Silly Blue Mage Solos at 70

So Blue Mage solos this, Blue Mage solos that. There was a really impressive Tsukuyomi normal solo at the start of the month by a Youtuber named Jalebait

I started in hard on BLU around then, unaware of it until I did it myself.

Been hooked on BLU solos ever since. From the lowliest Tam Tara Deepcroft up to the Father of Dragons. It's been a blast!

Anyone else having fun on BLU?

Alphascape 2.0 Solo

Alphascape 1.0 Solo

Suzaku

Edit: Playlist of Solo Learning/Leveling BLU Journey

I'm eagerly awaiting for someone to try to start soloing the Extremes.

But the casuals told me that BLU sucks

The real tragedy is this doesn’t award log credit.

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Originally Posted by MPK

But the casuals told me that BLU sucks

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Don’t blame me, they’re your friends.

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Originally Posted by Kaurhz

I'm eagerly awaiting for someone to try to start soloing the Extremes.

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Other than old Heavensward ones, and perhaps maaaybe Lakshmi, it won't really be possible due to the enrages. And then other mechanics that BLU can't stop, like Susano's lightning freeze/catching and breaking the sword.

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Originally Posted by MPK

But the casuals told me that BLU sucks

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I can't tell you how tired I am of the meme that Blue Mage is bad because you couldn't break the game over your knee at Level 20 when you had shitty gear and almost no spells beyond the support ones.

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Originally Posted by Berteaux_Braumegain

I can't tell you how tired I am of the meme that Blue Mage is bad because you couldn't break the game over your knee at Level 20 when you had shitty gear and almost no spells beyond the support ones.

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It was pretty broken even then. With a little help you could get 1000 Needles at an extremely low level and then repetitively one shot stuff till about the mid 40s.

I got it from a levequest in Southern Thanalan solo at level 21 heh. Then you can use it to solo Ifrit Story mode for Eruption. BLU is totally OP at low levels, it's just not OP in the way most people think.

Speaking of, though, since I didn't expect to see this thread on the front page of general again, I went ahead and compiled a playlist of every solo that I bothered to upload. Highlights include:

Dropping to 1 HP soloing Galvanth the Dominator without Basic Instinct.

Soloing the Tunnel Worm in Cutter's Cry.

Soloing the Locksmith in Aurum Vale without spells not acquireable solo by a BLU level 47 and lower.

Soloing the Zu specifically for Sonic Boom and Frenzied Whatever without Diamondback

Lakshmi story synced

Manipulator synced

Alte Roite + Halicarnassus + Exdeath

Phantom Train

Silly Blu Solos

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Originally Posted by MPK

But the casuals told me that BLU sucks

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A lot of individuals can't wrap their mind around what a "limited" job is. It's too bad, really.

I'm pretty sure all the caterwauling has killed any chance of there being any more limited jobs introduced in the future.

Personally, I'd love to see more.

My friend sent me a video posted yesterday by The Sword Saint.

Rathalos Extreme Solo by The Sword Saint

It's pretty cool! They use Final Sting to kill Rathalos in a single down, and I also learned an assumption I had was wrong. Nightbloom and Phantom Flurry don't share a recast \o/

Also neat to see that each hit of Matra Magic counts as a full GCD hit for the purposes of the down meter, raising it by 12 with each cast. That means they could have killed it even faster!

I've been doing dungeons for fun. I just started a video series on it too, and I guess a shameless plug is okay here?

Click me.

I don't know if I'll take this to the extremes other people do. I'm sick and I'm not getting any better. But I really like problem solving some of these pulls.

I'm really happy to see other BLUs doing stuff like this. You guys rock.

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Originally Posted by Kacho_Nacho

A lot of individuals can't wrap their mind around what a "limited" job is. It's too bad, really.

I'm pretty sure all the caterwauling has killed any chance of there being any more limited jobs introduced in the future.

Personally, I'd love to see more.

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They (SE) were quite into the idea and beast master got a lot of build up in the game. I think they might do it.

But yeah the casuals crying every 5 minutes has put a dampener on what is probably the most fun side content in the game.

