Yet another SGE change proposal...but probably not like most you've seen

[Renathras]

Let's see if I can leverage the Edit feature to get it all in one post or not.

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Overall Objective: To retool Sage to realize the class fantasy of “healing by dealing damage competently”. (Note this means competent execution of a damage rotation, not necessarily high raw damage in nominal values/”big numbers”).

Method: Give SGE a basic damage rotation, give SGE tools/leverage existing tools whereby this damage translates to heals for party members, ensure those tools are flexible to provide for various nominal healing situations including tools to account for minor errors in rotation or party member gameplay, give SGE backup tools in cases of extremis, and ensure SGE has additional tools as needed to smooth incoming damage sufficiently for these healing tools to be effective. As a healer, SGE must also have tools to react to situations as necessary, meaning having some healing tools aside from the core rotation Kardia healing for when the core rotation can’t be lined up against healing/mitigation needs of mechanics (this is what the oGCDs and GCD heals are for) or where the core rotation’s Kardia healing is insufficient for the task of fulfilling all healing needs.

Overview of changes:

Remove Addersgall and Addersting system. I know this is a big change, but stick with me as it ends up better in the long run.

Introduction of a four point combo system for damage rotation, named after the Four Humors (because I couldn’t pass up the opportunity).

Removal of several largely redundant or underused healing tools to make room for abilities with kit interaction under the new paradigm.

Reimagining/retooling of some existing tools to facilitate the new systems.

Addition of new abilities to facilitate the overall objective.

Combination of some abilities (through the use of Eukrasia or context activation like RDM) to prevent overwhelming button bloat.

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NOTE: ALL NUMBERS are PLACEHOLDERS. This is to get scaling between abilities and I’m simply using the current abilities as a baseline. The scale is roughly 1.1x for the second combo step, 1.2x for the third tier steps, and 1.5x for the finisher. The numbers can and would be adjusted with tuning for SGE to do approximately the same damage as WHM or as it does now in other words. The goal here is NOT to make a DPS powerhouse of a healer, but rather to make a healer with a more interesting DPS rotation and healing mechanics that leverage it.

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General Ability:

Eukrasia:
Cast: Instant
Recast: 1s
Augments certain offensive and healing magic actions.
Dosis1/2/3 is upgraded to Eukrasian Dosis 1/2/3
Stegnos is upgraded to Sestos
Ugros is upgraded to Kruo
Dyskrasia 1/2 is upgraded to Eukrasian Dyskrasia 1/2
Diagnosis is upgraded to Eukrasian Diagnosis
Prognosis is upgraded to Eukrasian Prognosis
NOTE: In this rework, I would alter Eukrasia to be affected by spellspeed (it presently is not, which is what the current game tooltip of “Recast timer cannot be affected by status effects or gear attribtes.” Means. So I would remove that.)
Additional Note: Abilities that require a resource to use (Sestos and Kruo) require that resource. If Eukrasia is pressed and then either of those buttons are pressed WITHOUT their resource being available, the normal version of the spell will cast instead, dispelling Eukrasia on cast completion. [That is, you have the cast time to realize your mistake and stop the cast to correct yourself, but if you don’t, the normal version will cast instead, generating a suboptimal rotation.]

Damage Abilities:

Single Target:

Dosis/Dosis 2/Dosis 3: Remains as it is today.
Potency: 330
Cast Time: 1.5s
Recast: 2.5s
Range: 25y
MP Cost: 400
Additional Effect: Restores HP to targets under the effect of Kardion granted by you
Cure Potency: 170

Stegnos (Dry) – Combo Action: Dosis
Potency: 200
Cast Time: 1.5s
Recast: 2.5s
Range: 25y
MP Cost: 400
Additional Effect: Restores HP to targets under the effect of Kardion granted by you
Cure Potency: 180
Combo Potency: 360
Combo Action: Grants Yellow Bile

