How-To Guide: Blue Mage

From FFXIclopedia, the free Final Fantasy XI encyclopedia

CAUTION!
This article is only a guide. Information expressed in a guide is usually more opinion than fact and should be taken as such. Guides are written by players, based upon their experiences, successes and mistakes, and are meant to aid other players. However, there may be differing opinions than those expressed in a guide. Strategies and information in guides may not work for everyone.

Blue as a Monster’s Blood

Blue Mage is possibly the most phenomenally well-rounded job-class in all of Final Fantasy XI. It proves to be one of the most strategic, skilful, and exciting jobs in the entire game. The raw power of being able to literally learn monster abilities and use those moves against them is too much for many to handle. As such, this job is a very difficult and tedious job to keep going. Going out into the wilderness and fighting monsters, only to get beaten on and beaten on time and time again, watching the monsters use their attacks and trying to master them. This gets quite annoying after a while, but for many, this job is truly worth it. Being one of only a few jobs capable of self-skillchaining and one of the few jobs that can solo extraordinarily well, it’s a great choice for anyone with the want to do any of it. Blue Mage is also the only job in the game capable of effectively using any support job in the entire game. This job is also great because it requires every stat in a big way. As such, every race is extremely good at this job, and quest-obtainable race-specific equipment is a great way to play this job well. Blue Mage is also about the only job in the game that can effectively perform any task in a party. Blue Mage can tank, damage-deal, enfeeble enemies, enhance itself or party members, and even pull and play as a support role in parties. On top of all this, Blue Mage is one of the most customizable jobs. Selecting your spells takes a lot of thought; you have to consider your situation, your preferences, how many Set Points they take, and even what kind of job traits you want to have (yes, you get to customize your job traits!).
Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.

Job-Race Combinations

Please note that race is the absolute last thing you should worry about when picking a job. Anything said here is seriously exaggerated. A single piece of gear can often make up for a race's negligible lack in a stat. Every race also gets "Race Specific Equipment", or "RSE", that will boost a race's stats equal to, or possibly even surpassing those other races.

Hume

As Blue Mage requires a heavy payload of every stat, Hume does not disappoint. Good hit points both adds to survivability and helps with the power of “breath” attacks (based on user’s current HP). Good magic points simply allows this mage to last. Strength, dexterity, and all of the other stats are required for power and accuracy of every spell. Truly a great choice for Blue Mages.

Elvaan

Putting Blue Mage to the extreme of battle-mage. Both physical attacks and “physical” Blue Magic are affected by strength, which is an Elvaan’s highest stat. Another of Elvaan’s highest stats is mind, which is incredibly useful for the number of healing-type spells Blue Mage gets. Low intelligence puts Elvaan’s other “magical” Blue Magic at a lower level, and low MP means less opportunity to cast spells. However, Elvaan also possess high levels of HP and vitality, allowing for moderate survivability and the capabilities to out-last their opponent.

Tarutaru

Proving to be the other extreme, Tarutaru play Blue Mage very magically. Providing a plethora of both MP and intelligence means Tarutaru can keep their spells coming and coming, and any “magical” Blue Magic is typically more powerful than others. The low strength of the Tarutaru make their “physical” Blue Magic slightly less powerful, but having a number of other stats at a relatively decent level prove to make that up. Another downside is the unfortunate lack of HP and vitality, making Tarutaru more reliant on their healing and enhancing magic to keep themselves alive.

Mithra

Like Humes, Mithra enjoy a relatively nice balance of stats. Moderate of both HP and MP, as well as strength and intelligence allows Mithra to be a very flexible Blue Mage. Having the highest dexterity and agility helps them to land killer blows with their “physical” magic, and avoid any unwanted hits with higher agility. Only low vitality, mind, and charisma hinder this Blue Mage, easily made-up by its superb race-specific armor.

Galka

Galka enjoy the highest overall survivability of any races with a huge number of both HP and vitality. These stats also come in handy for “breath” spells and later on Cannonball. High HP comes with the price of low MP, but having items such as Astral Rings, this is little more than a bother for Galka, as sacrificing HP isn’t a big problem. Galka also prove to have massive strength, and relatively well-rounded other stats, allowing them to be quite diverse and powerful Blue Mages.

Equipment Choices

Weapon

Blue Mage has an A- proficiency in swords, and not much in any other field. With that said, you want to go with swords, from Lv.1 all the way to Lv.75. This is probably the only ‘mage’ job that won’t wind-up using the Elemental Staves, as having +10% in a particular spell’s damage is nothing if it can’t hit. And since “physical” spells share their weapon’s accuracy, you won’t hit very often at all with a staff in hand. Blue Mages are still mages after all, so choosing high damage swords over low delay swords may be your better bet. Assuming you don’t sub Ninja, using a shield is quite useful. If you can afford it, the Faerie Shield is great, but any of the support job-related shields can be useful as well. Unfortunately, Blue Mage has no native proficiency in shields, so the stat boosts may be the only useful thing that comes out of them. Picking weapons that have accuracy and attack boosts are great. Namely the Centurion’s Swords are perfect for Blue Mages. Later on, Shotel swords are good. Eventually you will be allowed to equip special Blue Mage-specific swords called Kilij swords; these are great and I suggest you get them when you can, if you can. Blue Mage is the only sword-wielder that specializes in using physical damage, so your choices of weapons are much broader than for that of a Paladin or Red Mage, and as a result, you can get weapons that enhance your overall proficiencies in damage, or better yet, ones with powerful additional effects. Blue Mages may also want to choose clubs over swords. If you have merits in Club, or just have some good use for those weapons, clubs are great alternatives for opening skillchains than swords. Within the assortment of those generally below-average weapons shines the Seveneyes, a great weapon providing +7 to an assortment of things, including Conserve MP. Since your weapons aren’t really your main fighting tools, any form of club or sword can work well for Blue Mages.

