Without a doubt, my favorite thing about Blue Mage so far has been its aesthetics. If there’s one thing the dev team can do and do well in FFXIV, i’ts nail how a job looks and feels, from its job-specific gear to its emotes and audiovisual effects. That’s true for Blue Mage in much the same way it was for Red Mage, with the blue oozing style just like the red. Even their cane (stick? I don’t actually know what they’re calling the weapon as a type!) weapon somehow feels distinct from Black Mage or White Mage, thanks to snappy animations and combat stances, which is pretty cool.
Even Blue Mage’s level 1 starter gear feels unique, which is honestly kind of strange since it’s simply a recolor of the “Thief” sets originally seen in Heavensward‘s Saint Mocianne’s Arboretum (and later seen in Great Gubal Library HM for casters and healers). Even in Stormblood, we saw Ramza sport the Valkyrie’s Coat of Healing during Return to Ivalice, so there’s no way the True Blue Coat should feel as fresh as it does—but it manages it anyhow. For me, at least, I think it comes down to the color scheme, which sets it apart visually from the others in a way that very prominently says “Blue Mage.”
Glamour Components (Required Level: BLU 1)
Weapon: Rainmaker
Head: Pagos Bandana
Body: True Blue Coat
Hands: Far Eastern Noble's Armlets
Legs: Scion Liberator's Pantalettes
Feet: Expeditioner's Thighboots (Loam Brown)
So, naturally, I had to build a glamour around it! The full True Blue set is kind of dorky (which fits the corny FFV Blue Mage style we see in FFXIV pretty well), so I never had any plans of wearing the set in its entirety, of course. I already had a basic glamour with the Scion Adventurer’s Jacket attached to a glamour plate waiting for Blue Mage, but after getting started, I found that I liked the coat enough to work with it.
I went through a lot of iteration on this one, though. Noticing relatively early that the True Blue Coat has just a hint of red, I naturally turned to the Scion Healer’s Highboots, putting them together with the Healer’s Halftights, the Eastern Socialite’s Gloves (in black, naturally), and a pair of glasses for a basic look, since I didn’t want to delay things further by spending another two hours on glamour! That look didn’t much satisfy me, though: it was rather similar to an old look I put together with the Coat of the Lost Thief during Heavensward, so I made plans to work out something new before my next Blue Mage leveling session.
When I next got around to it, I had two priorities: find something other than glasses for a headpiece, and figure out a pair of shorts or a skirt that ideally worked in red. As always, I wanted to focus on the body piece’s accent colors for the other gear slots, both because I enjoy that sort of contrast and also to cement the place of the Highboots in the glamour. After trying out various hats, I stumbled on the Pagos Bandana, which fits the roguish vibe the True Blue Coat has going for it quite well, but I struggled to find what I was looking for in the legs department.
I tried everything I could think of, from the Miqo’te Loincloth or Hempen Pantalettes to the Valentione Skirt or Werewolf Bottoms and other event items. Nothing really seemed right underneath the Coat, though, and while that’s a minor thing, it kept me from moving forward. I could have done the easy thing and went back to the Halftights, but I wasn’t happy with the black (and the Lady’s Knickers (White) felt off, too). Somehow, I ended up trying out the Scion Liberator’s shorts instead, even though they were white and non-dyeable, and at that point, something finally clicked.
I often get stuck working with just a couple colors in my glamours, just because that tends to be what appeals to me aesthetically most of the time. The Scion Liberator’s Pantalettes opened up another option for this look, though: with just a bit of brown leather peeking out from under the coat, I got the idea to swap to a different pair of boots—something far more color neutral in the Expeditioner’s Thighboots. They were a much better fit for the coat thanks to that roguish vibe I mentioned earlier, which the Highboots kind of clashed with.
Once I had that settled, I decided to do something different for the hands slot, too. The gloves I was using were quite out of place, and I didn’t think dyeing some other pair brown would work, either. I experimented with a couple pairs of fingerless gloves (like the Nezha Lady’s ones), but ultimately I decided I wanted something a little more…mystical, something to emphasize the fact that despite the overall look, this was still a glamour for a caster class. The Noble’s Armlets fit that bill pretty well, delicate and silver to match the silver throughout the Coat.
Blue Mage itself has been something of a mystery to me in a design sense, and I might write up a bit about why at some point after I hit 50, but for now I’m focused on being low level with the S.O. That’s something we’d never been able to do before (without starting fresh characters, anyway, which has never really been my jam). We’re level 30 as of writing, and I imagine we’ll hit 50 before the weekend’s up (and I’ll undoubtedly have to do something with the Magus’s Jacket before anything else!).
Fashion Ninjutsu 