SUGGESTION: Turn Bluemage into a regular job - Limited Job>Advanced Job (An Approach)

[Tonkra]

I know that the developers of Final Fantasy XIV have the opinion that the blue mage job can't be implemented into the regular job system "roaster" without being OP.

Thats why they excluded him into a special role as a so called "limited job".
I myself dislike the idea that balance wise not all FF jobs can be included into the regular job system. Since Final Fantasy XI Online and other Offline titles managed it also to include the BLU job into the normal job system - this is what i think is a matter of balancing.

I know that Yoshi P. and his team likes the idea of having the BLU as classic as in the very old FF titles and not as in Final Fantasy XI Online.

I myself believe on the other hand, that the Bluemage should be a more melee orientated hybrid caster since lot of his bestiary bluemagic spells rely on being in close target range. Wether it is a fire breath and many other frontal cone AoE spells.
Also a melee mage is something that we really do not have - besides red mage who only engages in melee combat for burst damage.

My appraoch and concept on the other hand is kind of the versa form of a red mage. A mage that engages in melee combat to built up bestiary mana points and uses his blue magic for burst damage. And i also think that it fits the concept quiet well, since bluemagic is a sort of magic that is obtained by engaging enemy monsters.
In the current state bluemages more or less spam their spells without any pause.


LIMITED SPELL SET BY SPELL TYPE CATEGORIES

First of all what would help in my opinion to guarantee that every BLU has a good mixture of a spellreportoir is that we split the blue magic spells into different types and put a limit on the amount of spells of every type.

So that for example you have a maximum of 3 spells per spell type which you can equip from the spell library of the blue mage spellbook to a maximum amount of 12 blue magic spells. How much spells it should be in the end - thats a matter of balancing, this picture should be just an example:


1. Single direct damage spells (max. 3/3)
2. AoE spells (frontal one AoE, PBAoE etc.) (max. 3/3)
3. Weakening Spells (DoT (Poison etc.), Debuffs) (max. 3/3)
4. Support Spells (Buffs, Self-Heal) (max. 3/3)


BLUE MAGE GAUGE / BESTIARY MANA RESSOURCE


The nature of blue mages is to engage enemies / monsters in combat in order to learn monster abillities. In many games such as in Final Fantasy X the playable character Kimhari constantly has to draw (and store) monster abillities from the enemies in order to perform monster abillities afterwards.

My idea is to implement an extra mana ressource for the BLU which fills up if he engages in (melee) combat with the enemies. As i said before its kind of the opposite version of the red mage, which fills up his ressource with magic and later on engages in melee combat for burst damage.


The magic bar could for example be split into four different segments. To cast a BLU spell at least one segment of BLU MP is needed to cast a bluemagic spell.


So that BLU spells also differentiate in the amount MP segments needed to cast the specific spell as well as in damage and casting time (matter of balancing). So there are different "tiers" of blue magic spells. Once you can use more often and others that only can be casted irregularly:


This should prevent the BLU job to cast healing spells or other high damage top tier spells (1000 needles etc.) on a regular basis and to prevent them from spamming these special spells.


FILLING THE GAUGE WITH (MELEE) ROTATIONS + ABILLITIES

The magic ressource of the BLU is filled up by executing melee combo attacks as in the example shown here. It shows a combo of 3 melee attacks after an other, the first one gains no BLU magic, the second one gains one magic point, the third attack in the combo grants 2 blue magic points at once. So that after each combo you can fill up a total of 3 mana points - not the maximum of 4 which is needed to cast "top tier Blue magic"


Alternatively, if the plan of SE is to stick with the pure magic role, it should be also possible to implement basic blue magic combos:



But personally in my opinion - and as i already said before - the melee / magic hybrid role such as in Final Fantasy XI would be much more optimal for the BLU since most of his magic relies on being in close combat range to the targets. As well as it would be the first real mage that primarly engages in melee range - it would be more different to the casters which we have now in the game.


Since a regular combo would only grant 3 BLU Magic segments it is not optimal to cast a spell which costs about 4 BLU MP segments. If he'd wish to cast a top tier spell which costs 4 magic points he need to do 5 melee attacks in a total - which should be inefficent in order to limit the use of a top tier spell.

In my approach an extra abillity - MP drain - which is locked on a re-use timer grants the BLU to cast a top tier spell every 30 seconds without having a gap in the skill rotation. So that in the end low and mid tier blue magic spells can be casted more frequently. And about every 30 seconds the BLU could draw additional MP from the target in order to excecute a top tier BLU spell.





