Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Blue Magick Guide
By: Knightauron

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Table of Contents
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Part I: 		Introduction
Part II:		Version History
Part III:		What is a Blue Mage?
Part IV:		Blue Magick Itself
Part V:			Monster Locations
Part VI:		Beastmaster Insturments
Part VII:		Frequently Asked Questions
Part VIII:		Class Combinations
Part IX:		The Final Verdict
Part X:			Legal and Contact Information
Part XI:		Credits and Thanks

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Part I: Introduction
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Blue Magick is one of the recurring skill sets of the Final Fantasy universe.
It involves learning enemy skills and using them, whether they are offensive
or defensive.

Blue mages themselves are very useful to the team, though take the longest to
develop. This guide is devoted to helping you craft a powerful blue mage, or 
at least a powerful arsenal of blue magick.

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Part II: Version History
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Version 1.0 - 07/04/2008, Wrote FAQ
Version 1.1 - 07/07/2008, Fixed a couple small errors
Version 1.2 - 07/08/2008, Fixed a couple more errors, added section on 
	Beastmaster

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Part III: What is a Blue Mage?
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"These peculiar mages can learn the abilities of beasts and monsters, making 
them their own."

This is the in game description of blue mages, though it hardly even breaks
the surface. Blue mages are one of the few magick classes that can support,
fight, and heal all at the same time. They can add a whole new level to the
playing field and pack some very deadly spells. First, the basics:

Requirements:

1 Black Magick A-Ability

Equipment:

Weapon - Sabers
Armor - Clothing, Robes
Head - Hats

Stat Growth:

HP:	84/6
MP:	30/3
SPD:	57/50%
W. ATK:	80/8
W. DEF:	88/9
M. POW:	84/8
M. RES:	92/9

Blue Mages themselves do not excel in any area in particular. Their greatest
advantage is their arsenal of magick abilities. Best used as a support class.

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Part IV: Blue Magick Itself
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A-Abilities:

Unlike the other classes in FFTA2, Blue Mages learn their skills by having 
that skill used on them while having the skill "Learn" equipped. However,
because of Learn, the unit does not have to be a Blue Mage in order to learn
Blue Magick.

1. Magick Hammer
MP Cost - 4
Description - Deals damage to target's MP.
Learned From - Bakanamy
Usefulness - 2/10. Better to deal damage to the target's HP.

2. White Wind
MP Cost - 20
Description - Heals other allies in a small area for user's current HP. Does
not affect user.
Learned From - Sprite
Usefulness - 9/10. One of the best skills in the game. Costs 2 MP more 
than Curaga and can cure for way more. The only downside to this skill is
that the user does need to have a reasonable amount of HP in order for this
skill to be effective.

3. Angel Whisper
MP Cost - 32
Description - Recovers a little HP and grants Reraise.
Learned From - Sprite
Usefulness - 6/10. One of the only Reraise skills in the game. Probably 
better than the regular Reraise if only for the fact that Blue Magick can
offer more than White Magick in general.

4. Night
MP Cost - 22
Description - Casts Sleep on all other units.
Learned From - Lamia
Usefulness - 4/10. Good if your team is immune to sleep, otherwise a little
risky. Note that this skill does not affect the user.

5. Screech
MP Cost - 8
Description - Deal damage and cause confuse.
Learned From - Wolf
Usefulness - 7/10. Confuse is always fun, plus it costs a low amount of MP.

6. War Dance
MP Cost - 12
Description - Raise Attack in a small area.
Learned From - Dreamhare
Usefulness - 6/10. A nice simple buff that can be obtained early on.

7. Roar
MP Cost - 8
Description - Remove Buffs from all units.
Learned From - Werewolf
Usefulness - 6/10. Good for teams that are heavy on buffs, but not
to be used if your team uses a lot of buffs. You need a buff on your unit to
learn.

8. Sandstorm
MP Cost - 12
Description - Deals Earth Damage in a small area and inflicts blind.
Learned From - Antlion
Usefulness - 7/10. A solid attack skill that you can get early on. The
Earth damage can act as a counter measure if your default weapon has a 
different element. Blind is a nice effect too.

9. Cornered
MP Cost - 4
Description - Deals a massive amount of damage if the user has health in
the single digits.
Learned From - Shelling (The turtle guys)
Usefulness - 3/10. One of the riskiest skills in the game. It deals 999 damage
100% of the time on one target, but can only be used if the user is at 1-9 HP.
If you can actually get to that low level of health, begin spamming as much as
you can. You will need Reraise on your Blue Mage to Learn this skill. The skill
is called Limit Glove on Shellings.

