New BLU with questions. (long)

[UberFishCakeswithRanch]

Hello, I recently started playing FFXI and decided to try my hand at Blue Mage. Currently I'm level 30, and unfortunately I'm a little disheartened about some of our spells.
I realize I'm only 30, so I assume that once I hit 99 this job will shift in some fundamental ways (at least I hope, anyway).

I've been picking up most of the spells available to me at this current level (albeit extreamly slowly) and testing them out one by one, and over time, have come to a clear conclusion.
"Physical" Blue magic (at least at this level) is far and wide superior to "Magical" Blue magic in almost every regard (and yes, even with a caster subjob and gear). "Physical" magic does more damage, casts MUCH faster, costs less MP, and typically has more "secondary effects" that apply.

This might be fine for some, but I was attracted to Blue Mage to be a Mage.

Being a Mage is important to me, and while I don't mind using "Physical" magics and standing on the front line (and frankly I would rather do something more hybrid than blm), if damaging "nuke" blue magic is forever crappy and clearly under-powered (at least in comparison to our other damaging abilities), I'm not sure I would want to invest my time into blu.



So my first question is simple:
Keeping the above in mind, can I actually expect anything from our "nuke" spells with late game Blue Mage? Or is the job forever cursed to spam Bludgeon-type attacks without even giving spells like Bomb Toss (or whatever you 99s get) a second look?

Secondly:
Learning Blue Magic spells, in a solo/duo situation, is it best to learn from most lower, higher, or even leveled mobs?

Finally:
I see a lot of late game Blu mages using /dnc and /rdm. I'm assuming that /dnc is more of a psychical damage sub and /rdm is more of a support subjob? I guess I'm looking for clarification of what subjob I should level, and for what reasons.

Thanks ahead of time for any answers and support!

[Zagen]

So my first question is simple:
Keeping the above in mind, can I actually expect anything from our "nuke" spells with late game Blue Mage? Or is the job forever cursed to spam Bludgeon-type attacks without even giving spells like Bomb Toss (or whatever you 99s get) a second look?

A quick note: BLU magical damage spells can never miss, they can be resisted so damage gets reduced but they don't miss where as physical spells can miss.

There are a few situations where our magical spells will be the most efficient use of damage but in general if you're casting the physical spells will be what you use.

Secondly:
Learning Blue Magic spells, in a solo/duo situation, is it best to learn from most lower, higher, or even leveled mobs?

I've never done any sort of extensive testing but it always seemed the level of the monster didn't make a difference at the chance beyond the higher it's level the more HP it had allowing more chances of TP moves.

Finally:
I see a lot of late game Blu mages using /dnc and /rdm. I'm assuming that /dnc is more of a psychical damage sub and /rdm is more of a support subjob? I guess I'm looking for clarification of what subjob I should level, and for what reasons.

/DNC is for Dynamis soloing. There are times in Abyssea where I sub /RDM besides Charged Whisker farming but in general I'm almost always /WAR now.

It depends on the situation but the most common subs you'll likely use are /DNC, /WAR, /NIN, and /RDM. Beyond those /SCH, /WHM, and /DRK might be worth looking into but they are only a few situations where you may want to use them. Any other sub is likely just for goofing around.

[Afania]

Hello, I recently started playing FFXI and decided to try my hand at Blue Mage. Currently I'm level 30, and unfortunately I'm a little disheartened about some of our spells.
I realize I'm only 30, so I assume that once I hit 99 this job will shift in some fundamental ways (at least I hope, anyway).

I've been picking up most of the spells available to me at this current level (albeit extreamly slowly) and testing them out one by one, and over time, have come to a clear conclusion.
"Physical" Blue magic (at least at this level) is far and wide superior to "Magical" Blue magic in almost every regard (and yes, even with a caster subjob and gear). "Physical" magic does more damage, casts MUCH faster, costs less MP, and typically has more "secondary effects" that apply.

This might be fine for some, but I was attracted to Blue Mage to be a Mage.

Being a Mage is important to me, and while I don't mind using "Physical" magics and standing on the front line (and frankly I would rather do something more hybrid than blm), if damaging "nuke" blue magic is forever crappy and clearly under-powered (at least in comparison to our other damaging abilities), I'm not sure I would want to invest my time into blu.



So my first question is simple:
Keeping the above in mind, can I actually expect anything from our "nuke" spells with late game Blue Mage? Or is the job forever cursed to spam Bludgeon-type attacks without even giving spells like Bomb Toss (or whatever you 99s get) a second look?

