The Usefulness of the Blue Mage

[Karifean]

The Blue Mage is certainly one of the most unique classes. Its usefulness, however, is largely dependant on whether you know how to utilize them properly. Sometimes, this is very easy, other times not so much.

In Final Fantasy V, we have the Blue Mage job. With an arsenal of spells ranging from wind-elemental magicks to Level ? Spells, the usefulness of the Blue Mage is mostly a situational one. Many of its skills are directly related to the enemy's level, including Goblin Punch, the very first skill you can get. You can even learn Dark Spark to halve the levels of enemies, making them vulnerable to Level ? Spells they were immune to before. One of the most iconic uses of the Blue Mage in this game has to be using Level 5 Death to instantly kill Objets d'Art in the Castle of Bal, giving you massive EXP and ABP for that point in time.

Final Fantasy VI has multiple characters that can use the enemy's skills. Gau uses his Rages, Relm uses her Sketch and Control and Strago uses his Lores. Strago is the closest to the original Blue Mage, with an arsenal that expands when seeing an enemy perform a certain technique. I personally have not found a good way to use him yet. Traveler can deal some decent damage and Aqua Breath is pretty awesome when you first get him, but I never bothered to look too much into his skillset.

Now Final Fantasy VII has one of the most iconic Blue Magic appearances in the series: the Enemy Skill Materia. Being easily the most useful materia in the game, it is always good to have it equipped just to see if you can learn a new skill. Most of the skills you can learn for this materia are really powerful for the point at which they're learned, from Beta to Big Guard to White Wind to Magic Hammer to Magic Breath. The trio of Beta, Trine and Aqualung are easily learned and yet some of the most powerful elemental spells in the game. Simply put: know how to use it, and Enemy Skill breaks the game completely. It is possible to beat Emerald Weapon in a solo character challenge using only Enemy Skills.

Final Fantasy VIII did Blue Magic very differently. Instead of having to witness or get hit by an enemy attack, new skills are learned by using items that are usually dropped from the monsters that use those skills. The user of Blue Magic is Quistis and they're her Limit Break. The skills you get are often one-shot-kills against enemies encountered at that point in time, but the most notable of all is Degenerator: this Blue Magic skill is stupidly good for 3 reasons: 1. It instantly kills the target, 2. It works 100% of the time against all normal monsters in the game except for five, 3. It can be gotten as soon as the game starts. T-Rexaur doesn't look so tough now, does he?

Final Fantasy IX introduced yet another way of learning Blue Magic. The Blue Mage of the team this time around is Quina Quen the Qu. He/She/It learns new skills by eating foes that are below 25% HP. Quina can learn a plethora of unique and useful skills such as Angel's Snack, which uses a Remedy on every party member, Limit Glove, which deals 9999 damage if Quina's HP is 1, or Frog Drop which is another buildup skill just like Thievery and Dragon's Crest. Quina's Blue Magic is certainly useful in many cases and his/her/its skills are versatile and unique.

Now Final Fantasy X went back to Blue Magic being Limit Breaks. However, in Final Fantasy VIII Limit Breaks were infinitely usable at low HP, while in Final Fantasy X your overdrive gauge fills up over time. This limits the usefulness of Blue Magic in FFX, the wielder of which is Kimahri Ronso. He learns new skills by using the Lancet technique on specific enemies. If he succeeds, his overdrive gauge is also immediatly filled. Now it's not that Kimahri has bad Blue Magic skills - but the fact that you can use them only every once in a while push them in the background. On top of that, he learns one of his most damaging abilities in a fixed battle at the beginning of the game and many of his other abilities are mainly just to clear random encounters... they do a damn well good job of it, though. Stone Breath pretty much instantly destroys nearly every random encounter in the game. Sadly, Kimahri's strongest skill - Nova - is left hardly useful thanks to the damage cap. Nova actually deals an absurdly high amount of damage and would rival Attack Reels for place of best overdrive, but it only hits one time and does not break the 99999 barrier. How sad.

Final Fantasy X-2 went back to the old formula of get hit by an enemy attack to learn it, which hasn't been seen since Final Fantasy VII. The Blue Mage this time around is the Gun Mage dressphere who uses Blue Magic alongside Fiend Hunter, which is a set of skills that deal quad damage against specific species of enemies. Now what is Blue Magic like in Final Fantasy X-2? Really damn good. A lot of the Blue Magic skills you can get deal a really high amount of damage for a very manageable MP cost - and unlike Final Fantasy X, they can be used freely. In the International version, Blue Magic can easily be acquired with no fear of dying, giving early access to very good skills including Mighty Guard. Unfortunately, the Gun Mage has low defensive capabilities which can prove to be very bad, but it makes up for that with its more than healthy damage output. The ultimate Blue Magic skill, Annihilator, ignores the enemies' defense and is one of the most damaging abilities YRP has access to, just behind the ultimate Mascot skills! The Gun Mage is definitely not to be underestimated.

So now I'd like to know: in what games did you find Blue Magic to be particularly useful? When did you learn its capabilities and when could you not be bothered? What do you think of Blue Magic in general?

