If green mage is the new caster job

[Chasingstars]

I just hope they have a shorter cast time OR an aoe version of their spells if they give them shell, protect, bubble, and bravery to be in line with what is currently defined as green magic in the FF series.

Right now I can play "green mage" in bozja content, the buffing aspect unsurprisingly takes a lot of time. Its only alleviated by playing red mage (dualcast) and/or other people also having their lost actions be these supportive actions. As each cast of these clearly green magic buff spells is a 2.5 second cast, and is single target. Their main saving grace is that once applied, they last for 30 minutes each.

Like lets say they import the bozja lost actions as part of green mage's identity. You have queued up for a dungeon. You are then asked to wait so the green mage can buff you and the rest of the party. By default that is 40 seconds spent buffing by one party member, 20 seconds if you get two of these hypothetical green mages. Oh and if you wipe at some point? That is another 40 seconds (20 with two GM) spent buffing, again.

As green mage's core identity from past FF games, is buffing and debuffing in a way that is meant to hinder enemies and protect allies.

[Rongway]

A buff/debuff heavy green mage would never work in the system we have. Even if they could expand their spells to be party versions, GCDs spent re-buffing people who have raised are GCDs spent not doing damage, and if nobody dies then they're effectively "always on" buffs and why bother. The buffs would either have so little impact that nobody wants them or they'd be so good that everyone wants only green mages for their caster slots.

If we get green mage, it's going to be a green mage in name only, with a completely different concept, like we got with sage, an established job name with a completely different concept from its historical implementations.

[Chasingstars]

A buff/debuff heavy green mage would never work in the system we have. Even if they could expand their spells to be party versions, GCDs spent re-buffing people who have raised are GCDs spent not doing damage, and if nobody dies then they're effectively "always on" buffs and why bother. The buffs would either have so little impact that nobody wants them or they'd be so good that everyone wants only green mages for their caster slots.

If we get green mage, it's going to be a green mage in name only, with a completely different concept, like we got with sage, an established job name with a completely different concept from its historical implementations.

Indeed, as I personally experienced plenty of times in bozja fights where as a rdm, I wasn't doing dps, I was basically an off-healer that would verrez, verheal, bubble, then apply shell 2.

I certainly don't rule out the possibility of green mage just being "in name only". As I been theorizing about such a job for awhile now, and to me the only good way they could marry the concept of a buffer/debuffer is by making them with the old dot mage aspect that summoner used to have. As it would be the most consistent way of them still doing damage, but still providing support. But it wouldn't just be old summoner in my honest opinion, it would be a mix of smn, black mage, and blue mage in terms of how to handle a job that does that.

To give an idea of what I mean:

The thunder & thundercloud aspect of black mage would provide a good way for them to do bigger chunks of damage provided they get a proc.

Blue Mage has a lot of tools that could make for a good dot mage. The most notable example to me is Mortal Flame. Its a 40 potency dot, 60 with boost, that once applied does not have a hard set duration and persists until the fight ends or a wipe. MF falls in line with how they made bard's dots now have a longer duration than previous expansions. However they also have other dots like Nightbloom (80 pot) and Breath of Magic (120 or 180 pot with boost) which are heavy hitting dots. Boost itself making a dot having a 50% increased potency.

With old summoner I think its evident that giving them a Ruin that has increased potency based on what dots they keep up would give them a filler spell. Bane for spreading those dots around. An untargetable pet that autos the boss, as its basically a dot.

As the whole idea of a buffer/debuffer job, in a similar vein to red mage, is that it would statistically do less damage and be expected to be at the back of the pack for DPS. With the whole matter of "It does less damage because of its utility".

I personally don't hold my breath it will be a dot mage, given their track record of not liking dots, but I can't exactly rule it out until more concrete information is provided by SE themselves or by a leaker.

[Renathras]

Honestly, the "buffs" would likely be oGCD short duration things with CDs. Think stuff like WHM's Divine Benison or RDM's Magick Barrier. That's what modern buff/debuff gameplay is in FFXIV. In theory, they could have some GCDs (like SGE's Pneuma that is a 2 min CD spell, but is on the GCD instead of an oGCD weave)

There are honestly lots of ways to do it, though I suspect the Job would mainly be a DoT based Caster with party mitigations/buffs/heals (Regen) as oGCDs of the 30/60/90/120 sec CDs. They could be GCDs, but that has more issues with the current gameplay unless they refund damage somehow (like WHM Lilies), which is possible I suppose.

