Questions For Endgame BLUs

I recently started playing again, and I decided to level up BLU as my main. Now that I am at 99 and starting to fill out my TP set, I am finding that Blue Mage isn't getting invited to literally any single end game event. No shells that are recruiting for end game events seem to want blue mages either, no matter the shell's level of performance(that is, even the bad shells don't seem to be taking blu). So in light of this, I have a couple questions.

Is this something that is server specific, do some servers generally take blue mages to events?

If this isn't server specific, do you guys just have linkshells that you've been in for years so they take your BLU to stuff because they know you're good, or do you have to go to events on things you are uninterested in paying and end up having to gear up two jobs(one that you never get to play in any current content)?

I'm basically at the point where I need items from older content, like NNI(thaumas coat) and aby(Epona's ring), that I can't solo to get like I can with the rest of my gear. I don't want to inconvenience the few people that have met in order to get these items if I am never going to be able to play the job I'm getting them for.

I see people on blue mages that have gear from the current content and I'm just wholly confused by it since there seems to be this huge stigma against BLU.

people will take a good blu to a lot of things, you don't have a reputation as a blu. keep in mind, too, that blu isn't very ideal for very many roles, so you won't get the chance to show your skills very often. I'd suggest you find a support job you enjoy or talk to ls leaders about what jobs they frequently have trouble filling. you may get in as a cor or geo or something and get the chance to prove yourself on blu.

Hard part about blu in end game is that either it fills an odd and rare need or it competes for a dd slot and looses because its potential is lacking. I have seen some good blues but most end up only doing about 2/3rds of what a real dd can do.

Like with most jobs and end game, level something that is useful all the time and get gear for when you solo or play around with the jobs you like. Otherwise you are looking for a small group that isnt really concerned with having the best setup or doing the hard content.

Most of the older content can either be soloed or low-manned. You'll probably need to make your own shouts for NNI, in which BLU does fine. One decent healer and 5 DDs can clear, still some luck based. You could solo Epona's ring, but unless you have MNK with all staggers...you'll probably want to get someone to stagger and brew. Any other abyssea stuff, same thing, BLU isn't a great job for that zone's stagger system.

As for new content, BLU is sometimes put into Delve, but generally you'll need iLvl 115-117 gear to even be considered. Records is a good start, and Delve dynamics are changing.

Thanks for the quick responses.

I suppose I should start getting gear for my WHM and seeing where I can go from there. My TP set, at least, is high enough for delve(I need to do a little more research into what to swap in for the spells I have set). When I send tells for delve groups though it's always something to the effect of "lol blu go home", so I was getting a little discouraged.

It's rare (due to the nature of the current state of FFXI) for someone to be "a career Blu", or really a career anything.

There is no stigma against Blu in particular, there is only a stigma against non-relevant jobs, because people want the highest chance of victory, and the highest reward:effort ratio. They try to make things easiest on themselves, so they take only the jobs that are good for the event in question, again, the nature of FFXI.

Blu is quite good for Ceizak and Foret Delve, because Requiescat cuts through several of the NMs defenses, and Absolute Terror is quite useful on a couple of the NMs (Scorpion, Orobon).

Blu is not currently relevant in Morimar or any of the new BCNMs.

Blus, and DDs in general are pretty commonplace, a lot of people enjoy playing DDs and wish to do events, if you want to stand out, play a job that is rarer, AND more in demand, and use that to gear your DD jobs, is a sad necessity in FFXI. I reccomend Geo or Cor because they are the easiest to acclimate to, but Brd or Whm or Sch aren't bad options.

Until you can compete with the DDs who already have the gear, it's unlikely you'll get a spot in an established shell, sorry but that's true, unless you use social credit, (meaning, a friend gets you in).

That was a pretty helpful post. I got really burned out on COR when I played a long time ago. My server seems to have a huge lack of WHMs, judging by the shouts I see all the time for them. If I have too much trouble with WHM I'll definitely try out GEO, since I see them being sought after very often as well.