Sestos (Hot) [Eukrasia Stegnos] – Combo Action: Stegnos; can only be cast after Stegnos
Potency: 400
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 1.5s
Range: 25y
MP Cost: 400
Additional Cost: Yellow Bile and Plasma, requires both to use
Additional Effect: Restores HP to targets under the effect of Kardion granted by you
Cure Potency: 190
Combo Action: Grants Black Bile
Combo Action: Additional Effect: Regen (partywide 20y radius of Sestos TARGET)
Cure Potency 100 [NOTE: 50 might be better if this is too powerful/has too much uptime]
Duration 15s [Total healing 500/250 Cure Potency]
Additional Effect: Restores 7% of maximum MP

Ugros (Wet) – Combo Action: Dosis
Potency: 200
Cast Time: 1.5s
Recast: 2.5s
Range: 25y
MP Cost: 400
Additional Effect: Restores HP to targets under the effect of Kardion granted by you
Cure Potency: 180
Combo Potency: 360
Combo Action: Grants Plasma (Blood seems a bit too macabre)

Kruo (Cold) [Eukrasia Ugros] – Combo Action: Ugros; can only be cast after Ugros
Potency: 400
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 1.5s
Range: 25y
MP Cost: 400
Additional Cost: Yellow Bile and Plasma, requires both to use
Additional Effect: Restores HP to targets under the effect of Kardion granted by you
Cure Potency: 190
Combo Action: Grants Phlegm
Combo Action: Reduces damage taken by self and nearby party members by 10% (partywide 20y radius of Kruo TARGET) [NOTE: 5% might be better if this is too powerful/has too much uptime]
Duration: 15s
Additional Effect: Restores 7% of maximum MP

Pneuma [Dosis] – Can only be cast after Sestos or Kruo, Dosis changes to this action on hotbar when conditions are met to use it
Potency: 450 to target, 50% less (225) for all remaining enemies
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 2.5s
Range: 25y
Radius: 25y
MP Cost: 400
Additional Cost: Consumes Black Bile and Phlegm, requires both to use
Additional Effect: Restores own HP and the HP of all party members within 20y
Cure Potency: 400
Additional Effect: Restores HP to targets under the effect of Kardion granted by you
Cure Potency: 200
Additional Effect: Grants Euphoria
Duration: 30s

Eukrasian Dosis – Consumes Euphoria if present
Potency: 250
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 1.5s
Range: 25y
MP Cost: 400
Additional Effect: Restores HP to targets under the effect of Kardion granted by you
Cure Potency: 150
If SGE has Eurphoria, consumes Euphoria
Euphoria Potency: 400 to target and 50% less (200) for all other enemies within 5y
Cure Potency: 200
Additional Effect: Reduces Kardion target’s damage taken by 15% (CAN stack with Kruo’s partywide damage reduction)

Overview:

The damage gameplay loop is relatively simple, but structured and sprinkled with effects you might recognize from SGE today. The loop is Dosis -> Stegnos -> Dosis -> Uros -> Kruo -> Dosis -> Uros -> Dosis -> Stegnos -> Sestos -> Pneuma, and using Eukrasian Dosis as a movement tool that gets a nice boost once per Pneuma.

The total cycle is 12 abilities. 12 x 2.5 = 30 seconds for a full loop, meaning this comfortably meshes with all 30, 60, and 120 second buff/burst cycles. The damage and healing (to Kardia targets) ramps up as you go through the cycle, and correctly performing the cycle will keep a high uptime on both the Regen and damage reduction effects of Kerachole, which have been split into additional effects of Sestos and Kruo.

About the Four Humors: It seems too good to pass up, but I may need to tinker with it a bit. I considered having Sestos and Kruo consume one each of Yellow Bile and Plasma, and Pneuma consuming Black Bile and Phlegm, but then you might end up with an extra of each each cycle. On the other hand, you end up with an extra of each anyway, so I need to tinker with it a bit more. But I think the general flow here is workable, and I think the setup proposed above makes sense. The “lower tier” of each is consumed for each of the third tier spells, then the “higher tier” of each, one each granted by the third tier spells, is consumed for the big finisher.

