Sage's skill Pepsis is useless

[Supersnow845]

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?

Exactly, ET works because SCH both doesn’t have a medica 1 equivalent and the fact that ET scales the shield that would have been produced had ET not been used (which is why you can do things like recite an ET adlo for a patchwork benediction) Pepsis has neither of these qualities which is why it just feels like a pointless filler spell that amounts to “we needed an equivalent to ET because SGE and SCH have to be the same class but we can’t make it function exactly the same so let’s just do this weird crack for a defined heal amount”

[Deceptus]

Pepsis is simply a more convoluted, weaker version of Emergency Tactics.

Like Liam said, it's nothing but fluff that needs a severe buff or outright removal.

Pick one FFXIV Devs but sh!t or get off the pot at this point.

[AnotherPerson]

The problem with Pepsis is that it doesn't get a lot of niche value because Eukrasian Prognosis and Eukrasian Diagnosis breaks easily to raidwides. If the shields were strong enough to survive, you could theoretically get more value with the skill usage by detonating them after a certain amount of the shield has been eaten, thereby increasing the maximum efficacy. Usually, this is what Zoe is for, but Zoe doesn't actually apply enough of an increase to activate Pepsis after against an actual lethal raidwide. Lethal raidwides will eat that shield entirely, and then some more.

That makes Pepsis only functional as a reverse "Emergency Tactics". You use it by design to increase the total HP restored in a quick period of time or you either shielded too late and don't want to waste the shield so you convert it to HP. The problem is that we have plenty of healing tools in Sage's toolkit and Prognosis exists, so Pepsis isn't unique enough in this regard. Plus, it's directly weaker than Succor for the same value because Succor heals 520 potency (200 + 320 shield) whereas Eukrasian Prognosis heals 420 potency (100 + 320 shield), but Pepsis restores 350 potency after eating the shield. So it becomes 450 potency instead (100 + 350)

So... Pepsis is just not useful. Don't get me wrong, I like the Pepsis animation... but there is no niche for the current Pepsis that other skills cannot do in the same instance. It would be more preferable to convert Pepsis be a multi-purpose skill (except we have plenty of healing skills in the Sage toolkit, there's no need to add another one) or replace the skill for an unique DPS skill that works with Kardia instead.

[Rilifane]

One of the problems with healers is that they've designed themselves into a corner on so many levels by making everything extremely rigid and deleting everything that could be an expression of skill like testing their reactions with random damage, higher damage variance, spot damage on a few people, higher tank damage that makes actual single target healing viable, resource management, decision making and so on.

Naturally any skill or mechanic that is convoluted or extremely niche and still weak will easily seem like a unique part of the toolkit and give the illusion of skill expression and fight knowledge while in reality they're just useless fluff buttons.
Even worse since the majority of our toolkit has such a low skill ceiling it's bordering on being a tripping hazard. You press a button and that's it. Aoe heals are king even for single target healing.

I personally can't think of a single situation where not using Pepsis would've killed us. Not during 1st week prog, not in the most chaotic PFs, never. A Prognosis would've done the job just fine and even that usually proved to be overkill.
It's a fluff button disguised as a unique niche skill.

I'll freely admit that I have stockholmed myself into being okay with ED and SCH toolkit lockouts but Pepsis is where I draw the line

[NobleWinter]

Sage has weaker shielding than Scholar by design. I don't understand why they didn't lean more into the weaker shields and multiple layers niche that Haima and Panhaima hint at. The regular GCD shielding option from Sage with Eurasia Prognosis should have been two layers of shields. The first shield could have been around 220 potency, but once it is consumed it should have another shield worth 100 potency that is applied next for another 30 seconds. This secondary shield could be a prime target for Pepsis to heal after damage and allow the regens and 10% damage skills to feel more impactful. Using Pepsis on the first layer of Shields would also trigger the secondary shield meaning it wouldn't be a complete loss of barriers. Sage should be more focused on weaker shields and damage reductions while Scholar has more Brute Force Shielding to accomplish the same thing just without the mobility Sage is known for. The two layered approach to Eurasia Prognosis could also make it easier for Sage and Scholar to interact if Galvanize shields automatically removed the first layered of Eukrasian Prognosis forcing the secondary shield to appear instead. That way Sage could never overwrite a Critlo Deployment but instead add 100 potency worth of shielding to it.

[IceBlueNinja]

Major fix just simply make pepsis pretty much a recite + dt in one this meaning ofc e diag will be a granted 100% crit + spreads the big e diag to party immediately, but then if this happens alot of sch mains is gonna throw one heck of a hissy fit and probably make sch not even be looked at.

[Supersnow845]

Major fix just simply make pepsis pretty much a recite + dt in one this meaning ofc e diag will be a granted 100% crit + spreads the big e diag to party immediately, but then if this happens alot of sch mains is gonna throw one heck of a hissy fit and probably make sch not even be looked at.

Yeah let’s remove the one niche that the harder of the two jobs that are for the most part exactly the same has left, that certainly won’t lead to people being angry the jobs are too similar

[ThorneDynasty]

Major fix just simply make pepsis pretty much a recite + dt in one this meaning ofc e diag will be a granted 100% crit + spreads the big e diag to party immediately, but then if this happens alot of sch mains is gonna throw one heck of a hissy fit and probably make sch not even be looked at.

Yes, clearly the answer to literally anything within the healer role is more homogenization. /s

How about just replace Pepsis with something more useful and unique to Sage.

[Supersnow845]

Yes, clearly the answer to literally anything within the healer role is more homogenization. /s

How about just replace Pepsis with something more useful and unique to Sage.

What if, and hear me out, kardia was made a unique entity and it cast kardia at the current lowest HP member of the party every GCD, we could even get a spell to summon it at the start of the fight and we could give it skills that when you cast it this entity would execute them

[IceBlueNinja]

Yeah let’s remove the one niche that the harder of the two jobs that are for the most part exactly the same has left, that certainly won’t lead to people being angry the jobs are too similar

cause 90% of people wont stop complaining about sage shields being weaker to sch and how inferior it is? its so annoying just leave sage if yall dont like it thats why I just suggest what I suggest, this is the same abuse ast use to got with its dual stances being called a wanna be copied whm/sch but now look how respected as is and is now praised over whm.