Don’t see why these guys can’t just log in weekly, do their raids and their custom Deliveries then afk in limsa without making threads about how all the content sucks while not actually having a BLU or stepping foot in Bozja. If they had their way every patch would just be glamours for their ERP.

So, it's been a few days, and normally I would keep quiet about something like this and not revive the thread, but I really feel compelled to share this. I'm really proud!

I beat Tsukuyomi solo with Silence Echo turned on. c:

Boop #1.

Boop #2.

Edit: The images are links because they're huge. I hope that's okay?

I died two or three times. It was heartbreaking. But that's why the timer is like eee.

The 9:50 at the end is because the timer changed after duty completion. It didn't take me 40 seconds to DPS 23% of her health. It took 6 minutes.

It was my first clear, and I wasn't expecting to actually clear it, so no video right now.

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Originally Posted by Lynesse

So, it's been a few days, and normally I would keep quiet about something like this and not revive the thread, but I really feel compelled to share this. I'm really proud!

I beat Tsukuyomi solo with Silence Echo turned on. c:

Boop #1.

Boop #2.

Edit: The images are links because they're huge. I hope that's okay?

I died two or three times. It was heartbreaking. But that's why the timer is like eee.

The 9:50 at the end is because the timer changed after duty completion. It didn't take me 40 seconds to DPS 23% of her health. It took 6 minutes.

It was my first clear, and I wasn't expecting to actually clear it, so no video right now.

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Very Cool! :D I knew it was possible after seeing the 10% Echo one, and then learning some more things about BLU. I'm still trying my luck at getting past the DPS check in O12 normal myself.

i got my bluemage up to level 10 when it was first introduced then i forgot the class existed iam gonna start playing it again

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Originally Posted by Vyrerus

My friend sent me a video posted yesterday by The Sword Saint.

Rathalos Extreme Solo by The Sword Saint
It's pretty cool! They use Final Sting to kill Rathalos in a single down, and I also learned an assumption I had was wrong. Nightbloom and Phantom Flurry don't share a recast \o/

Also neat to see that each hit of Matra Magic counts as a full GCD hit for the purposes of the down meter, raising it by 12 with each cast. That means they could have killed it even faster!

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Thank you Vyrerus, I didn't expect my name would appear in official forum.
This is Isshin aka The Sword Saint.

Except Rathalos Extreme Solo by The Sword Saint
I also soloed Lakshmi (Extreme) but with 25% ECHO

My channel was an archive for my vods until I uploaded these two videos which I received countless encouragements. Now I'm uploading regularly including some unique funny content.

[Playlist for newcomers]

Why is that blu using boost every other spell....its only 50% it would be better just to cast the spell twice... (in the suzaku video)

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Originally Posted by Genbe197

Why is that blu using boost every other spell....its only 50% it would be better just to cast the spell twice... (in the suzaku video)

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For casting ogcds it seems. Since he/she uses blaze as the primary gcd (long cast gcd), boost (short cast gcd) is the only gcd that has a short cast time that can cast ogcd w/o loss of dmg. Otherwise ur right, it is a damage loss for "boost+rose of destruction".

But frankly, playing a job like BLU whose rotation changes rapidly and dramatically, it is very easy to build muscle memory and result in damage loss. I feel that.

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Originally Posted by IsshinAshina

But frankly, playing a job like BLU whose rotation changes rapidly and dramatically, it is very easy to build muscle memory and result in damage loss. I feel that.

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Definitely. In a game that's so incredibly rote, BLU demands a certain adaptability and attention to detail that borders on psychotic.

I'll add to this and say BLU both punishes and rewards ABC. It can also reward clipping. It's sometimes very strange.

But the objective isn't to be optimal all the time. It's to make good decisions that mitigate potency loss caused by ABC or having to play safe because you're soloing.

A lot of BLU solo runs will look like prog because if you're good at surviving, you're going to clear something before you've fully memorized it. And with no rewards to incentivize farming, a lot of us will move on to bigger challenges. So, once a video is done, there will be mistakes that can be criticized, but we're not playing at our maximum.