Glad to help, sorry I didn't have better news, but, on the horizion is a new Skirmish, with iLv119 gear, skirmish is pretty relaxed content up to this point, so a Blu can probably get in alright and get gear enough to be worthwhile in at least those two delves.

Only time will tell if Blu will shine in any new delves or new BCNMs.

I'd say I'm a career BLU and I don't have an issue bringing BLU to pretty much everything except RNG strat for AA VD. I used to do delve with my LS in all 3 delve zones, although I play BLU for zones like Morimar not because the job is really good, but because LS did not have enough DD at that time.(it's 1~2 weeks after ARR launch and it was severely lacking ppl cuz everyone quit)

It is possible to be a career BLU and use it anywhere, if you can make your own runs when not getting invite. But it only works if you don't have other melee jobs. I don't have other melee jobs, so I'm pretty much always on BLU if I'm in a situation needing melee jobs.

BLU's DD potential and utility is brilliant but the problem is there are so many bad BLU's around that people think they are all as bad. To be a good BLU requires a hell of alot of time, effort, gil and gear but its worth it. If you like the job and thats what you want to play then do it, You wont regret it.

Being a "Career X" (in my experience) means something you play to the near exclusion of all other jobs, when I hear people referring to being a "Career Mage", it generally means they do not play melees at all, at least, not for any endgame event, etc etc, perhaps you're a "Blu Main" not a "Career Blu". Though in fact I see more Cor stuff on your profile than I see Blu stuff, /shrug.

I consider myself a "Blu Main" as it's the job I spend the most time doting over and love the most, even though I'm on it more than probably any other job I play, I'm definitely not on it even more than probably 35% of the time I'm playing FFXI, though other people will have different numbers.

One can pull off being a "Career Whm", or a "Career Mnk", or the more common "Career Melee" or "Career Mage" (You might hear someone say they picked a Refresh Moonshade and Tamas ring because they're a Career Mage, for example.) in todays FFXI reasonably effectively, but being a Career Blu, or any other not-as-widespreadly used job, can be done, but it takes a strong set of friends or a lot of self-initiative, good luck, it's definitely not the path of least resistance.

"Blu is not currently relevant in Morimar or any of the new BCNMs."

Blu does fit into all AA, essentially as a RNG (Glut. Dart), that doesn't require the same buffing (ie acc roll/song is the only thing that helps). The problem is dealing with the hate you will receive whereas a RNG can decoy. There are a few ways to deal with this: /drg for high jump (-30% enmity), cast with some -enmity gear (what??), /THF for spike hate (CA/Efflux) transfer to paladin, and hydroshot (which has enmity reduction but I cant really figure out how much - ie just toss one in every now and again). Keep your RR up and use death as a nice hate reset. Additionally BLU adds defense down (Benthic Typhoon), DOTs aren't useless (disseverment/rending deluge) in a 30 min fight. And Diffusing hard shell can help PLD a bit when AA (esp HM) gets a bit spammy toward the end.

In the Celestial Nexus fight, blue is very good, stuns actually work, sleeping orbitals is nice, can DD just fine and can fill gaps in healing and AOE erase (winds of promy) as needed.

Blue really is what you make of it. It's not just a second class DD. The simple fact alone that Benthic typhoon drops defense 10% is like a 12.5% attack buff for all DD when considered after dia2 should make up for the fact of slightly reduced damage output.

I think this is a large part of the problem on my server. I'm going to try to make a name for myself on something else, then see if i can start taking my BLU to stuff; on my server right now, for pugs at least, there is no chance at invites on BLU no matter what I'm wearing. The fact that other DD don't have to try as hard to be good is probably not helping. I think people are blind to the utility part as well.

I'm going to start applying to shells as BLU and see where it gets me.

Doctorugh, on AA, none of these are bad points, and I've heard someone make the same argument, and I've personally seen a Blu with a Monk/Scherzo strategy meleeing alright with them, diffuse Warm-Up and add Def Down as well as use Retinal Glare to Raise evasion a bit.

