How to level up as a blue mage in Final Fantasy XIV

Blue mage is its own thing as a limited job in Final Fantasy XIV. It doesn’t operate on the same set of rules, and it has its own special systems, freedoms, and restrictions. Once you unlock blue mage, leveling up is nothing like with regular jobs. Regular jobs allow you to jump into the Duty Finder for leveling dungeons and roulettes. Blue mages have to stick to open-world monsters and learning spells for their experience points. If you’re up for an adventure, then blue mage might be your calling.

Kill enemies in the open world within your level range

Starting from level 1 on any regular class, you always go out to a starter zone and kill low-level monsters. It’s the same with blue mage, except you stay out in the open world, moving up to higher-level zones as you progress. Blue mages gain way more experience points from open-world enemies than regular jobs do. In general, killing enemies a few levels higher than you is the quickest option and a great way to learn blue mage spells. Deal damage with your initial “Water Cannon” spell to start with, moving up as you learn stronger abilities. 

Learn “1000 Needles” around level 25

Within Southern Thanalan, you’ll find the Little Ala Mhigo camp. Head just outside the south exit. You’ll spot several cactuar enemies roaming around directly nearby. The bigger cactuars have the “1000 Needles” spell available for you to learn. Keep killing these enemies until you learn the spell. Assign the spell with your Blue Mage Spellbook, and drop it onto your hotbar. You can then use “1000 Needles” to deal 1000 damage in a single attack against a single enemy. This damage will split for the number of enemies around you since it’s an AoE attack. But you’ll be able to one-shot enemies for several levels with this spell, massively boosting your experience points gained per hour.

Unfortunately, this spell starts to drop off in usefulness at higher levels. But once you make it to level 50, you’ll have more options for learning even stronger spells. Keep learning new blue mage spells, and find the strongest ones available. As the level cap gradually raises over time, the devs will continue adding more powerful spells for blue mages to learn. Stay on the lookout for the best ones, and keep these in your arsenal while leveling up to the latest cap.