Which healing job are they gonna gut for Sage?

[Nethereal]

Noct AST has always felt like superior SCH. Any time you need shields you have them on demand while retaining some of the best HPS in the game. You even have better shields than SCH in the form of a triple shield from swapping sects at the start.

Any time you need regens you have them on demand, you only need to swap sects, not even classes.
Diurnal AST has always felt like the speedy verison of WHM to me at the cost of chunky heals but it will never replace WHM, SCH on the other hand... 700 potency instant shields are just too good especially when you add their entire kit on top of it.

The removal of Nocturnal AST will allow them to properly balance the shield healers so it doesn't always feel like "Do I want to deal with cards and play the superior healer, or do I want to play the inferior healer but not deal with cards..."

The only thing SCH has on Noct AST is mitigation because Sacred Soil is busted AF. You can consider Whispering Dawn comparable to Star but they both have their own merits.
Also Neutral Sect shits on Seraph. God I will miss Neutral Sect that ability shouldn't be allowed to exist.

[SweetPete]

I’m super excited to see how they retool astrologian. I too feel removing shields will give them a chance to rework the card system. I think nocturnal sect will have something to do with the cards. Maybe make them last longer or buff the utility of them. They not removing it as it’s got job quest behind it. I do hope they bring back more time aspects of the job. Please don’t give our time magics to Sage.

[RyuDragnier]

AST being gutted and rebuilt into a HoT healer has the potential of turning it (back?) into the buff support healer it was initially designed to be. I’m actually more excited about the possibilities for AST than the Sage!

On the other note, AST’s introduction was the first real hit towards SCH’s decline, and it feels like anyone still playing Scholar do so out of a love of the aesthetic (speaking from experience) and that’s something I expect to continue after the addition of Sage unless it’s grossly underpowered. I’m scared Scholar is going to lose any utility or niche in group content. White Mage is bursty with high damage. Astrologian has a party buffing system. But Sage walking in with shield heals without a clunky pet system?

Basically I suddenly understand why it took this long for a fourth healer to be added since everything about how they work in group content has to be worked on in a way that isn’t an issue with DPS or even tanks. :/

I'm suspecting that like AST, Sage will have more party utility than SCH. But in return, like AST, its personal DPS will be lacking. If they do it like this, there's a chance they'll make it so AST/Sage will have the least DPS total even with buff utility between the pure/shield healer combos. Meaning you may see WHM/SCH having the highest personal DPS but lacking in buff support. WHM/Sage and AST/SCH will have a good combination of the two. This would discourage just stacking the two buff supports (because we know how the playerbase is when it comes to buff windows and meta) and go with the other possible combinations.

[Soge01]

The real question is, what are they gonna gut from Machinest to give to Sage. There can only be one Mr. Pew Pew in this Realm, partner~ o3o

[Rongway]

I'm suspecting that like AST, Sage will have more party utility than SCH. But in return, like AST, its personal DPS will be lacking. If they do it like this, there's a chance they'll make it so AST/Sage will have the least DPS total even with buff utility between the pure/shield healer combos. Meaning you may see WHM/SCH having the highest personal DPS but lacking in buff support. WHM/Sage and AST/SCH will have a good combination of the two. This would discourage just stacking the two buff supports (because we know how the playerbase is when it comes to buff windows and meta) and go with the other possible combinations.

They specifically stated during the February Announcement Showcase that sage would boost their own magic power.

[Penthea]

I’m actually more excited about the possibilities for AST than the Sage!

Wow, I thought I was the only one.

I'm actually really glad ast is getting reworked not because I want it to give stuff to sage, but because I never really liked playing ast. To me the ast healing kit feels like a halfway point between whm and sch instead of having its own unique healing kit. And because of this I never found the act of healing with it to be interesting.

Yes all the healers have things in common and I understand it's needed for the sake of practicality, however it's clear that by design ast is supposed to be filling the role of both healer types and because the other two classes came first ast ended up being modelled off of them. The card mechanic is supposed to be the pivotal feature that makes it stand truly apart from them, however for me no incarnation of the card mechanic ever made up for a healing kit that is trying to masquerade as two other classes.

I prefer barrier healers, it's what I enjoy. But despite this for me the best news about sage isn't necessarily sage...it's that ast will finally get the chance to have a healing kit that is truly its own, and not something designed to fill the spaces of the other two. I'm really looking forward to playing a new flavour of pure healer. Ast does have some cool individual healing abilities so I really hope SE are going to use that as their baseline for its new design, instead of what we have had so far which is just making sure it can replace a whm or sch.

[SenorPatty]

The real question is, what are they gonna gut from Machinest to give to Sage. There can only be one Mr. Pew Pew in this Realm, partner~ o3o

*Starts crying* they already did...THOSE FUNNELS SHOULD'VE BEEN OURS! THOSE ARE LITERAL MACHINE STRAIGHT FROM THE GUNDAM UNIVERSE SHOOTING PEWS PEWS!


Alphinaud's not even a newtype. WE DA NEWTYPE! CMOOOOOOON. *goes into fetal position*

[RyuDragnier]

*Starts crying* they already did...THOSE FUNNELS SHOULD'VE BEEN OURS! THOSE ARE LITERAL MACHINE STRAIGHT FROM THE GUNDAM UNIVERSE SHOOTING PEWS PEWS!


Alphinaud's not even a newtype. WE DA NEWTYPE! CMOOOOOOON. *goes into fetal position*

They gave away the funnels so that you may obtain the ultimate powers of FF8...a miniature Ragnarok laser cannon. To hell with the funnels, you must obtain the laser that will pierce through all!

[MorionQ]

The best part about Sage’s weapon is the Gunbreaker/Machinist/Sage combo means I can legitimately say my job is always GUN no matter what I do.

My God, do I miss the old AST card system. Ripping out the RNG and individual card uses makes sense on paper since it’s vastly less situational, but having the card symbolism remain is somehow MORE confusing to me. Though, I understand changing the quests is work the devs don’t want to do. I miss how good it felt to burn Ewer/Spear and getting that team wide Balance slapped down right as DPS checks started. It just felt GREAT when it came together.

[Brightamethyst]

It just felt GREAT when it came together.

But on the flip side it felt terrible when it didn't.

With only one or two "correct" answers you were much more likely to get a "wrong" card than a right one. Going an entire pull with no Balance because RNG hates you is incredibly not fun. The current card system may not be very interesting but it's also not actively frustrating, and to many people that's more important. One could say it's more... balanced