ROTATIONS - AN EXAMPLE
In this example, BLU gains 3 MP segments for a full melee combo. At each end of a combo he can use a BLU spell for 3 segments.
So that in the end a rotation could look like that:

1.For a starter a DoT or buff spell + a low tier direct damage spell is used.. (Costs: 1 + 2 MP points)

2. ... followed by an other combo with a mid tier BLU spell.. (Costs: 3 MP points)

3. .. in the end an other triple melee combo + the MP drain abillity is used (re-use of 30 seconds) in order to gather 4 MP for a flawless high level tier BLU spell. (Costs: 4 MP points)



To summarize my approach:
- Creation of 4 different magic type categories for the BlU (single damage, AoE damage, weakening spells (DoT / Debuffs), Support Spells)
- There is a limit for the amount of spells per spelltype (3/3/3/3) in order to grant a good mixture of spells
- The Blue gets an own magic ressource
- The mana ressource needs to be filled up while engaging in (melee) combat in order to prevent BLU from spamming blue magic spells
- Differentiation into low, mid and high tier BLU spells by cost and casting time
- skill rotations limit how often top tier blue magic spells can be used





Youtube Video of the melee blue mage in Final Fantasy XI Online


WHY ADVANCED JOB INSTEAD OF "LIMITED" JOB?

If BLU becomes an other job for the job system he would'nt be "limited" anymore to only play specific content.
I took the term "advanced" since we know that term already from Final Fantasy XI Online - which described jobs that were unlocked if you had a standard job class at a minimum of lv 30.

Additionally the BLU has not a fixed skill set and has a little bit more freedom in setting your skills, he requires much more effort in order to receive his skills. A concept which i could imagine also for other job classes like the beastmaster (who has to tame different monsters before to use them as a pet) or the puppetmaster job as well (different setups for his automatons).


Thank you in advance for your opinions (and thumbs ups as well^^)

[TeraTyrantShadic]

The Limiting per type of spell I know is an example, but it just won't fit into the 'job fantasy' and may contradict with that since as Blue Mages are able to freely pick and choose spells in FFXI with the limit being 80 Blue Points when you have mastered the Job. However... we can use the rarity system to such an advantage, we can do it how the developers did it with triple triad. The higher the rarity the more of the cost while lower rarity will have a lower cost. I think implementing the point system from FFXI would be far better as it still allow Blue Mages to freely pick and choose. Also I think we can also work it around with Aetherial Mimicry where if you're a certain role, it'll only buff those spells making them more of a priority than ever. Plus they need to add more new spells for tanking and healing making it extremely harder for people to try and max DPS while tanking and healing, more useful tanking and/or healing spells means they have to sacrifice a spot just for that spell that is mandatory for a role.

If I may be so bold to suggest, that instead of not only the Gauge prevents the spell but also allow it to cast powerful strong moves only at the highest level and let it have at least 5 sections divided. At least then Level 5 Death can be used with the concept. Like in FF8 where it is Level X death and the X is between 4-1 with 1 being the strongest, however in FFXIV I think it would be better if we implement it where at 1 resource point it is grayed out and cannot be used, at 2 resource point it can be Level 5 Death then moving to 3 resources it becomes Level 4 Death, 4 resources is Level 3 Death and 5 Resources is Level 2 Death. I didn't include Level 1 Death as it'll be too overpowered since anything can be a multiple of 1. So like certain moves are grayed out where it needs the resources. If its moves like Flat Damage like Missile/Launcher then the resource point would be around 4 or 5 (Most Likely 5). Plus it'll still have the job fantasy of it being OP in a sense that a spell will take 4/5 sections spells are powerful with a long CD.

As for your combo idea, I like it but if we're going to have 4 sections make it gain only 2 per combo rather than 3 or if 5 sections then 3 per combo. I feel gaining half of the bar is better since with Blue Mage OGCD can be weaved in easily at the time of this posting.

The Draw Bestiary MP CD could be a bit longer like around 110 seconds like Red Mage's Manafication as it is to prevent the spamming of powerful spells easily. As for additional abilities, maybe we can have a Condensed Libra but as a job ability where it randomly buffs only you for 15 seconds for a specific element (being only 1 element rather than a group of it).

