Just starting out

[Trykon]

I am just coming back from a 4 year break. Unfortunately, I can not access my old account, so I am starting over fresh. This seems like a good idea, since a lot has changed since then.

I am interested in being a blue mage, but don't really know where to start. There is not a lot of current information online that I have found.

Suggestions on what subjob to level for blue first?

My thinking is I will level the primary subjob up to unlock blue mage and then level blu up to 99. From there I would go back and level up the other subjobs I would use with it. If you all think I should do it a different way let me know.

What abilities are must have's while leveling blue mage and which ones are worth skipping for now?

Any general info or guidance is really appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Dragonlord]

I am interested in being a blue mage, but don't really know where to start. There is not a lot of current information online that I have found.

You mustn't have looked very hard. Blu is one of the more active communities. Regardless, the easiest way to get blu done as your first 99, would be take war to 30, unlock blu, take blu to 30, then leech in abyssea to 99 (you'll need to farm gil to pay for it). After that you can get all of your spells easily, and purchase aurore set with the cruor you've made. And start skilling up blue magic and sword.

http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/BLU - here is an up to date page about just about everything that is blu: how traits work, spells list, skills, artifact armors etc.

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/forum/70/blue-mage/ - this forum has a lot of misc. info about how you should gear and play blu at 99. It's recently turned into a solid DD job, but you also need to have a majority of the spells to proc abyssea and voidwatch NMs.

Subjobs - i personally use /rdm for abyssea, /war for voidwatch, /dnc for dynamis, and occasionally /nin for soloing

rdm - protect, shell, stoneskin, phalanx, MAB, and fast cast. Set DW3, DA, and STP, using occultation if needed for shadows.

war - straight up DD, berserk/aggressor/warcry. use DW3, TA, and STP traits.

dnc - only used for proccing dynamis mobs with its many JAs

nin - shadows for soloing tough NMs. There's a thread in ffxiah forums by draylo with a ton of info and videos about blu soloes.

Some must have spells off the top of my head... heavy strike, delta thrust, fantod, sudden lunge, battery charge, magic fruit, actinic burst, winds of promy., occultation, amorphic spikes, quadratic continuum, blazing bounds, animating wail, mortal ray.

Some are there for there own usefulness, and some because of the traits they make.

It's a complicated job, but it has a great payout if you stick through to the end. good luck!

[Alikhat]

One thing I'd like to suggest is that if you decide to participate in Grounds of Valor or Abyssea parties, don't burn the job up huge numbers of levels. Learning spells requires your Blue Magic Skill to be at a certain level before you can even attempt to learn it. If you burn all the way, you won't be seeing those any of the main spells like Amorphic Spikes and Battery Charge until you've increased that magic skill level.

Since you are starting again, it's easier to keep your skill level reasonably high if you actively work towards getting all of the spells. I used to go through them on a 10 level basis, going from 1-10, then learning the spells for that range, then going to 20 and doing the same. This was before GoV and Abyssea came out, though, so I didn't have the temptations to level first/learn later. For those spells where the lowest level mob is higher than you, you may want to wait on that particular spell or you can always get a friend to help out.

Like other combat/magic skills, it is easier to skill it up against enemies than by spamming self targeting spells like Pollen and Cocoon. Whilst you won't be hitting the cap in a day or two, it means you won't have to mess about raising this skill from almost nothing to the cap. Not only that, but starting again means all of your defensive skills are next to nothing too making it harder to evade attacks whilst learning spells. Doing things a little more slowly means you can focus on raising all of these skill levels - magic, evasion, sword etc - at the same time.

And because Blue Skill also affects damage on the physical spells, which forms one of the biggest sources of damage from Blue Mage, thus a low Blue Magic Skill will result in terrible numbers coming from your earned spells and for pretty much anything this is not a good thing. It does also affect other things like magic accuracy, which means an increased chance in landing those very useful debuffs like Stun - Head Butt/Sudden Lunge - and Slow - Filamented Hold.

Dragonlord said it pretty well: it's a complex job, but it has amazing potential if you put your soul into it. If you want to be a serious Blue Mage, don't short change it at any point in your levelling journey. Some people like to say that you can just learn it after you get it to the maximum, but my philosophy is that taking the time to learn the ins and outs at all levels will give you a much more beneficial experience of the job; and I believe this to be more true about Blue Mage. It's easy to play any job adequately, but it takes something more to be able to play it well and to accomplish those crazy feats you might have seen.

