BLU's potential as a "real" job.

[HyoMinPark]

OP, don’t bother responding anymore. It will just derail the thread away from the purpose you gave it.

[Archangelus]

Man, I just love the people who say Blue Mage would "just be a generic caster" if it was unlimited when each and every caster is more unique from one another in this game than tanks, healers, melee, and ranged are to one another, and besides that fact, they did more to aesthetically make BLU more caster-y than its more recent incarnations in the series to boot, making that concern a whole non-issue by design.

But disregard that, continuing to talk about that would simply be feeding the trolls that are the Limited Job Defense Force.

And for my part, I will vouch for any idea that makes Blue Mage a real job and not a shitty minigame, so I'd support this idea, shame it'd never happen though.

[MartaDemireux]

What I meant was...BLU's gameplay itself doesn't have any progression towards it.

I feel much the same and think BLU could easily be a real caster DPS and achieve that much desired gameplay momentum.

As it currently is, equipping spells (primal spells especially) basically equates to being spell glamours. This could stay as is and have groups of spells to choose from to personalize your kit - such as choosing which breath attack to use for your conal AoE slot, or which gap closer to use between J Kick and Flying Frenzy. I'd even go as far as to say there could be boring, blank spells that are basically just you miming spells given to you as you level up (to prevent people from entering duties without spells), and then going out and learning spells allows you to replace those empty "emperors new spells".

Then, make every casted/non-instant spell have the same, decently long recast time to prevent spamming the same spell. Each time you cast a spell, your rain stick job gauge could do a flip, reducing that long recast by a specific amount. This would set up BLU to have a fixed rotation like DRG (hitting a cleared GCD after 4 or 5 casts), but with extreme freedom of choice about the order your spells are cast in. Like a real rain stick the sooner you flip it, the less rice/pebbles fall through to the bottom - in this case the falling rice/pebbles are a direct representation of your recast timer. So spell 1 is cast and has a 30s recast, spell 2 is cast which reduces spell 1s recast by 5s, spell 3 is cast which reduces both spell 1 and spell 2 recasts by 5s, etc.

Each rain stick flip could even be counted and when you have enough, Azure Lore could activate and remove the long recasts entirely, allowing you a short burst window to spam any casted spell(s) you want like we currently have it. Perhaps there could be an ability or spell like MNKs Meditation or DNCs Improvisation that let's you flip the rain stick during downtime. Maybe tie the whole mechanic to DPS-specific spells so that a tank or healer BLU isn't compromised while giving both something to do with their damage (especially healer...).

Plus, I just really want to see more use and lore of the rain stick that we use as a cane. I love the Native American inspiration in BLUs lore here.

[ReiMakoto]

Been thinking about some lore Justifications for a duty finder blue mage to appear alongside limited blu for sidecontent.

Option 1: The Black Market Blue

This is a simple one, basically after you've progressed a certain amount with BLU, a man appeares in the Ul'Dah backstreets. This man is in the business of selling pre-filled Blue Mage soul crystals to people wanting power. Essentially this is an echo blessed man who has been tagging along with adventurers to learn what he deems to be powerful Blue Magic, then selling the Job Crystal filled up on the Black Marget, some fun oppertunities for some comedy here with they guy basically admitting to being carried by others to learn spells. Upon doing the quest (or maybe just straight up buying it) you get a second BLU job crystal, however as its already filled with spells, its just like any other soul crystals you have for other jobs, at which point you equip it and learn spells as you level like any other job.

Option 2: The Whalaqee

Similar to option 1, but instead of a pre-filled crystal by some black market man, at some point in the BLU quests, a Whalaqee elder comes along to see how Martyn is getting along. Upon his visit he bestows upon you a Whalaqee Soul crystal, the original BLU instead of the copies of the ability that Martyn made. From there it would function like option 1, where you can have spells tied to levels ect, but with this option Martyn could combine your Limited BLU crystal with your Whalaqee one, allowing some minor custimisation to the aesthetics of your skills

[jon041065]

Been thinking about some lore Justifications for a duty finder blue mage to appear alongside limited blu for sidecontent.

Option 1: The Black Market Blue

This is a simple one, basically after you've progressed a certain amount with BLU, a man appeares in the Ul'Dah backstreets. This man is in the business of selling pre-filled Blue Mage soul crystals to people wanting power. Essentially this is an echo blessed man who has been tagging along with adventurers to learn what he deems to be powerful Blue Magic, then selling the Job Crystal filled up on the Black Marget, some fun oppertunities for some comedy here with they guy basically admitting to being carried by others to learn spells. Upon doing the quest (or maybe just straight up buying it) you get a second BLU job crystal, however as its already filled with spells, its just like any other soul crystals you have for other jobs, at which point you equip it and learn spells as you level like any other job.

Option 2: The Whalaqee

Similar to option 1, but instead of a pre-filled crystal by some black market man, at some point in the BLU quests, a Whalaqee elder comes along to see how Martyn is getting along. Upon his visit he bestows upon you a Whalaqee Soul crystal, the original BLU instead of the copies of the ability that Martyn made. From there it would function like option 1, where you can have spells tied to levels ect, but with this option Martyn could combine your Limited BLU crystal with your Whalaqee one, allowing some minor custimisation to the aesthetics of your skills

A third option would be that now that "the blue mage guild" is more established and taking in new members, Martyn asks us to continue helping with training the newer members. Then have three or four members representing the roles that they were prior to joining the blu guild (fourth would be melee dps if they want to split it up from ranged) and you do a questline with them which at the end unlocks a stance or job crystal for blu to function as that role. These role quests would again require you to know certain spells before you're able to continue. Throw in an additional questline from Martyn after you've done all the role ones that has some new glamour.