Sage's skill Pepsis is useless

[IceBlueNinja]

Similar to Krasis, I'd straight up delete Pepsis and add in some interesting dps. Krasis and Pepsi are just filler that we don't really need. You could make them really good, but we're swimming in free heals already. Or you could use the free slots to give SGE some of that "dps healer" identity it was meant to have.

You forgot soteria too.

[ToodlesElNoodles]

Soteria is actually something I like and one of the only abilities that works with Kardia. Makes it the most SGE-like.

It’s wonderful in dungeon runs and it’s my choice of response to a dual-tankbuster. I’ll Krasis+Soteria one, then Haima the other. Depending on the trend of the tanks doing good or bad with the TB, I’ll throw a Taurochole on them.

My problem is that in most settings, the tank’s sustain is just too good or the other healer panics afterwards and chucks one of their extra heal abilities (Lustrate, Essential Dignity, or Druochole) to top them off. Which is a reason I prefer Fey Union over Soteria even though it’s weaker. Fey Union is a lot more flexible. Nothing brings me more joy when I tagteam with another SCH and we double (Aetherpact) laser the tank when the red glow of death appears.

Though going back to Soteria, I think with the Variant/Criterion dungeons, it’ll become more valuable.

Pepsis is still…grrr…though.

[Packetdancer]

Honestly, I find Pepsis fairly useful in certain situations.

Do I need to do back-to-back AoE heals -- heal up for a raidwide, then heal after the raidwide -- in a window smaller than Ixochole's cooldown, and still need to move for a mechanic so that I don't die? I can E.Prognosis and weave Pepsis to crack the shield immediately for one, and use Ixochole for the other. Conversely, using just Prognosis for one of those two back-to-back heals is only 300 potency of heal (compared to the 450 total of an E.Prognosis + Pepsis), still costs me a GCD, and I've got to stay still long enough to channel the cast.

Pepsis is never my first choice, because yeah, it is sacrificing a GCD to get the shield on there in the first place to crack it; if I have other options available, Pepsis is probably not the most efficient choice. If I've got enough time for HoT to be sufficient to top off after that hypothetical raidwide, Physis II (especially to buff any AoE heals from my co-healer, if applicable) or Kerachole is probably good. If Holos is off cooldown for that back-to-back heal scenario, I'd probably favor doing Holos for the first one (and get that lovely mitigation on folks) and Ixochole for the second. Etc.

But I absolutely consider Pepsis a viable and useful option in my toolkit when healing, even if it's never going to be one of the first tools that I reach for in that kit.

[Supersnow845]

Honestly, I find Pepsis fairly useful in certain situations.

Do I need to do back-to-back AoE heals -- heal up for a raidwide, then heal after the raidwide -- in a window smaller than Ixochole's cooldown, and still need to move for a mechanic so that I don't die? I can E.Prognosis and weave Pepsis to crack the shield immediately for one, and use Ixochole for the other. Conversely, using just Prognosis for one of those two back-to-back heals is only 300 potency of heal (compared to the 450 total of an E.Prognosis + Pepsis), still costs me a GCD, and I've got to stay still long enough to channel the cast.

Pepsis is never my first choice, because yeah, it is sacrificing a GCD to get the shield on there in the first place to crack it; if I have other options available, Pepsis is probably not the most efficient choice. If I've got enough time for HoT to be sufficient to top off after that hypothetical raidwide, Physis II (especially to buff any AoE heals from my co-healer, if applicable) or Kerachole is probably good. If Holos is off cooldown for that back-to-back heal scenario, I'd probably favor doing Holos for the first one (and get that lovely mitigation on folks) and Ixochole for the second. Etc.

But I absolutely consider Pepsis a viable and useful option in my toolkit when healing, even if it's never going to be one of the first tools that I reach for in that kit.

In that situation that’s a niche filled perfectly by both panhaima and pneuma, it’s hard to justify a skill that has incredibly niche uses and only when synced below a level that a better skill fills the same niche

[Packetdancer]

In that situation that’s a niche filled perfectly by both panhaima and pneuma, it’s hard to justify a skill that has incredibly niche uses and only when synced below a level that a better skill fills the same niche

Panhaima is not a panacea, as wonderful as it is. Sometimes you need actual healing, not shields, and can't really wait for Panhaima's timer to expire and convert into healing. And while Pneuma is amazing, not every back-to-back raidwide lines up with Pneuma's cooldown window.