I've seen JP groups use 2xPld + 2xThf + Brd + Cor to decent success.(I hadn't heard about Blu being useful in the Celestial Nexus fight, I may have to look into that.)


My point is, a lot of jobs can do a lot of things, which may not quite be what the community considers optimal even if they're close when performed properly, but you'll spend a lot of your FFXI career arguing with people and trying to justify your role instead of playing the game and getting excluded because of it.

A lot of jobs are what you make of them, but the OP specifically mentioned he was having trouble with people accepting him as a Blu, I told him where the community generally accepts Blus and gave him some options to lessen his difficulties with the community of FFXI as is.

I'd say focus on tricking-out your whm (I mean that in a good way), as opposed to GEO. GEO currently has no place besides an auxiliary buffer/debuffer, and with Delve getting changed to 6man, its likely that GEO will not have a place in that either. I just spent the last few weeks gearing and capping both my handbell and geomanncy, finishing quests and preparing myself for relic, but the current perception is GEO may be fizzled out sooner than later. I could be wrong, and I sure hope so, but you're probably better off readying your WHM anyways, because its a necessary job for pretty much any content.

Just 99'd mine for the sake of having an "in-demand" job, and, when im all skilled and ready, I won't have to feel like im never getting invited to anything.

And oh, I'm just like you - a Career BLU (with pretty good knowledge of the job and good gear), but Ive learned to level other jobs understand that sometimes your favorite job isn't the best for every event.

Buukki brings up an excellent point, I Skilled and Pimped Geo when it was in high demand and rode it to excellent delve success, but, he brings up a very good point that with the upcoming 6-man delve it may lose it's shine, it's just a much lower pressure job than Whm in endgame, especially with people you don't know well, which is why I reccomended it, but with what he said in mind... he's probably right that it's a risky time investment at the moment.

Though I still say being a "Career X" implies that you don't really play other things, as opposed to a "Main X", but, whatever, semantics.

COR is my main(best geared), BLU is my career(live and breathe on this job, identify myself with it) :) I play BLU a lot more often than my COR, because it's more useful and cheaper, I'm probably on BLU at least 90% of time in FFXI life in past 4~5 years, 9% of time on COR I purposely job change to play it just for the sake of playing it, such as randomly kill ***with WF in Abyssea era, or spamming B-rex/Prov watcher pre-SoA because WF was so epic on it at that time. Most of the time I play COR for no real purpose besides playing COR :)

I've get majority of the event done on BLU too, barring VD AA because I use RNG strat for it, and legion pre-SoA.

You're right, I become career BLU because I don't have other melee jobs, I also don't do much hardcore endgame content and mostly solo or lowman.I farmed a Mythic/lv 99 empy and tons of sparks/magian trials, years of work all on BLU, and pretty much entire Abyssea era(barring brew/WF for fun in Abyssea era) and spammed most of the VW on BLU too. If I have other melee job I'd probably play other jobs a lot more often than BLU. I tend to make my own pt if I want to do something too, so I just use BLU as a melee DD and played through nearly every game content in past 4 years on it. It's not like there's a heavy DPS check that you really can't complete the content with a BLU. The only content with super heavy DPS check and no proc system that BLU is completely useless is legion pre-SoA and delve pre-skill update.

Honestly, I rely on BLU so much in past 4~5 years that I really don't know what I'd be if I don't have BLU. Yeah, I can probably lv a melee and get stuff done better, but on the same time I don't see how myself can live as another job that's not BLU. I even named my blog An Empty Vessel.

If this isn't career then idk what is career. In past 4~5 years I've met only 1 person that plays BLU more than me and truly full time it, but he doesn't do endgame at all, let alone bring it to endgame.

You really do need to almost "make a name" for yourself as a Blue Mage if you plan on being invited as one to events. I've been doing this for a long time on my server and finally people specifically asking me to come on BLU to delve or w/e rather than responding to a shout. Before I got to that point I had to be an A+ Blue mage and then argue my point to get into a group and then ask them to parse it (or parse results myself) to prove it.