10. Matra Magick
MP Cost - 22
Description - Switches HP and MP of target.
Learned From - Shelling
Usefulness - 9/10. Thanks to the new MP system, this skill can slaughter. If 
you use the proper clan privilages, you can OHkO a unit or two before the
other team can even move.

11. Bad Breath
MP Cost - 8
Description - Causes Blind, Silence and Poison in a T-shape in front of
the user.
Learned From - Malboro
Usefulness - 2/10. In FFTA, this was one of the best skills in the game.
In FFTA2, it suffered a massive nerf, cutting out most of the status
effects and all the very useful ones.

12. Eerie Sound Wave
MP Cost - 8
Description - Removes buffs on one unit.
Learned From - Malboro
Usefulness - 4/10. Like a pinpoint version of Roar for the same cost.

13. Unction
MP Cost - 8
Description - Inflicts all units in a small area with Oil.
Learned From - Red Flan
Usefulness - 5/10. Good if your team has fire damage, otherwise not that
great.

14. Self-destruct
MP Cost - 8
Description - Sacrifice the user to deal massive damage to all surrounding
units.
Learned From - Bomb
Usefulness - 6/10. Can deal some pretty heavy damage from behind, the only
downside being you have to sacrifice the user. I think this deals fire damage,
but I'm not 100% on that.

15. Doom
MP Cost - 8
Description - Inflicts Doom on the target, which kills them in three turns.
Learned From - Deathscythe
Usefulness - 8/10. One of the only Hume skill that gives Doom, which can be
very handy in the right circumstances.

16. Roulette
MP Cost - 12
Description - Randomly kills a unit, friend or foe.
Learned From - Ahriman
Usefulness - 4/10. Really only good if your either outnumbered or feeling 
lucky. Need to have Reraise on your unit to learn.

17. Quake
MP Cost - 12
Description - Deals Earth damage to units in a small area. 
Learned From - Headless
Usefulness - 4/10. Like Sandstorm without the Blind. The only Blue Magick
spell that can be used with Magick Frenzy. Credit goes to Bulbopon88 for
pointing that out.

18. Expose Weakness
MP Cost - 8
Description - Lower Defense and Resistance of the target.
Learned From - Drake
Usefulness - 5/10. I'm not a huge fan of debuffs, but this skill is one
of the better ones.

19. Mighty Guard
MP Cost - 8
Description - Raises the Defense and Resistance of the target.
Learned From - Drake
Usefulness - 8/10. The opposite of Expose Weakness. Good for weaker units.

20. Dragon Force
MP Cost - 8
Description - Raises the Attack and Magick of the target.
Learned From - Drake
Usefulness - 8/10. Makes any unit stronger, whether they be caster or
physical.

P-Abilities:

1. Immunity
Description - Neither buffs nor debuffs can be removed from the user.
Learned From - Survival Vest, 250 AP
Usefulness - 4/10. There are better skills, such as Half MP/Turbo MP, or 
Weapon Attack +. 

2. Learn
Description - The essential Blue Mage skill. When this skill is equipped, if
a learnable is used on the Blue Mage, he learns that skill.
Learned From - Light Saber, 100 AP
Usefulness - 5/10. Absolutely necessary to learn Blue Magick. Otherwise
completely useless.

R-Abilities:

1. MP Shield
Description - Damage is dealt to MP before it is dealt to HP.
Learned From - Mirage Vest, 300 AP
Usefulness - 3/10. This skill depends on who it�s equipped on. For a caster,
this skill isn't very useful without the ability Blood Price, seeing as how
it depletes MP faster. For defensive skills, Reflex or Strike Back are better.

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Part V: Monster Locations
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Some of the monsters spawn in locations you may not be able to access until
after you finish certain quests. These are the areas I know that the monsters
appear in, and if I find another one that area will be added. Each area has
different counters that occur during different months. This list will not
include monsters found in quests.

Bakanamy - These can be found in several locations. Targ Wood is a great
location though because that encounter has Sprites, a Dreamhare and a Bakanamy

Sprite - Again, Targ Wood is the best place for Sprites. One Sprite has
White Wind, the other has Angel Whisper

Lamia - The Rupie Mountains has three Lamias, each with Night. The Drake in
the same area does NOT have any learnable skills.

Dreamhare - Dreamhares can be found all over the place too, but Targ Wood is
once again good because you can knock out four skills at once there.

Wolf - The Bisga Greenlands has three Wolves, all with Screech, as well as
three Werewolves, all with Roar.