Don't get me wrong, if Pneuma's off cooldown and I'm going to have to spend a GCD either way, Pneuma's going to almost certainly be my first choice. Unless I know I need to save it for an upcoming mechanic, or unless I need to be moving right now and don't even have time for Pneuma's cast. (Or situations where I have no enemy to attack, like in DSR where Thordan simply isn't targetable for long stretches; Pneuma's just plain not an option during those windows.)

But that doesn't mean I don't find uses for Pepsis.

I think of it like a spare tire; most of the time you don't need it, but when you do get a flat tire there's a solid chance you're going to be really glad you have that spare in the trunk.

[Supersnow845]

Panhaima is not a panacea, as wonderful as it is. Sometimes you need actual healing, not shields, and can't really wait for Panhaima's timer to expire and convert into healing. And while Pneuma is amazing, not every back-to-back raidwide lines up with Pneuma's cooldown window.

Don't get me wrong, if Pneuma's off cooldown and I'm going to have to spend a GCD either way, Pneuma's going to almost certainly be my first choice. Unless I know I need to save it for an upcoming mechanic, or unless I need to be moving right now and don't even have time for Pneuma's cast. (Or situations where I have no enemy to attack, like in DSR where Thordan simply isn't targetable for long stretches; Pneuma's just plain not an option during those windows.)

But that doesn't mean I don't find uses for Pepsis.

I think of it like a spare tire; most of the time you don't need it, but when you do get a flat tire there's a solid chance you're going to be really glad you have that spare in the trunk.

That’s a situation where I believe that panhaima rewards knowledge of the fight. Take the double bloodrake that Dracula does right at the start, if you panhaima about 3 seconds before his first bloodrake then panhaima acts as mitigation for the first raidwide then heals up before the second, the Expiration it is so short that I can pretty much find a way to utilise its expiration heal to dodge needing to use anything else

Ultimates being untargetable reducing pneumas effect I’ll 100% give you though

[Liam_Harper]

Panhaima is not a panacea, as wonderful as it is. Sometimes you need actual healing, not shields, and can't really wait for Panhaima's timer to expire and convert into healing.

Then Pepsis won't help you.

Pepsis is only 150 potency gain. That's less than a single layer of Panhaima. It's literally worth one Medica II tick. Not the heal, just a single tick of the HoT.

I feel like people are just ignoring math. Pepsis is extremely weak. It's the noodliest of aoe heals. It's awful.

[Packetdancer]

That’s a situation where I believe that panhaima rewards knowledge of the fight. Take the double bloodrake that Dracula does right at the start, if you panhaima about 3 seconds before his first bloodrake then panhaima acts as mitigation for the first raidwide then heals up before the second, the Expiration it is so short that I can pretty much find a way to utilise its expiration heal to dodge needing to use anything else

Oh, I do agree. And there's a lot of places where that can be useful -- Panhaima is certainly a better choice for many, if not most, situations.

I just will hold to my belief that an ability that adds 150 potency to an AoE heal while also turning it instant-cast so you can move while you use it is not entirely without use.

As I said, it's a spare tire.

Pepsis is only 150 potency gain. That's less than a single layer of Panhaima.

Sure, but it's 450 potency total, and on an instant cast. If you need to do 400 potency of healing for folks to survive the next raidwide, Panhaima's 200 per layer is not going to do a ton to save you. 450 potency of up-front healing, however, might.

But really, I tend to think it's the "instant cast" part that's more useful.

When things go awry -- and man, I have seen things in party finder -- I think Pepsis can be a useful spare tool to have in the kit.

[IceBlueNinja]

As I said before if the sage is bad at management of resource or the party is full of potatoes or both thats the only reason I see for pepsis maybe and even if so there is just too many useful abilities for all healing necessities in sage kit. If all that is used up, something is very wrong.

[Liam_Harper]

The point is, you could give healers an oGCD that adds a 50 potency shield on a single target that already has a shield, and as utterly weak and convoluted as that might be, you could theorize a hypothetical situation where it would save someone who would otherwise barely die.

But do we want our toolkits littered with rubbish for the sake of those once every few months "might find use for" situations? Or do we want buttons that are useful fairly often and feel good to press?