The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

Depends on which job you are comparing it to, but BLU has had ways to boost ACC more than most jobs that's for sure. They also have had comparable damage since Abyssea so no idea what you mean? Comparing a Delve era MNK to a BLU or Arch-Dynamis DRK to a BLU with all the buffs, they weren't miles ahead.

Other jobs already do compare, DNC and BST to name a few... Nothing has changed with BST at all except forcing them to run in to use their JA, they still maintained that dmg capability. See the fights they solo on VD with their constant pet heal spamming. The main jobs that can't beat it are the 2H that are in need of an adjustment.

I'm all for some balance provided jobs retain their unique traits. SE is always to ham-handed with adjustments. Nerfs or buffs. They don't seem to take in to account just how complex the system can be and end up making something too powerful or just adding stuff no one will ever use.

It's absolutely crazy to say BLU hasn't become a massively stronger DD since the early Adoulin days. Best 100/1200 gifts in the game, huge CdC and SC buffs, MG, etc. Anybody who would debate that sounds to me like they know the truth is that BLU has major advantages right now (that really didn't exist a couple years ago) and they're just arguing in hopes of avoiding being called overpowered or nerf-worthy.

Purely from an offensive perspective, a competent BLU either wins significantly or is at worst as good as any other melee DD. This really wasn't the case in early Adoulin days and earlier, and suggesting it was is a bit disingenuous. Not that BLU was worthless, but it wasn't THIS good. The cherry on top of that sundae is that it gets way more additional utility than most jobs for very minimal sacrifice. Please, let's not bring up ridiculous examples of other jobs' additional tools that don't compare (Defender? Really?)

Hell, as far as utility goes, Mighty Guard alone is often reason enough to invite 2 or more BLUs in your DD slots just for purposes of alternating diffusion timers and trying to keep MG active full time for the offensive AND defensive benefits it brings. Even when I'm on my other DD jobs, I love having a BLU teammate for that reason alone. Or when I'm trying to compose a party of limited people to go kill something and I can get away with less offensive buffs because my 2 BLU DDs can keep capped haste without getting it from outside sources, and they have fantastic base accuracy, potent WS, easy SC coordination... it's kind of a no brainer, really.

That being said, I agree with Draylo that there's no need for a nerf and buffing other jobs is the way to go (and is what I think most people expect in terms of trying to fix 2H and MNK).


Hahaha yeah pretty much. This sums up me and my AG Kikoku NIN, or my friend's AG Ryuno DRG. Outside of specific scenarios, if we're called upon to DD we're probably better off on our solid non-AG BLUs, and we get that. Doesn't mean I won't sometimes come on my NIN anyway, but the more cookie cutter BLU x2~3 DD is a common melee setup for good reason.

I've personally parsed myself against other DDs during Arch-Dynamis Lord times(and have stunned him easily) and Delve times. To say the other DD (mainly DRK, MNKs and SAM) were miles ahead of BLU is false outside of very few fights. Nobody has said BLU hasn't become massively stronger, at all. In fact, I do agree they have and its something I've greatly enjoyed. The fact is that other jobs haven't gotten that boost yet and that is what SE is currently looking into.

I do disagree that BLU is OP and that it needs nerfs to bring it down, based on the fact it gets utility spells that other jobs don't. It has always had those spells, ALWAYS. This time BLU just has a stronger WS and others want that too. The SC buffs apply to every job, you could have other jobs SCing together too not just Light or CDC. Have you ever even used DNC or similar jobs? I swear its like the same bandwagon players throwing the same parroted phrases around.

You and others are just over exaggerating the benefit a BLU brings. You are NOT clearing content 3m+ faster by using BLU and you potentially let your WHM be slightly lazier. Is there any argument that BLU finishes fights a lot faster than other similarly geared/buffed setups? I'd like to know and see proof.

Been back a bit, used to run numbers before and I don't really see why people say blu is OP. I can understand really strong, but not OP. I've got to say blu's strength is more a testament to how good haste is and the fact blu has haste 2 and MG and dual wield is just overwhelming for groups that aren't bringing 2 and 3 buffers. Honestly, I think blu's perceived strength being more because magic bursts are so strong now and putting more mages seems to be better and just requiring someone to make a SC. Who better to SC than the job that doesn't really need any outside buffs to adequately perform that role. To properly balance jobs I'd think adding buffs/haste 2/"mp back from cure" to back line jobs will make more melee focused parties comparable or nerfing magic again (I hope not) so 1 magic burst isn't taking 20-50%+ off a mob.

