FFXIV Blue Mage Leveling Guide | The Basics to Leveling Fast

Picking up the Blue Mage class in Final Fantasy 14 is one heck of a task. It’s a class that’s kinda pushed away from everyone else, and thus is incredibly hard to actually level up by standard routes. Normal dungeon crawls can be difficult without help, and you’re asked to fight basic opponents constantly. That’s because Blue Mages learn spells from watching opponents attack, and then copying those special moves. Now that Shadowbringers is out, getting to max level is a little harder than it was in the past… And yet, if you have some friends and a bit of luck, it’s not too hard to get to level 60! So, grab a buddy at level 80 and read on through our FFXIV Blue Mage Leveling Guide.

Updated 2/16/21

Blue Mage Leveling Guide

In order to begin your journey, you need a “tag” skill. This skill will deal a small amount of damage to a monster from a safe distance. Water cannon can work, but a cast time of 2.5 is a little dangerous. Sticky Tongue can guarantee hits, so you don’t have to deal with missing. Once you get to level 30, learn Flying Sardine from the Apkallu in Eastern La Noscea (x27, y35). This is an instant-cast, range 25 ability, so you can run-and-gun quite easily with it.

Actually Leveling Up

Blue mages gain levels fast from slaying mobs outside of dungeons. Thanks to FFXIV’s Kill Streak, killing a ton of mobs outside of dungeons levels you fast. So, if you can get a high-level friend, have them not be in a party with you. Then, run around an area that you and your friend feel comfortable with. You don’t want the enemies to be too high level; the game is getting better at picking up exploits like that. At maximum, you can fight level 69 enemies. These will give you loads of experience, and level you up quickly! Hopefully, your friend will be able to one or two shot them.

Shoot one water cannon at the enemy (that hits them and deals damage or CCs). And then, once they’ve aggro’d on you, run. Your friend should kill it quickly (another reason not to have them fight level 80 enemies!) to avoid your death. If you can find enemies that prefer melee attacks, that would be easier for your friend.

This will not get you a ton of Blue Mage spells. Once you’re close or at level 70, it might behoove you to get some of those Blue Mage skills from enemies outside of a dungeon in order to better enter the level 70 dungeon roulette… To get actual Blue Mage skills!

What Spells Are Best?

Since you get spells by watching monsters perform the attack, your list of options are slightly limited. For your full list of options, please use the fantastic FFXIV wiki! That will give you the full use of options and the location of those options.

Blue Mages can be placed into any of the three roles; tank, magical DPS, and healing.

Healing:

Exuviation: Big ol’ healing spell! Grabbed from Abalathian Wamura. You might want to pull two enemies for this one.
Pom Cure: Heals your entire party for 500! That’s crazy! But you need to get to the point where you can do Thornmarch, on either Hard or Extreme.
Stotram: Heals everyone around you for 300. This is gotten from the Emanation trial.
Angel’s Snack: Fantastic Area of Effect healing, that even leaves a heal over time! You get this one once you reach level 70.

Tanking:

Mighty Guard: This is essentially your Tank Stance. You have to learn 10 Blue Mage spells and you get this from just getting the Totem from Wayward Gaheel Ja.
Frog Legs: Learned from the Poroggos in the Dravinian Hinterlands (x12, y34). This provokes all enemies around you; similar to Provoke for normal Tanks.
Cactguard: You reduce damage taken by the entire party by 15%! That’s legitimately strong, but you learn it from the Sabotender Guardia in the Sunken Temple of Qarn. So… A bit of a pain.
Chelonian Gate: Grants awesome damage reduction for yourself… And then you get a potency 1,000 attack! That’s a lot of damage! You get this from the final boss of Hell’s Lid.
Dragon Force: A free spell when you learn 100 different spells. Reduces damage by 40%. Probably not as good as Chelonian Gate, but has it’s uses.

DPS:

Most blue mage spells are DPS! Learn whatever you want, though remember that your best spells will be from dungeons or trials!

Here are some neat spells that you can consider. Other than these spells, try and find a damaging, 2.5 second spell that does 220 potency damage, and learn a spell from Ifrit, Titan, or Garuda that deals 400 potency damage with a 30 second cooldown.

Cold Fog: Really high potency counter spell. You only get it from the last boss in The Burn.

Aetherial Spark: Really good Area of Effect damage over time spell. Does a total of 250 damage to all creatures in a line, which is rare for a Blue Mage AoE spell. Most commonly obtained from Salt Dhruvas in The Lochs.

Song of Torment: A damage over time spell, with a tick of 25 for 30 seconds. Totals at 350 damage. Gotten from the final boss of Pharos Sirius.

Matra Magic: Deals 800 damage! You get it from learning 100 spells.

Peripheral Synthesis: Deals 400 potency to targets with the effect that it inflicts! Get it from Alphascape V3.0. You can also get Mustard Bomb if you’d like, which is also a 400 potency attack when comboed with Lightheaded.

Both Ends: 600 damage on a 120s cooldown. Use this if you’re not in DPS stance; otherwise, use Matra Magic. Get it from the final boss of The Swallow’s Compass.

Phantom Flurry: Crazy strong cone AoE in front of you. Get it from Hells’ Kier, with the Suzaku boss.

Night Bloom: Another fantastic AoE spell, though this one deals damage over time. If you want it to be better than Phantom Flurry, you’ll need your enemies to survive for about 15-30 seconds after the cast. Get it from Tsukuyomi in Castrum Fluminis.

All Classes:

Of all of the classes, you’re going to want the Basic Instinct spell. Basic Instinct increases Movement speed, damage dealt, healing, and ignores the damage penalty of Mighty Guard… And the bonuses are 100%. This is an insane spell! Get it from the Master Coeurl in Upper La Noscea, or the Coeurl Smriti in Temple of the Fist.

See Also: FFXIV Mounts Guide