Armor

Unlike its very minimal choice in weapons, Blue Mage has an enormous variety of choice when it comes to armor. Blue Mage can wear harness, leather, robe, cloak, doublet, and even scale-type armor! That means the only types of armor it can’t wear are super heavy-duty tanking things that are exclusive to Warrior, Paladin, and Dark Knight. With this much choice, this opens you up to being even more flexible than you may have previously thought. Picking defensive gear is optimal for either soloing or tanking in early levels. In mid-levels, you may want to go for balanced equipment that offer a variety of bonuses, especially race-specific armor. And later on in the game, picking-up accuracy and high stat-boosting armor (typically the Scorpion Harness) will be highly rewarding. Your artifact armor is no joke either, though there are some better choices. In some cases, even race specific equipment is better.

Walkthrough

Advanced Job Quest

I suggest for this quest you have Red Mage or White Mage to Lv.25+. The reason I say this is because you’ll be running through some aggro spots. Otherwise, this quest is incredibly easy. Your first step is to talk to Waoud in Aht Urhgan Whitegate J-10 upstairs. He will ask you a series of questions. You must answer them. The combination that appears to work almost every single time is 1, 3, 1, 3, 1, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2. If you for any reason fail, he will charge 1000 gil and you will have to wait one game day to try again. If you succeed, he will give you a message about all five serpents. Then, he will describe a certain item with which you have to collect. A Dangruf Stone (blood-red stone in the land of geysers), a pinch of Valkurm Sunsand (golden sand found on a certain beach), or a Siren's Tear (a blue jewel found at the bank of a certain river). Only the Sunsand is available on the Auction House, but the other two are easy to obtain. The Dangruf Stone is found when you examine a ??? in Dangruf Wadi I-5/J-5 during normal weather. The Sunsand (assuming you don't want to buy it) can be found on the crashed boat near Selbina. The Siren's Tear is found outside of Port Bastok at J-8 North Gustaberg. Note that in order to obtain the Tear, you must unequip all weapons (main, sub, and ranged), as well as your gloves. The next game day, talk to Waoud again and then trade your item to him. Keep the item in your inventory. Get some Sneak and Invisible and then head outside the Ironbound Gate at Whitegate H-7. Zone into Aydeewa Subterrane from Bhaflau I-7. Go down the first major room and fall off a small cliff. Make sure to have Sneak on. Turn left and head towards the pool and go onto the thing that looks like a teleporter. With the item still in your inventory, go to the center of the pool. You will receive a cutscene. Answer "Yes" to both questions (answering "No" will make you restart the quest). You will be teleported back to Whitegate. Congratulations! You can now become a Blue Mage.

Soloing 1 to 10

Though Blue Mage is super-capable of soloing, these levels are very slow and tedious, and generally turn a lot of people off of this job for good. Basically, you’ll wind-up hitting Lv.10 trying to get all of your spells up to Lv.10. On average, you’ll probably spend your first three or four levels just trying to get the first three Lv.1 spells. And by that time, you’re behind again. It’s frustrating, but believe me, it’s worth it! From Lv.10 and on, I strongly suggest you get all of your spells for at least a few levels ahead. Like I said, that won’t happen before this, but afterwards, always try to be on top of your spells. You’ll appreciate it and your parties will appreciate it. Since you’re only starting out, you will probably be able to equip all of your spells at any given time, so choosing a particular spell set isn’t all that necessary. Pollen is a great choice to learn first, then probably Foot Kick, and then Sandspin. When you do get them, equipping Sprout Smack and Wild Oats simultaneously will make your later soloing a lot friendlier since they will give you a Beast Killer trait. This trait is amazing even early in the game, and I very strongly suggest using it whenever fighting beast-type monsters. When you do go outside and get your spells, I suggest subbing White Mage. When the monsters start checking as weak as Easy Prey when you’re fighting them for their spells, take off your sword and begin pummelling them with your fists. This will result in giving the monster 10-15% TP per hit and dealing minimal damage, allowing them to use more TP moves and give you a much higher chance of learning them. Since you can learn your spells a number of levels in advance (9 at this level), try learning all of them up to Lv.18 or so once you hit Lv.10, and Lv.20 at Lv.12. When you’re soloing, pick-up some defensive equipment and a good sword. Having a lot of MP may be even more preferable, especially for surviving long enough for the monsters to use their attacks. Make habit of grabbing Signet before you go outside. Not only will it make soloing a lot easier through defense and evasion bonuses, but it will also allow you to rest HP and MP without losing TP, and will also earn you conquest points with which to spend on items.

