If you’re familiar with the role from other FF games, Blue Mages gain their special abilities from monsters in the world. Strago has a total of 24 Lores which he can learn – and some are better than others. So for this list I’ll be ranking some of the best Lores you can obtain for Strago, including what they do and how you can get them.
10. White Wind
Obtained: Curlax, Dark Force, Kamui, Lady, Magic Dragon, Marchosias, Neslug, Peeper, Sprinter, Storm Dragon (first), Vector Lythos, Venobennu Here at the bottom of the ranking we have White Wind, and I will be honest, it very nearly didn’t make it into the top ten. At its heart it’s a decent enough Lore, healing the entire party equal to Stragos’ HP. But the obvious downside is that the spell gets less effective as Strago is more damaged, and it costs more than a standard Curaga to cast. However, with some smart Esper and Relic choices, you can boost his HP and defenses, making him a healing tank. You can essentially use Strago to heal and buff your team, and have the rest of the team concentrate on defeating the enemies.
9. Mighty Guard
Obtained: Dark Behemoth, Guardian (Kefka’s Tower), Land Ray, Mover I was actually quite dismissive of this Lore at first. It costs 80 MP to cast Protect and Shell! But then… I did a little math. Protect costs 12 MP and Shell 15 MP, and each can only be cast on one person at a time. In total, it takes 8 turns to cast both spells on the whole party, costing over 100 MP! Or you can use Mighty Guard, and in one turn you can buff the entire party. This becomes really useful against tough bosses that can remove your buffs, too. Huge time save in setting up!
8. Bad Breath
Obtained: Dark Force, Great Malboro, Malboro, Malboro Menace The iconic ability from the Malboro (anyone else love how they did that?) appears again in FF6. Bad Breath may only target a single enemy, but it inflicts a host of debilitating ailments on them: Blind, Poison, Imp, Confuse, Sleep, and Silence. Its MP cost isn’t that high, either. So that makes it an ideal softener for tough enemies. If you’re running Strago as a support member, once the party is buffed, then you can switch to hindering the enemy and bringing them down from the inside!
7. Dischord
Obtained: Chaser, Crawler, Dark Force, Figaro Lizard, Gamma, Gilgamesh, Kefka (Sealed Gate), Lizard, Metal Hitman, Omega Weapon, Satellite Now this is some Lore that I love on so many levels! It cuts the level and stats of the target, making them vastly easier to deal with. The only hindrance is if the enemy is immune to Death, then they won’t be affected by Dischord. But with access to the Death spell, you may ask why not just use that? Well, to obtain some of the best equipment, you’ll need to steal… and halving the level of the enemy will rapidly increase the Steal rate against it!
6. Lv? Holy
Obtained: Alluring Rider, Dark Force, Dullahan, InnoSent, Kaiser Dragon, Magic Dragon, Omega Weapon, Red Dragon (first) This Lore casts Holy on all enemies whose level is divisible by the last digit in your total money amount – so you might want to try and keep it at one! Holy is a powerful spell that can lay waste to your enemies, with little problem if it hits. The Lore also has a low MP cost at 50. If it wasn’t for the targeting aspect of this spell, it would be a lot higher on this list.
5. Tsunami
Obtained: Blue Dragon (both), Dark Force, Enuo, Kaiser Dragon, Leviathan, Master Tonberry, Omega Weapon, Ultima Buster This may not be as powerful as Lv? Holy, but it does hit all enemies regardless of level. The Water Element is very rare, too, making Strago one of the few reliable ways to access it. Also, Tsunami has a very reasonable cost of only 30 MP, allowing you to save your MP for when it counts!
4. Quasar
Obtained: Dark Force, Gilgamesh, Goddess This one is frequently compared to Meteor. And while it doesn’t have the amazing defense-ignoring properties of Meteor, it is cheaper, and has a higher base damage. Plus non-elemental damage is always useful. This way you don’t have to worry about absorbed or resisted!
3. Aqua Breath
Obtained: Initial starting lore Now Aqua Breath is one of the starting Lores that Strago comes with, and it’s a fantastic one! Low MP cost, high damage, and it deals both Water and Wind elemental damage. If you’re just wanting to concentrate Strago as a support character, then you can focus on gaining more Lores as you go, and using Aqua Breath as his damage dealing option. Water and Wind are both rare elements, and Wind in particular is effective on lots of enemies.
2. Aero
Obtained: Dark Force, Deathgaze, Demon, Gilgamesh, Gorgimera, Kaiser Dragon, Magic Dragon, Marchosias, Omega Weapon, Sprinter, Storm Dragon (both), Tyrannosaur, Vasegiatta Speaking of the Wind Element, here’s the most powerful attack of its kind. Hitting all enemies hard for a low MP cost, I’d say Aero is easily one of Strago’s best choices for attacking. It may be hard getting it from Storm Dragon, but if you can manage it, you can have this fairly early on in the World of Ruin. And this Lore can carry you through quite a lot of the game, until you get what I consider to be Strago’s most powerful Lore.
1. Grand Delta
Obtained: Hidon, Omega Weapon If Quasar is considered the “Meteor” of the Lores, this would be considered the Ultima! It’s not quite as high damage as Ultima. But it is non-elemental, and will hit like a truck at later levels. This allows Strago to be a powerful magical damage dealer, very helpful if you’re having trouble getting Ultima, or just need Strago to dish out some high damage.