The Job Gauge would be adjusted to be the Eukrasia gauge, with a slot in each corner for one of the Humors. When you were granted each, that slot would light up (think like the SMN Primal gems or something). Having all four means Pneuma is ready to be used.

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Area of Effect (AOE):

Dyskrasia/Diskrasia 2 – Remains as it is today.
Potency: 170
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 2.5s
Range: 0y
Radius: 5y
MP Cost: 400
Additional Effect: Restores HP to targets under the effect of Kardion granted by you
Cure Potency: 170

Eukrasian Dyskrasia 1/2 – Combo Action: Dyskrasia
Potency: 100
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 1.5s
Range: 0y
Radius: 5y
MP Cost: 400
Additional Effect: Restores HP to targets under the effect of Kardion granted by you
Cure Potency: 200
Combo Potency: 200
Additional Effect: Grants Yellow Bile; if Yellow Bile already obtained, grants Plasma
NOTE: Alternate name could be Phlegma 1/2

Toxicon [Dyskrasia] – Dyskrasia changes to this action on hotbar when conditions are met to use it
Potency: 330 to target, 50% less to all remaining enemies
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 2.5s
Range: 25y
Radius: 5y
MP Cost: 0
Additional Cost: Yellow Bile and Plasma, requires both to use
Additional Effect: Restores 7% of maximum MP
Additional Effect: Restores HP to targets under the effect of Kardion granted by you
Cure Potency: 250
NOTE: If no enemy is targeted or self or ally is targeted, effect is centered around the caster. If enemy is targeted, effect is centered around the enemy.
Additional Effect: Grants Euphoria
Duration: 30s

So, the AOE rotation is a somewhat bland 1 -> E+1 -> 1 -> E+1 -> 1; Repeat but this still breaks up the monotony of the current system, which is just 1,1,1,1,1,1 sprinkled with Plegma once per 45 seconds. With the addition of Euphoria boosted Eukrasian Diagnosis (you might have noticed the AOE component reading that tooltip earlier), it throws in a E+2 in there once each cycle. Each cycle, btw, being 15 seconds. So just like the single target rotation, the AOE rotation fits into 30, 60, and 120 second cycles…should an AOE fight go on that long.

ASIDE: Note that Eukrasian Dyskrasia (a name that is amusing to me because Eu- prefix means “good” while Dys- prefix means “bad” so this is basically “good krasia, bad krasia”, but again, alternate name could be Phlegma 1/2) grants EITHER OF Yellow Bile or Black Bile, depending on which you don’t have.

An alternative here would be to just pretend Toxicon doesn’t exist, have it grant Black Bile/Phlegm instead, which would give it niche optimization uses or “fix fat fingering” in cases of screwing up the single target rotation. Granted, at a DPS loss, but it would allow rotational recovery if mistakes were made. If so, Pneuma’s AOE would obviously work just fine with the AOE rotation, albeit requiring a bit of aim.

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Additional Damage Related Cooldowns:

Rhizomata:
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 30s (or 60s, see notes)
Range: 0y
Radius: 0y
MP Cost: 0
Allows you to use any Single Target or AOE damage spell as if the conditions for use were met. Any additional effects and combo action bonuses associated with the executed spell will also be applied as if all preconditions were met.
Additional Effect: Restores 10% of maximum MP

Note: This is basically akin to Form Shift on MNK and allows the SGE to correct for mistakes in their rotation, recover a rotation if an error or downtime broke it, or gain immediate access to a desired additional effect such as Kruo or Eukrasian Dosis’ (also included as if Euphoria was active) damage reductions, or Sestos’ party Regen effect. I’m toying with the idea of adding “does not consume any current resources”, such that using it when you HAVEN’T messed up would allow something like 2x Pneuma or something, but I’m not sure that’s a good idea as (a) that would make it have an always “right” use (so people might avoid it for the intended use of correcting mistakes or using additional effects) and (b) it might make it too powerful in some cases. The MP effect is to aid in using this tool for wipe recovery, which is probably where it would shine. It may also need to be limited to NOT work with Pneuma, but I’m open to that either way.