SC + MB setups do not regularly rely on a melee to form SCs. They use SCH for that purpose.

This x1000 times.

I quit 3 months before adoulin was released and come back last years may and blu was basically the same for me, in fact the jobs i saw with bigger boosts were BST and SCH, bst being the most bandwagoned job at the time.

I agree blu is strong but saying its the winner hands down, i dont know what to answer, for starters another job that's very good (at least for me) is dancer, you got very good debuffs + ws selections + JAs that boost the job and your team a lot and i dont see anyone saying anything about dancer (not bashing dnc, im making the mythic myself as we speak because i like the job).

I've done content like tier 1-3 in escha areas, SR or high-tier BCs with a lot of different setups and the difference is time or efficiency is 0 really, SR with drk + blu that ends in 2-3 mins the same way it would end with double blu (throwing nin, pup or whatever job my friends want to bring in the mix).

Some other jobs need a boost? probably, put the fTP of their main WSs on par with CDC or close and it should fix the problem if not make a new problem since once ppl see a job putting up big numbers, the bandwagon begins again lol.

And those saying war, drk or drg to name some are far behind blu its either you played with bad ppl on those classes, they werent being aggresive (specially if u got a healer focused) or they were undergeared, i have the pleasure to play with a great war/drk in my server and the numbers he puts up are crazy lol. (like this time he 2-shot bismark in the last campaigh, i only had time to press my fight macro on my bst lol).

If every job's strongest WS can 2 step lv 3 SC then I'd agree with you, that every job gets same amount of buffs from SC buff.

The problem is, it's not. Some job's strongest WS only creates lv2 with main stream DDs, some strongest WS doesn't even SC with itself. In the end jobs like BLU which you can spam the strongest WS for lv 3 SC just gets more dps increase from SC buff than jobs that can't self lv 3, or don't have good synergy with other main stream DD WS.

Not to mention jobs such as MNK which has higher white dmg and lower WS dmg gets least increase from SC buffs.

Anyways my point is that although SC buffs applies to every DD, some DD gets more out of it and some gets less. BLU just happened to be one of the DD that gets more.

Also none of us are exaggerating the benefit of using BLU, none of us here are claiming using BLU over other DD will result 3 more min longer kill time in a 1 min fight. We're just pointing out that BLU just has major advantage over other DDs, even if both parsed about the same. And you know pug will always shout for easiest DD when pt with strangers.

BST is one of the most bandwagon job. I mean, you complained about BST months ago, there are one million "bash BST" thread on this website, so why are you here saying nobody complained/bandwagons BST?

More like everyone and their mother complain/bandwagon BST.

DNC I'd say it's just the issue of lacking versatility thus less reward/effort ratio to gear it. If you gear BLU you get a strong DD that works in melee setup, AND has the ability to AoE or fit in low tier nuke setup.

If you gear BST you get to easy mode some NM and one of the high lv NM Erinys still uses BST. Thus the reward/effort ratio is still pretty high.

I'm not aware of other utility DNC brings to the table. If I'm going to pick physical melee DD jobs to bandwagon, I'd pick BLU, BST and THF because those jobs can melee dps AND offer something more.

Is BLU a top tier DPS job? yes
Is BLU a top tier cleaver job? yes
Is BLU a great solo job? Yes
Is BLU a good buffing job? decent. DMG.
Is BLU a good SC'er? Yes - Both Light and Darkness for blu incorporate its strongest weaponskill; CDC.

Can BLU deal great Physical and Magical DMG? Yes. More physical but Burst Affinity Magic Bursts are pretty high. As high as decent geared BLMs (read decent, not spectacular)

If a BLU really wanted to they could even act as main healer in a party depending on magic fruit and white wind alone subbing /whm or /sch.


Now why shouldn't people say blu is overpowered when it is a hybrid jobs that outdoes other specialty jobs (or evens out with them) in their own Niches?

Some idiot is going to say DRK can cast magic and magic burst, another idiot is going to say WAR can cleave and SAM can do all skillchains endlessly. Not the point - Hollistically, BLU is the best standing job in the game. It has something of everything. To ballance things out, the pure dps jobs need to be significantly stronger in terms of damage output, and far superior when enhanced by 1-2 other support roles. Right now you need 2 other support jobs enhancing your primarily DPS roles to even compete with BLU.

Its not hard to understand that this is not barranced!

