Relatively large concern about new Healer: Sage

[Rongway]

On the other hand, if SE is separating healers into "HoT healers" and "Shield healers" we can now have:


-----------------Self-buffing Dps-----------------

[WHM]<---------------------------------->[SGE]

Pure Heal <-----------|-----------> Shield Heal

[AST]<------------------------------------>[SCH]

----------------Raid-buffing Dps-----------------

Does that mean my boy SCH gets to be the Support healer I've always dreamed of?

In my opinion Sage and Scholar are reversed in that dichotomy, but that is mostly because Scholar’s better suited to that role thanks to the fairy being able to take on a significant amount of healing burden. If SE actually goes in hard on making Sage emulate Scholar as much as is reasonably required then they’ll get Scholar’s level of oGCD healing but given the preview had them actively using Nouliths in DPS spell casts they likely won’t get an Embrace equivalent. I think it’s more likely that Sage will get raid buffs that are stronger than what SCH can do currently (but worse than AST) and/or a non-pet version of Carbuncle to compensate for needing to actively heal. Being the first ranged auto attack healer would fit in line with that, or maybe the needle guns operate as a passive bunshin strike on heals. Either way I’m expecting its baseline GCDs to be weaker than SCH to compensate for whatever form of DPS compensation they get.

They specifically said Sage would be self-buffing in the announcement.

I wouldn't be surprised if we got some form of Cleric Stance just for Sage. Something like "Increases magic damage dealt by 10% while reducing healing done by 30%. Effect ends upon reuse. Recast time: 6s". The loss of Cleric Stance has been one of the largest laments of healer mains for years and the devs know this.