[Chasingstars]

Honestly, the "buffs" would likely be oGCD short duration things with CDs. Think stuff like WHM's Divine Benison or RDM's Magick Barrier. That's what modern buff/debuff gameplay is in FFXIV. In theory, they could have some GCDs (like SGE's Pneuma that is a 2 min CD spell, but is on the GCD instead of an oGCD weave)

There are honestly lots of ways to do it, though I suspect the Job would mainly be a DoT based Caster with party mitigations/buffs/heals (Regen) as oGCDs of the 30/60/90/120 sec CDs. They could be GCDs, but that has more issues with the current gameplay unless they refund damage somehow (like WHM Lilies), which is possible I suppose.

The oGCD aspect would defintely be a modern way of handling things. Essentially Bravery being a slightly stronger Searing Light (5% vs 3%).

I doubt they will have a WHM lily system unless they actually commit to the gcd version.

The dot aspect has some ground as older installments did consider things like Poison (single target dot) and Toxify (aoe dot) as green magic. If they do make it a dot mage I would be surprised.

[Sequora]

If the caster job is green mage it’ll be in name only.

Based off the little information we have it’s likely going to be a nature magic themed caster or a wind/water/earth based caster.

They could reuse spell names in some way for utility spells, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.

I honestly hope they just go with a unique name like they did with gunbreaker, reaper, and viper.

I hate the color themed casters just from a glam perspective. Always ended up feeling limited. We already have white, black, red, and blue. Let’s do an original job. Call it shaman, Druid, mystic, elementalist, anything but green mage.

[Sequora]

If the caster job is green mage it’ll be in name only.

Based off the little information we have it’s likely going to be a nature magic themed caster or a wind/water/earth based caster.

They could reuse spell names in some way for utility spells, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.

I honestly hope they just go with a unique name like they did with gunbreaker, reaper, and viper.

I hate the color themed casters just from a glam perspective. Always ended up feeling limited. We already have white, black, red, and blue. Let’s do an original job. Call it shaman, Druid, mystic, elementalist, anything but green mage.

Also not sure if I agree with the DoT suggestion. They’ve been clipping dots in the game over time. They don’t like the gameplay aspect of DoTs. I can’t imagine there’s going to be an entire new job that revolves around it.

[CKNovel]

Lots of people speculate it will be a green mage with a shaman identity to fit the new world and I agree with them.
Blue Mage use the power of the monsters, Green Mage the power of nature, it would really fit the job identity and origins.
"Shell" not only reminds of the spell but also of a turtle, of a wild animal.

I guess if it is a "support" job then it will be the Dancer of the casters. But at the same time I'm worried about the game balance if we get 2 dancer-like stacking buffs on a Samurai/Black Mage. This could possibly establish a "meta".
It could also be the Bard of the casters, constant buffs for the whole party.

[Raikai]

Lots of people speculate it will be a green mage with a shaman identity to fit the new world and I agree with them.
Blue Mage use the power of the monsters, Green Mage the power of nature, it would really fit the job identity and origins.
"Shell" not only reminds of the spell but also of a turtle, of a wild animal.

I guess if it is a "support" job then it will be the Dancer of the casters. But at the same time I'm worried about the game balance if we get 2 dancer-like stacking buffs on a Samurai/Black Mage. This could possibly establish a "meta".
It could also be the Bard of the casters, constant buffs for the whole party.

Shell/Protect can actually work, though... If it follows a similar logic to the Blackest Night if it refunds offensive resources to the mage.

Damage follows a predictable pattern on XIV, so you'd need for example, to successfuly cast 3 Shells on people to farm enough resources on damage for the next burst phase. The only issue with this concept is actually on the healers. Damage already feels too trivial for them during optimization, and even more if you account support utilities like Curing Waltz or Mantra being used. Imagine adding Shell on top of everything else to soak even more damage.

Haste could exist as a "single target Expedient".

If it ends up as a damage support role, I think it could go towards the same 'uptime buff everyone but for a smaller amount' of Bard, because the way Dancer is focused on single target buffing is also kind of covered by Astrologian, and if they do change the way AST bursts to be less busy, we may expect more card usage outside of the 2min meta.

[Zolvolt]

I'm struggling to see how the ninja turtles fit as a hint to green mage. I want an ffxiv green mage the same way I want an ffxiv geomancer job, but I'm just not seeing the connection.