And yet blu is not used to defeat reisenjima helms, its geo/sch/blm and beastmasters spamming razor fangs. All the utility from haste cap, cocoon/phalanx wont put you ahead of a beastmaster that:
1) Can maintain spam ws through 90% of debuffs (exclude petri,sleep, amnesia, terror),
2) DONT NEED TP AT ALL,
3) generally avoids mob attention (pet tanking),
4) can easily replace their pet,
5) can fight while weakened x ∞,
6) stay generally farther away than other melees,
7) require MINIMAL buffing and don’t generally plummet in dps during a full dispel,
8) comfortably sit around in pdt gear and pets use PDT/regen gear near 95% of the time if not more,
in a reisenjima HELM fight. Or blms MBing volleys of 99,999 dmg Deaths.

All melee are equally ineffective against HELMs. Ambuscade most DDs that choose to take their job to AG and gear it properly are competitive. Its not like other DDs can't clear ambuscade.

I have done VD ambuscade and AG mythic sam is very competitive to an AG Tizona/Almace blu even taking into account aoeing damage on to the adds. The sam had MG and haste 1 with maybe entrusted indi haste at best. In fact, parsing with this same sam, now an AG Koga, generally out damages my blu where as it didn't before (non-AG Koga vs Tizona).

Trulusia posted parse pictures of WAR competing well with AG Almace/Nibru blu in Yorcia Delve. The same war in ambuscade competing with an AG blu with a non-legendary great sword spamming resolution was also very competitive.

Blu has always been a self-sustaining job with its own ability to heal/erase/haste/buff itself and debuff enemies. If you actually leveled your blu from 1 to 99 the old way before trusts and xp cleaving, that's what allowed blus to farm ~90% their spells in a manner that didn’t require parties. It is an intrinsic quality of blue mage to not need as much support. I can run around reisenjima with erratic flutter, occultation, reactor cool, Carcharian Verve, and kill groups of VT mobs without trusts. War, drk, drg, and most other jobs would be harder pressed to train, body tank, and kill 4+ VT mobs with no support. That's just how they were built; to give whms,rdm,ect something to do in dunes, QSC, and now Doh Gates grind parties. SE increased 1handed ws and there was not much complaint about blu. But now with AG Tizonas and AG Almaces popping up people are saying this combo is "OP" when other correctly buffed AGs are doing just as well.

Blus can learn up to ~196 spells. There's no way you can compare the adaptability of a blu and its buffs to any other dd and expect things to make sense and be fair. Apples vs Oranges.

I do wish ws from various dds made more/different SCs to include more variety in SC damage. I also think SE should boost two-hander ws not play hot nerf potato with jobs that are not even "OP" enough to generally attend the hardest content in the game.

Yes but we're talking about situations where Melee are used.
Exactly - so it isn't part of this discussion.

That same SAM without Might Gaurd (which is a BLU buff) would have lost, and lost dreadfully - which demonstrates my point about how other DPS are dependant on other jobs buffs to be comparable to blue where Blu is less dependant, and 100% entirely indipendent for reaching delay -cap.


Resolution Mighty Strikes? Also Almace/other weapon isn't tizona/almace. This is quickly derailing into a "other melee don't suck at dps".

So I suggest you reread my original post here and try to understand what I'm saying better.

We can do ONE buff every 10 minutes. That one buff is great sure but that does not make us a buffing job. It also requires two of the same job to full time it on the pt.

We also can't do both at the same time either. You have to set your spells for the situation. And BA is limited on a 2 minute timer. Blms, schs and geos can all burst twice per SC. Blu can't. Literally no one takes a blu to an MB setup.

White wind is a nice spell and can be quite effective but only if your blu happens to have a max HP cure set. If you put everything in to healing you could be a second rate healer at best. Granted, most content you hardly need a whm but on those that you do, you'll see how poorly blu does the job lacking cure skin, arise, real curagas from outside aoe range and all the benefits a real whm has.

Blu certainly can do a lot of things. Being a flexible job allows it the capacity to do a lot of things given you happen to have a blu who has the insane range of gear you need, all the spells, pre-built spellsets for all those situations and macros and experience in doing it. Try shouting for a blu and finding one who has all of this. If they do, they have spend an in-ordinate amount of time maxing out their blu. Don't forget that not every blu is that great. You're looking at this through your Phuoc-tinted glasses.

On the fights where BLU is used, 5 minutes is all you need. For repeatable content such as SR and Ambuscade, you can reset your cooldowns.