This is a great concept you have made for Blue Mage to becoming a normal, and I believe your thread along with many other Blue Mage thread should be seen by the development team. You have also manage to visualize the job gauge I had imagine, so for that I believe you have done a great job posting a thread describing a concept of a Blue Mage normal job.

[JiSH]

I support this! SE should really take some idea from here, i like the bar system and how stronger tier spells uses more bars cause it also falls in line with how they release even stronger spells with each Blue Mage updates(the trial and raid OGCDs)
I've also thought about what if Blue Mage is "reverse Red Mage" in this game, making them have a combo based rotation would make them unique among all the casters we have so far.
About the "skill limit per type" i thought they could've just streamlined the whole Blue Mage skills instead of giving them options(which make them have to rehaul the whole system), but by limiting the Blue Mage skills like this it could make them more concise without having to rework the whole system, but of course they would have to rebalance a lot of the skills first because of how many "gimmick skills" in the roster right now.

[Shougun]

I adore the graphics and effort put in. Obviously in support of an advanced job concept, and I'm glad you used that term. I feel it works very well to describe blue and be in line with FF terms, also feels a lot better than being limited lol.
I hope to post a thread like this one day soon but I doubt it'll have all the cool graphics!


Pretty much was ready to press like before I read it lol. The slot system after reading it is interesting, so I still pressed it.

It is definitely more work to add a whole new section to blue mage but I think it is less work than adding a whole new job as they already made many assets, so I think asking for advanced isn't excessively unreasonable.

[Tonkra]

Obviously in support of an advanced job concept, and I'm glad you used that term. I feel it works very well to describe blue and be in line with FF terms, also feels a lot better than being limited lol.

Indeed and i like the positive description also much more - since we know it already from Final Fantasy XI Online.

And because the BLU would be a more complex job, since you have to learn and pick (in a limited setup because of duty finder) specific spells for your personal task bar.

A concept which i could imagine for upcoming jobs like beastmaster - where you have to tame monsters before you can make them a pet - or puppetmasters, too.

[Deceptus]

It's not a bad write up honestly.

They have to do something other than have carbon copies of the same 220 potency aoe spell or 200-220 single target spell

[Morningstar1337]

To add to this idea. I would propose a 5th category for 50-60. Stances.

This is mainly a way to add certain skills and a button that changes based on of the "stance" (in this case Condensed Libra). This button will have 3 types with 3 effects each (Astral, Umbral and Phsycial, with regular Attack, Attack with Mitigation and Assize like attacs)

Mimicry will of course dictate the stance (Tank gets a Mitigation CD, DPS gets an attack, Healer gets a Heal)

From there it'll be reworking 6 spells (2 phys attacks and 4 Primal spells) to fit this new paradigm. (in the event that not all 9 are learned the button would stay blank untila combo that has a learned spell is active)

[KupoSan]

I don't post that much, but I just wanted to let you know that I thought your post made much more sense than what SE has going on right now. That being said, because it makes a lot of sense, I doubt it will be incorporated. That should not discourage your great ideas, for one day they may get their act together and listen to the community a bit more. I know that's a dual-edged sword, but I do agree with a lot of posters that the "Limited Job" system is a bad direction they are going. I understand where they are coming from, and I thank them for adding BLU... I just dislike how they did it. Anyway, thanks for your write up. You can tell you put a lot of effort in the post and the thought process. Keep up the great work!

[Bacent]

Wow, you really put a lot of time and effort into it. And while I do enjoy the stuff I can do with blu right now, I wouldn't mind seeing this at all implemented into the game to join the other classes.

[SweetPete]

I love your ideas. I don’t know, I may be pushing the button a bit to fast but seeing as they totally surprised us and will push blue mage to level 70 in patch 5.4 makes me think we may be in store for it being a normal job sooner than later. Next expansion will be level cap of 90 and I’m sure the new job/jobs will start at level 70. We got Graha’Tia that is the first all rounder trust. Hmmm maybe it’s to soon to speculate but it could mean we could see the first actual all rounder job being blue mage in the new expansion. During the fanfest they always have one major thing to shock us. I hope it’s blue mage being removed from the limited job system and will be the first all rounder advanced job in 6.0. Granted there will need to be allot of balancing but I believe it can be done. I hope it will be done. The devs read these forums. Blue mage topic has been very hot lately so hopefully they see that people actually want this to happen. I don’t want the same ole same masked carnival stuff just at increased levels. We need blue mage as a normal job. It needs to happen.