Is it time to change Blue Mage?

Blue Mage has always been one of those jobs within the Final Fantasy series that I have never enjoyed and that isn’t much different within Final Fantasy XIV but after levelling it up and playing it in different duties I do think it is time to make it an actual job which would be simple to do.

One of the main things about Blue Mage is feeling like you are learning skills and using them against foes and this could be done with a pre-made rotation and spells. What I mean by this is Blue Mage, once levelled, will have spells called “AOE 1, AOE 2, AOE 3”, and “Single 1, Single 2, Single 3” and more such as cooldowns. These spells can then have spells applied to them which takes the visual effect and name of the said spell (but not potency) so you could have Susake’s kick for the single target and more.

You could also then create the same version but for healers and tanks. Clone the job three times and works from the same soul crystal and have one use tank gear one use healer gear and the other DPS gear which would all level up at the same time and share the same spells learned. This would allow using them in any role although they can not switch on the fly which can not happen right now in duties anyway. This way you would have a “class” called Blue Mage and then jobs called Blue Mage (Damage Dealer), Blue Mage (Healer), and Blue Mage (Tank).

The above idea would allow the development team to balance the job as if they are just a new tank, healer and damage dealer while still making it feel like you are a Blue Mage. If possible it would be good to keep the current Blue Mage for solo gameplay but I would also be okay if it had to be removed to change it to the above but ideally it would either work as the current Blue Mage outside of a party or have a version called Blue Mage (Limited) for the sole purpose of the content it currently does.

One important thing that would need to be done for the visual identity of Blue Mage is that the AF gearsets have no stats at all and can be glamoured by any version of Blue Mage or if the development team has some extra resources change it slightly for each of the three roles and have the stats on there which would mean Blue Mage (Tank) couldn’t glamour the design they use for Blue Mage (Healer) and so on.

Overall these wishes are a pipe dream and I do know by making these changes Blue Mage will lose a bit of its charm but it is disappointing that Blue Mage, a classic Final Fantasy job, isn’t able to participate in content with its peers.