The 30 second CD is short enough to allow frequent use, but not so short as to allow skipping through the rotation. 60 seconds might be better, as that would still be relatively available but not TOO available. I’ve also toyed with the idea of having a “small” and “big” version of this ability (the big version having a 180 sec CD and allowing the next THREE abilities to gain their additional effects), but I feel like starting small is better as the bigger version can always be added later for some major power tripping.

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So, in a nutshell, we have a 30 second rotation that ramps up damage (and healing) as it is correctly performed, maintains uptime on party HoT and party damage reduction when correctly performed, has a specific movement tool (Eukrasia Diagnosis) as well as three instant cast spells to allow for movement (and SGE still has Icarus for additional movement needs AND I haven’t gotten to the heals yet), and has a more involved AOE rotation than today of generating two combo points and using them on a big spender and Eukrasia Diagnosis (since it’s an AOE) for damage and healing. Finally, we have a tool that allows “cutting in line” to access benefits or get back on track after a Raise, downtime, or other crazy situation interrupts your flow.

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Will make a second post now just...to make this slightly easier to read:

[Renathras]

Post 2, coming up: Healing and Utility

Heals:

Kardia System:

This version of SGE is meant to flex the Kardia system for the majority of healing needs, feeding into the sense of SGE as a “heals by doing damage” healer. While it will still have backup heals for emergency, the bulk of its healing and mitigation should be provided by its DPS rotation, with tools available to flex THOSE abilities as needed. Ideally, your healing should chiefly come through the various Kardia systems, with spot healing or additional healing being for more demanding heal check situations to augment the Kardia healing and additional effect incidental healing and mitigation from your single target spells, or if you’re not in the “right” part of your rotation when the heal check comes up, though Rhizomata is also available specifically FOR such situations.

I also have no idea why Kardia (the buff placed on the SGE themselves when using the Kardia ability, not Kardion, which is the buff placed on the target) even exists, honestly. All the healing is based on the target having Kardion, but I don’t know of any specific reason for Kardia (again, the buff) to exist as it does today. So I gave it a reason with Diagnosis just so it has SOME reason to exist. Not sure if it’s required somehow on the game’s backend, but honestly, I don’t know why it’s there, if it would cause issue with additional Kardion targets, or if it could be safely removed without any weird bugs popping up.

Kardia: Remains as it is today
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 5s
Range: 30y
MP Cost: 0
Grants self the effect of Kardia [or not?] and a selected party member or self the effect of Kardion, restoring HP after casting certain magic attacks.

Hypokardia:
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 60s
Range: 30y
MP Cost: 0
Grants a selected party member or self the effect of Hypokardion, restoring HP after casting certain magic attacks.
Duration: 10 seconds / 4 GCDs

Note: This is effectively AST’s Synastry, just for SGE. Also note this COULD be used on the Kardion target to simply double the healing they take. Useful for big pulls in 4 mans.

Hyperkardia:
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 60s
Radius: 30y
MP Cost: 0
Grants self and all party members in range the effect of Hyperkardion, restoring 50% of Kardion effect HP after casting certain magic attacks.
Duration: 10 seconds / 4 GCDs

Note: This is an AOE version of Kardia for partywide healing THROUGH DEALING DAMAGE, the whole point of SGE and a thing it has no tool for right now. Along with Sestos and Pneuma, this is how you deal with party damage. Unlike Sestos and Pneuma (outside of using Phizomata), this can be used any time to add AOE healing to the party anywhere in your rotation. Used in the earlier part of your single target rotation, it will do less healing, but the tail end has Pneuma with a bomb cure anyway, so it’s not like you need it as much then at any rate. But you can optimize for throughput (if somehow FFXIV suddenly needs it…) if you really wish to, or use it at any point in your rotation to keep your rotation going while also healing the party.

