New to Blu and have a few questions... (can't find answers)

[Rochetm]

I have been messing around with blu and I think I am going to level it up (currently 16). I am on a fresh account, came back after a few year break. I have a few questions I want answered before I really focus on this job.

Is there no gear better then Mavi? I see every blu in this stuff all the time. Seen a few videos with blu in them that never take the stuff off(No blinking). Is the gear really that good or is there better gear and people are just lazy/suck? I ask because I hate the way that gear looks.

Is there a list somewhere of all the buffs and debuffs blu gets? I just want an idea of what all blu can do.

What subjobs are needed? I have Dnc and War all done and Nin will be in a few more levels. Seems Pld, Sch and Rdm have some uses but not sure if I need them or not... also don't know if any others are needed.

Is there a level where blu stops being broken? At 16 blu is nuts and I am just wondering if and how much it slows down.

Looking at some of the spells I have come to the conclusion that blu is a jack of all trades. Is this a correct assessment?

And finally does pollen always suck? I have gotten almost all my spells within 3 critters using it, most of them on the first try. But not pollen. I am actually sick of killing bees and not learning it.

[Prothscar]

Is there no gear better then Mavi? I see every blu in this stuff all the time. Seen a few videos with blu in them that never take the stuff off(No blinking). Is the gear really that good or is there better gear and people are just lazy/suck? I ask because I hate the way that gear looks.

There's much better gear. People who do not swap gear on BLU are, quite frankly, imbeciles. Do not be one of them. Examples of gear sets may be found on my FFXIAH page. Mavi head, body, and legs are acceptable pieces for TP until you acquire the harder to get pieces in those sets. Aim for the big hitters of DD stats for your TP set, focusing on DEX, Double Attack, Triple Attack, Accuracy, Attack, and Critical Hit Rate. The rest should be self explanatory and you should be able to draw reasonable conclusions as to what would be good in what slot based on my sets.

Is there a list somewhere of all the buffs and debuffs blu gets? I just want an idea of what all blu can do.

Don't know if any of it has been transcribed onto wikis yet, but I have a compendium of BLU spell modifiers and effects (magnitude and durations included).

What subjobs are needed? I have Dnc and War all done and Nin will be in a few more levels. Seems Pld, Sch and Rdm have some uses but not sure if I need them or not... also don't know if any others are needed.

WAR, RDM, NIN, and DNC are the only critical ones. WAR is your general purpose DD sub, RDM is mainly for cleaving and solo, NIN is for more defensive-offensive play (and sometimes soloing), and DNC is for Dynamis. Some would suggest SCH for Campaign, but I prefer /RDM.

Is there a level where blu stops being broken? At 16 blu is nuts and I am just wondering if and how much it slows down.

Not really. It gets better the higher you go; the sheer amount of things that you can do with BLU if you know how to play the job is greater than any other.

Looking at some of the spells I have come to the conclusion that blu is a jack of all trades. Is this a correct assessment?

More or less, however DD is the niche that we excel best at.

And finally does pollen always suck? I have gotten almost all my spells within 3 critters using it, most of them on the first try. But not pollen. I am actually sick of killing bees and not learning it.

The spell itself? Yeah. It's good at lower levels until you get a stronger cure (Wild Carrot will be your next one). As for learning it, welcome to BLU. Some spells will give you no trouble, others will want to make you tear your hair out in disdain. It's all worth it in the end.

[Rochetm]

There's much better gear. People who do not swap gear on BLU are, quite frankly, imbeciles. Do not be one of them. Examples of gear sets may be found on my FFXIAH page. Mavi head, body, and legs are acceptable pieces for TP until you acquire the harder to get pieces in those sets. Aim for the big hitters of DD stats for your TP set, focusing on DEX, Double Attack, Triple Attack, Accuracy, Attack, and Critical Hit Rate. The rest should be self explanatory and you should be able to draw reasonable conclusions as to what would be good in what slot based on my sets.



Don't know if any of it has been transcribed onto wikis yet, but I have a compendium of BLU spell modifiers and effects (magnitude and durations included).



WAR, RDM, NIN, and DNC are the only critical ones. WAR is your general purpose DD sub, RDM is mainly for cleaving and solo, NIN is for more defensive-offensive play (and sometimes soloing), and DNC is for Dynamis. Some would suggest SCH for Campaign, but I prefer /RDM.



Not really. It gets better the higher you go; the sheer amount of things that you can do with BLU if you know how to play the job is greater than any other.



More or less, however DD is the niche that we excel best at.



