So Blue Mage was added to the game as a Limited Job. This made a lot of people very happy, and a lot of other people very upset.
I've been enjoying it, but I'm also saddened that it can't be included in normal groups. I have noticed other people share similar sentiments. Others openly hate it.
There's been a lot of back and forth on why this was done, and we now have the Blue Mage Log, but many people say this didn't address the problem.
My thoughts are this: Why can't we just keep everything that Blue Mage currently is, all the current design of learning spells and the Carnivale...
But then also include a pre-set "Duty" loadout of spells that specifically is designed for group play? Take a number of the spells that we collect, place them in this list, and tweak the spells so that they function differently in Duties so that Blue Mage can function in party content like a "normal" Magic DPS Job alongside them. Any spells not on this list cannot be used when in a Duty. Each spell is made available at certain Blue Mage levels for syncing, but you still have to collect them yourself for the level appropriate for a Duty before you can queue for it.
None of the theme or fun of current Blue Mage is lost, and the "other people" get what they want, too.
The lore explanation: whereas aetherical interference prevents Blue Mages from working with others, Martyn has discovered a discrete set of Blue magic spells that, through careful and tactical usage, still work! The results of the spells are altered, but a clever Blue Mage can adapt.
He could say this came about through careful study of Blue Mages working together (via the Blue Mage Log).
For the design of the Duty loadout, look at how things work in Carnivale. Most of the encounters are about you taking advantage of enemy weakness. So the "Duty loadout" could be designed around making one element more effective and then taking advantage. Add in some randomization for fun.
Example: you start with Water Cannon, but three casts causes a random element to have increased potency. You then have to switch to using that element's spell combo/rotation.
Then casting that element a set number of times (different for each element) causes a different random element to be empowered, causing you to cycle through elements randomly.
Each element's set of spells could be designed with a slightly different type of combo or rotation.
There's plenty of potential for more/better spells from the current cap of 60 up to 80, so there's plenty of room to make this work.
Obviously - that's all just me spitballing. What I suggest is probably dumb. There's other designs that could be unique and fun.
The core idea is simple: I love learning spells the way Blue Mage already does, but if we had a pre-set "Duty" loadout of spells specifically to use in Duties, this would allow Blue Mage a place in normal party content with other Jobs. Perhaps even Raids.