Why does Sage punish you for using your healing spells?

[SturmChurro]

SGE is the healer you want to avoid if you're a "but I'm a healer, I only need/want to heal!" type of player, you already have WHM for that.

Apparently not, because I have to focus heal too often. I can't even attempt to use a damage ability or some of these tanks are probably going to die on some pulls. I have to be playing it wrong, like I have to be, but I am not sure how I can be.. I use their kit, but STILL I have these tanks drop so fast. Maybe these tanks aren't using cds, I, admittedly, haven't been paying attention to that when I am healing on it, but I don't know. Maybe it's just my anxiety talking, but I think I hate the class. Simple as that. I much prefer white mage.

[kizumiayamame]

Apparently not, because I have to focus heal too often. I can't even attempt to use a damage ability or some of these tanks are probably going to die on some pulls. I have to be playing it wrong, like I have to be, but I am not sure how I can be.. I use their kit, but STILL I have these tanks drop so fast. Maybe these tanks aren't using cds, I, admittedly, haven't been paying attention to that when I am healing on it, but I don't know. Maybe it's just my anxiety talking, but I think I hate the class. Simple as that. I much prefer white mage.

I think this is my issue as well but I want to like Sage so bad but I guess the class just isn't for me. It's too bad because I love how their abilities look and sound but I wish I could understand the job but I just think it's flawed in its design is all.

[Driavna]

Apparently not, because I have to focus heal too often. I can't even attempt to use a damage ability or some of these tanks are probably going to die on some pulls. I have to be playing it wrong, like I have to be, but I am not sure how I can be.. I use their kit, but STILL I have these tanks drop so fast. Maybe these tanks aren't using cds, I, admittedly, haven't been paying attention to that when I am healing on it, but I don't know. Maybe it's just my anxiety talking, but I think I hate the class. Simple as that. I much prefer white mage.

Not really. If the DPS is slow or the tank is not doing a good job with CDs (or his gear is not up to date and blabla...) you will have a hard time.

[VirusOnline]

Not really. If the DPS is slow or the tank is not doing a good job with CDs (or his gear is not up to date and blabla...) you will have a hard time.

This exactly.

A lot of people speak as if SGE is perfect or "not for someone". This is just not true. Just because some like the class the way it is, doesn't mean it doesn't need tweaks.

If a class can only perform well because the tank and dps perform well, then there's an issue. SGE is overly reliant on good players and suffers greatly with suboptimal players.
The amount of struggle in Expert roulette is real with DRKs, tanks who don't rotate CDs correctly, low dps, reviving players and topping them up and shielding as multiple aoes are going out is an immense pain. The saving grace in difficult situations just really isn't there like it is with other healers. In these situations dpsing and oGCD healing will not do you any good other than quickly depleting your Addersgall.

Kardia needs a buff. It isn't even comparable to a SCH fairy for me or a regen. Aetherpact makes Kardia + Soteria look dumb. You can't "regen" with a SGE if you're constantly having to carebear the tank, and damned if you do because the risk of your tank dying is high. Kardia isn't meant to be a regen, imo. It's meant to be the identity of the class - dealing damage rewards you with heals through Kardia. Pneuma solidies this fact. But as we speak, Kardia is terrible and isn't rewarding, especially if its performance is dependent on your tanks play.

[Sylve]

Apparently not, because I have to focus heal too often. I can't even attempt to use a damage ability or some of these tanks are probably going to die on some pulls. I have to be playing it wrong, like I have to be, but I am not sure how I can be.. I use their kit, but STILL I have these tanks drop so fast. Maybe these tanks aren't using cds, I, admittedly, haven't been paying attention to that when I am healing on it, but I don't know. Maybe it's just my anxiety talking, but I think I hate the class. Simple as that. I much prefer white mage.

