Part 82: The Color of Magick: Blue Mage, Red Mage

The Color of Magic: Blue Mage, Red Mage (Job Roundup #5)

Today's job roundup looks at two great magick jobs: Blue Mage and Red Mage. Both are powerful early-to-mid-game jobs that a lot of people love to use.

Blue Mage



Races: Hume
Locked by: 1 Black Mage
Unlocks: Nothing

Equipment:
- Weapons: Sabers
- Armor: Robes, Light Armor

Growths: Even 8s and 9s across the board -- perfectly average.

Unlike every other job in FFTA/2, Blue Mages don't learn any active abilities from weapons. Instead, they get the Learn passive ability from the Blue Saber. With this ability equipped, they will learn certain attacks once they are hit by them. At first glance, the 20 abilities they learn are a nice mix of buffs, debuffs, support and attack spells, a useful complement for any job.

Of course, it isn't easy to learn these abilities. No enemy will consciously cast White Wind (heal target equal to user's current HP) or Dragon Force (raise W.ATTK and M.POW) on you. Instead, they need to be suffering from the Confused condition or, more likely, under the control of a Beast Master. You'll need the Re-Raise buff in order to learn some of them, since you can't learn abilities that kill you. On top of that, FFTA2 nerfed Blue Mages a little. The biggest offender is Bad Breath, which inflicts only three conditions on the target. In FFTA, it could inflict up to 7. On the flip side, it's now impossible to miss any Blue Mage abilities, because the monsters that teach them can be found in repeatable battles.

Honestly, Blue Mage has no major faults. Maybe they're slightly harder to use than other jobs until you get the good abilities. But with Learn as a P-Ability, you can just train as another job and pick up Blue Mage abilities as they come available. If you don't mind chasing down monsters to learn the best abilities, there's no reason not to be a Blue Mage.

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Red Mage



Races: Viera
Locked By: 1 Fencer + 1 White Mage
Unlocks:
- 2 Abilities: Spellblade (+ a quest)

Equipment:
- Weapons: Rapiers
- Armor: Light Armor

Growths: Excellent M.POW and W.ATK, OK Speed, poor defenses

The first of the overpowered Viera jobs, Red Mages are classic Final Fantasy job that combines Black and White magick with a dash of physical prowess. In FFTA2, they learn basic but useful spells, like Fire/Thunder/Blizzard, Cure and Silence. But the real reason to pick Red Mage is their signature ability: Double Cast. As its name suggests, Double Cast allows you to cast two spells with one action. It's a magickal Dual Wield, but is even more broken. Obviously, it's been a bit nerfed thanks to the MP change, but Double Cast is still amazing.

Viera have no bad jobs, just ones that become obsolete. Red Mage is one of those, since its abilities besides Double Cast are nothing special. Once you learn it -- and you get the weapon that teaches it early, if you're willing to abuse the game a little -- you'll be using it on every magick job you can. Because of that, I hold Red Mage as the quintessential mid-game job: Better than what came before it, outclassed by what comes after it