I did most of my solos pretty much directly after hitting 70, some of them before even going and finishing Masked Carnivale. I didn't, and haven't still really, looked up any BLU optimization. I didn't think about clipping the GCD and using shorter cast time spells until after I'd done Suzaku. Which I soloed Suzaku primarily to see if I could, to learn Phantom Flurry.

Sometimes the non-optimal spells look cooler and so I roll with them too. Heh. I'm not really playing to optimize unless I absolutely have to, rather just to have fun... he said after wiping to Omega M&F DPS check for the umpteenth time, lol.

Then may I put out a shameful plug for my video then. In my Blue Mage solo Alte Roite o1s savage, I commentate on the minor details for blue mage optimization and situational decision making, like using moonflute before diamondback. I really hope ppl would find it useful.

No need for shame in the BLU thread! Just come here, post whatever you'd like! Have fun! <3

Not even gonna lie. I was hyped for blu just to feel let down at 50 and 60 caps. But 70 cap has renewed my love for my favorite class in the FF franchise. I've mostly been a solo player for the better part of stormblood and all of shadowbringers so I'm ecstatic over how blu is turning out now.

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Originally Posted by Vickii

But yeah the casuals crying every 5 minutes has put a dampener on what is probably the most fun side content in the game.

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Actually it's quite likely the complaints about BLU are why it's in a better spot now. It wasn't whining, it was legitimate feedback and it was much needed considering how many flaws BLU had both on release and with the lv60 patch. Things like how poor its solo potential was or how the majority of its spells were exact potency copies with different elements or how it had literally no use outside of the Carnival, which gave no decent rewards.

Thanks to that feedback, BLU is finally starting to have potential. It can finally solo things, it received a wide range of fun and powerful skills and it's seeing use in things like FATEs, speed dungeons for moogle tomes or the alliance raid step for the relic. It has a long way to go and it's rather a shame it didn't receive a few more decent rewards to go for this patch, but it's a start.

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Originally Posted by Vyrerus

So Blue Mage solos this, Blue Mage solos that. There was a really impressive Tsukuyomi normal solo at the start of the month by a Youtuber named Jalebait

I started in hard on BLU around then, unaware of it until I did it myself.

Been hooked on BLU solos ever since. From the lowliest Tam Tara Deepcroft up to the Father of Dragons. It's been a blast!

Anyone else having fun on BLU?

Alphascape 2.0 Solo

Alphascape 1.0 Solo

Suzaku

Edit: Playlist of Solo Learning/Leveling BLU Journey

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I started a solo run for BLU and other than Sigma V3.0 soloed everything along the way. I just finished Alpha V2.0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjsD...qvvCi6vwcOl_wm

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Originally Posted by PuffPastryPrince

I started a solo run for BLU and other than Sigma V3.0 soloed everything along the way. I just finished Alpha V2.0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjsD...qvvCi6vwcOl_wm

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Yeehaw! :D Looks like you had fun with it.

On the off chance that you somehow know about this thread, but you don't know about Liam Galt's channel, Blue Academy, it has every weekly Masked Carnivale challenge completed with minimum spells required for meeting the weekly goals.

Not the same sort of nutsy solos as this, but it's very useful information nonetheless, and his channel also offers BLU openers and spell list recommendations, as well as going over gearing for Spell Speed vs. Crit.

Soon to come are raid guides too, for the Alexander series for the Morbol Mount acquisition. He already has guide vids up for Coils as well as PoVs of the other fights, I believe. I haven't looked through the entire channel myself, yet.

Anything Gogos by Liam Galt

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Originally Posted by MPK

But the casuals told me that BLU sucks

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Leveling BLU sucks. BLU at level 50 sucks.
It wasn't until recently (as far as I can tell) that people actually started to like the job.
I still want it to be an unrestricted class, personally.

I had a blast doing Rathalos solo Blu. It’s very tricky at 70, but doable.

Heh, I asked Liam if he had any zaney solos, and his response was, "Nah, but I know some folks who claimed to have soloed O11 normal after 200+ tries to get the right crit RNG on the Level Checker."

I find it hard to believe, but then again, someone did solo A8S by running it until crit RNG let them kill the robot that clones itself in phase 2 / getting no damage downs in later phases to kill it prior to Gavel.