[Mahad]

I answered FFVI on the poll because I remember Relm's ability as being one of the most unique among the varied cast. However, I have not played most of the games you mentioned. I like using blue mages on the FF tactics games, one of the most entertaining jobs to have a character learn. Most of it's attacks are very useful. It has no real one-turn, one-hit kills because Roulette randomly selects a unit on the field which can include an ally unit, and Doom takes three turns to kick in. Cornered is very much a one-hit kills move, but your blue mage has to be at 1 hp to use it. FFTA had a move called Twister that would halve the life of all units on an area, but it got removed (along with Goblin Punch) from the ability list in FFTA2; it was one of my favorite moves.

[Gamblet]

I answered FFVI on the poll because I remember Relm's ability as being one of the most unique among the varied cast. However, I have not played most of the games you mentioned. I like using blue mages on the FF tactics games, one of the most entertaining jobs to have a character learn. Most of it's attacks are very useful. It has no real one-turn, one-hit kills because Roulette randomly selects a unit on the field which can include an ally unit, and Doom takes three turns to kick in. Cornered is very much a one-hit kills move, but your blue mage has to be at 1 hp to use it. FFTA had a move called Twister that would halve the life of all units on an area, but it got removed (along with Goblin Punch) from the ability list in FFTA2; it was one of my favorite moves.

FFT has no blue mage job, I think. At least not the original version.

Relm is not a blue mage though, in my point of view.

I picked FF IX myself, because Quina is the first character in the game who can use a 9999 point attack and its support role in the party is awesome.

[Rantz]

Nice write-up! I picked Quina because I think she's well balanced. She can be pretty powerful if you put some work into her, but not to the point of being broken. I think this goes for most, if not all FF9 characters. They're useful, but not too useful.

[VeloZer0]

There are a lot of ways you can interpret 'useful'. Typically Blue Magic is very powerful, just with low accessibility. You have to basically know what magic is available and where to get it. Which means either having prior knowledge or always having a Blue Mage in the party, and even then no guaranteed.

I voted for Enemy Skill materia because it allows you to always have the ability to learn Blue Magic while posing a minimal impact on party composition.

[Skyblade]

I'd have to go with FFTA, frankly. It is the single most powerful job in the game, when properly trained and geared.

Matra Magic
Twister
Angel Whisper
White Wind
Drain Touch
Bad Breath
Mighty Guard
Dragon Force
Hastebreak

The best part? That list of awesome abilities isn't all of them. And, in fact, doesn't even include the most deadly skill in the Blue Mage arsenal:

Level ? S-Flare



Blue Mages are at their peak in FFTA. They are pretty much broken by endgame, and require a lot of training, but they can survive anything, and single handedly destroy entire armies.

[LadyJuxtaposition]

I just loved how Blue Mages can learn very bizarre but useful moves to help a party out. Quina is one of my favorite Blue Mages because he/she/it learns monster attacks by eating them!

[Jinx]

Try as I might, I keep reading the thread title as "The Uselessness of the Blue Mage."

[Mirage]

I totes voted for FF5 and FF7. I found blue mages to be extremely versatile in FF5, and E.Skill offers some serious cheap healing/buffs.

[SteahMeLee]

As we are talking about the Blue Mage class I have to say that I use it as often as I can but I always try to parry it with the Dragoon class, I find it a really good support to the master of dragons and it follows the idea applied with Kimahri and I think it works roleplay-wise!

Blue Magic to me enters always in the definition of: "not uber powerful but versatile"...

I find it really good in VII... Of course Cid is my Dragoon/Blue Mage and he is a character able of getting out of every cornering situations! Also his blue healings hare really handy to me when Aeris dies and I'm without the White Mage/Summoner... Apart from items, Cid's skills are the only other healing I have!

[Laddy]

Quina has a very versatile set of spells in her repertoire, and her relatively high HP and Strength makes her one of the strongest characters in the game and best representative of the Blue Mage in the series.

[Karifean]

IMO none of the other Blue Magic occurences have ever compared to Enemy Skill from FF VII. First skill you get is Matra Magic, which annihilates random encounters for I think 8 MP. Then there's Beta which can be gotten really quickly with a good Elemental+Fire setup and single-handedly breaks the entire first disc. Not to mention how easily you can get Aqualung, White Wind and Big Guard, another three absurdly powerful spells. Later, you also get Magic Hammer, the most convenient way of both draining and recovering MP in the game. Once Beta stops being an instant-killer, Magic Breath treads onto the scene along with Bad Breath which also has its moments. All these Enemy Skills will get you through pretty much all of Disc 2 - and Ultimate WEAPON even gives you Shadow Flare...

And the best part is that you get even better ones in the Northern Cave. Dragon Force and Angel Whisper are hands down two of the best abilities in the game. Yep, Enemy Skill Materia is insanely powerful.

[Bolivar]

Don't forget flamethrower which you can get in the mithril mines!

I like Blue Magic alot, along with Steal/thieves it's great for replay value and getting the most out of the game.

[Formalhaut]

Flamethrower is essentially obsolete if you get Beta, not to mention it only hits one target compared to Beta's natural 'all' status.

[Mirage]

Well, no point in using beta if flame thrower is enough. It's a waste of MP and such.