100%, its the Tank not using their cooldowns.
In the first week after i hit 90 on Sage and did the EXR dungeons, many a tank came through in full 89 Job gear and i had to use every Addersgall charge, Rhiz, every oGCD button and was still needing to spam E-Diag to keep them off the floor. And then they sprint directly into the next pack to do it all over again! T_T
Recently dove back into SCH and was doing the 81 dungeon. Tank did a mass pull and died despite having Fey Union attached, SS, WD, spending every AF charge at my disposal AND bending every GCD to Adloq with every emergency cooldown blown.
And when he died, the Monk was easier to heal despite that no mobs had died yet, lol. Easier to the point i was able to Raise the tank and tap him back to full while also keeping the Monk alive >_>

And the the other night, i finally convinced a friend who was adamant she couldn't tank the 90 dungeons because her gear was garbage (She derped and forgot entirely about the job gear lol) to tank EXRoulette for me.
She went in on her DRK still wearing level 80 Crystarium armor with a couple of dungeon pieces between 83 and 87. How she even had the ilvl I'll never know but aside from needing to use E-Diag slightly more often than the average for a pull, i was still able to heal her easily enough and keep her HP near full for entire mass pulls while spending the majority of GCDs on Toxikon and Dyskrasia.

But shes a good tank who knows how to use her cooldowns. And thats the difference. Tanks mitigation is way more important now than it used to be. Partially due to the early stages of our ilvls but also because of the stat squish.

Panhaima+Kerachole+Pepsis II+Dyskrasia to open a mass pull. Your tank will be nigh impossible to kill due to the combined 100/130/170 basically equating to spamming Diagnosis on the tank while also doing AoE.
Gets even better when you add Soteria to boost Kardia's effect.
If the mobs are still alive after that runs dry, Taurchole for the DR and mixing E-Diags between dps GCDs so you dont waste cooldowns before the next pack.
Also, loading up Eukrasia and holding it while using Toxikon/Dyskrasia can help with reactively dropping E-Diags to smooth out any damage spikes the tank suffers (Many of the larger dungeon mobs have mini tank busters)

I have actually found Sage to be the Healer that clicked best with me. SCH, AST and WHM just feel awkward and slow to me now

[SturmChurro]

100%, its the Tank not using their cooldowns. (...)

Oh, yeah. I know. I always knew, I just didn't want to be mean. I only recently started playing it, and I thought maybe it was a little on me, but yeah, no. The sheer difference in DF tank skill level, where I could have a clean run, and the next a complete mess, with no real changes on my end, just proves it. I seem to be getting a large amount of bad tanks while leveling, and they sure are noticeable on a Sage.

[Packetdancer]

Apparently not, because I have to focus heal too often. I can't even attempt to use a damage ability or some of these tanks are probably going to die on some pulls.

So, being serious here... as a WHM main who is deeply enjoying SGE, and who has been talking to some friends who've struggled with the new job, there's something I know they stumbled with that I feel like it's worth noting. I don't know whether it's where you're having issues, Sturm, but it might be more generally useful to other folks even if not.

Nearly all of sage's AoE mitigation/buff options are entirely viable for single-target scenarios, such as dealing with the tank's damage during a big pull.

Already used Haima, so it's on cooldown? Panhaima makes a great backup! Yeah, Panhaima's only 6 stacks of 200 potency mitigation (the initial shield, plus the five 'backup' charges it puts on as a stacked buff to reapply the shield when it's depleted) instead of 300 potency, but that's still 1200 potency of mitigation on the tank for up to 15s, which honestly is a respectable single-target shield.

(As a bonus, it's also mitigation on all the DPS, in case they stand in the bad.)

Kerachole's just flat out 15s of 10% damage mitigation -- it's the same mitigation as Taurochole, as an AoE. (Minus Taurochole's up-front healing, replaced with a regen.)

Physis II is 650 potency of AoE regen healing over 15 seconds, but it also gives a 10s buff that increases all incoming healing by 10%; tossing that down for a little extra 'oomph' when a tank's seeming a bit squishy can really help buff your other healing.

Holos is only 300 potency of AoE heal, which seems pretty tiny... but it's also 20 seconds of 10% damage mitigation, which isn't nothing during a trash pull. You can throw that one down even if only the tank will benefit from the mitigation.

The fact that I have this veritable buffet of mitigation options -- even if some are AoEs rather than single target -- makes me feel like I have more than enough kit on sage to deal with basically anything. Possibly beyond what's reasonable.