Everything is situational. you can do great physical dmg and still have enough points left over to set a decent aoe cleave spell such as subduction or a top tier magic/aoe spell such as spectral floe. This is how Blu can solo VD Ambuscade with trusts and 100% solo D without trusts.
Saying this can or can't be done at the same time is irrelevant. Both roles can be filled. No one is comparing BLU to BLM roles.


I seem to be repeating myself. Done.

You don't get to set all your mab traits or other utility spells if you're set for DD so you're pretty hamstringed here. I'm not saying blue can't do this, I'm just saying if you go hybrid, you start losing out on dd power or spell damage. The moment you switch to clubs for magic damage you throw away your AM3 but if you don't, you nuke for ***damage. For weak adds sure, you can still manage them I suppose if people do that. I've never soloed Ambuscade because it's a waste of time to solo it when you could be in a party getting gallantry as well.

Best part of this, everyone here is basically saying BLU is OP at killing trash mobs. Which is basically anything that is melee friendly.

And, I am pretty sure DNC is the most broken DD job as it stands now. But, no one ever says it lol. What BLU brings is just utility, which it has always brought to the table.

I'm gonna have to side with Sekundes. You can't make BLU in a day and automatically be high/top tier

You have to farm spells
You have to farm gearsets
You gave to augment said gearsets
You have to farm swords which can be a MASSIVE problem if you don't already have a good LS or set of friends to help
You have to farm and max out your merits

And THEN you're mediocre at best. You don't become threatening until you farm 100 JPs
You don't become dangerous until you farm 1200 JPs

That's a solid 1-2 months of work right there.
And after that's allllllll said and done, you STILL have know what you're doing. I consistently out parse AG BLUs because they don't set the right spells. I only have a +1 Tanmo and a Colada

This job isn't powerful unless it's in experienced hands and we all know experience is rare.

I agree the job is strong but it's not cookie-cutter. I don't think it should be netted. Stop the witch hunts

The only thing unique there is farming/learning spells. Every other job has to do the same thing. But again, this is all irrelevant.

Which job is acceptable without job points in end game?
Which job is acceptable without the right gear/weapons?

All jobs require several gear sets. BLU doesn't have the monopoly on that and hasn't ever.

I think everyone has set BST as the benchmark which is the cause of all the semantics happening here.

Fair enough, nerf BST.

Either that or dealing with extremely new players here.

Most jobs don't have to gear up both melee and mage. Unless you want to be the terrible BLU. Would say, the only comparable job is RDM, which also is really good melee no one talks about.

I don't think Sam or War need a fastcast set or magic damage gear or the clusterfuck of gear a blu has to have to make most of those spells you keep singing the benefits of work.

Blu takes a very long time to get decent and that doesn't even include having to constantly tweak your spellsets for varying situations so you are the best you can be at any given event and honestly has a high learning curve to play well. And if you want to arm up your blu to top DPS? You get to make a AG mythic AND an AG empy.

Maybe Blu has/doesn't have more. The point was, which all of you seem to be too thick to understand, is that all jobs require farming gear, optimizing, augmenting, capping...

It just shows that you guys do indeed have little experience playing any job well.

Good WARs have different weapon options. So they will have several sets for their Ukon, for their Conqueror, for their Ragnarok and then several variations of those master sets depending on accuracy requirements, buffs up/down. This is already several times TP and WS sets than BLUs purely based on the fact WAR uses several weapons, that's not even taking into account the Xhit building that is highly important for 2handed jobs.

DRKs have all that as well as DRK magic skill based gear sets, dreadspikes gear sets, Absorb sets, Aspir/Drain magic burst sets, aftermath sets.

- DT sets
- PDT sets
- Hybrid sets
- Fast cast sets (yes, DRK casts magic)

I think you should all ask questions as oppossed to pretending you know your stuff when it is clear to anyone who is a vet you know ***.

Also you don't need both Tizona and Almace AG'ed. The difference between a Tizona/Almace x AG and an Almace AG/Colada isn't massive and most certainly you don't need both to compete with single mythic/relic war/drks/sams.

Good *insertjobnamehere* have several sets for different situations. If you think that because melee don't cast magic, that automatically means they have less gear sets - false.


False - Blue is NOWHERE near the gearing requirements of RDM.
RDM has
-self buffing sets
-enfeebling sets
-Several nuking sets
-Several melee sets
-several enhancing sets (for enspell+ dmg, for duration, for augmented effects)
-cure others sets
-cure self sets
-fast cast sets
-Magic burst sets
-Refresh sets
-Max MP recover while healing sets
That ontop of everything else normal melee have.
Whereas BLUs have a good 5-6 sets less than RDM.