For example, when delve started I asserted that I would keep up with the mid level monks in a parse (not the A+ mnks) as well as provide def down and terror. And so I did and invites where easier to get. BUT!! I had to have top notch gear and a very full understanding of the job (like tweaking acc and att to each event to its fullest so nothing is wasted) and its potential before putting that assertion out there. Meaning, if you say this, you'd damn well better back it up.

Blue Mage is a job that's easy to screw up and because it requires a bit more to optimize, people that are used to playing cookie cutter jobs jump on BLU and then give it a bad name. So you will need to distinguish yourself from "fail BLU" through persistence (keep making your point while not being too pushy when someone shouts for MNK or other DD job), knowledge (hey they don't have a DRG with angon, benthic typhoon will really help the alliance here), and performance (back it up!).

IDK Doc, you get asked to BLU because you don't have SCH, go level it and show you can STUN, and your BLU will never see the light of day again.

So far my trouble in making a name for myself as a blu is getting to the point where I even get invited. It could be the low population on my server leads to people only really looking for the cookie cutter builds and ally set ups. Or at least it leads to me only seeing that sort of thing in shouts(every shout for delve basically asks for people who no longer need delve gear[LF oat mnks, 3-4 song brds, 2 stun schs etc etc], shouts for new battlefields always ask for jobs with all 119 items, it's ridiculous). I'm going to have to find a shell that is willing to take someone in their ranks that has work to do but is willing to do it. On my server most people seem to want people who already have everything they need a shell to achieve.

The problem is that I have only had this character since the start of this expansion, and I only recently transferred it to the server I am on, so I don't know anyone, no one knows me, and I don't have the benefit of years of reputation as a good player backing me up here.

Well, it's quite simple. A good BLU is a nice DD. But as always, some events are better for us than other. BLU are damn great for delves, specially hennetiel and Ceizak. For AA I usually go RNG cuz it's easier for the WHM to heal less DD. But I'm sure I could go BLU too. But As everyone said, it's hard to convince people in shout. Hopefully My LS is doing those events, I just have to ask if I wanna play BLU. Usually they trust me, cuz if I say "My BLU is okay/better for that" they believe me.

So the conclusion is : Just try to find a good LS :)

This is my ultimate goal. I was trying to feel out whether it was worthwhile trying to do it as a blu. If people don't want to accept that one can be a good blu maybe they aren't that good of a shell.

Have you ever try to talk to a leader about your situation? If you can show your potential and passion a leader may take you in. If I'm a LS leader I wouldn't mind taking someone that has the potential to play seriously(willing to do research and pushing to improve performance in an event), and a good team player willing to help the LS and improve the group as a whole. This kind of player is way better than players with right event jobs but hard to "fit in" in a group.

I've only chatted briefly with a couple of LS leaders.

Don't be disappointed though. Blue equipment these days is way easier to get what with eminence gear and upgrades to AF and skirmish.
For older stuff like abyssea consider having bst for convinience.
Other than that in most content a well geared blue can perform just fine.

i love this topic lol hope it opens peoples eyes to all us good blu's

speaking on DPS alone, i destroy -all- 2hand "real" DD's on parse in every event i've done

the only "real" DD that can out parse me at this point is an A++ MNK (+Formless Strikes advantage) and even then i'm still on par with them given the right support

DPS aside, i can also do a lot for support and stay alive when everything goes wrong, and really if it wasn't for formless strikes there would be no reason to even bring other DD's than blu lol

but even me knowing how amazing blu is wont change the fact that 99% of all blu's are giving it a bad name thus making it a challenge to play in end-game due to not getting invited/asked to play blu

I was doing Yumcax and I saw people TPing in full mavi. like, they weren't blinking in and out of mavi for certain spells or anything, it was just all mavi all the time.

Sadly, a lot of jobs can actually get away with having nearly no gearswaps thanks to the massive stat vomit on newer gear. BLU, however, requires a LOT of optimization for just about everything

I mean, I don't even have mavi+2. or +1. but if i did i wouldn't full time in it.

Proth might have something to add, but there really isn't much use for +2 at this point for MOST things.