Leveling up as Blue Mage in Final Fantasy XIV will redefine what you thought of as an easy and straightforward process with combat jobs.
It won’t be easy to grasp at first, and you’ll need the cooperation of other players to gain levels more easily and to learn some spells through challenging fights. Blue Mages are a lot of fun once you’ve picked up their peculiar mechanics, though, and you might get hooked sooner than you realize.
They’re worth spending some effort into unlocking them and understanding the way they work in FFXIV—and since their cap level was raised up to 80 with Patch 6.45 on July 18, there will be a lot to complete.
Here is my breakdown on how to level up with Blue Mage in FFXIV.
How do you get Blue Mage spells in FFXIV?
Blue Mages don’t get spells by leveling up, but they learn them from vanquished enemies. Technically, they can get them in whichever order they want—but the game will still you give some direction, so you’re not completely lost on what to do as a Blue Mage.
Usually, you’ll want to unlock the Masked Carnivale and get the spells you need to complete its challenges in order. Completing levels will give you special rewards and access to other strong spells.
They’re also very fun to complete, although some of them gave us nightmares. Fortunately, not clearing the hardest levels won’t block you in your Blue Mage journey, so you can set some stage completions aside for another day.
Most of your spells will be taught by enemies from regular Duties, however. You might even encounter some of them in the wild, such as for the Water Cannon, the first spell you’ll learn through the job quest.
Still, while some spells are fairly easy to get, most others will require help from one or several teammates in FFXIV. Leveling up a Blue Mage isn’t a task made for loners.
How to team up as Blue Mage in FFXIV‘s Duties?
Teaming up with Blue Mages to complete Duties is a bit more challenging than on other combat jobs since you cannot enter regular matchmaking with Blue Mages. You’ll have to find teammates manually using the Duty Finder instead.
Team up with buddies to optimize your time and effort
Let’s say you want to get the Abyssal Transfixion spell and enter the dungeon called The Great Gubal Library with other Blue Mages to get the spell from the Everlasting Bibliotaph enemy.
You’ll have to complete the dungeon up until you encounter the enemy and witness it performing the spell you want before killing it. Then you can simply leave the duty. Here are the steps to follow.
- Open the Duty Finder.
- Click on the Duty of your choice.
- Click on the small square on the right of the name and select either “Recruit Members” to create your own party or “View Parties that Meet Conditions.”
- If there is a party that already looks for Blue Mages, you’ll usually see unrestricted roles and a spell number in the Finder’s description.
- If you want to open your own Party Finder, it’s advised to check “Remove role restrictions for all remaining openings” and “Unselect Classes” to allow Blue Mages or helpers from other jobs to enter the duty.
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Here’s another tip: if you’re unsure what spell to target first, you can see all active Party Finders and enter the one you’ll find that targets a spell you have yet to unlock.
Learn Aetheric Mimicry as soon as you can
Be careful, though; in most Duties, you’ll need to have Blue Mages who endorse the role of either Tank and Heal, in addition to DPS—similarly to any other party.
You can do that by using the Aetheric Mimicry spell on another player who has the job category you seek (whomever healer or tank you’ll find in Limsa Lominsa, for example). It’ll give you stats from the other role (such as more enmity or heal, depending on the role), and is crucial for victory in the most challenging Duties.
Aetheric Mimicry (#77) can be learned from defeating the Ghrah Luminary in the Pharos Sirius Hard Dungeon from Heavensward. It’s a Level 60 Duty, so you’ll be stuck with farming in the wild for quite some time before getting the spell.
How to level up Blue Mage fast in FFXIV
Between job quest completions, fights in the wild, and in Duties to learn spells and Masked Carnivale stages for job rewards, you’ll have many activities to complete that will naturally give you XP and increase your level.
Still, you won’t be able to skip the regular old XP farming. You’ll be able to reach level 50, or even some more, by farming alone. But for the last levels, you’ll want to party up with some other Blue Mages or a buddy using a regular combat job to help you shorten the process.
Here are some tips to level up fast your Blue Mage job:
- Summon your Chocobo companion to fight alongside you. He’ll help you tremendously in the fights.
- Target monsters that are a few levels higher than yours (but never below you, to get an XP chain boost).
- Learn Sticky Tongue (#31) to keep enemies at a distance and survive the fights.
- Learn the 1000 Needles (#36) spell to finish off enemies easily.
You can get help from a buddy to fasten the process tremendously. To do so, your teammate can choose whichever combat job and slay the monsters that you provoke.
If you keep the monster’s aggression due to high Enmity, you’ll be the one earning XP for its death, even though you’re not the one killing it. This is the best way to gain XP fast with Blue Mages in FFXIV. Overall, the Blue Mage isn’t the job that will take you the most time to level up. Learning all its Spells is the hard part—and the most entertaining by far.