The second you mentioned RDM and comparable to anything ended this discussion. RDM is is the 1 exception that is an absolute mind *** to perfect.

I love how every single melee job discussion on this website ended up having someone play the "But melee isn't used in WoC/Kirn/T4" card.

Or "This job needs a lot of jp and gear sets to be good" card.

Or "But BST......" card.


None of those are relevant though. Whether a job is op or not is very subjective, it depend on how much you value utility. But pug community will always shout for one certain job that's being used the most(so they're more comfortable with it) or the easiest.

Back in delve days when pug only invite MNK, I've seen elite THF outparse above avg MNK, I've seen elite WAR outparse above avg MNK. The gap between DD jobs was never huge, but the community will always shout for one certain job, this is not new. FFXI MMO has been like this for many years.

As a Corsair, you should have at least some idea of the utility Dancer has. Steps are no joke, Haste Samba can be great depending on the party setup, Waltzes are useful, and Fan Dance makes the job very sturdy. It has always seemed bizarre to me that more people haven't flocked to that job.


At no point was monk ever considered a real damage king for delve, at least by people that knew their head from their ***. The damage mechanics of Delve I can create rather unfair advantages depending on party composition. For example, Tojils weakness phases mean that if you only have 1 slashing DD but 2 blunt DD, that slashing DD will almost certainly win if they aren't terrible.

Becuase a lot of us are hetrosexual males.

I don't have to do any of this I don't even play blue mage !

This is exactly what I'm talking about lol. People barely use DD succesfully above 135, where its completely dominated by mages. Geomancer is used for EVERY SINGLE FIGHT that matters in this game, please tell me how THAT is not overpowered? Yet people complain about a job that people use for trash content like avatar fights lol.

All these points being brought up are hilarious, BLU has had these damn bonuses since its inception. Stop citing defensive spells and aoe magic because the main bonus it has that people are jealous of is the boost to CDC. There are barely any significant fights where you will need (need, as in you cannot win without) AOE spells, I can barely think of any that you must have a BLU. GEO is capable of AOE spells too and they are used for everything anyways.


Most jobs are capable of strong lv3 WS for SC openers/closers. I think you're thinking specifically of Resolution but Torcleaver is a competitive option as well. Yes they actually are over exaggerating, they aren't specifically claiming fights are 3m faster but they are insinuating something similar to it because they seem to think it needs a nerf. Not just BLU has a big advantage, other jobs too. You guys are too hung up on a single haste buff that can be easily covered with entrust.

Yes but BST has gone under the radar for sure, everyone thinks and even forceably suggests they were nerfed into the ground. This isn't true as they were just given a minor inconvience. BST is way more OP than BLU atm yet its not even discussed in shouts or forums much now lol.


How is the fact that melee aren't used in the most challenging content, not relevant? You're basically asking a job to be nerfed simply because it can complete trash content a tiny bit faster than other melee. You should be asking for buffs to all melee and specifically 2h/MNK so they can compete in most content and not be limited.

Some ppl only gear job to the point to be "functional" in certain content, and some will have every single gear sets so it has good performance in every situation.

If a player decide to bandwagon BLU and bring it to melee content only, he only really need this:

1. Melee job trait spells(he can skip everything)
2. AG Almace or Tizona
3. Light armor tp set, such as adhemar set, herculean augments.
4. CDC set.
5. MG duration+ gear

As long as all of the above are top tier, even if he has low tier cure potency set or bad nuking set and zero FC set, he can still parse very high and get priority invite to melee contents.

If you want to be perfect in every situation with one million gear sets, plenty of jobs in this game needs just as many sets.

the only thing "unique" to BLU is needing to farm the ~30 spells that are primarily set, and with the introduction of Skill books and the further improvement to AF hands, that shouldn't take long. let's face it, odds are that no one who is starting on BLU today is going to be out in Horutoto farming Bludgeon for an hour, to be able to spam it for the next 50 levels. these are folks who walked out of their Mog House at level 99 having never actually done anything on the job save for mooch some XP. they're going to spam skill up books, get the spells listed on the first page, and then go mindlessly grind CP (which is the same thing that EVERY JOB does!). the solution is not to nerf job x or y, but to instead bring all the OTHER jobs to parity.

it's not the fault of jobs who are only DD that they are weaker than a more hybridized job like BLU. it's that the devs have their heads so far up their butts regarding those other jobs that despite wearing heavy armor and swinging a massive weapon, these other jobs lack both power and survivability.