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Out of the Blue
-Blue mage is a new thing in XIV, a “limited job.” I’ve heard a bit about it:
1) It can’t queue up for regular group content, as it lacks a set role and is meant to be overpowered.
2) You learn abilities from enemies somehow, just like FF’s past blue mages.
3) You use different limited “loadouts.” Only a specific set of your total spells at a time.
-I’m especially interested to learn what the flavor of the job is gonna be. FFV’s blue mages were like superheroes. FFXI’s were like ninjas. Quina was a chef who ate their enemies, and Kimahri and Mog were more like dragoons.
-The quest starts in Limsa Lominsa. A guard heard rumors of someone claiming to be a blue mage selling soul crystals.
“Which is a load of chocobo shite according to a dozen or so dissatisfied customers.” Hee! I have to investigate whether this blue mage thing is a fraud.
-The “supposed blue mage” is Martyn. It’s probably coincidence, but Marten Broadcloak in the Dark Tower books was… well, not a fake, but shady af.
-I track him down, where he’s making a sales pitch. He claims to have learned magic from the Whalaqee. They attune their minds to a beast’s instincts. You see it attack, overcome it, and absorb some of its aether.
-Martyn then puts on a pretty impressive display. He throws out missiles, cactuar needles, and more. Classic blue magic.
-The Whalaqee design makes me raise my eyebrows. It draws strongly on Native American imagery.
We’ll see what they do with that.
-All we need to get on board with this blue magic is a spellbook and a soul crystal, sold by Martyn himself. What a deal!
-A skeptical warrior in the crowd isn’t buying this. She (reasonably) claims that he’s just telling folks to run headlong at beasts to learn this magic. They’ll die, unable to claim fraud from beyond the grave.
-At this moment, some Mamool Ja attack. Quite convenient. Martyn sends them running with his blue magic, to the point where they’re literally saying “oh no, spare us please!”
50% chance they’re just some of his employees in costumes. I know blue magic is a real job in this game, but I don’t know if this guy in particular is for real.
-This whole time, the city guard and I watched from behind a rock. We pursue.
-The camera pans back and shows someone in a bomber jacket and plaid pants watching us.
-We follow Martyn to the beach. There’s an especially strange rumor that Martyn’s been begging for change, despite making money hand over fist selling blue mage stuff.
-Yuuuup, he’s meeting with the mamool ja who “attacked” the demonstration. We approach, the guard arresting him for fraud.
-Even now, he claims that while his sales technique is sketchy, the magic is real. I believe him.
-The guard proposes a test. Why don’t I, Ququshu, try his crystal?
-Ok, even if the blue magic is a fake, I’m in. This starting gear is SWEET!
-His Mamool Ja allies summon a fish for us to learn a water spell from… and accidentally summon a giant kraken lolol. This is ridiculous and I love it.
-A cutscene plays as the kraken blasts me with water repeatedly. It’s hilarious, it’s like 20 seconds of the kraken just beating the shit out of me.
-The music is very SNES, complete with SNES chiptunes victory music. Perhaps calling back to blue mage’s first incarnation in FFV, or perhaps just to give it a light tone.
-You don’t need to be hit by the magic you want to learn. As long as you have aggro and the beast uses it, you’ll get it after winning.
GOOD. That was a huge issue in FFXI, where you’d only have a small chance of learning the spell.
[Later edit: I’ve since learned that it depends on the spell. Some you learn every time, some have smaller chances.]
-This also explains why everyone thinks he’s a fraud. The “defrauded” haven’t actually gone through the required pain of fighting enemies and looking into their souls.
-And NEW JOB UNLOCKED! Awesome.
-I can register up to 24 spells at once. That’s way more than I expected.
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Blue Leading the Blue
-The blue magic works! I blast the mamool ja with my new Water Cannon. Martyn’s for real.
MAUDLIN LATOOL JA: “Painful yet refreshing! Refreshing yet painful!”
-The mostly-convinced guard orders Martyn to no longer sell his gear, since he wasn’t giving adequate disclaimers. RIP his profits.
-Then that stylish af woman from before appears, introduces herself as Royse.
She managed the Celestium in Ul’dah, an arena. It’s like a person vs. beast version of the Coliseum, where they stop the fights before any major damage happens.
ROYSE: “Rather than savagery and slaughter, our appeal lies in the personas that our participants assume to add a touch of drama to the proceedings.”
So that’s why she was watching. She was recruiting, and Martyn’s flair showmanship appealed.
-She invites Martyn to participate in her new Masked Carnivale. I heard that this carnival would be a thing, but I don’t know what exactly it means in terms of gameplay.
-I’ll join too, once I’ve trained enough.
-We head to Ul’dah for the carnival, and Martyn’s costume is SIIIIICK!
-lol she’s selling him as “The Great Azuro.” I’m glad the two Mamool Ja employees are still here too.
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Ability Hunting
I’ve thought a lot about this next part. The spellbook hints the game gives me is incredibly vague. All it tells for each of the 50 blue mage spells is where to learn it. Like, the zone.
So do I go scattershot and just start killing random things in the zone until I find it the abilities, or do I go the guide route? Normally I’m fine learning things blind, but FFXI taught me that some mechanics are meant to be discovered by the community as a whole, not by each individual on their own.
This feels like one of them.
Here’s the guide I found:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/adsdil/bl...
-Holy crow, leveling is fast! Reached level 5 in like 10 kills. It helps that I have two experience boost items, effectively increasing my normal speed up to level 30 by half.
-It’s super satisfying to acquire new abilities.
-They’ve also outdone themselves in terms of the blue mage spellbook. Each spell gets its own unique action icon, even unique flavor text.
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Blue Collar Work
-omg Martyn has superfans! They run up to him and ask for the catchphrase he apparently uses in the Masked Carnivale.
MARTYN: “’Tis I, the Great Azuro!”
[GAGGLE OF SUPERFANS]: “HE DID IT, HE SAID THE THING!”
-We have some time to train between his performances. He has me try one of my new abilities on a giant hornet.
-LOLOL MARTEN’S SUCH A DICK. As I come back from my task, I see him collecting payment from someone who hired him to take out the hornet. “Training” my ass.
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Next time: (Almost) finishing the 1-50 blue mage storyline.
