Hello. I'm A New Blue Mage So Don't Bite :-P

Ok, we'll I'm kinda new. My Blue Mage is level 41. So far I have to say I'm having a blast with it but I have a few questions to ask of you other Blues out there.

I have been hearing talks of about a good percentage of spells not being of any use but yet some folks get them all anyway. I'm in a bind here on this matter because I want to see perhaps I can get the spells that would be of use because I don't know if its a waste of time to get the nonessential spells. Any suggestions on this?

I think I'm coming along skillwise but what is confusing me is both the utilization of spells and the equipment that goes along with it. I understand that INT/STR/AGI*i think?*, and Accuracy are a major play in Blue Mage. I'm getting to the point of switching equipment via macros when spells are executed. But, even at 41 I'm beginning to notice a wee bit less inventory space. Is this the case with many of you or am I doing something incorrect?

Any information, links, your personal input, "Do's and Don'ts" anything, is and will be noted and appreciated. I want to get the best out of this job as much as I can.

Hope to here from you all soon.

Peace.

well past 68 there are only handful of spells that you really need, a good way is to check all the job traits available for blu from spells on this link: http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mage/Job_Traits . and try to hunt the spells you need.

on the top of my mind the must have are:

Headbutt
Bluedgeon(helpful at all levels to learn spells, gives 30 tp to mobs)
Sheepsong
Yawn
Regurgitation
MP drainkiss and magic hammer
Dissevement
hysteric barrage
Frenetic rip
Vertical cleave
and almost all spells post level 70+

I don't know if you have sea access or not, but if you don't try to get sea before leveling blu, or blu will be too weak.

1. There is a ton of these "useless" spells you speak of, however the stats or traits they give come in very handy. My advice get them all, they are cool to see new animations, also you will use a majority of them at 80 if you are gonna be a well played blu. Plus you will enjoy hunting spells and getting them.

2. Yes STR DEX ACC INT MND and bluskill are all very important to spells

3. You will never have enough inv slots for half your setups at 80.

4. Sites? Allah has some really in depth posts on it, BluGartr has some good posts, Wiki is really outdated at the moment but should work well for your level at the moment. Plenty of guides for lower levels to 75.

5. Ditto on getting SEA access.

Yep, I have Sea access :)

Do: Remember to have an MP drainkiss set for fighting any mob that you can aspir. This may be limited at your current level however. But once you hit birds, obviously use af body for the skill at very least.

Do: Try out your new spells and subs and find what you like best. Some blu's swear by /nin to xp, others /thf, hell i've even seen /whm's. I'm a /thf fan myself, but each to their own. Figure out your potential sc's and possible MB's, it can make a huge differance.

Don't: Stack on a ton of MP gear to melee in. Sure, MP can be useful, especially at low level and when you have no refresh, but you're going to do less dmg spamming 600mp of misses, than 400mp of spells while using your acc/str/dex gear.

Don't: Be afriad to ask for help with spells. Some spells are simply impossible, or extremely annoying, to solo to achieve them for your current level. Good friends won't mind helping out, and hell maybe you can return the favour if/when they level blu.

I personally have gone to hunt every single spell, even when I know I'll most likely never use them. Why? Because I like to know I CAN use them if/when I might NEED to. Also, if you're aiming for specific builds (I.e. A cannonball build) you may just find the stat bonuses from those useless spells helpful one day.

Good luck with blu! Just my 2 cents :)

haven't played in almost a year so I can't say what's going on with the level increase but one thing I can say that hasn't already been said in one form or another -- hunting all the spells taught me a lot about status effects of mobs spells. I played WHM mostly but knowing all the spell effects from BLU helped out immensely -- even if you aren't a WHM you can learn where to stand and not to stand pretty easily on other jobs by playing BLU. You'll make your healers happier.

The useful spells really depend on how you want to play the job also. I only got in an xp pt about 2-3 times and did fov pages and campaigns up to 76 so far. I even got SCH up to 37 to sub and i love it because of the access to a potentially unlimited pool of mp, however dnc may be a better choice now. Anyways, some spells I found helped me quite a bit were:
Blank Gaze
Chaotic Eye
Digest
Refueling
Death Scissors(for self-skillchaining early on)
Seedspray/Corrosive Ooze
as well as the spells listed above. There is a very noticeable difference in the high lvl spells when you do a Str/acc/haste build for each one when you fight. You can turn Cannonball from 200 up to 1000 dmg with the right gear and buffs fairly easily, added into light skillchain you can double it so taking the time to learn the job and spells will pay off. Enjoy Blue :)

Most of the really hard to get spells before 74 are niche tools that you'll only use later or for a minor job trait. Stuff like Refueling aside (which, now that I think about it, should be a cakewalk now with Riverne A01), you may be able to afford to wait. That said, I definitely recommend getting them all. It's a nice way to explore parts of Vana'diel many people never visit, and it'll give you tools to perform well in any situation.
AGI doesn't effect any major spells later on, don't recall during EXP (EDIT: Jet Stream, but at a comparable rate to STR). Which stats have an effect depends entirely on the spell in question; pretty sure the Hunting Grounds website is still up to date on that... Hmm, or not. I'd suggest the Calculating Blue Magic Damage page on wiki or BGwiki if you're up to sifting through the numbers a bit.