Secondly:
Learning Blue Magic spells, in a solo/duo situation, is it best to learn from most lower, higher, or even leveled mobs?

Finally:
I see a lot of late game Blu mages using /dnc and /rdm. I'm assuming that /dnc is more of a psychical damage sub and /rdm is more of a support subjob? I guess I'm looking for clarification of what subjob I should level, and for what reasons.

Thanks ahead of time for any answers and support!

I'm afraid you picked the wrong job then, BLU in this game is more like a physical melee DD with utility such as AoE sleep or cure. Depending what you fight and the buff you have you may even better off don't cast any spell to lower your melee DPS.

The only situations I find magical BLU viable atm:
1. Charged Whisker burn.
2. Fighting something that requires magic dmg and physical won't work, such as Hydra with physical shield up.
3. Maybe if you want to 1 shot TE with dark orb in dyna, although Heavy strike is much faster.

If you liked magical BLU, you either have to lv up BLU and only use it in above situations, or just play SCH BLM RDM etc.

Also, if you want to stand in the front line, and still nuke, then it won't work very well in this game. Nuking requires a staff for dmg, but if you want to melee well you need a sword. Also you can't nuke nearly as fast as you melee. Nuking also lowers your melee DPS because the casting time is long. I guess you can try to build yourself a pair of MAB sword and be a nuking melee, but it's something players usually won't do.

[Doombringer]

i'm somewhat new to the job myself (sorta fell bass ackward into it when it turned out my NNI group met with moderate success. so what was i gonna do? never wear my new thaumas coat?) but i feel like i'm totally qualified to help you with learning spells at least, given that i ground out 50 levels of spells in a week.

- Level of the mob does not matter. even if the spell is lvl 90-something, you can learn it from a lvl 0 mob if you have your blue magic skilled up high enough. (do that btw. skillup blue magic. super important.) so learning from low~ish level mobs can make things way easier.

- I suggest subbing RDM to learn spells, as it lets you spam dia on mobs to feed them TP. (this way you don't accidentally kill it before it gets the chance to use the move you want) and it also gives you refresh/haste until you learn the blue magic versions to further facilitate spamming dia. if the mobs get a little to strong (you'll know this if dia starts landing for 0) you can switch to spamming stone1 to feed tp instead.

- Most mobs use their TP more readily if they have less than 1/4th health left. so it's often best to smack them down to low hp, then start feeding them tp. otherwise they might wait until they reach 300%, or even longer.

- Quest the af gloves ASAP. maybe it's just a placebo affect but it SEEMS to me that it's making a big difference, and you're gonna wanna do the blue mage af quest ANYWAY to get the body, so you might as well just make the hands while you're at it.


finally; this has a lot of useful info. it's even got a helpful cheat sheet kinda thing for what spells make what job traits. (WAY better than having to search them up individually on wikipedia)

[Metaking]

blu nukeing is alot better pound for pound that most people give it credit for but generally physical spells are better for trash mobs (t or lower depending on family) cdc covers most everything higher unless it has crazy evasion or heavy pdt. now nukeing on blu generaly is for the few things remaining, tho there are a few mobs cdc can hurt that i would still nuke (aello for instance ^#$*^& you stripaga) dark orb, grudge, thermal, fire spit(poor mp efficiency tho) wisker regurgitation acrid stream, water bomb and corrosive ooze, and learnings gates and thunderbolt (leaf storm should be in this list but it always sucks for me) would be your primary nukes mostly int a few int and mnd one mnd one dex and one str and int nuke. Now the "FUN" part is getting real nukeing gear for blu se dint make it easy like it for rdms and blms gloves and boots off af3 tho make a good start body and helm i would look to morrgin +1, pants from a very nasty demon in meebles, belt... is probably still penetance aswang i think will lag behind for blu (stacking matt doesn't always work as well for blu as it does other jobs) earrings hecetates is off a relatively nasty nm and im not sure how often novios are sold anymore... rings are a mixed bag for simplicity tho i would recommend a spiral and a strendu ring and branch out from there if you want more specialized sets for each spell i wont lie i have rare things like an archon ring for dark spells(lets osmosis go past its normal dmg from skill figure it would effect drain from sch sub the same, tho i never tested it on drain)
cant rember the name of the neck i use but its on the ah and pritty obvious, has like matt+8 and weponslot yea would most defiantly be that staff chatoyant, seance not only effects the spells dmg effects the add effects landing which some of those spells especially in the water list have effects that dont match there element, and alot of those add effects add some nasty bite -mdef for instance ^.^/