Werewolf - The Aldanna Range has three Werewolves and two Headless. All three
Werewolves have Roar. The Bisga Greenlands has three Werewolves as well, as 
well as three Wolves with Screech.

Headless - The Aldanna Range has two Headless and three Werewolves. Only
one of the Headless know Quake though.

Drake - Aisenfield as three different Drakes, each having one of the three
skills learned from Drakes.

Malboro - Zedlei Forest has two Malboros, both of which have Bad Breath. The
Green one has Eerie Sound Wave. The Dreamhare in the same area has War Dance. 

Deathscythe - Tramdine Fens is the only place where I have found Deathscythes
in an encounter. You need to finish the Witch of the Fens quests first.

Flan - The Ruins of Delgantua has four varities of Flan, but only the Red
one will give you Unction.

Shelling - Flourgis has all three species of Shelling. The green ones give
Cornered and the yellow one gives Matra Magick. Note that the green ones have
a skill called Limit Glove, which is Cornered.

Ahriman - The Galerria Deep has three Ahriaman's all of which have Roulette.
Make sure to pack a Reraise.

Antlion - Kthili Sands has two Antlions and three bombs. Both Antlions have
Sandstorm, and the Red Bombs have Self-destruct.

Bomb - Kthili Sands has 3 bombs, but only the red ones have Self-destruct.
Be careful though, you cannot force Bombs to use Self-destruct with a
beastmaster. Bring the Bomb into HP-Critical and it will Self-destruct next
to the nearest target.

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Part VI: Beastmaster Instruments
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I know what you're thinking: If this is a Blue Magick guide, why is there a
section on Beastmaster, a Nu Mou class? The answer is simple: Beastmasters
make learning Blue Magick ten times easier and twenty times faster. It takes
a little time to train a Beastmaster and you have to use a unit slot to bring
him along (or a secondery skill slot if you use a Nu Mou regularly), but it
is incredibly worth it. This section will cover the Beastmasters Beast Lore,
and the insturments that teach those skills. Each Beast Lore skill requires
only 150 ap to learn.

Lamia Harp - Dreamhare, Deadly Nightshade

Demon Bell - Bakanamy, Flan

Glass Bell - Lamia

War Trumpet - Wolf

Conch Shell - Shelling

Hurdy-Gurdy - Drake

Satyr Flute - Headless

Faerie Harp - Sprite, Antlion

Blueleaf Flute - Malboro, Bomb

Heal Chime - Cockatrice

Frigid Viol - Werewolf

Brilliant Theorbo - Ahriman, Floating Eye

Black Quena - Undead, Ghosts, Deathscythes

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Part VII: Frequently Asked Questions
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Q: The skill I wanted to learn wasn't learned! What did I do wrong?
A: You need to have Learn equipped. Nothing worse than having a hard to
learn skill used on your unit and not having Learn equipped. So if you are
planning on learning Blue Magick, be sure to have Learn equipped. Also, be
sure that the skill is one of the twenty that can be learned.

Q: I want Blue Magick but i hate the Blue Mage stat growth. Do I have to be 
a Blue Mage to learn Blue Magick?
A: The answer is thankfully no. As long as you have Learn equipped, you can
learn Blue Magick, regardless of your job.

Q: My unit died and didn't learn the skill! What happened?
A: Reraise is your friend. If a skill kills your unit, he won't learn that
skill. This status effect is needed to learn Cornered and Roulette.

Q: This is taking way too long and the monsters are using the wrong skills. Is
there a faster way to do this?
A: Have a Beastmaster. No one said that monsters will focus on your Blue Mage.
Beastmasters can make your life so easy by forcing the monsters to target your
unit with the desired skill. This is also the most effective way of obtaining
defensive or healing skills.

Q: I don't have a Beastmaster! Can I still get the buffs and White Wind?
A: When a Beastmaster is not available or you don't have the proper instrument,
Confusion is a viable option for learning defensive skills. Confusing an enemy 
leaves the chance to learn a defensive ability to fate, but it becomes a chance.

Q: I have Learn equipped, but my unit still isn't learning the skill. What 
happened?
A: Certain skills require you to prepare ahead of time. Roar requires your
unit to have a buff, and debuff skills require you to be vulnerable to those
debuffs. One of the bigger ones is being immune to KO when trying to learn
Roulette.

Q: Are any skills one-time only or do any monsters become "extinct?"
A: No skills are one time only, and to the best of my knowledge, all monsters
can be fought in encounters, meaning all skills can be obtained regardless of
what point you are at in the game.