A8S Solo by Deathlyhearts

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Originally Posted by Wilford111

Leveling BLU sucks. BLU at level 50 sucks.
It wasn't until recently (as far as I can tell) that people actually started to like the job.
I still want it to be an unrestricted class, personally.

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I've seen a lot of changes to blue, and I think strongly they are accounting for feedback, I believe there are a few more tweaks it needs but absolutely it seems like they're changing it into more of a content that honestly would have been far better received if they had released it at the state it is now vs was. Though there are a few more things as said that I do think they need to adjust. Unless you have people in flavor of the moment / month, or friends on your time schedule (lucky you), you're going to have to do a lot of this stuff solo, but frankly early level blue mage spells are just not super exciting even the OP ones.

Their later spell designs are pretty cool and I think if they took those design style / thoughts and brought it back down it would greatly help out the job. Say like 1k needle is clearly absolutely OP for a very long time, but what does that spell do to the gameplay? 111111111111111 heal 111111111111111. Meanwhile if you remove that skill the job just became very painful to level because most other things are not nearly like that in tier quality. Then your OP skill looses out but you've for many situations still pretty simple / non-very interesting kit, you can get the dungeon skills which tend to be more interesting but often you'll be faced with doing it unsynced which means leveling past interesting content with a bad kit so you can then use that bad kit overpowered to get a chance to earn small pieces of a better kit. Beyond that there are also things like long self silences, locks, or cast times on blink/movement skills, which take away a lot of the "woah" factor in using them (makes them feel quite balanced on a job I think many just see as an opportunity to goof off, which certainly when you get your full kit is pretty much what the job feels like). So taking a pass through all the lower level skills, combos, effects, punishments, going through and adjusting the early play with the assumption people are not going to get FOTM / have dedicated on demand help would be a huge benefit to the early perspective (if you do get help then obviously this stuff is less painful, like you see people talking about how it's not a big issue but they were power leveled and had 100% acquisition rate experience in a group).

It doesn't happen often, and to be honest the later spells do the opposite (which is great! many of the 60-70 spells are equally or just plain /more/ interesting than their source), but any skill that is clearly less interesting than the monster source should be revisited. Fire Angon, before all the buffs, changes, and better skills released at 60 - 70 had me particularly salty because it was like "you said you wanted to give it a classic feel, why in the world is this really cool boss spell sooo lame? Why???" lol. Angel Whisper isn't from a boss but is a bit sad to be relatively easy to call the worst raise in the game given that it usually has been a really neat spell in other FF games, I think they should try to add some extra effects. Maybe warden's paean effect on revival, and if you've basic instinct / are alone will apply instant self raise (instant meaning technically the game doesn't see that you died, as that would totally mess up boss mechanics, just that your hp hit 1 and then immediately bounced back up with maybe a very short invlun period).

On that concept of equal to or better of source another would be on the idea of % chance spells, something in the later part they clearly showed some more exciting ideas like Ultravibration, and I think it would be nice to represent that downwards as well. Miss miss miss miss miss miss, imo, is not really an ideal experience imo (as it's 'feel bad' for missing, and 'feel bad' for spamming the same button over and over). They don't all have to look the same but I believe changing those in unique ways would be valuable to the general feel but also the gameplay element itself (allowing those skills to fit into a greater rotation / structure vs "spam this till it works"). Of course there can be many ways that works, and theme to the skill might be more fun, some may have charges that trigger from uses certain elements, maybe long cooldowns that can be mitigated by certain actions, etc, etc.

I think this one is harder but some tweaks to the progression / stats of some elements to make self sustain less spammed at certain points in the job's identity- there were a few moments that was like "yeah I can solo this, but also I cast this spell WAY TOO MANY TIMES" lol. Watching some of the streams of content I don't have the abilities to do yet was like watching people solo in FFXI as Red Mage or something. Problem of course if you're too aggressive it would make blue mage literally impossible to kill in almost any situation, which would honestly take some fun away.

Also want to note that major use of blue mage is what I said, before we had more details on blue mage, would be the best use of blue mage if it had to be limited... What people use it for is basically what was said it would be used for. Sure they've that one time group semi-hard raid stuff but that is one off, what fills it's use most seems to be the absolute rampaging of content both solo and in groups for things like mog stones.

