Introduction
Contents
~ A Brief History of the Blue Mage ~
Blue Mage was first introduced in Final Fantasy V. It was obtained at the Wind Crystal, alongside the classic White and Black Mage jobs. However, the player would quickly notice that you cannot purchase blue magicks. They are instead learnt upon being stricken by them while as the Blue Mage job or with the Learning ability subbed (It was imperative that it was someone capable of learning the spell, though once learned, it was available to all characters).
Learning Self-Destruct from a Motor Trap.
As noted in the screenshot, the original Blue Mage was decked in blue clothing with red adornments. The most notable unique feature is the domino mask covering the Blue Mage’s upper face. In XI, the domino mask is replaced by a masked turban, covering the lower part of the face, instead. Swords and light armour are the choice equips for the Blue Mage.
Stats of the Blue Mage are balanced.
Blue Mage itself would not appear again until Final Fantasy XI, although plenty of characters, etc., from VI to X-2 resemble the job (Strago Magus, Enemy Skill materia, Quistis Trepe, Quina Quen, Khimari Ronso, Gun Mage dressphere). Blue Mage is a playable job for Hume in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (and A2).
~ Blue Mage in Final Fantasy XI ~
This website focuses on the Blue Mage job of Final Fantasy XI. It is an Extra Job from the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion pack, and you must have at least one job at level 30 prior to flagging the unlocking quest, “An Empty Vessel”. It is one of the most complicated jobs in the game. This guide aims to help everyone in hopes of learning to appreciate the job.
Blue Mages differ from the other mage classes in the fact that they do not use magic scrolls to learn spells. Instead, Blue Magi learn the techniques of their foes and employ them to their benefits. There are over 100 known learnable spells of all sorts, including healing, enfeebling, enhancing, debuffing, and of course, attacking. BLU can be regarded as a more physically oriented RDM, with more melee emphasis and less support. (This changes some once Diffusion is attained.) As a result, BLU can play many party roles. Overall, however, it is generally used as a DD (damage-dealing) class through combinations like Wild Oats and Bludgeon. BLU makes a good backup healer (or even main later on) using spells like Healing Breeze, Wild Carrot, and Magic Fruit.
~ Job Abilities and Traits ~
Job Abilities
Blue Mage gets a few job abilities, and useful ones at that. The affinity abilities allow the Blue Mage to create skillchains and magic burst by itself. Merit abilities are generally for party support and spell enhancement.
Two-Hour Ability: Azure Lore
- Enhances accuracy and magic accuracy of Blue Magic
- Secondary modifiers of Blue Magic spells are doubled
- Grants a TP equivalent of 350% when using Chain Affinity
- Lasts 30 seconds
Level 25: Burst Affinity
- Allows next magical Blue Magic spell to be used in a magic burst
- Increases potency of elemental-based Blue Magic and offers a slight accuracy boost
- Lasts 30 seconds
- Two minute recast
Level 40: Chain Affinity
- Allows the Blue Mage to perform solo skillchains
- Doubles the spell modifiers the next physical Blue Magic spell
- Consumes TP upon spell usage
- Stacks with Sneak Attack and Trick Attack
- Two minute recast
(List of known soloable weaponskills through Blue Magic)
Level 75 (Merit): Convergence
- Increases power and accuracy of next magical Blue Magic spell
- Will make an AoE spell single-targeted
- 5% magic power and magic accuracy per merit
- Ten minute recast
Level 75 (Merit): Diffusion
- Makes your next support Blue Magic spell AoE (e.g. Refueling will act like Hastega)
- Twenty minute recast. Each merit decreases recast time by 2 minutes and 30 seconds
Job Traits
A unique thing about Blue Mage is the ability to construct job traits by equipping certain spell combinations. For example, setting the spells Healing Breeze and Sheep Song at the same time will create the Auto Regen trait. BLUs are capable of creating the coveted Auto Refresh, as well, a trait given to only a couple other classes.
