Blue Mage Guide by Defiledsickness

=Briefing= The Blue Mage is amazing but complicated. Take your time to learn everything and don't sweat any mistakes. Try different spell combinations, sub jobs, and equipment. Mostly don't be upset if you're a Taru! I found it very depressing when my sword attacks missed or did more damage but as you get to the higher levels you can be an asset to a party just like any other job! And hey, most of those other jobs can't solo like you =]

=Race and Subjob= For your race I would suggest human because they are balanced and you can do anything with them! However I always love picking the magic-caster in games and Blue seemed like an underdog job (in actuality i saw too many others leveling blu) and is why I also picked a Tarutaru. Tarus have the most mp and good int/mnd, however they have the lowest HP and subpar str/vit. But even without specific stats you will still do plenty of damage (blu spells allow you to make up for any stat problems you may encounter).

There are many different, GOOD jobs you can sub for your Blue Mage. For starting levels you'll want survivability and quick damage. I'd suggest /war up to level 10 and then /dnc up to 20 while soloing. Warrior gives you good health, stats, def/att, and is just a good subjob to solo with. Once you reach 10 /dnc will give you Drain Samba, allowing you to take HP from enemies as you hit them (also for any party members). This is good while killing easy pray or decent challenge enemies while completing Field of Valor pages.
 * For parties I'd recommend /war until you reach qufim then you'll want /nin (level 20+). Most party leaders wont be bothered by a Blu/whm but when you hit level 30 almost everyone will ask you to /nin. Ninja allows you to use 2 swords and gives you Utsusemi shadows to block damage. If you're able to take hits you can /war to give the main tank an occasional break from his constant whooping, but I personally stay away from provoke as Blue mages create quite a bit of hate already.
 * Subbing Thief allows you to use sneak attack at level 30 and trick attack later. Lots of Blue mages go /thf and actually do quite well. Personally I haven't tried it and will update later when I have a better understanding of the pros and cons =]
 * Subbing Scholar can be completely wonderful! At any level you get Light Arts and Dark Arts allowing you to be fully proficient with all your subjob magic and once your able to use Drain spells you can get HP back while hardly spending any MP (cure III taking 46MP and Magic Fruit costing 72, compared to Drain and Digest costing only 20!). At level 70 you'll also have Reraise and Sublimation, the latter allowing you to store mp (at cost of hp so use regen or metallic body) to replenish when desired (as a 70 Taru i restore around 230mp per use!). And of course at level 74 you get Aspir allowing you to drain MP directly (combine with MP Drainkiss and you become unstoppable).
 * The last job I feel is necessary to discuss is Dancer. Dancer just rocks so don't neglect it! You can use Drain or Aspir sambas which give you Hp/Mp for each hit you land on the target (for the whole party!) and since blu uses a sword you'll be hitting the monster often. You also get snk/inv at 50 and it only takes one action to use (and no magic skill needed so it lasts a long time!). Higher levels will allow even more abilities so check it out.

=Partying= Watch your mp! If you can party with a rdm do it (refresh level 41) other wise try to find a book to get refresh from (Fields of Valor, costs 20 points). You are not going to be tanking often so you can rest a bit longer then a Paladin should but if you're not fighting thats a party member unutilized and that means longer kill times and less xp. Plus nobody likes seeing someone just sit there (you're not a smn or blm after all :p). I'd recommend either dedicating yourself to last minute situations (healing when a member gets really low on hp and whm can't keep up against the hate, finishing off a monster with nukes), enfeebling mobs (blu has a wide range of enfeeble spells, almost all of which take quite a bit of mp), or soloing a linked monster until the party can finish the first one. Other then that you're a typical DD.

=Soloing= Think survivability and links! Know where the closest zone is and keep your skills up. Dont forget to hunt for magic and read about the spells here on wiki so you know how to use them (they can have weird damage modifiers sometimes).
 * 1-12 -> East Sarutabaruta -> do FoV here until you're only getting 50xp per kill (silk threads from crawlers sell at 10-12k a stack!)
 * 12-18 -> Tahrongi Canyon or La Theine Plateau -> the first choice is right after the area i told you to level before so obvious choice with a good FoV. La Theine is good for learning a few spells and if your flag is up party leaders in the Dunes can find you :D
 * 19-30 -> Buburimu Peninsula -> good for a long time, good FoV, and local to other good areas (plus you can outpost warp here as all the nations swap ownership frequently).
 * 28-40 -> Qufim Island -> you can get a level sync party by placing your flag up and good xp from FoV.
 * 40-50 -> Sauromugue Champaign -> hard to remember soloing at these levels but this should work well. FoV in zone.
 * 50-60 -> Eastern Altepa Desert -> good xp and gil from FoV. Plus close to quicksand caves where you should be partying.
 * 60-67 -> The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah -> fov and you can stay for a while as mobs towards Ro'meave are pretty tough.
 * 68-70 -> Cape Teriggan -> FoV as well as a good skill up area ^^ you can also try Ro'Maeve but be very careful of links (and idols link to magic!)
 * 70-75 -> Campaign -> You're now beastly in campaign so take advantage! idk where else to level, will update when i do.