Valkurm 10-20

This is where Blue Mage immediately becomes a lot more fun. This is where soloing can take a halt (if you want it to) and partying can begin. Blue Mage is awesome in Valkurm because you can choose to be a tank or a damage-dealer with support enfeebles. As a tank, you will want to sub Warrior and have very defensive equipment. As the puller is pulling, use Metallic Body, and then Cocoon (in that order). When the monster comes into range, use Provoke and then a damage-dealing spell (possibly even Head Butt). At this point, you should have a fair level of enmity and still a lot of MP remaining. Use this MP to continue using your high-enmity and damaging spells and using Pollen as your HP is being withered away. If, however, you choose the other route and want to be an attacker, sub White Mage and set yourself up with spells like Power Attack, Sprout Smack, and Wild Oats. Begin every fight with all of your enfeebles and then use the occasional spell. Be sure not to go over your limit and get hate. In the case you do, set Cocoon up as well, and don’t forget Pollen. Use Head Butt when you see a monster preparing an annoying attack like Cure III or Bomb Toss. In the latter half of your Valkurm time, you get a few very powerful spells. Namely Healing Breeze and Sheep Song at Lv.16, and Bludgeon at Lv.18. Bludgeon is probably the most powerful standalone spell you’ll get until Lv.48. Combining Healing Breeze and Sheep Song will give you Auto-Regen. If you think that’s worth it, use them. Otherwise, don’t keep them. Healing Breeze is a great alternative to Curaga if your mage can’t keep everything up, and Sheep Song is brilliant in that it’s light-elemental and therefore very potent against bats and undead.

Mid-levels 20-40

Continue to sub White Mage until about Lv.30. At that point, you may want to switch to subbing Black Mage. Once you hit Lv.24, the usefulness of subbing Ninja is finally present, but I strongly suggest holding it off until about Lv.40 or 50. You can still tank in these levels, but probably no later than Lv.30. Even then, you probably can in smaller parties against easier monsters. By now you should have an incredibly wide variety of spells that you should customize yourself with based on the situation. The downside to Blue Mage in these levels is that a lot of the monsters you fight will be highly resistant to your two main enfeebling spells: Sprout Smack and Wild Oats. Combine Soporific and Poison Breath until Lv.30 when you begin subbing Black Mage, as they will create a Clear Mind trait, allowing your MP to recover a lot faster when resting. At Lv.30 you can now become an effective healer. You don’t even need to sub White Mage to get the full effect. You can use Wild Carrot to heal any party member, and Healing Breeze to heal in an area effect.

Your AF Weapon

It’s a great weapon and you’ll surely use it for a few levels at least. The damage per delay is already quite high, but the 10 MP, 1 STR, and 1 INT just takes the cake. Even if you for some reason don’t want this amazing Immortal’s Scimitar, you have to do it anyway to move onto your other AF in a few levels.
First off, I hope you’ve acquired all of your Staging Points already. Going to each of them is pretty much the gist of this quest. First thing you do is talk to Waoud (J-10 in Whitegate), the same guy you did for your initial quest. Choose “Gaze Away” and then wait three in-game days. After the third day, talk to him again and choose “Gaze Away” one more time. Be sure you wait the full three days and don’t talk to him in between it or you’ll have to do the question and answer segment you had to do for the initial quest. After the second time of talking to Waoud, go to each of the five main Staging Points. At each Staging Point, talk to the NPC wearing Blue Mage equipment. In Ilrusy Atoll, talk to Meyaada. In Dvucca Isle, talk to Nahshib. In Halvung, talk to Waudeen. In Mamool Ja, talk to Daswil. And in Azouph Isle, talk to Nareema. Each one of these NPCs will fire off an attack on you. Your character will survive, and the NPC will give you a “brand”. Head back to Waoud and receive your reward. Also note that to get the “brands” from each NPC, you must talk to them as a Blue Mage.

Mid-High Levels 40-60

Hitting Lv.40 is a very large turning point in the life of Blue Mage. Now you can start skillchaining with yourself, allowing for incredible party use and an even better soloing opportunity. How you self-skillchain is like this: you use Chain Affinity, a new ability you get at Lv.40 which allows your ’physical’ Blue Magic to skillchain. Next, use a weapon skill like Red Lotus Blade. Wait a second and then use a corresponding spell such as Jet Stream. Now you have a Fusion skillchain. If you want to get even more advanced, using Burst Affinity prior to Chain Affinity and then using either Blastbomb or Bomb Toss right after Jet Stream will even allow you to magic burst with yourself! These levels are very difficult, as Blue Mage has to learn a lot of super-hard-to-get spells like Jettatura and Frightful Roar. One of the hardest ones will be Refueling at Lv.48, which is learned from Clusters but is also one of the most useful spells to have. In these levels is also where you finally get your amazing artifact armor and other quite useful pieces of equipment such as the Scorpion Harness. On the other hand, this is also where you have to do your limit breaking quests if you haven’t done them already.

Your Artifact Armor

Truly one of the most worthwhile sets of artifact armor. Your first piece is the Lv.52 boots. These already start you off on a high note as one of the most-used pieces. They give both HP and MP +13, Evasion Skill +10, and Enmity-3. All of these buffs will enhance your survivability and longevity, no matter what you do. Next are your leg pieces at Lv.54. These give HP, vitality, and agility, further enhancing your survival when doing the things Blue Mages do. They also lower the chances of a monster interrupting your spell casting by 10%. Lv.56 rolls around your hand pieces. There are better pieces than this (typically RSE), but they are great for at least one thing: learning spells. They actually give a buff to increase the chance of learning Blue Magic! Your Lv.58 body piece will also help learn spells. The +15 Blue Magic skill both means you can learn your spells later, and learn them easier. It also means more accurate and potent abilities. Like your boots, this will also give HP and MP, but will also give strength and dexterity. It’s worth swapping in and out with the Scorpion Harness. Finally, your turban head piece. MP, intelligence, and mind will all help you out quite a bit. But where this piece really shines is its “Enhances monster correlation effects” buff, which will actually enhance the effect of using a specific ecosystem of spell against an enemy’s weakness.