I had a thread on it to see how people feel their perspective on the job changed/evolved or what they wanted to discuss, was a little sad not to see more of the vocal for and against fans for the job comment, though my comment basically came down to I think it's on the right tracks, more interesting spells exist, more enjoyable, tweaks that were appreciated, but if they're certain to keep it limited a few more tweaks and I think the job would be significantly more enjoyable in a far more consistent groupset of players (if you're part of the group that took advantage of FOTM or have friends on demand blue mage has always been a bit more forgiving; otherwise, I still think there are a few major pitfalls to the experience that are the type that are fixable/adjustable ones without having to do anything super radical).

Also surprised that deep dungeon blue leaderboard or eureka type stuff hasn't been allowed yet. I feel that would be pretty fun for a while.

In all fairness, Blue Magic in FF games does tend to both be ridiculously powerful and absolutely horrible at the same time. On the one hand, you can get access to some of the nastier abilities monsters use. On the other hand, it often requires you to deal with one or more of the following:

1. Get hit by the ability and survive the fight just for a random chance to learn the ability
2. Have the blue mage leave the party for a random length of time while they learn the ability (I'm looking at you Gau!)
3. Give up all control over the blue mage while they are using the ability (Gau, Gogo, and Mog from FFVI spring to mind off the top of my head for this)
4. It's only usable as a Limit Break, and there's so many better ones (as well as characters better suited for that char's main role in the party)

To make matters worse, the blue mage is often the worst party member of an ensemble cast in Final Fantasy games despite their potential power. Or maybe it's done as a way to balance their potential power. Either way, for decades the Blue Mage has been regarded as bad. And unlike red mages, the blue mage doesn't even have versatility as a claim to fame.

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Originally Posted by Titania40

In all fairness, Blue Magic in FF games does tend to both be ridiculously powerful and absolutely horrible at the same time. On the one hand, you can get access to some of the nastier abilities monsters use. On the other hand, it often requires you to deal with one or more of the following:

1. Get hit by the ability and survive the fight just for a random chance to learn the ability
2. Have the blue mage leave the party for a random length of time while they learn the ability (I'm looking at you Gau!)
3. Give up all control over the blue mage while they are using the ability (Gau, Gogo, and Mog from FFVI spring to mind off the top of my head for this)
4. It's only usable as a Limit Break, and there's so many better ones (as well as characters better suited for that char's main role in the party)

To make matters worse, the blue mage is often the worst party member of an ensemble cast in Final Fantasy games despite their potential power. Or maybe it's done as a way to balance their potential power. Either way, for decades the Blue Mage has been regarded as bad. And unlike red mages, the blue mage doesn't even have versatility as a claim to fame.

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BLU has always been a meta job. If you know the game inside and out, then you know BLU and all of its spells. Which ones are good, which ones are bad, and which ones break the game. Which ones that break the game that you can get early etc. Like Death Claw.

In its first appearance, BLU with the right spells was one of the most obscene jobs in the game, and you could set Learning Blue Magic as a skill on any other job, so if you didn't have good spells/equipment for it, then you could learn the spells on a job that did.

Once BLU gets a few of its good spells it's basically a superhero, one shoting bosses and random enemies alike.

In FFVI the BLU is Strago. Gau is a unique but similar concept, but ultimately isn't a Blue Mage. Lore is the BLU command. Again, it requires meta knowledge, stuff you could only have with a guide or with many previous playthroughs where you write stuff down. Mog is a Geomancer. Gogo is a Mime. Neither of those are BLU.

BLUs are usually never strong without their magic, an exception being BLU in FFXI where it was absurdly powerful in every stage of its life, with an A- in swords, allowing it to dual wield them at a high proficiency and rack up weapon damage in league with physical only jobs.

No matter the iteration, BLU was a highly versatile boss destroying god. You could do nutso stuff with it, like have Galuf never fall to 0 HP when he fights Exdeath.

It's basically the definition of a growth type job. Starts out small, weird, and wimpy. Grows into large and in charge but still weird. It has the ultimate versatility and destructive capability, provided you have the knowledge of the game to make it work.