job.