High Levels 60-75

In these, your final levels, you get to learn some more incredibly difficult spells that will become your greatest assets. Hopefully you have a number of high-level friends and have Sea unlocked. If you haven’t cleared Promathia yet, don’t worry too much. These spells are at the end of your game and generally won’t be too much of a bane. On the other hand, you should of course still try to learn them. In these levels you should certainly be comfortable mixing your spells around for whatever your current scenario may be. Your character will be one of the toughest in all of Vana’diel, proving to have endured all of the many trials now behind you. Congratulations! Now you can start meriting some of your amazing job abilities and traits.

End-Game

Blue Mage is a damage-dealer in Dynamis and in Sky. Its amazing damage output can really put the hurt down in these events. Though unlike most of the game, this isn't performed physically. Most of the time, Blue Mages will perform a lot of Heat Breath attacks, which are based solely on the user's HP. Any health-boosting equipment is very nice to have. Keep in mind that although breath attacks deal the same damage at all times, it can be resisted to deal less damage.
Blue Mage is also needed as the main sleepers in events such as Einherjar. Most of the mobs in this event, particularly in Tier 3, are immune to dark based sleeps, and although Bards could sleep, they are needed elsewhere. Due to the variety and potency of Blue Magic sleepgas, in addition to Blue Mage's survivability when they wake up, Blue Magic is the most effective way of crowd control in Einherjar.
(Please add information about Dynamis, Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)

Support Jobs

Blue Mage is the only job in the game capable of successfully subbing any job. As a result, I’m going to post the ups and downs of every possible job if used as a support job for Blue Mage.

Warrior

If you want to tank in the earlier levels, you’ll have to sub Warrior. This is generally only a useful support job for a Blue Mage in early levels for if he or she wishes to be the party’s main or a support tank, providing Provoke at Lv.10 for tanking (and Defense Bonus at 20). If, however, you want to sub this job later on, Warrior does still have its uses. For example, Warrior can use Berserk to enhance its physical attacks. This is actually a great job to take into duoing situations. Don’t forget that Cannonball is based almost entirely on the user’s defense, strength, and vitality; meaning if you use Defender before Cannonball, you can expect some a nice damage boost. Double Attack at Lv.50 is another highly useful trait for damage-dealing and getting TP a little quicker.

Monk

A very overlooked support job. Due to its incredibly high vitality and HP, subbing Monk can actually benefit your spells as well as your survivability. Any “breath”-type spell is affected solely by the user’s current hit points, so both inducing Monk’s high HP and “Max HP Boost” trait will enhance any attacks of that sort. Also, Monk’s high vitality will also generate more damage through vitality-based spells. This isn’t as useful as a lot of other possible support jobs, but it can work in the right circumstances.

White Mage

Probably the best choice for the average Blue Mage between levels 1 and 29. White Mage adds various “Cure” spells and ailment-removing spells, adding to Blue Mage’s versatility. On top of this, White Mage adds a fair bit of MP into the mix. Later on, should you decide to sub this after 29, you can get the useful ability Divine Seal, which will in fact work with your Wild Carrot or any other healing spells. At Lv.40, you get Clear Mind, alleviating the need to waste useful Set Points and spell slots for the same effect. You can also get the useful spell Raise at Lv.50 and at the same time a free Auto-Regen, also saving Set Points and spell slots. It should be noted that healing magic skill raises HP healed for the Blue Magic type of healing spells, therefore increases your ability to heal yourself and allies.

Black Mage

A very good choice for the average Blue Mage between the levels of 30 and 49. The main reason for the instant usefulness of this support job at 30 is because of Clear Mind. This trait is very useful and normally consumes a lot of Set Points to have. Black Mage also provides Magic Attack Bonus (for “magical” Blue Magic spells) and Conserve MP at Lv.40+. Conserve MP will actually save you a lot of MP. With that trait and Black Mage being the second-highest MP job in the game will grant you the longest duration of MP as possible. Even Summoner cannot stack up to this potent mage support job in that way. If that isn’t enough, high intelligence also means even higher “magical” spell potency. Finally the spells that this sub provides: Drain, Aspir, Warp, and Bio. A lot of other spells won’t work very well due to low skill. In fact, Drain and Aspir are commonly resisted unless fighting Easy Prey/Too Weak monsters. Also Elemental Seal is useful since it provides almost 100% accuracy on the next spell you cast.

Red Mage

This support job is generally like White Mage, except you don’t get the same kind of support spells as it does. You won’t get ailment-removal spells and you won’t get Curaga. With that said, you won’t even get any useful Black Magic spells. Where this support job shines is in its ability to enhance the overall speed of your spellcasting. Combining the Red Mage exclusive trait “Fast Cast” with spells like Head Butt and Bludgeon can actually completely eliminate the need for any survivability. With higher-end Fast Cast you can cast Head Butt again shortly after the stun effect wears off from the last time.

