This was certainly not what I’d expected to be doing this weekend. But I’m very glad that I did!

It was somewhat embarrassing to post Ben’s FFXIV card to show that I’ve leveled all my jobs to 80 (with no skips!)… and Blue Mage is sitting there all alone at level 1.

One of my goals was to level BLU to 70 before Endwalker, which is the max level you can be at this point and time. I didn’t think that it was really going to happen, however.

While BLU is touted a solo job, most of the spells you need to capture require you to go into group instances. I figured no one was out there leveling BLU anymore – that anyone who was interested in it had already captured what they wanted. That ship has already sailed.

Maybe I was wrong.

Most of this is due to in huge part to a member of the FC – Magris – who is probably the most motivated and knowledgeable BLU player that I know. I was talking to Mag, who commented on how many level 80s I had, and mentioned that I was sad that BLU wasn’t leveled as well. And that started this weekend’s adventure.

Mag was more than happy to power level my baby BLU – I went from level 1 to level 62 in the space of a Saturday afternoon. From there, we went and capped some important dungeon skills such as Mimicry and Ram’s Voice.

To take on Cutter’s Cry for Ram’s Voice and Dragon’s Voice, we set up a party finder. I was dubious that anyone would be running for those skills, but to my surprise, we ended up filling the party after a short wait. One BLU was a skilled player, just there to help out (thank you!) while the other BLU was in the same boat as I and needed the skills. This was the first time I’ve done a BLU party finder – this would have been much more difficult without the skilled BLUs helping us through!

After that, Mag started taking me through the various ARR primals to earn their skills. The only two that we didn’t manage to cap were the two that required EX – Shiva and Garuda. Aside from that, I came away from this with all the rest of the primal skills, which have proven to be very useful in the long run.

On Sunday, I focused on leveling by soloing overworld critters, and got my BLU to 70!

I then went and took on Dirty Rotten Azulmagia, which you need to complete the level 50 job quest. I remember this being a struggle back in the day, and even wrote about the experience here.

I took me two tries this time, mostly because I was dumb the first time and didn’t realize Ravana’s skill was considered a magical attack and not physical (hey, those are swords!). But once I got that sorted, I finished him pretty easily the second time. I wish I’d taken a screenshot of the win because I had so many bonuses – even the one that noted that I didn’t take any damage at all during the entire fight!

So either I’ve gotten better at this or the levels and gear have really helped. I guess I’ll find out when I go to try the level 60 fight, which I need to do this afternoon to progress further.

I am interested in picking up some of the rewards you can get from Allied Seals from the BLU vendor. I’m also very curious about the level 70 gear and what it looks like.

Anyhow, I have a LOOOONG way to go when it comes to capping skills on BLU, but just leveling it to 70 was beyond my expectations going into this weekend. Oh, and my FFXIV character card looks so much better without that sad little level 1!

Also, this was the first major project-type goal I’ve set out to do on this character since I’ve changed my Main to be Ben. I know it’s odd that I’m still not used to Ben being my main, but I’m not. I haven’t spent a whole lot of time, aside from gathering for relic tools, doing things on Ben since the switch.

I caught myself thinking how spiffy he looked in his BLU getup and how cool some of the spells looked when he cast them. This is very good progress!

I know it’s going to take until Endwalker before I really settle in with Ben as my main, though. I need to go through major MSQ with him interacting and being in the cutscenes. For some reason, that helps me connect with my characters more strongly.

Anyhow, still a lot to do before the expansion drops, but at least I can check “Leveling BLU to 70” off the list!