Once in a Blue Mage

Treasures of Aht Urhgan will bring a new job to FFXI's already diverse selections

October 13, 2005

When Square Enix first announced its upcoming expansion for Final Fantasy XI, it hinted at a new job class that may feature some blue magic and/or elementalist abilities. Now that some time has passed, Square's letting out a little more on the new job that will join Vana'diel with the release of Treasures of Aht Urhgan, the third expansion pack to be released for the MMORPG.

Meet the Blue Mage

The Blue Mage job (we're assuming they'll abbreviate it as BLU) uses abilities learned from enemies to unleash damage or to weaken opponents. They're described as "fighter-mages", making them sound like a Red Mage, with more focus on melee and dark magic.

A Blue Mage uses Sticky Web, presumably learned from a Crawler

They're also described as using curved blades, and being trained in the legendary martial arts of Aht Urhgan. This may suggest that another weapon class will be opened up for these, or that new swords may be added to the mix. This job may also benefit from using Ninja as a sub-job, to benefit from the dual-wield ability. This, of course, is just speculation.

Square Enix has yet to announce much more than this about the Blue Mage job for now. The expansion, Treasures of Aht Urhgan has been given a tentative Japanese release date of December 31, 2005, and is expected in early 2006 in North America.