Going Blue- Windurst

As mentioned in my last post, I said I'd give BLU a try. Well, it certainly has had its trying moments, but so far, I'm liking BLU a lot. However, several things needed to be settled first to pave the way for leveling my Blue Mage.

One of said preparations would be to level up my Cooking to 60, since I figured I'd be going through a lot of Yagudo Drinks between now and Level 40, when some other form of mana regeneration is available. To that end, I finally got around to getting a few Cooking levels, although knowing myself, it will be quite a while before I actually get around to getting Cooking 60. Fortunately, I don't think I'm at the point where the crimp on my mana is to the point where I'd want some juice or Yagudo Drinks, but I'm sure once I start tanking IT mobs, I'll want some form of mana refresh. My Cooking's just shy of 35 right now, after going through a few Meatballs. I plan on leveling off Jack o'Lanterns next, although I have yet to check prices to see how feasible that plan is now.



The other concern is needing a WAR subjob, and to a lesser extent (possibly), a NIN subjob. I'm not quite sure what the full potential of BLU is just yet, but I hear BLU/NIN is decent damage, but whether such claims have been largely exaggerated by others remains up to me to find out. Previously, I've been reluctant to level WAR because MNK does not appeal to me. However, just as how BLU/WAR is a decent combination, WAR/BLU also seems feasible, at least from WAR16/BLU08 onwards to WAR37. So, I think I'll go with that path.

Finally, another reason for me to level BLU is to explore and collect more data on alternate leveling spots for Campsitarus. Because it is difficult to construct a party of people who are willing to go to strange places to xp, a pseudo-static of sorts would be ideal here. I already have myself as BLU, and Hirushi is willing to level up RNG with me. I'm still looking for others though, although admittedly, I haven't exactly started searching yet.

In any case, I headed down to Windurst, changed my job over to a fledgling BLU01/WAR01, picked up from Bronze armour from the local vendors, and a Wax Sword +1 to boot, and I was off! Armed with my Empress Band and Meat Mithkabobs and Pamama au laits a plenty, I was powering through the early levels like no tomorrow. It is particularly pleasing to get over one quarter your total tnl with just a single kill. ^^



It was also time to start picking up some spells! It took a day to do it, but eventually, I managed to pick up the core spells I would need from the greater Windurst area:

Foot Kick: 2 tries.
Pollen: 2 tries.
Cocoon: 10 tries.
Metallic Body: 5 tries.
Wild Oats: 6 tries.
Feather Storm: 2 tries.
Sandspin: 5 tries.



This took a lot longer than it looks, believe me. It's one thing to go around killing mobs for xp, it's another thing to go around attacking mobs, waiting for them to use an ability, and then killing them. I picked up Foot Kick first from the Savannah Rarabs in West Sarutabaruta, but I hit a blank when I realised that I was too low level to take on the Giant Bees that would use Pollen. In the end, I levelled up to Level 7 before taking on a few Giant Bees for Pollen.

Bees were annoying though. At Level 7, most of the Giant Bees conned Tough to me, so I couldn't really solo those, yet alone afford to stand with my back turned to said Bee that's pounding on me, waiting for the Bee to possibly use the correct move. The two Bees registered there do not include the multitude of Bees that I had to prematurely kill (or die myself), or ended up using Final Sting or Sharp Sting. The first Bee that used Pollen, unfortunately didn't give me Pollen in the end, but luckily, the second Bee did.

My next spell on the list was Cocoon, which ended up being more trying than Pollen. For some reason, I didn't have too much trouble finding Crawlers who would use Cocoon (as opposed to Sticky Thread or Poison Breath), but I just would not learn Cocoon after killing the Crawler! I think I must've spent about an hour or two just trying to get Cocoon, after a string of duds, but eventually, I got it. ^^

I had similar trouble with Metallic Body, but more annoying was killing a whole string of Mandragoras for Wild Oats and Head Butt. I spent a whole hour trying to learn both, getting Wild Oats in the process, but only through some random website browsing during one of my resting periods did I learn that the Head Butt I was trying to learn, was not in fact the Mandragora's Head Butt, but the Quadav's Head Butt! Talk about a waste of time...-_-

My last trial was getting Feather Storm. After killing dozens of Yagudos out in both West and East Sarutabaruta, I had a whole string of Howls, Double Kicks, and all the other Yagudo abilites except Feather Storm. Well, I did get one Yagudo that decided to use it, but unfortunately, I didn't learn it then. ; ;

I then decided to give Giddeus a try, where I eventually bumped into a Japanese aspiring Blue Mage by the name of Ninjan, who also told me he had trouble learning Feather Storm as well. Seeing as how we both shared the same goal, I invited him to team up, and as luck would have it, the very first Yagudo I pulled gave us both Feather Storm! Also noting that there were Dirt Eaters in Giddeus, we also stopped by to pick up Sandspin for me, and that completed my initial set of spells from Windurst!

I'm really liking BLU right now. The job is both versatile, and powerful, and feels as if it has so much potential that we have yet to unlock. Next up on my list would be to go to the greater San d'Oria and Bastok regions, completing my spell set (up to Level 12 or so, at least), before heading out to party. More to come when that happens. ^^