Gar's Lair

I’ve completed Stormblood and I’m now chomping at the bit to help move the fight forward.

But, I have this commitment to myself… To level all of the jobs.

For this iteration, when I started Stormblood, I decided to stick with one job and go all the way through the storyline. I chose Machinist. I guess some of that was Gar’s influence. I mean, I hang around with him enough to feel comfortable with Physical Ranged DPS jobs. I think it went well, instead of thrashing between jobs.

I think I’m going to continue this by choosing a job and leveling it to 70 and then go on to the next job.

If you look at the graph, you will see two exceptions to the above: Blue Mage and Fisher.

Leveling Fisher

I did Fisher because one day, I wanted to take a break from working with the Scions and fighting. Fisher is easy to level if you’ve unlocked Ocean Fishing. You can get 2-3 levels on a single excursion if you gear up to your level. Then it is about the job quests, and you are done. Please note that some of the job quests are not trivial and rely on your gear being at or very close to level. Before you know it, you are at your level goal.

Leveling Blue Mage

Leveling Blue Mage (BLU) is super trivial if you have a friend or two who are at a high level. Then, go to the zone with the highest level that you can access. In this case, we went to Azys Lla. Then, find an area where the MOBS that are 10 to 20 points higher than your level, are plentiful and respawn fairly quickly, assuming you have “Flying Sardine” (a.k.a. Fish Slap). The process:

1. Do not form a party. If you do, it should be only with other equivalent level BLU.
   • You want the level of the highest member in the party to be significantly lower than the level of the MOBS to maximize the experience from the kill.
2. You use “Flying Sardine” on a mob and move to the next.
3. Let your high-level friends come around and kill off the critters you’ve slapped. Just don’t out-pace them too much.
4. Repeat until you hit the target level.

Doing this with one friend, I went from level 60 to level 70 in less than an hour.

Now I need to go back and gather spells.

Luckily, I belong to a Free Company that has a Blue Mage Group that helps with duty runs and open-world hunts for collection.

The unscheduled jump to 70 was due to my attending one of the FC Blue Mage gatherings. The next thing I know I’m at 70.

Do note, that if you are high enough level, you may be able to solo dungeons that are less than a few levels below your level. If you have some, try ones that are more than 20 levels below. Soloing them will help you learn how to use your DPS and Healer abilities. I think you might be surprised.

And the equation can really change once you have Dragon’s Voice and Ultravibration. In that case, pull big and have fun. Just watch that Ultravibration cooldown.

The exception here is the Masked Carnivale. That is a solo activity. Play with spells and learn your abilities. A good starting point for the Masked Carnivale is the Icy Veins “Masked Carnivale Guide for Blue Mage.” Depending on where you are in spell collection, there may be better spells than the ones recommended. Feel free to experiment and learn.

Also note that some levels are harder than others. (If I never see “To Kill a Mockingslime” again, it’ll be too soon.)

At this point, I’m only on level 13 of the 30 levels.

I think the BLU spell collection and Masked Carnivale are what I’ll work on next.

Of course, I won’t be able to get all 124 of the spells, given I haven’t unlocked some of the post-Storm blood zones yet, but I want to see how much I can get and how far I can get through the Masked Carnivale.

I’ll tell you more in my next update.

— Rauwrer