Thief

One of the best support jobs in the game for any Blue Mage Lv.60 or higher. Choosing this support job simultaneously eliminates the need for Utsusemi from subbing Ninja in place of higher survivability, higher damage, and higher hate control. No other way can Blue Mage perform self-skillchain total damages of over 2,000 damage, and simultaneously give the majority of the enmity to the tank. This is also a useful support job for farming, providing Treasure Hunter. Oh yeah, and Thief’s naturally highest dexterity and agility are no laughing matters either.

Paladin

Once you hit Lv.70, this support job makes a great way of tanking. Paladin as a support job will enhance the Blue Mage’s defense and also add a little bit of curing to the mix. On top of this, Flash can help you keep enmity. Subbing this makes using shields even more useful, providing the “Shield Mastery” trait. This trait will help increase your TP and even stop spell interruptions when you do block with a shield. Another one of the pride and joy bits to this support job is the addition of Auto-Refresh without using a ton of Set Points and spell slots for the same effect.

Dark Knight

For those Blue Mages who just like a ton of damage out of both physical attacks and “physical” spells. Dark Knight provides a plethora of strength and attack power. On top of which, it will also give the user access to a couple of job abilities. Last Resort will increase your attack even more at the expense of defense, and Souleater will actually consume your own HP to enhance the attack power of your spells. Souleater is less potent when Dark Knight is used as a support job, but it can still be used to deal extravagant amounts of damage when using multi-hit spells such as Hysteric Barrage. Dark Knight also has a number of spells, albeit generally useless. You will have access to Bio and a few of the Absorb-spells. Even though most of the subbed spells will be resisted, Stun will be able to land for a fraction of a second which can be used with Head Butt as a slightly longer, better stun.

Beastmaster

A useful support job for a Blue Mage trying to learn spells. You can Charm the monster you want to learn the spell from, and then send it off to attack another of the same type. Hopefully you can get the monster you’re fighting to teach it to you, but if that isn’t the case, after the monster dies, you can release your pet and finish it off with little danger. Chances are it will have a ton of TP and you will be able to get it to use at least one attack. Beastmaster as a support job also enhances charisma by a lot, increasing Bludgeon damage. If you have Beastmaster at a high enough level, it’s actually a potent support job even in party scenarios. Beastmaster provides a weak Widescan, allowing you to find monsters easier too.

Ranger

An underused support job for many jobs. Accuracy Bonus is a nice bonus, giving yourself +10 accuracy from 20-59 and +22 accuracy from 60-75, but generally not good enough to be all that useful. Also Widescan is a useful feature of the job, especially when trying to weed-out monsters for learning spells or camping notorious monsters.

Bard

This support job adds a lot more of a support-role to your job. Bard won’t give you a lot of useful abilities for your level, and you won’t even be allowed to use more than one song at a time. However, if you really like the whole support role in the party, this may be a decent option. You can give all of the mages Ballad for Refresh and all of the front-line fighters enhancements to attack or accuracy. You can even hit yourself with an Etude to enhance the potency of a particular spell, or lower the monster’s resistance to a particular element with a Threnody, but with halved skill and no instrument, expect the enemy to resist it.

Summoner

Summoner adds the most MP in the entire game, and at Lv.50+ can also add a free Auto-Refresh. On top of this, Summoner also adds Clear Mind at Lv.30+. Unfortunately the avatars are set as the same level as your sub, and therefore it is difficult to get much use out of them due to their low accuracy and attack.

Samurai

Samurai provides its user with a ton of TP. This support job may not be as useful as others, but having additional TP means more weapon skills. Store TP with Samurai will increase your TP per hit, and Meditate at Lv.60+ will almost instantly grant you 60% TP. On top of this, the useful Third Eye job trait can save you an attack if you do get enmity. Since this support job isn’t useful until Lv.60, you’d be better off subbing Thief in a lot more cases.

Ninja

Probably the most common subjob for Blue Mage. Ninja provides the Dual Wield, Stealth, Subtle Blow traits, as well as Tonko, Monomi, and Utsusemi Ninjutsu. Dual Wield gives 10% delay reduction until about Lv.50, giving the user no additional TP, but a modest amount of additional damage over time. Utsusemi will allow the Blue Mage to deal a ton of damage and go well over the hate threshold with minimal care. Ninja also provides Tonko, a cheaper alternative to Prism Powders, and Monomi, a cheaper alternative to Silent Oils. One might choose to sub this starting at 40 because of Chain Affinity and how it might leave you tanking most of the fight, or even as early as 20, to make use of the oft-empty Offhand equipment slot, but it can also be highly useful for soloing and learning spells.

Dragoon

An often overlooked support job simply because you can’t use a wyvern. However, Dragoon has one of the best sets of support job equipment such as the Wyvern Earring that provides +5% Haste, the Wyvern Mantle that provides +6 attack, and the Wyvern Targe that provides a Haste+1% buff. On top of this, Dragoon also has great job traits; namely Attack Bonus (at level 20) and Accuracy Bonus (at level 60). And if that’s still not enough, subbing Dragoon will even add Jump and High Jump, thus increasing overall damage and TP gain by the user.

Corsair

Identical to a Bard support job. This is simply to increase your support role should you want it. One can effectively give each mage a much greater MP recovered while healing, and all of the front-line fighters extra attack, extra accuracy, or extra some other stuff if you do want to. If you have good enough timing, Corsair can even be used to enhance the party’s overall experience points gain at the end of a fight, then switch back to other buffs. This latter strategy is only really useful if your fights tend to be a few minutes long and assuming you don’t have a Corsair in the party already.

