RE: Sage Design

[RSS News]

When Endwalker was first teased, Sage immediately captivated me with its visual design and initial promises of a healer made in response to the feedback from players wanting more DPS tools. Yet Sage's conservative approach to that identity has left it sitting in Scholar's shadow, and I want to continue expressing my feedback on the job and my hope for its future (despite my increasingly waning hope for the future of this game in general).

The Problems with Sage

• Sage's DPS is as shallow and miserable as every other healer's DPS.

Spamming Dosis ad nauseam is not enjoyable full stop. That was the main criticism players like myself had during Shadowbringers that was supposedly what Sage was designed to address. It has not gotten better since then.

• Kardia and Eukrasia feel like an afterthought.

The most unique ideas baked into Sage's skillset are also, unfortunately, the most underwhelming. Instead of utilizing Kardia And Eukrasia as Sage's main source of healing, they are largely outclassed by Sage's other healing resources, which leads me to the third point...

• Sage copies too much from Scholar.

Many of Sage's most important and impactful healing actions are identical to, or extremely similar to actions found on Scholar, most prominently the Addersgall suite which is a nearly direct copy of Aetherflow.

Solutions

• Redesign Sage's DPS playstyle to something fresh and new for healers.

I want to make it clear that I am not saying Sage needs a DPS rotation on par with DPS jobs. Instead, I would point to Gunbreaker, a tank with a greater emphasis on DPS variety than other tanks, but is still not as robust as a true DPS job. The same should apply to Sage. And I think there's room to take inspiration from PVP Sage with faster cooldowns, some frequent OGCD attacks, and an offensive version of Pneuma.

• Make adjustments to Sage's healing that put more weight into Kardia and Eukrasia.

I think a very easy solution that would make a big impact would be to change what tools Addersgall is spent on. Instead of copy-pastes of Scholar's Aetherflow actions, why not spend Adderstall on Soteria as your single target heal, "Pankardia", a proper AOE Kardia effect as your AOE, and a new action that causes Kardia to apply stackable, smaller barriers for a set duration? Adding more DPS options also expands the range of resources that Eukrasia can potentially take advantage of as well.

To tackle both sides of Sage's issues, consider a rework to Philosophia... Since "Pankardia" could be introduced much earlier, you could have Philosophia function similiarly to an Enshroud/Reawaken type effect that gives you a faster set of attacks, and adds another layer of Kardia healing during the duration of that attack string. The healing can also be converted to layered barriers through the new Addersgall action, allowing you to take advantage of the support better even if the party is healthy.

Final Thoughts
For me, Sage is a job where I really want to look and feel cool and stylish. It takes visual inspiration from sources like Gundam, but I do not feel cool, flashy, or heroic when playing as a Sage. Instead I feel slow, basic, and listless. Both because Sage fails to live up to the expectations of a proper DPS oriented healer, and also that the healing I do doesn't capture the thematic qualities that are supposed to set Sage apart. It's time this changes, and while I'm doubtful it will, all I can do is continue to put my feedback out there in a desperate effort to see Sage live up to the fantasy it deserves.

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