Hey, that's not a Red Mage

So I'd like to tell you all a tale.

Red Mage is a versatile job to be sure, but a lot of that versatility can be derived from its subjob. Back when I was a young and naive adventurer I suffered from the delusion that I could choose one subjob and get away with using it for all situations. My friend and I spent some time trying to figure out which subjob would be best for our Red Mage and Monk duo. He felt I ought to try Paladin to enhance my defensive capabilities. I wasn't too keen on the idea, something about it just didn't really appeal. What I did find appealing was Blue Mage. Blue Magic has always fascinated me in every final fantasy game I've encountered it, although especially so in FFVII in the form of the Enemy Skill materia. Yeah, I actually played that when it came out on PC back in the day unlike all you whippersnappers who just fawn over Sephiroth, but I'm getting off subject here. Anyway, we both agreed that Blue Mage was definitely worth looking into. Unfortunately, as we began our adventure it was a very distant goal.

With no immediate access to Blue Mage it ended up being put on the back burner. Instead both my friend and I ended up leveling Thief independently. We were young and financially in ruins. Farming stacks of beehive chips and honey was awesome money for us and increased drop rates were very appealing. So for a while I was running around as RDM/THF because it was the only job I had sufficiently leveled to serve as a subjob. It worked well enough when we were duoing things, and soloing later when my friend went on hiatus. Once I started joining EXP parties however, it started to get funny looks. I specifically remember one party in Qufim Island during which someone asked me why I was subbing Thief. I told them it was that or come with a level 1 subjob and they stopped hassling me. That party was a learning experience however. After about a half hour I came to the conclusion that I wasn't pulling my weight. These folks needed someone who was properly equipped to handle this situation, and so I told them. I wasn't pulling my weight, they needed someone who would, I left the party.

Consulting the infinite fathomless void of the internet and the FFXI community I discovered that there were some standard subjob options that both worked and wouldn't end with people giving me funny looks all the time. The first of these was Black Mage. Black Mage was very appealing to me because it signified a more offensive role in the party and promised to offer the Elemental debuffs which fueled the whole "turn the enemy into a pile of gibbering status ailments" theme I do so enjoy. Black Mage was a fun job to level. It involved lots of mayhem and destruction, but at the same time allowed me to develop a stronger understanding of the enmity system. There's only so much you can nuke before the mob decides it wants to eat you, and knowing where that line is can be very important. Despite the perpetuated myth that Black Mages don't get invited to parties anymore, I managed to bring my Black Mage all the way up to 40 almost entirely on party invites. Some of them were to mana burn parties, but Sleep-nuking just wasn't my cup of tea. My biggest dissapointment in taking up Black Mage was that no one would ever give me a Skill Chain on which to practice Magic Bursting. This frustrated me no end, because I had a lot of fun Skill Chaining and Magic Bursting while duoing with this one Corsair I knew while playing Red Mage. All in all though it was a fun job to level. My most interesting party was definitely one in Qufim which ended up with me becoming in charge of healing at one point. This was subsequently followed by our puller bringing back a large angry fish intent on eating everyone. I couldn't keep up and quickly emptied my MP pool. This resulted in me turning on Mana Font for unlimited MP. I'm still not convinced that spending it all on Cures instead of nuking and getting eaten was all that bad. As a Red Mage I think I've developed a nervous tick about low HP bars that overrides everyting else regardless of what job I'm on.

For a time running around as RDM/BLM fulfilled my needs. However, somewhere along the way I realized I was going to be getting invited as the sole healer, no back up. This meant that leveling White Mage was quickly becoming a necessity. I had no desire to level White Mage. None whatsoever. This can be easily summarized with a single phrase: Status cures. I knew damn well going in that having to watch for status cures on top of everything else I was already responsible for was going to drive me insane, and I was right. The ones that don't show up in the log are the worst. Somehow I managed to get through it and drag White Mage to level 37. There are a few things I really enjoyed about White Mage though, specifically the party-wide buffs. Bar spells, Curagas and Benediction were all particularly useful in my experience. The whole experience convinced me that White Mage should still be the healer of choice in all situations, but no healer should ever have to operate without a backup healer. Ideally a party would have a White Mage with a Red Mage to support them. Alas, I've not been so lucky. More often than not I'll end up as RDM/WHM and have to put up with little to no support these days. People treat RDM as having an infinite MP pool, but that's a post for another day.

Having successfully taken both of the basic subjobs up as high as I needed them I returned to adventuring proper as a Red Mage. However, lately I've hit a bit of a wall while soloing. White Mage and Black Mage just don't offer much utility when exchanging blows with monsters face-to-face. The go-to subjob for Red Mage soloing is Ninja, but that's a more financially draining option than I can afford at the moment. There is however another option. And so we have come full circle. My initial instinct on which subjob to choose appears to nicely fit my current playstyle.

That's right children, I'm leveling Blue Mage!

It was slow going at first, but once I got the first spell everything picked up. Most importantly: I now have Foot Kick. I think the real appeal of it at the moment is the really cool casting animation Blue Magic has.

Hopefully by the time I'm done leveling this I'll be able to make a solid attempt at Dark Spark. I'm banking on Coccoon being more awesome than it is. I'll let you know how things turn out.

Our hero set out, intent on devouring the souls of all the monsters in Gustaberg before breakfast.

After a few grueling levels, the first soul was eaten. All subsequent courses went down with considerable ease.

Oh, I also unlocked Scholar. The more I learn about Bastok the more I love being a Bastokan.

Scholar also subscribes to the "hit things with sticks" school of combat. Ash Club +1 has quickly become my low level weapon of choice.