Soteria: Remains as it is today except the CD
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 60s
Grants 4 stacks of Soteria, each stack increasing the cure potency of Kardion effects granted by you by 70%
Duration 15s
Note: I’m reducing the CD by 30s from today’s 90s to grant more use since this ability will be somewhat making up for the removal of Addersgall single target spot healing. While Diagnosis is being reworked to partly fill in that gap if needed (see below), Soteria should be the go-to tool for extra tank healing, Hypokardia for off-tank or spot healing, with Diagnosis being more of a backup for when those aren’t sufficient or are on CD.

Summary of the Kardia changes: Where right now you have a largely slap on and forget “healer tank stance” Kardia, which you can in theory move around for spot healing, this changed SGE has a second Kardia for off-tank/split tank damage situations or spot healing party members, as well as a party-wide Kardia for leveraging your damage kit into AOE party healing. Both are on CDs so they’re more akin to abilities like Plenary Indulgence, Whispering Dawn, or Collective Unconscious. As stated at the start, all numbers are subject to change (both potencies and cooldowns), these are just the core ideas of “how it should generally work” and “what tools it should have”. The single target can be thought of as WHM’s Tetragrammaton, SCH’s Lustrate/Excogitation, or AST’s Essential Dignity.

I’ve felt since SGE hit with 6.0 that Kardia was a neat system that is underutilized, and I feel really leaning into it would enhance SGE’s core identity, theme, and gameplay. By adding a short duration second Kardia for spot healing and off-tank healing, and a group Kardia for party-wide healing, it allows flexing into that role in a way current SGE really misses the mark on.


Global Cooldown (GCD) Heals:

Diagnosis:
Cast Time: 1.5s
Recast: 2.5s
Range: 30y
MP Cost: 400
Cure Potency: 450
Additional Effect: Next action that would gain a combo bonus and additional effects from Dosis or Dyskrasia will gain them from Diagnosis, and increases that spell’s damage potency by 150.
Additional Effect: Heals your Kardia [self; NOT Kardion] with a cure potency of 100 [“Physicial, heal thyself.”]

NOTE: What this means (since I’m not sure the BEST way to word it) is that ANY DOSIS in your rotation may be replaced with a Diagnosis. You’ll be losing out on Dosis’ damage, but Diagnosis used this way WILL NOT INTERRUPT your rotation, as you can follow it with Stegnos or Ugros without missing a beat. This allows Diagnosis to be woven in as part of your rotational flow (in specific spots where you’d use Dosis) for spot healing with a minimal DPS loss. Note this is in addition to the Kardia additions that I will list later.

Eukrasian Diagnosis:
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 1.5s
Range: 30y
MP Cost: 900
Cure Potency: 300 to target
Additional Effect: Erects a magicked barrier which nullifies damage equaling 180% of the amount of HP restored. When critical HP is restored, also grants Differential Diagnosis, nullifying damage equaling 180% of the amount of HP restored.
Duration: 30s
Effect cannot be stacked with Eukrasian Prognosis or Scholar’s Galvanize.

Prognosis:
Cast Time: 2s
Recast: 2.5s
Range: 0y
Radius: 15y
MP Cost: 800
Cure Potency: 350 to self and all nearby party members

Eukrasian Prognosis:
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 1.5s
Range: 30y
MP Cost: 900
Cure Potency: 100 to target
Additional Effect: Erects a magicked barrier which nullifies damage equaling 320% of the amount of HP restored.
Duration: 30s
Effect cannot be stacked with Eukrasian Prognosis or Scholar’s Galvanize.