Level 75 (Merit): Enchainment
- Grants TP Bonus when using Chain Affinity
- TP Bonus = 10 per upgrade
Level 75 (Merit): Assimilation
- Increases maximum Blue Magic points by 1 per upgrade
- Up to 5 maximum
BLU gets native skill for only two kinds of melee weapons: swords and clubs. You will almost always be using a sword, possibly swapping to a wand or staff simply when using a curative spell or resting. BLUs specialise notably in curved blades, i.e. scimitars, falchions, and kiliji (a BLU exclusive) which are higher damage and higher delay in comparison to shortswords, broadswords, and rapiers, but not quite the damage or delay of espadons. BLUs can also use shortswords and broadswords, but not rapiers and bilbos, knightswords (with a few exceptions), or espadons. BLU has no skill in greatswords, nor any two-handed weapon for that matter.
Sword: A-
- 1 Cap: 6
- 37 Cap: 114
- 75 Cap: 269
Club: B-
- 1 Cap: 5
- 37 Cap: 109
- 75 Cap: 240
In terms of defence mechanisms, BLUs are able to evade and parry. They do not have native shield skill, so skill must be inherited through the subjob and/or enhanced with equipment and merits. Notable shield-bearing subjobs include THF, PLD, RDM, WHM, and WAR.
Evasion: C-
- 1 Cap: 5
- 37 Cap: 105
- 75 Cap: 220
Parrying: D
- 1 Cap: 4
- 37 Cap: 101
- 75 Cap: 210
Blue Mages have their own unique set of magic skill: Blue Magic itself. Instead of having separate skill levels for healing, elemental, enfeebling, and enhancing spells, all blue magic spells count towards the blue magic skill level, hence the lack of need for other native skills. However, when using SCH as a support job, using the appropriate grimoire (Light Arts, Dark Arts) will increase other magic skill capacities to B+.
Blue Magic: A+
- 1 Cap: 6
- 37 Cap: 114
- 75 Cap: 276
Learning Spells
Learning spells is pretty simple, but also time-consuming. When fighting a monster you want to learn a spell from, chip away at its HP so it can build TP. (All spells are monster TP attacks.) If the monster uses the spell, you are then free to knock it out. You will have a chance of learning the spell afterwards, indicated by:
“<me> learns (spell name)!”
…in the chat window. Spells can be learned approximately 10 levels before the spell usage level requirement, depending on your Blue Magic skill. (The higher your skill level, the earlier you can learn it. This 10-level figure shrinks some over time. It is imperative that you keep your Blue Magic skill capped for these reasons.)
Learning Tips:
- Using a club or bare-fisted attacks will do minimal damage while still providing TP per strike
- At 25% HP, the monster will automatically use any saved TP. At 50% HP, the monster will use its TP if it is at least 200%.
- INT and CHR stats are rumoured to increase the chance of learning Blue Magic
- You need not gain EXP to learn magic; thus, Blue Magic may be learned from Too Weak mobs, and/or you may receive assistance from a higher levelled adventurer.
- The Magus Bazubands increase the chance of learning magic
- The Magus Jubbah increases Blue Magic skill by 15, thus lowering learning level requirements
Setting Spells
Another difference with Blue Mage amongst the other mages is that spells act like equips: they must be set. To set spells, open the main menu, select Magic, Blue Magic, then Set Spells. Imagine this as your “spell equipment” menu. You are allocated a number of spells based on the number of spell slots available and the number of blue magic points available. Each set spell requires the usage of 1-6 blue magic points, and you can only set as many spells as you have slots for or blue magic points for (whichever maximum comes first).
Like equipment, setting spells will (usually) provide stat boosts. For example, setting Bludgeon will grant STR+1, Feather Storm will grant HP+5 and CHR+2, Head Butt will grant DEX+2, and Cocoon wil grant VIT+3. A few spells, like Metallic Body, don’t provide any stat bonuses, and some spells can cut your stats, as well, like Cold Wave (INT -1).
Initially, you have six spell slots and 10 blue magic points. These figures will increase at level 11, 21, 31, 41, etc. You can only set spells that you would be legally able to use at that level, even if you’ve already learned higher-levelled spells. At level 75, the maximum is 45 points. You can merit up to 5 more for a total of 50.
After setting spells, you will be unable to cast blue magic for a minute. This is to prevent being able to effectively switch spell sets during a fight. Therefore it is imperative that you ensure your spells are well set before your party starts fighting. It’s not a bad idea to double check with your party about what spells you have set so there’s no confusion or surprises. If you don’t have certain spells learned, (e.g. Head Butt for Valkurm Dunes, Wild Oats for Qufim Island, etc.) it may be very difficult to get a party.
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