Puppetmaster

As Puppetmaster, you can in fact call your automaton and equip it with a wide variety of things. Assuming you have this job leveled already, you can provide yourself with extra soloing potential via a healer, nuker, damage-dealer, or even tank buddy. Though certainly not as useful as a normal Puppetmaster, your automaton can also open skillchains for you. With your ally opening skillchains, you can close ones that you normally couldn’t with only a sword.

Scholar

Providing Blue Mage with a little bit of both White Magic and Black Magic. Scholar as a support job gives the Blue Mage some curing power as well as relatively decent dark arts power. This includes useful magic spells that can play the part of your ‘magical’ Blue Magic. Scholar also provides Clear Mind and Resist Silence. Scholar provides more useful spells than Black Mage. Drain and Aspir will be more useful due to a “B+” in the spell set thanks to Dark Arts. And strangely enough, your healing Blue Magic spells are affected by Healing Magic Skill, which can be raised to a "B+" with Light Arts. Also, Scholar will even provide Regen II at an early enough level to be used at Lv.74. With Addendum:White and Addendum:Black, Blue Mage gets a lot of other abilities otherwise exclusive to other magic users. Scholar also provides a wicked job ability for when you hit Lv.70 called Sublimation. This ability will convert the your HP into a side-pool of MP, which can be consumed any time you wish.

Dancer

Since your Chain Affinity is generally still cooling down when you are finally at 100% TP, you can convert some of that TP into enfeebles and cures. Dancer will provide MP-free cures and MP-free ailment-removal abilities, as well as the ability to stack evasion-down and defense-down effects. Not to mention Aspir Samba, which can drain an enemy's MP every hit, assuming it has any. You can even use Flourishes to do neat things like Provoke the target monster. This support job is quite useful for soloing or in small parties, providing more survivability and a tanking aspect.

Overview of Job Abilities, Traits, and Spells

Your Two-Hour Ability

Azure Lore is a very misinterpreted two-hour ability that is generally considered quite useless. I would have to disagree. Azure Lore increases the overall power and accuracy of all Blue Magic spells to a relatively high degree. Effectively, it increases the TP modifier to 350%, making it even more powerful than if you had full TP otherwise. This is useful at Lv.40 when you get Chain Affinity and are capable of self-skillchains. Providing you already have about 100% TP, you can use Azure Lore and then Chain Affinity, open your skillchain with a weapon skill like Red Lotus Blade, and then close it with a powerful Blue Magic spell. If you thought your self-skillchains were amazing at 5% TP, watch the sparks fly at 350%! Other than a last resort to squeeze the most out of your spells, Azure Lore doesn’t do a whole lot. It was rumoured at one point that Azure Lore also aided in learning spells, but this has been proven wrong.

Job Abilities

Burst Affinity is your first non-two-hour job ability acquired at Lv.25. It doesn’t do much, at Lv.25 or at Lv.75, but a job ability is a job ability, and at least you don’t have to go outside and fight monsters to learn it. Burst Affinity sits on a two-minute recast timer and effectively allows your next “magical” Blue Magic spell to magic burst. The only problem with this ability is that most “magical” spells are either really weak, high cast time, too MP expensive and/or based solely on your current HP. The former meaning your bursts won’t do much extra damage, and the latter meaning the damage won’t go up at all. The only exceptions to this rule are spells like Bomb Toss, which are area-effect and therefore dangerous, and Mysterious Light, which cost far too much MP to be any useful, and a few others. Later on, there are a few spells that will work well with this ability, so don’t count it out. The best strategy when effectively using this ability is to use it along with Chain Affinity before a self-skillchain, and then using the spell after the skillchain. Try out a few combinations and see what works best for you. It should be noted that Burst Affinity gives a minor boost to Magic Accuracy, therefore it is effective to used before using a sleep spell.
Chain Affinity… now that’s what I’m talking about! Here’s your Lv.40 ability that finally allows you to self-skillchain. The best thing about Chain Affinity is your spells aren’t required to have 100% TP to skillchain. Most Blue Mages go about their self-skillchaining by starting with this ability to get it out of the way (initial weapon skill or any ‘magical’ Blue Magic won’t consume the effect), and then use a weapon skill. Start as fast as you can, because it will only stay active for 30 seconds. You may also want to inform your party about what you’re doing so that they won’t interrupt your skillchain and to let the mages know what to magic burst with. After the weapon skill, start casting the spell. If it connects, you’ll have yourself a skillchain, which you can then magic burst on if you have Burst Affinity active as well. As you can expect, this combination is ruthless and deadly, but will also grab you a ton of hate. If you are partying with a non-Paladin tank, you might want to sub Ninja. Once you hit Lv.60, though, it’s best to have Thief leveled. Closing your own skillchain with a Sneak Attack - Trick Attack - Sickle Slash (or any other amazingly powerful spell) can produce upwards of 1500, maybe even 2,000 damage. And of course, with Trick Attack, all of that enmity goes straight to the tank. This means he or she shouldn’t lose hate to you or anyone else in the party for a long time, allowing you to perform even more powerful stunts!
Diffusion will make your next Blue Magic enhancing spell an area-effect so it will target your entire party. It’s one of the best things to merit as Blue Mage, as hitting everyone with Cocoon or Refueling could seriously kick ass. Unfortunately, this job ability begins with a 20-minute cool-down timer that can be taken down to 10 with full merits. You also have to be very careful with this ability, if you realize that you need a heal and in the middle of a buff, let that buff carry out, because if you use another spell while Diffusion is up, Diffusion WILL be lost.
Convergence does the effective opposite of Diffusion. It will make your next “magical” enemy-targeted area-of-effect spell converge on a single target. It’s amazing if your end-game parties fight a lot of clustered monsters and you want to target a single one. Each time it‘s merited, Convergence will add +5 accuracy and +5% magic attack to the spell (up to 25% with full merits). On a recast time of 10 minutes.