Of course, this is a personal preference and not something you have to follow. But I think there are benefits to the slower road that will help out in the long run, as opposed to the 'take-things-for-granted' style approach I see with levelling over learning.

[Trykon]

Dragon I looked more than you think. Yeah I can find something that list all the blue spells, but not which ones are used frequently etc. Everything I found is always dated in like 2008 and no longer applies for everything.

Alikhat, thanks I appreciate it. I understand what you are saying and plan to keep my skills up to at least make myself useful. It's weird coming back, before that wasn't a problem because of the way you leveled it always kept you skills maxed as you went.

I'm still pretty lost on leveling up, but i'm slowing figuring things out. Excited to get back into things.

I'm attempting to recover my old PlayOnline id and password from 4 years ago, but i'm not sure how that will go. Either way I am not hurt in any way by trying. I remember half of it and the other half I think i have the right letters just dont know the combination.

Thanks again for the info I really appreciated.

Edi: Got my account back.

[Prothscar]

I'm sorry but you clearly didn't look hard at all.

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/28...pells-at-99/4/

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/28...nd-trait-sets/

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/27...ential-spells/


These were all on the very first page.

[Trykon]

I understand you all probably get frustrated with the same question being asked over and over again. You are correct I did find some information on blue mage that is current. However, it mostly deals with being at level 99. I appreciate your link the first two (2) don't deal with me right now as they contain information on being level 99 and high level blue magic spells that I will not have access to for quite some time.

Currently, I am trying to find out information that is relevant for me as I level (Currently level 13). The last link does provide a good source of low level spells.

I have found some information since my original post, but still haven't answered all my questions, but I am continuing to look.

For instance, i've learned all the blue magic spells for my level range and have blue magic capped, but I don't know which spells are more or less worthless and which ones will be used almost exclusively. I use foot kick 90% of the time right now. That may be wrong, maybe I should be using sprout smack or power attack, I don't know and that's is the info I'm looking for.

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it and I know some of my questions might be annoying, but i'm just trying to be half way descent at blue mage so I don't frustrate the people I play with by doing my own thing and stinking.

[Tashan]

Heya Trykon,

I'm Tashan. It's been a long while since I've been at your level on a job, but I'd suggest focusing on using a combination of melee damage, Head Butt and Pollen. At your level and for at least the next ten to come you should be trying to kill as many easy enemies as fast as possible. Save your MP for self cures and stunning if needed.

Other than that, experiment! There's no right or wrong way to be playing at this level, so take the time to discover. I personally prefer to sub BST low levels

[Prothscar]

I understand you all probably get frustrated with the same question being asked over and over again. You are correct I did find some information on blue mage that is current. However, it mostly deals with being at level 99. I appreciate your link the first two (2) don't deal with me right now as they contain information on being level 99 and high level blue magic spells that I will not have access to for quite some time.

Currently, I am trying to find out information that is relevant for me as I level (Currently level 13). The last link does provide a good source of low level spells.

I have found some information since my original post, but still haven't answered all my questions, but I am continuing to look.

For instance, i've learned all the blue magic spells for my level range and have blue magic capped, but I don't know which spells are more or less worthless and which ones will be used almost exclusively. I use foot kick 90% of the time right now. That may be wrong, maybe I should be using sprout smack or power attack, I don't know and that's is the info I'm looking for.

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it and I know some of my questions might be annoying, but i'm just trying to be half way descent at blue mage so I don't frustrate the people I play with by doing my own thing and stinking.

My Blue Mage Guide

Just made this for people like you who are just coming back and need to know what's up, and for people who have been around and don't know what's up.

A lot of it won't be relevant to you until you hit 99, but some of the core ideas in there carry through.

Hopefully it helps you out.

[Trykon]

Thanks, I will check it out.

[Tashan]

Lol Pro's done exactly what I thought of doing and made a BLU guide in the same structure of Sylow's DNC guide.

EVERYONE SHOULD GO AND READ IT!

It's amazing, made me my smile