Blue Mage the All rounder?

[chrismercenary]

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

[Cled-cat]

I’d like that, maybe only let a caster version be used for high end content but in most other stuff it could have set abilities to use for each role. Would need more healing spells and defensive cooldowns but would be a hell of a lot better than the mess it is now.

[AnimaAnimus]

I made a three role system suggestion for blue mage long before it was released. Dancer too.

These two jobs could have easily fit any role and could have switched between them with little effort. Blue mage having a spell set for tanking, healing, dpsing and dancer having stances and dances for the different roles. Whatever role they are fulfilling being locked as soon as they get the entering instance notification. It would make things super easy as they would only have to design one job essentially.

Let's face it tho, SE isn't really...imaginative or ground breaking in class design. They rely on already existing classes for the most part and a whole lot of cliches. Red Mage could have been absolutely amazing as a battle mage, using en-spells to enhance dps and rotating between casting and melee. But instead we got basically a black mage in a fancy hat. Sure it has a (lackluster) melee rotation and a raise, but those are mostly afterthoughts. Even the red mage's sword becomes....a staff. They couldn't have made the job more unimaginative.

So a three role job would be quite a stretch albeit exciting.

[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.

[nalol]

Let's face it tho, SE isn't really...imaginative or ground breaking in class design.

because of class balance.

plus already when it's so easy to change classes ... u don't give different roles to a class. In a game like WoW .. it makes sense, since 1 toon has only 1 class. in here it makes no sense at all to give multiple roles to a class ... then u struggle with balance adding the risk of having only 1 viable role.

but class balance is a big limitation to creativity

[Jandor]

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

I suppose it could, why should it though?

[AnimaAnimus]

because of class balance.

plus already when it's so easy to change classes ... u don't give different roles to a class. In a game like WoW .. it makes sense, since 1 toon has only 1 class. in here it makes no sense at all to give multiple roles to a class ... then u struggle with balance adding the risk of having only 1 viable role.

but class balance is a big limitation to creativity

Not really tho. I mean you can do something different on a superficial basis. Look at ast, how many games have healers running around with star globes and cards? I am not talking about the function of a job but the way it is presented. You can still have a dps but does it need to be just like every other dps? MMOs in general are horrible when it comes to class design. Mostly the devs check boxes more than doing something fun. You can have the old standards, but throw at least a little something different in there now and then.

Was there a reason to make Red Mage into a budget black mage? You can still have balance and have rdm be a caster without falling back on the old "is casting magic, must give staff" trope. Esp for a job like rdm which has such a rich and varied background. Not all casters need books and staffs.

[Silver-Strider]

because of class balance.

plus already when it's so easy to change classes ... u don't give different roles to a class. In a game like WoW .. it makes sense, since 1 toon has only 1 class. in here it makes no sense at all to give multiple roles to a class ... then u struggle with balance adding the risk of having only 1 viable role.

but class balance is a big limitation to creativity

This would matter if BLU wasn't already trampling on the Trinity System with a Tank Stance/Emnity Skill, AoE heal and a blend of Physical and Magical Damage littered throughout its toolkit. SE could rework the majority of BLU current spells and change them to better suit an all around job that can function as a Tank/Healer/DPS as need be with a quick swap out of its spells. It's not as though BLU doesn't have 6 different versions of the same skill with only the minimalist of differences between them anyways so why not adjust them to fit into the all around role and make BLU actually something useful, even if only for the lower level stuff?

[dinnertime]

Right now I think the closest we can get from that is if ever Blue Mage gets reworked into full-pledged job, it's still classified as a DPS but has the ability to (somewhat) both tank or heal if they wish, but get penalized in the effectiveness of the other two roles they didn't choose. It will probably just cause chaos though.

Was there a reason to make Red Mage into a budget black mage? You can still have balance and have rdm be a caster without falling back on the old "is casting magic, must give staff" trope. Esp for a job like rdm which has such a rich and varied background. Not all casters need books and staffs.

I mean...Red Mage is technically a budget Black Mage (and White Mage) so it's not like it's wrong, but I love how they presented it in FFXIV even if it can't really fulfill the healer/support role that much. I just wish they expanded on it more than just add one new skill on their rotation.

[Jandor]

This would matter if BLU wasn't already trampling on the Trinity System with a Tank Stance/Emnity Skill, AoE heal and a blend of Physical and Magical Damage littered throughout its toolkit.

It's hardly trampling the trinity though, it can't take aggro from a tank, it can't tank as well as a tank and it can't replace a healer with just one expensive AoE heal.

SE could rework the majority of BLU current spells and change them to better suit an all around job that can function as a Tank/Healer/DPS as need be with a quick swap out of its spells. It's not as though BLU doesn't have 6 different versions of the same skill with only the minimalist of differences between them anyways so why not adjust them to fit into the all around role and make BLU actually something useful, even if only for the lower level stuff?

It's not going to happen though, this is a dev team that thinks hitting monsters to gain skills is such a incredibly radical departure from the norm that the job has to be restricted from all current content and remain at least 20 levels below level cap for the foreseeable future.