Q: This guide is awesome! What do you use your Blue Mage?
A: Personally, I use a Hunter/Blue Mage. It takes a while, but a fully
mastered Hunter/Blue Mage is a very useful and versitile unit. By the way,
that same unit is my bewst unit.

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Part VIII: Class Combinations
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Blue Mage is probably the best as a secondary class. Blue mages don't have the
best stat growth and their other abilities aren't that top notch. Thus,
Blue Magick is best used as a secondary class. Blue Magick is exclusive to
Humes, and can only be used with Hume jobs.

1. Soldier/Blue Mage
Soldiers don't have much MP, so they can't really use Blue Magick to its full
potential. Some of the Buffs like Dragon Force and Might Guard are still good,
and their high HP makes White Wind useful, but those are better if another
unit gives them. Their support abilities don't really have good synergy with
Blue Magick either. 

2. Fighter/Blue Mage
Same as Soldier.

3. Paladin/Blue Mage
Paladins actually have a reasonable amount of MP, not to mention solid defensive
stats. Dragon Force on a Paladin can create a very nice tank that can deal a 
nice amount of damage. Weapon Defense + can be very useful for tanking, and 
Reflex is one of the best reaction abilities in the game. Not only that, but
Paladins get some really good equipment. A pretty good combo if you ask me.

4. Parivir/Blue Mage
Parivirs are excellent attackers, but Blue Magick is more of a support ability.
The two don't mix well in my opinion. Death Strike is neat though.

5. Thief/Blue Mage
Pretty much the same as the Soldier. Not really enough MP to bring out its full
potential.

6. Ninja/Blue Mage
Ninjas have good speed growth, and a little MP. Ninjitsu mixed with blue magic
can cover most every status ailment in the game. Critical: Haste isn't that 
great of an ability in my opinion, and double sword is good for attacking.
Other than the Blue Magick Ninjitsu combo, not very useful.

7. Archer/Blue Mage
Pretty much the same as Soldier.

8. Hunter/Blue Mage
Another good combo. Hunters can learn Ultima Shot, one of the most powerful
skills in the game, especially since it can be used from far away. Also,
since Hunters can use bows, you can keep the unit behind the tanks and support
the other units with buffs and White Wind. Not only that, but you can almost
never go wrong with Weapon Attack +.

9. White Mage/Blue Mage
Blue Mages can heal and cast Reraise. Hume white mages aren't as effective as
Viera or Nu Mou White Mages anyways. Turbo MP doesn't help most of the Blue
Magick skills, so it�s best not to go with that.

10. Black Mage/Blue Mage
Black Magick is all about attacking, but only has three elements to choose 
from. Blue Magick can throw a little variety in there, plus throw in some
nice debuffs. Geomancy can help Sandstorm, but doesn't help Blue Magick
otherwise.

11. Illusionist/Blue Mage
Illusionists usually stay far away from combat to use their illusions. Not a
great combo as Blue Magick is best used in the middle of the team. Half MP 
isn't necessary, as most of the blue magic spells don't cost much MP in the
first place.

12. Seer/Blue Mage or Blue Mage Seer
Magick Frenzy with some of the Blue Magicks could be fun, but other than that
not overly exciting. Quake is the only Blue Magick that can activate Magick
Frenzy anyways.
This is one of the only class combos that work better the other way around,
with Blue Mage primary. If tweaked right, Blue Mages can deal some reasonable
physical damage with the Ninja Support Ability Double Sword. That with Magick
Frenzy can do some nasty damage.

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Part IX: The Final Verdict
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Blue Mages are very versatile units, capable of handling almost any situation 
and most any role. Though Blue Magick requires a lot of work, time, and most
importantly, patience, it can be a major asset in the game. As for how you
want to use it is your call. I only hope that you found this guide useful and
informative.

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Part X: Legal and Contact Information
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This is my guide, written by me.

If you want to use this guide on another page, simply contact me and I'll see
what we can do. Do not use any of this information with your own name.

Sites Using this FAQ:
GameFAQs.com
Gameradar.com
Supercheats.com
Neoseeker.com

Contact me at [email protected] if you would like to contribute or if I
forgot something, or if you just want to like this FAQ.

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Part XI: Credits and Thanks
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Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift was created by Square Enix.
This guide was written by me, Knightauron.

Thanks to GameFAQs for Hosting this guide
Thanks to all the people on the message boards for encouraging me to write
this guide
Thanks to Terrance and James for the Stat Growth on Blue Mages.

And thank you the reader for reading my first walkthrough.