SGE was designed to be the "dpsing healer" but sadly failed at it.

[Deceptus]

SCH and SGE as a comparison in any content except maybe the 70 ultimates will cause SCH to win, SCH is just incredibly powerful in all kinds of content, it has the strongest healer raid buff, it does great pDPS, it has mitigation and shields out the wazzoo, it is a fantastic distance healer, it’s AOE damage is huge, SCH just has an answer to literally every situation

As usual, Emphasis mine

I mean this as respectfully as possible but SCH has 2 shields (Adlo, Succor, 3 if you're counting Seraph) and 2 mitigation (SS and Expedient).

While sage has 4 shields (Adlo / succor equivalents, Haima, Panhaima) and 3 mitigation (Durochloe, Taurochloe, Holos).

Hardly "out the wazzoo" for the SCH.

That's not to say SCH isn't strong because Recitation exists in a category of it's own, Fey union exists (which IMHO is just Kardia / Soteria with extra steps while losing other fairy utility) and they have Protraction (Krasis is the equivalent without the 10% HP bump)

it’s AOE damage is huge,

Regarding this: Sage has higher aoe damage output than SCH by a large margin. It's basic AoE (Dyskrasia) does 5 pot more damage with zero cast time, with the added benefit of having 2 other hard hitting AoE's. Pneuma at 330 w/ 40% drop off (down to 200 after first enemy), and Phlegma at 510 (down to 250 after first)

SCH simply doesn't have an answer to that and I wish they did. SMN's Painflare would be an excellent addition on a 2 charge system and would make it comparable to Phlegma

True, I guess it comes back to what I said earlier (I can’t remember if it was in this thread or not), the shield healers from a design perspective are just infinitely better than the regen healers currently Even if all healer design is collectively crap right now

Shield based healers are usually better in early content where survival is top priority but once you get it on farm where efficiency is a bit more of a priority and you can survive mechanics w/o the extra affective HP of shields then Regen healers shine.

The other issue from a design perspective is that "Shield" healer and "Regen" healer in FFXIV is pretty much an illusion as WHM's and ASTs have substantial shields and SGE/SCH have substantial regens.

But that's a completely different topic.