The spell itself? Yeah. It's good at lower levels until you get a stronger cure (Wild Carrot will be your next one). As for learning it, welcome to BLU. Some spells will give you no trouble, others will want to make you tear your hair out in disdain. It's all worth it in the end.

Thank you. This is exactly what I needed. The spell list is perfect. Going through wiki and clicking each spell was becoming annoying.

[Tashan]

My best friend is levelling BLU atm and is absolutely loving it. I'm really amazed with her enthusiasm to want to play the job well and seeing her grow is practically the only reason I log in.

You sound a lot like her Rochetm. I'd like to share some the advice I gave her with you:

1. BLU is arguably the deepest job in the game. It's good to be aware that there is a lot to learn, and it will take time.

2. Whilst this may be the deepest job, don't try to learn everything at once. It's very easy to become confused.

3. Please please ask questions. Ask them again, and again and with different people.

4. Prioritise. Focuse on getting spells and support jobs before equipment. Knowing the mechanics of your options is more important than getting equipment.

5. Lastly, and most importantly, please have fun. Do not be afraid to experiment and try things which we don't say. The more fun you have, the more you'll want to play, the stronger you'll become.

[Rochetm]

1. BLU is arguably the deepest job in the game. It's good to be aware that there is a lot to learn, and it will take time.

This is actually something that has interested me. It reminds me of Bard in EQ. They had a huge selection of spells(songs but same difference) and knowing when each one was useful was a lot of fun and made the good bards stand out. With a bit of creativity and planning bard could pull off a lot of things that many other classes never could.

The more I look at the spell list and job traits the more I think that it really is an job I would enjoy. The only job I know I really enjoy is Ninja. I have always liked dual wield/one handers over 2 handed weapons and I like being able to do stuff like debuff and do magical damage even if it isn't as good as a blm.

[SpankWustler]

In no particular order:

Learning magic can be smooth and swift like a big, loamy poop after eating a bowl of Fiber-O's or it can be more horrible than the gastrointestinal result of eating six Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme. The only thing you can maybe, maybe, do to help is keep your Blue Magic skill high and wear AF hands when trying to learn something. The random thing is ultimately very random, sadly.

I'm going to second what Prothescar said about everything being macro pieces, because it's very important for Blue Mage. If somebody is using the same stuffs for everything on Blue Mage, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that person will be half as potent as a Blue Mage who uses the appropriate type of equipment for various things.

Even if you can't get the best equipment, there's still a huge benefit to using the appropriate type of equipment for each spell, weaponskill, etc as well as having a good set for just hitting stuff with your swords. This goes for every jobs, but even more than usual for Blue Mage.

3. Please please ask questions. Ask them again, and again and with different people.

4. Prioritize. Focus on getting spells and support jobs before equipment. Knowing the mechanics of your options is more important than getting equipment.

5. Lastly, and most importantly, please have fun. Do not be afraid to experiment and try things which we don't say. The more fun you have, the more you'll want to play, the stronger you'll become.

These three things could be the foundation of Final Fantasy XI in general, honestly. This is really good advice.

[Xantavia]

Is there a level where blu stops being broken? At 16 blu is nuts and I am just wondering if and how much it slows down.

Just wait until Bludgeon at 18, then it feels extremely broken. But blu has always had its mp pool as a limiting factor. I found that 79 is when it started feeling broken again. Access to battery charge for self-refresh is a huge game changer. To go from 2/tic (trait and vermy) to 4/tic (real armor in place of cloak) let me DD a bit harder without as much downtime.

For the Empy armor guys, I think most of those were the bandwagon blu's who took the job up just to proc whore abyssea.

[Tashan]

And voidwatch :/

BLU/BLM makes me said ._.

[Rochetm]

And voidwatch :/

BLU/BLM makes me said ._.

I don't understand this...

I noticed that the 99 blus on my server tend to be /nin, /rdm and /dnc with a couple going /sch and /blm.

EDIT: If I stick with Blu I will probably be in a duo with Dnc. My guess is aspir samba would be great for Blu if we happen to be fighting something with MP. I am still not sure what my focus will be yet. I want to focus on one job to level cap and I am down to Blu or Nin.

[Oricimaru]

Well, Aspir Samba can save you in a pinch, Although very rarely. i found from personal testing that /rdm and /sch will save me more than /dnc would for a few reasons. /rdm gives Fast cast so you do not have to use points to set it which will give you greater offensive or defenseive abl.. /sch is a good sub for sublimaton and other effects that the Stratagems will give.

/dnc on the other hand will give you very little besides a cure/erase with tp and a dual-wield trait (which we get though setting spells now). Hope this helps u out

Oricimaru