by OmgYoshiPLZ

Disclaimer: Some things are my own personal experience and conjecture. others may have differing experiences.

What this covers

1. Drop rates/rules
2. Spell combos / Notable spells

i wont be going over drop locations, as other guides already have done that.

Drop Rates/rules

Rules of learning

Note:all of these have been 100% confirmed accurate. Note: Edited for clarity. Consider this list as a checklist in order of importance

1. Any level of damage or enmity is sufficient to learn- even a simple staff bonk.
2. The monster must use the spell.
3. you must be alive to learn the spell.

Clarifying Learning

1. EXP does not need to be gained from the target to learn
2. as long as you are in the same zone when the target dies, and you meet the three rules, you can get the spell.
3. if one player learns the spell in your party- all players in the party will learn the spell, so long as they are alive.
4. Synched/unsynched does not impact learning rates
5. Level difference does not impact learning rates
6. There is no minimum level to learn a spell, unless that spell is inside of a dungeon

• Unproven Conjecture: The mob only drops the spell to one person, when people from differing parties are engaged. that persons group gets the spell. i witness this several times, when competing for spells, that only one person/party ever seemed to learn the spell if there was competition from multiple parties. This aligns with the “party up” mentality behind bluemage.

Drop Rates

Note: This is my personal experience with it. it may vary, but its likely to be fairly close to this.

From what i can tell, there are three to four drop tiers. they appear to be independent of the spell rank (e.g angon is rank 3, but took over fifty kills. the chances of this being in a 10-30% bracket are extremely low), and are 30/20/10/5%.

most all spells learnable in the over world, fall into the 30/20% brackets, with Dungeons and trials having the 10/5% brackets.

Spell combos / Notable spells

Several Niche spells appear, that are worth prioritizing over others.

Notable Spells

• Missile (lv50) – This spell cuts any monsters HP in half, with a 50% chance. This spell is your single strongest single target spell in the game against trash mobs, and any bosses susceptible to instant death spells. it deals half of the monsters remaining life. no spell will EVER come close to this damage, (tail screw and doom aside due to their unreliability). It also generates minimal enmity. Listed the bosses relevant to spell farming. bosses listed in order of encounter, flagged as Y for susceptible. Bold indicates a spell dropping boss.

Note: Doom, tail screw, and Missile are all considered “Auto death” spells. if the mob fully resists missile, you cannot hit it with any of these spells. Tail screws Hit rate is about 10%. if you have 4 blues spamming screw, you can drop bosses in seconds- if only one blue has it, its better to spam missile.

• 1000 needles – Easily the best leveling spell in the game. Pick this up as soon as you can. you can learn it at level 1 if you want.
• Self Destruct – Useful in many ways – particularly for speed running dungeons.
• Offguard/white wind/mighty guard: get these as soon as you’ve learned your 5/10thth spell. they are the most crucial spells in your kit.
• Bad breath – its a decent damage Poison + Damage down you can maintain on the enemies. this spell is incredibly good. Do not use it for blind para or slow. other spells do these effects with far greater duration.
• level 5 petrify – Almost all trash mobs are susceptible. has a potent combo with Drill cannons, but struggles with getting all mobs hit properly due to its small size.
• Drill cannons – not the best spell. has extreme synergy with level 5 petrifiy, but is bad at hitting staggered groupings.
• Rams voice– One of the games best CC Spells currently. it offers a full 30 seconds of a monster being completely helpless if you chain your CC’s properly.
• Dragons voice – extremely good range. has a combo property with rams voice, and sees its true potential with more than one bluemage.
  
• Diamond back – Literally a personal tank LB3. Get this spell ASAP. You can laugh off boss supers, and super tank massive pulls with no danger to yourself.
• Flying Frenzy – A massive range jump to your target. Has a much longer casting range than other spells.
• Song of Torment – amazingly potent DOT spell.
• Flame Thrower – The best spam spell in the game. it has no additional effects, and hits a 180 cone in front of you for 130 potency. All of the other 130 potency spam spells carry some form of debuff like paralyze, that you could use other spells for to greater and longer effects.
• Literally every single primal spell – Seriously they’re insanely good. Get them. They are instant cast damage, and you can have three of them at a time (no point in having all 6 since they’re paired spells, and share cool downs with another primal spell).
  • Feather rain gets special mention because it is better than eruption in terms of damage, and the fact that its the only wind elemental damage in our arsenal. Flame thrower can be used for fire damage to greater effect.

Award for most useless spell in the game: Loom. Loom is fucking terrible. it is a trap spell. do not use it. Loom’s cast time and animation time, allow you to travel exactly the same distance as if you just were to run. it has one single niche use- and thats for when you are weighed down. Loom needs to be reworked into a 25M spell or an instant cast- it cant be both hard cast and short range. its just not a feasible spell.

Combos

Note: Rule of thumb- almost all combos involve the starting chain of Bristle > Off guard > Moon flute > Peculiar light

• Kamikaze combo: Toad oil > Bristle > off-guard > moon flute > Peculiar light > Self Destruct
  • lv 50 damage range – 20-50k damage to most targets.
  • Useful for speed running dungeons. have your ‘tank’ pull to the end of the dungeon
• Immortal Combo: Mighty guard > White wind/the look > Diamond back
  • Useful for being an immortal tank for your party for big pulls. White wind 1-3 times is insane threat under mighty guard.
• Tonberry combo: Combo Bristle> off-guard > Moon flute > Faze > sharpen knife > Bristle > Sharpen knife > swift cast > Sharpen knife > Bristle > Faze > Sharpen knife > Bristle > Faze > Sharpen knife
  • L50 damage range – 3-7k damage 5-6 times
• Chimera combo (2+ players): Have one bluemage Mightygaurd, pull, white wind or the look for threat, then spam rams voice to freeze over and over. When frozen, you can Bristle > Moonflute > Dragons voice > Bristle > Dragons voice > Bristle > Dragons voice .
  • L50 Damage range: 2-5k
• Dots for days Combo Bristle > Offguard > moonflute > Peculiar light > Song of torment > Aqua breath > Bad breath > Feather rain
  • extremely potent DOT chain. Song of torment gets up to 220 Potency this way, and lasts for 30 seconds for 10 tics, giving 2.2k potency. bad breath and Aqua breath get up to 30 potency for 3 tics, giving another 180 potency, ontop of their upfront damage, and feather rain gets up to 60 for 2 tics. this is on top of their base damages of 2200+236+236+526 +180 +120 = 3500 damage in 10 seconds, leaving you free to get another 2-3 casts in on your moon flute timer, and let the dots ride for the moonflute downtime.
  • you can also end this combo by casting Diamondback to get your moon flute cycle done faster.
• 420 Combo – off guard > Rams breath> Bristle > Lv5 Petrifiy > Moon flute > Drill cannons > Lv5 petrify > Bristle > Drill cannons > Lv 5 Petrify > Bristle > Swiftcast > Drill cannons.
  • extremely good single target damage. it can be used on groups – but it becomes harder on multiple targets due to the small radius of level5, and narrow radius of drill cannons. Because you can deep freeze and petrify the same target- you can use deep freeze to prevent movement/retaliation in between petrifies.