Job Traits

Blue Mage is a very interesting job in that it doesn’t get a single job trait! …Naturally. In actuality, you make your own job traits by combining spells at your leisure. Nearly every spell in the game can be combined with another to create interesting traits that are generally difficult to get. This just shows-off more of Blue Mage’s incredible versatility. It even gets its own Auto-Refresh and Store TP later on! *Beast Killer is a very useful trait early on. Even Beastmasters themselves don’t get this trait until much later on in the game. Beast Killer allows you to occasionally intimidate beast-type monsters if they are directing an attack on you. You have about an eight percent chance to stop a monster in its tracks from attacking, casting a spell, or even using an ability on you. The trait is acquired by equipping both Sprout Smack and Wild Oats (and later on, a few others if you want), which are both Lv.4 spells and incredibly useful even without the trait effect. Have those two equipped at all times. The best thing about this trait is there are so many beast-type monsters in Vana’diel, and you’ll be fighting a lot of them in your quest to Lv.10.
Auto Regen is another useful trait to have, especially when soloing. This trait is acquired at Lv.16 when both Healing Breeze and Sheep’s Song are active, but can be generated using other spells later on. This puts Blue Mage at the earliest to learn yet another trait. The downside is of course that Healing Breeze and Sheep’s Song are both very set point-heavy spells, and if all you want out of the two spells is this trait, you’d be better off using something else. Auto Regen will increase your HP by one every three seconds, making it useful for long fights or when soloing against easier monsters who won’t hit you for very much.
Lizard Killer is, again, another spell you get before any other job. Lizard Killer is super useful for its level being 20, allowing you to battle the Easy Prey lizards in Valkurm Dunes for a while. Like Beast Killer, you’re given about a one-in-twelve chance to intimidate the monster, stopping any attacks or abilities it wants to cast. There are many lizards in the game for you to solo on, but they’re quite tough compared to other monsters, so they would probably be best-off avoided. By about Lv.22, you’re capable of soloing the worms near the cave’s exit in Qufim Island anyway.
Clear Mind is a very, very useful trait, and I suggest you equip both Soporific and Poison Breath as soon as you can. Clear Mind brings your MP recovered while healing from 12, 13, 14, 15... to 15, 16, 17, 18..., allowing you to rest your MP even faster. Of course, this trait was a lot more relevant back in the day before Signet received its no-TP-loss-while-healing buff, but it’s still worth the incredibly large amount of set points. Once you hit Lv.30, you can sub Black Mage and get the same effect, without the cost in set points. The interesting thing about Blue Mage is that as time goes on, it can tack on more and more spells to increase the effect to tiers 2, 3, and even 4. This of course costs a ton of set points, but if you’re out of MP and have to rest anyway, you could even set the spells just for while you’re resting, since the traits are active immediately (remember that you can’t use your spells right away though, so change back with plenty of time to spare!)
Resist Sleep is a great trait to have, albeit a little late to learn. By the time you hit Lv.30 and are capable of using this trait, you’re already done fighting Mandragoras in the Jungles, which are the only monsters you have to worry about that have an area-effect sleep. However, Resist Sleep is still good to have on if fighting sleeping monsters because even if it doesn’t fully resist the effect, it will lower its duration immensely. You get this trait by combining Pollen and Wild Carrot.
Magic Attack Bonus is a trait that would have more relevance if your ‘magical’ spells weren’t so weak in the first place. They’re not useless or anything, but they’re generally there for enfeebling, not dealing damage. This trait is first learnable at Lv.32 by combining Cursed Sphere and Sound Blast. It will effectively multiply your spells’ power by an extra 20%, allowing your Magic Bursts to be even more destructive.
Undead Killer is quite useful when soloing the buggers. Like the other two ‘Killer’ traits, Undead Killer will help you intimidate the monsters, bringing them to halt an attack, spell, or ability, which could save some hit points or ailment frustration. It’s first obtainable at Lv.34 by combining Bludgeon and Smite of Rage.
Rapid Shot. You know, I actually chuckled when I first saw this trait available to Blue Mages. Here’s Blue Mage with not one proficiency in any ranged weapon, and they gave it Rapid Shot. I thought to myself, “who would sub this for Rapid Shot?” Then about a week later, they gave Blue Mages some throwing weapons. Blue Mages still have no native proficiency in throwing, so even subbing a job with the skill will give you only half. It’s not very useful, but if you have Feather Storm and Hydro Shot active already, just consider it a bonus. What Rapid Shot does is allows some of your ranged attacks to go off immediately as opposed to waiting the full delay of the weapon. Much more useful when you're subbing Blue Mage as a job that uses ranged attacks.
Attack Bonus is your first ‘useful’ trait in a long time. Acquired by combining Battle Dance and Uppercut, this trait is first available for use at Lv.38. What it does is increases your attack points by 10, allowing your physical attacks and “physical” Blue Magic” to deal some extra damage.
Max MP Boost is an iffy trait. If the 10 MP is worth using Metallic Body and Mysterious Light for, then by all means have it on. It certainly can’t hurt! Since Mysterious Light is learned at 40, so too is this trait available at that level.
