Blue Mage: Guide to Playing the Job

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Job Overview

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Strengths

 * Easily solo into mid-twenties levels.
 * Most Blue Magic spells damage and debuff.
 * Highly customizable to your play style, can play as healer, tank, or DD.
 * Can skillchain and Magic Burst by yourself.
 * Able to solo Heraldic Imps at Lv74+ as /NIN for chains.

Weaknesses

 * Acquiring Blue Magic is time consuming and can take multiple attempts.
 * Can not Magic Burst or Skillchain using Blue Magic until higher levels.
 * TP does not affect 'physical' Blue Magic spells unless Chain Affinity is active.
 * Dependence on MP can make it difficult to get party invites at mid to high levels.

Tips & Tricks for Acquiring Lower Level Blue Magic

 * It is recommended that you wear as little armor as possible while attempting to gather the various spells, especially from levels 1-8. Getting Pollen to heal yourself and Cocoon to keep the damage to a minimum helps, and the need to cast Pollen repeatedly helps to quickly level your skill. This does not help in feeding TP to the enemy.
 * Using a White Mage subjob can be helpful even after you have learned Pollen. The extra mind will increase your healing capabilities as well as mana, and in case you forgot to set up your Blue Magic before leveling, having another way to cure can save you a run back from your homepoint. This also comes in handy for times when you wish to change your magic set-up while out in the field.
 * Spam Dia using a White Mage as a subjob when attempting to learn spells alone. This is helpful at higher levels. This will help feed TP to the mob allowing it to cast spells and use abilites sooner. The mobs seem to gain back more MP as well. Mobs tend to use spells and abilities much more often using thsi trick.


 * Leveling your Blue Mage with a friend playing the same job can be very beneficial - not to mention it breaks the tedium! You can alternate mana regen downtime and still learn the skills.
 * Learning from easy prey mobs is the safest route. If you have surpassed the level of the monster you are attempting to learn from, it is recommended that you wait until the next possible choice is decent challenge or lower.
 * Carry a stack of echo drops and antidotes for obtaining Queasyshroom. You should also have antidotes for when you fight crawlers for Cocoon. Dying to a poison right after your adversary uses its special move can be highly frustrating.
 * For certain monster families such as Yagudo (which teaches Feather Storm), choose a target that will get quick TP gain like Yagudo Initiates or Orc Grapplers.
 * Using a Wax Sword +1 if you can swing the gil is useful for times when another monster that aggros or links comes along. Being able to take that one out while your target "teacher" gains TP is a great way to get exp.

Support Job Options
The choices listed here are by no means the only ones available, although they are the most common. Feel free to try out whatever combination suits your fancy.
 * Ninja
 * This typical sub provides Utsusemi for increased survivability in parties and learning spells. Dual Wield before 30 doesn't really provide much in terms of added punch in terms of weapons and only really starts to shine past 50. Essential for most solo EXPing and farming and Elemental enfeebles give a limited boost to your spells by lowering enemy elemental resistances. The Key Stat increases for Blue Mage is some AGI.


 * Thief
 * This sub provides Sneak Attack and Trick Attack which stack with physical Blue Magic for added damage and enmity mitigation, best used with spells like Death Scissors, Sickle Slash, Vertical Cleave, and Disseverment. Increased Evasion gives you more survivability and less downtime when solo. Treasure Hunter is great for farming and Flee rounds out the package. The Key Stat increases for Blue Mage is DEX.


 * White Mage
 * Provides slightly Increased MP and gives you a whole line of defensive spells to play with including cures and Protect. Divine Seal is also compatible with Blue Magic cures to give some spells an extra boost. Magic Fruit is equal to that of a Cure IV and can be pushed to Cure V status with MND and Healing Magic+ equipment. The Key Stat increases for Blue Mage are some MP and signifigant MND.


 * Samurai
 * While apparently not as common as some other subs, the destructive capacity of Chain Affinity and Burst Affinity combined with Store TP and Meditate can make this more than a viable sub, particularly 60+. Third Eye will also help if used before a chain to help out should you pull hate (Because you will), until the tank can get the mob's attention back.


 * Warrior
 * Makes a viable tank in low-mid levels by use of Cocoon, self cures and Metallic Body coupled with the Job Ability Provoke. Berserk, Double Attack and Warcry add to the Blue Mages sword damage, but they do not affect any spells. Defender adds 25% extra defense to the Blue Mage which enhances the damage of the spell Cannonball (Blue Magic). The Key Stat increases for Blue Mage are some STR and VIT.


 * Black Mage
 * For the spellcaster in you, this provides the best boost to offensive Blue Magics with Magic Attack Bonus and a signifigant INT bonus.Conserve MP and Clear Mind help with retaining some more MP for fights. Elemental Seal stacks with Elemental Blue Magic, helping land keep sleep or enfeebling spells. Damage Spikes spells help when you're pulling hate and soloing. The Key Stat increases for Blue Mage are signifigant INT and MP.


 * Red Mage
 * Jack of all trades meets jack of all trades (in a sense). This provides a combination of the advantages of Black and White Mage subs. These include Magic Attack Bonus, Clear Mind, Conserve MP, Magic Defense Bonus, Damage Spikes, Protect and extra cures, as well as the godly Phalanx (although not as potent as when RDM is main job). The En- line of magic helps increase Damage over Time with your sword. The Key Stat increases for Blue Mage are average MND, INT and MP with minor boosts in all other categories.


 * Paladin
 * This defensive sub provides some of the advantages a White Mage provides as well as some other extras. Defense Bonus, Protect, Shell, Cures and Sentinel are great bonuses whenever you take damage and is really nice when learning blue magic spells. Since Blue Mages can use Shields but do not have native skill in them this can really add to your defensive reputation, even if it's halved. A really nice bonus is Auto Refresh at 70 which can free up space for other spells. The Key Stat increases for Blue Mage are signifigant VIT and MND as well as Minor MP and STR.


 * Dark Knight
 * On the other side of the coin this provides an extra offensive touch to your sword and spells with Attack Bonus and Last Resort. Stun does land on non-NMs despite halved skill in Dark Magic. Souleater stacks with physical Blue Magic spells to give an added punch to them, though, if you spend time chainnuking it could be suicide. The Key Stat increases for Blue Mage are signifigant STR and INT with Minor MP.


 * Beastmaster
 * Obviously the ideal soloing sub job. Highly beneficial in area's with charmable monsters while learning BLU magic. You can heal MP while your pet fights the  monster your attempting to learn from. Using the "Ghetto Leave" method ensures you gain experiance as well while attempting to learn. BLUs Powerhouse assortment of spells guarantees you will be able to finish off most Tough Monsters as well. Consider equipping as many +CHR spells as possible to increase your Charm Success Rate. By doing this you can nearly match much of the CHR of a main job BST, and bring +CHR gear as well. Sadly Monster Sig isnt equippable by BLU at lower levels, so +CHR spells is almost a must. Happy Hunting.