FFXI: The Best Subjobs For Blue Mages

Blue mages are at the height of their popularity in the current form of the game, due to the incredibly versatile nature and ease of accessibility they command – especially in low-man content!

Their powerful spell list gives them near-unmatched flexibility, specifically to those who understand how they work.

And this often means that a blue mage’s subjobs will reflect the nature of what’s in their spell lists.

So here’s our picks for the best BLU subjobs that best suit a blue mage’s protean nature!

5. Dancer

Dancer is commonly used with Blue Mage when solo, to remove the innate pressure of needing to cast magic to restore HP.

Blue mages have access to a form of Erase already, but Healing Waltz is very useful for situations where status removal is urgent or a blue mage is silenced!

Waltzes make for some great healing whether it’s in single target or AoE form, and Sambas offer some support utility to the party – most notably Haste Samba’s 5% job ability Haste.

In addition to this, dancer also grants them some incredible debuffing utility via steps, such as Box Step. And that synergizes quite well with blue magic that inflicts defense down, such as Tenebral Crush or Sweeping Gouge.

Unfortunately, dancer’s skillchain bonus (while very popular as a trait on most other jobs) is ineffective on blue mages, since they’re able to get that same trait very easily on their own.

This also applies to Dual Wield, which only offers up to tier II, while a blue mage is capable of granting itself tier III.

4. Rune Fencer

As a technical subjob for blue mage, we have the rune fencer.

It’s definitely a unique choice, but still an effective one!

In it sits some supportive utility spells like Flash and Aquaveil, the latter only attainable from Carcharian Verve, an Unbridled Learning spell.

Rune Fencer can be considered a hybrid damage dealing + defensive job when supporting a blue mage, due to its ability to use runes for both offense and defense, without jeopardizing the position of a blue mage too much.

This support job excels particularly in reducing magic damage, due to its Magic Defense bonus and Tenacity traits.

While Blue Mage can obtain these naturally, going with a Rune Fencer sub frees up their precious blue magic point slots for other spells that might have a better return of investment.

And with a tactical use of Wards abilities, they can completely trivialize incoming magic damage and status effects alike

Swordplay is also a fantastic ability for both accuracy and evasion, offering as much as an extra 60 to both, removing potential accuracy issues.

This is something that goes well with the considerable enspell damage that Rune Fencer can offer to a blue mage that can multi attack often enough.

3. Ninja

With blue mage being able to cast occultation, getting its own access to Dual Wield III and many other traits that Ninja may offer, it would make sense to opt out of this sub job.

But it excels in content that a blue mage naturally excels in: low man content!

Utusemi is still incredibly useful in situations where high amounts of damage are expected but unavoidable, as Occultation by nature is still bling regardless of how many shadows it provides.

Relying on that is also very costly, which can eat into MP reserves faster than you might realize.

This sentiment is only enhanced in low-man content where party dynamics are a little more restricted. Utsusemi becomes an easy way to mitigate damage virtually cost-free.

It’s especially helpful on players intending to tank.

Alternatively, it also allows blue mages to not set blue magic that would normally grant them the Dual Wield trait, allowing them to use those blue magic points for other spells or traits instead.

2. Red Mage

Widely considered sibling jobs to each other, red mages give blue mages access to some really handy spells that would otherwise need to be set or applied via a wide range of blue magic.

So with a red mage sub you’re greatly simplifying the battle process.

Red mage also works very well here if you intend to be nuking, because RDM offers a great initial boost to the Magic Attack Bonus and Fast Cast traits.

Their main benefits, however, come from the array of support spells to bolster your blue mage’s defenses.

Aquaveil, Stoneskin, Cure IV, Refresh, and Ice Spikes are all highly valued spells that enhance your ability to take those deadly hits.

You also gain access to Dispel, Distract, and Frazzle, as well as a bevy of bar-spells to further cement the versatility of the two jobs.

Convert is also a helpful emergency tool if your blue mage ever runs out of MP – which can happen if you’re not focusing solely on magical damaging spells.

1. Warrior

This would be an offensive blue mage’s #1 subjob, without a doubt.

Because of the high range of job traits that you can already obtain naturally, you don’t need as many from your support job compared to any of the other jobs in the game.

Rather, you can take your focus toward powerful job abilities, which warrior has no shortage of.

While blue mages can set their own Triple Attack traits, warriors provide Double Attack, giving them access to both traits that work in tandem with each other.

Attack Bonus works very well with Nature’s Meditation, and that’s not even counting Berserk and Warcry, which are built to turn a blue mage into a juggernaut of damage.

In addition to this, Aggressor will make sure you hit your targets, reducing the need to rely so much on accuracy.

With the exception of Warcry, warrior doesn’t offer much utility at all.

But that’s where a blue mage’s natural strength comes in to play! They’re able to fill the gaps left by this subjob with ease.