Defense Bonus is similar to Attack Bonus, in that it will increase by 10. This is relatively useful for soloing with Cocoon (increasing the bonus to 15), and incredibly useful once you get Cannonball at Lv.70. Of course, since you have to combine both Grand Slam and Terror Touch to get this effect, it’s available at Lv.40, meaning it has to wait a few levels before it’s really useful.
Plantoid Killer again misses the mark by being too late with a trait. At any rate, there are still a large number of ‘plantoid’-type monsters that you will end-up fighting. Like the other ‘killer’ traits, this one will give an 8% chance to avoid attacks, spells, and abilities. It’s acquired at Lv.44 when both Power Attack and Mandibular Bite are equipped.
Magic Defense Bonus is a very useful trait, especially for end-game scenarios. This trait is similar to Magic Attack Bonus, in that it will directly multiply magical attacks. The difference is it will negatively multiply damage dealt to you. Magic Defense Bonus will multiply damage taken by 0.9, effectively reducing damage taken by 10%. Since a lot of end-game monsters will cast powerful area-effect spells, this trait may very well save your tail. The only way to get this trait is to equip both Magnetite Cloud and Ice Break.
Auto Refresh is debatably the best trait Blue Mages can get on their own. It will grant you one MP every three seconds, allowing you to last longer in heated battles, and resting faster. The downside is that when you can first get it at Lv.58, you have to use six spells and occupy 14 set points! Later on, Auto Refresh won’t need so many, because the spells required to have this trait have a hidden ‘points’ system. As time goes on, you learn more spells that are worth more ‘points’ until you only need 2 spells at Lv.75.
Max HP Boost helpfully increases your HP by 10. As a mage, you shouldn’t worry about taking damage unless you go nuts with your spells, so this trait serves a different purpose. The HP acquired can be incredibly useful for using ‘breath’ spells whose damage is directly based on the user’s HP. To first get this trait, you must combine Flying Hip Press and Body Slam. It’s acquired at Lv.63.
Accuracy Bonus is a lifesaver for some people, and just generally nice for most people. Accuracy Bonus produces +10 accuracy, allowing you to land your “physical” spells and physical attacks more frequently and leading to less frustration and less spamming of the same spell to get the same effect. It is available at Lv.63 by combining both Dimensional Death and Frenetic Rip.
Conserve MP is an incredibly useful trait otherwise only obtainable by subbing Black Mage. Since by Lv.65 when you get this spell, you should be subbing Thief, or at the very least Ninja, this trait will be a breath of fresh air. Every so often, Conserve MP will kick-in to reduce a random amount of MP. This spell, achievable by equipping both Chaotic Eye and Zephyr Mantle, is irreplaceable. You know the spell Warp and how it costs exactly 100 MP. One time Conserve MP kicked-in and reduced the 100 by 92 and made it only cost 8 MP. Imagine that kicking-in when you’re performing skillchains. It’s a great way to last longer than normal.
Store TP is a nice thing to have. An otherwise Samurai-exclusive trait now available to Blue Mage to increase TP gain by 10%. This means that you will get 100% TP in far less time, allowing your weapon skills to happen more frequently or more powerfully, depending on how you want to go about doing it. Sickle Slash and Tail Whip are both required in order to use this trait, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Remember, Chain Affinity can only be used once every two minutes, and it only takes about one minute to get 100% TP in a normal case. This trait is available at Lv.69. Certainly useful when subbing Dancer.
Evasion Bonus will grant you +10 evasion, allowing you to avoid some more physical attacks and area-of-effect abilities from monsters. However, if you are subbing Thief at Lv.69 when this is available, Evasion Bonus is already available to you, and these traits will not stack. You get this trait by using both Screwdriver and Hysteric Barrage.
Counter is a very handy trait normally exclusive to Monk. When a monster is attacking you, you may actually fully block the attack and counterattack with your own. You won’t get TP from it, but it’s a nice way to save yourself some damage and inflict some extra on your opponent. This trait is only available at Lv.70 when you equip Enervation and Asuran Claws.
Fast Cast as of the 7/21/2009 update, Blue mage now gets Fast Cast with the set spells of Bad Breath and Sub-Zero Smash. This is a great trait because it helps cast your spells faster and it is normally only exclusive to Redmages.
Enchainment is one of two meritable job traits once you hit Lv.75 and doesn’t require any spells set to have. What it does is adds a TP Bonus to your Chain Affinity, giving it a relative amount of TP when used. This trait is quite useful for those who like self-skillchaining, as it will increase the effect of the closing spell and ultimately the final skillchain. Each time this trait is merited, 10 more TP will be pseudo-included into the effect, to a maximum of 50.
Assimilation is the second of two meritable job traits. This one will increase the amount of set points you have to work with. Each merit will increase your set points by 1, to a total of 5. This trait is useful if you find yourself needing a few extra set points for some extra stats, job traits, or simply just spells. More set points means more effectiveness, but if you find other group 2 merits are worth meriting more than a few set points, then this may not be for you.

Coming Soon...

Spells. There's a lot of spells. They will come eventually. Until then, please visit the Blue Mage spells section.

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