Inventory problems will only get worse I'm afraid. I have to satchel a decent portion of my gear at any given time, but it does depend on what exactly you use your BLU for.
Do keep on asking questions. Anything else I'd say has probably been said already. There's a ton of us here who would be happy to answer your BLU questions.

Good luck!

idk how blu works, I also dont know why I'm here, but it looks spiffy D:

Learning spells, to me, is pretty fun. I get 'em all just to say I have 'em all. And you'll never know when one might come in handy.

Stop posting +1s. You seem to have a verbal diarrhoea problem.

Great post!

Your avatar has a nice ***.

Ah, I was just thinking of posting a topic like this earlier.

I'm a BLU46 right now, just wanting some tips on gear and macros. I admit I haven't even been USING macros in my exp'ing so far. < .<;

I also do not have Sky access and I want BLU to be my first 75-80 job. It doesn't look like a big problem now that the level cap on CoP was lifted.

I have all spells but Venom Shell up to 42, and I know I'm 2 levels away from Refueling. I also know how to self-skillchain and Magic Burst (For my level, it's Red Lotus Blade > Jet Stream; or Queasyshroom if I want to burst MP Drainkiss).

Heheh.

To be fair, there isn't a whole lot you really would macro early on. Macros become extremely important once the difference between TP and casting phases become more prevalent (e.g. Scorpion Harness, Magus Jubbah; Acc rings/STR rings)

CoP unlocks Sea, not Sky. RotZ unlocks Sky. Sky has two good items for BLU, Genbu's Shield and Crimson Cuisses.

Hi guys!

I'm pretty new to the game, but I managed to unlock BLU and solo it up to 43 so far. I wanna thank you for all the good advice! It's fun doing research on the job, and it's been sooo fun to play. Thanks in particular to everyone who posted links to guides and resources!

I have a question though. Don't hate me, I'm new >< What is sea access?

Well, upon the completion of the expansion Chains of Promatia, a little like the completion of rise of the zilart, you get access to a set of areas that we call sea. In Sea, there are spells which you cannot get anywhere else (which is really dumb imo)Chains of Promatiia used to be REALLY hard. But with the new update, they uncapped the zones, making it increadibly easy. Most missions can be soloed or duoed now.

Awesome! My friend has been nagging me to complete Chains of Promathia (well, offering to do it for me while I watch, actually), and now I know why~

Thanks for the explanation! I feel noob not knowing all the acronyms, but there are SO MANY acronyms ><

You'll get used to it in time, and yeah that would be a very nice offer to take up on. Blu was my first job, a couple of years or so ago now, and getting help on CoP was very difficult and made me abandon blu until I unlocked Sea. Getting the sea spells makes blu considerably better imo, so best to work on it now to get a couple steps ahead :) Also, you get a kickass ring on completion ^^ Rajas ftw!

OP: I see your BST is level 1, so maybe not the most viable advice, but in my learning spell experience, I found blu/bst to be very helpful on quite a few spells (i.e. Memento Mori, Animating Wail, Voracious Trunk, and more).

While the prospect of leveling another job may seem daunting at this time, /bst is a great option to get your spells while not constantly pestering your friends to come help.

Of note: when you are playing /bst, you can charm mobs that your BST's actual level would be able to charm so keep that in mind when you're looking at the level of potential pets and plan accordingly.

But even though its been gimped, its still long >,< xD I'm on 5-3 right now, and ughhhhhhhh..... ><

Every single one of these spells can be learned solo with a little planning. Memento Mori would have to wait but it's really not used in EXP anyway; Voracious Trunk would also have to wait but I've not heard of anybody lower than low/mid-70s soloing that regardless so there's no difference. Animating Wail really isn't too bad to get near use level, Spinal Cleave sucks because you have to break their weapon but they'll use Animating Wail freely and you can just dispel it immediately.

You make generally valid points, but please bare in mind that I was not trying to tell the OP that /bst is the only way to get these spells or any other spells. My point was simply to provide an alternative when soloing with more traditional subjobs doesn't feel viable, or for when constantly asking for help wears thin.

Nothing wrong with alternatives. :)