5 Mightiest Blue Mages!
The Final Fantasy series is all about having their magic users grouped in to colour categories. Join me on this marvelous journey to learn about the mightiest Mighty Guard casting mages, the Blue Mage! Able to learn enemy spells, the Blue Mages can become very versatile depending on how you use them, learning everything from Death Spells, to White Wind healing! They have a use for almost every situation. Here they are, the mightiest Blue Mages in the series.
5. Final Fantasy V Blue Mage
What makes the Final Fantasy V Blue Mage so great? For starters, they are the first job to provide a balance of offensive and defensive capabilities! On top of that, they can wield swords and shields, making them more physically powerful than the average mage. There's nothing better than a sword wielding, stat-balanced, super cool superhero looking mage in your party. Look at them, they get masks, they get capes, two of the ladies even get feathers in their caps. Using a Blue Mage is so rewarding for me you could call it putting a feather in my cap. Right? Right?!?
Now the important part, how does the Final Fantasy V Blue Mage learn its Blue Magic? It takes the more traditional approach of needing to be hit by an ability to learn it. Because nothing says "Teach Me" like being hit by Death Claw. Fortunately, the Blue Mage doesn't need to survive in order to learn the ability, they just need a party member to make it through the fight. I'm all about some necessary sacrifice, so what's one death if it means learning how to Flamethrower an enemy.
The downside is that in order to get some of the beneficial abilities, such as White Wind, a Beastmaster may need to team up with your Blue Mage to help the process along, since enemies are selfish and aren't known to heal your party members when they need it. This could be an issue for the loner Blue Mage, who operates alone, possibly during the night.
Overall, a great entry in the series with the added benefit of being able to use whoever you choose as a Blue Mage.
4. Quina Quen
When not busy being a lovable goof and threatening to eat everything in sight, Quina also serves as the party's Blue Mage. Final Fantasy Blue Mage fans everywhere rejoiced at seeing the job being occupied by the large, pasty white, fork wielding Qu with the apron and the chef's hat. Or at least I did. Mainly because Quina is awesome.
What makes Quina such a great Blue Mage? Unlike most of the earlier games, Quina doesn't need to be struck with Pumpkin Head in order to learn it. Instead, like a true gourmand, s/he eats them and somehow absorbs their knowledge on how to cast LV4 Holy. This is great for people who enjoy eating (which is everyone) and also who hate having to confuse the enemy in order to get the more beneficial spells like Auto-Life. It's also just amusing to watch Quina eat enemies sometimes five its size.
On the downside, the enemy needs to be below 25% HP for Eat to work. You can't just eat enemies all willy nilly! That's how you get stomach cramps. This can be annoying if you don't have Scan and don't enjoy carrying around a Bestiary with you and doing math in your head. It can also be frustrating when you face off against weaker enemies who can't survive a turn long enough for you to eat them. The bright side is that Eat is successful when HP drops below 50% when Quina is in Trance mode, making things easier for Quina to finish off foes with dignity.
3. Strago Magus
Strago Magus puts to rest the saying that you can't teach an old dog a new trick, because this old dog specializes in learning new tricks. Although his superhero cape is not in the Blue Mage blue, he does have some stylish blue shorts to pull his look together.
Although it takes a different name in Final Fantasy VI, Strago's Lore ability is essentially Blue Magic. He uses the good ol' watch and learn technique to acquire new abilites, and doesn't need to suffer a Tsunami on his old bones to pick them up. All he needs to do is survive the fight. What's even better is that Strago doesn't even need to see an enemy use the ability to learn it, he can pick it up from party members who can use enemy skills, such as Gau, Relm, and Gogo. This certainly makes things better, since it makes it a much easier time to learn all of the spells you want and need.
On the downside, Strago has to actually see an ability being cast to learn it, so he cannot learn it if he is inflicted with certain status elements, one of them being blind. Apparently it isn't enough to feel an enemy self-destruct on you, you actually need to see the whole thing take place. Something I would imagine would be more scarring than anything. But overall, this old Mage has some serious learning talent, which makes him one of the best Blue Mages in the series.
2. Quistis Trepe
Quistis not only gets to be an awesome Blue Mage, but she gets to do it while having a fan club and hitting things with a whip. If nothing else, she brings a whole new element to the Blue Mage job, also being the only female Blue Mages aside from the games where you decide job classes.
Quistis is so good at Blue Magic that she doesn't even need to be hit with Acid to learn how to use it. She doesn't even need to be in the fight. All she needs is some Mystery Fluid and she's good to go. Quistis learns all of her Blue Magic by using items dropped by enemies. How does she do it? Who knows. Maybe she studies the items while we're busy running around in circles waiting to collect our SeeD pays so we can buy more magazines.
The downside is that Quistis can only use her Blue Magic as part of her Limit Break, meaning she generally needs lower HP to have access to her great abilities, like Shockwave Pulsar. The bright side is that a lot of her abilities are worth the wait, especially since they actual improve when in more dangerous situations.
1. Kimahri Ronso
And finally, our top Blue Mage of the series. He might not talk much and he might not make his presence known most of the time, but he is one excellent Blue Mage!
Why does he deserve the top spot on our list? A few reasons, actually. On top of being so much of a Blue Mage he is actually physically blue, he has one of the best ways to learn his Blue Magic. Thanks to his Lancet ability, not only does he not need to be hit with a skill to learn it, he actually heals HP and MP at the same time! So, instead of sacrificing HP to learn Fire Breath, he can just Lancet the appropriate enemy, and heal himself up.
But it doesn't end there! If Kimahri learns a Ronso Rage Blue Magic ability, it will also fill up his overdrive gauge, something very useful to boss fights. And if you miss certain abilities on your journey? Almost all of the spells can be learned during a boss fight with his fellow Ronso.
Simple, convenient, and with a few added bonuses, Kimahri's Lancet earns him the top spot on our Mightiest Blue Mages list!
What were some of your favorite Blue Mages? How about Blue Magic skills? Do you enjoy using Blue Mages in your party? Let us know your thoughts!
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Master of the Fork