The main difference here is Diagnosis can be used for spot healing in the single target or AOE damage rotations at a minimal DPS loss. Otherwise these spells remain unchanged and are your “fallback” abilities in cases where your other tools have not kept up with the damage situation or things have generally gone horribly wrong in a more general sense.
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Off-Global Cooldown (oGCD) Heals/Healing Modifiers:

Zoe: Remains as it is today
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 90s
Increases healing magic potency of your next direct healing spell by 50%
Duration 30s
NOTE: Does not apply to the HoT from Sestos is really the only modifier here. Works on any other spell with a direct healing component (not Kardia, that’s boosted by Soteria)

Pepsis: Either remove or Remains as it is today
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 30s
Radius: 15y
Restores own HP and the HP of nearby party members by removing Eukrasian Diagnosis and Eukrasian Prognosis effects granted by you.
Eukrasian Diagnosis Cure Potency: 450
Eukrasian Prognosis Cure Potency: 350
Targets not under the effect of Eukrasian Diagnosis or Eukrasian Prognosis will not be healed.
NOTE: This remains a clutch backup heal to boost healing in emergencies.

Haima: Remains as it is today
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 120s
Range: 30y
Erects a magicked barrier around self or target party member that absorbs damage equivalent to a heal of 300 potency.
Additional Effect…blahblahblah, you guys know how Haima works.

Holos: Remains as it is today
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 120s
Radius: 15y
Restores own HP and the HP of all nearby party members.
Cure Potency: 300
Additional Effect: Reduces damage taken by self and nearby party members by 10%
Duration: 20s
NOTE: This is your emergency mitigation button for when Kruo is out of reach in your rotation and Rhizomata is on CD OR if you just need the additional damage reduction/mitigation. The heal is largely vestigial, but it’s in the current version, so why not? I’ve also considered rolling this effect into Hyperkardia instead, but I’d rather Hyperkardia be available a bit more often, if that makes sense.

Panhaima:
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 120s
Radius: 15y
Erects a magicked barrier around self and all party member near you that absorbs damage equivalent to a heal of 200 potency.
Additional Effect…blahblahblah, you guys know how Panhaima works.

Krasis: Either remove or Remains as it is today
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 60s
Range: 30y
Increases HP recovery via healing actions for a party member or self by 20%
Duration: 10s

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Utility:

Egeiro: Remains as it is today
Cast Time: 8s
Recast: 2.5s
Range: 30y
MP Cost: 2400
Resurrects target to a weakened state.

Icarus: Remains as it is today
Cast Time: Instant
Recast: 45s
Range: 25y
Rush to a targeted enemy’s or party member’s location. Unable to cast if bound.

NOTE ALSO: We COULD add some kind of buff spell here (since we have the hotbar space) akin to Chain Strat to facilitate that whole “every healer needs a damage buff” thing if the Devs decide they want to go that route and give WHM and SGE one.

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Role Actions:

SGE would retain the healer role action set, same as today, of Repose, Esuna, Swiftcst, Lucid Dreaming, Surecast, and Rescue, or whatever the other healers are getting in 7.0/whenever this change/rework would be made.

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Actions Removed:

Durochole – Effectively folded into Hypokardia

Taurochole – Effectively folded into Eukrasia Dosis

Ixochole – Effectively folded into Pneuma

Kerachole – Effectively split and folded into Setos and Kruo

Physis/Physis 2 – Effectively replaced with Hyperkardia

Phlegma1/2/3 – Effectively replaced with Eukrasia Dosis; could use the name for Eukrasian Dyskrasia, but would still be the combo action of Dyskrasia

Pepsis and Krasis are kind of on the potential chopping block as they SHOULDN’T be needed in this kit. They don’t really synergize all that well with current SCH, and I don’t see it likely they’d synergize any better with this one. Pepsis is a reverse Emergency Tactics or limited Plenary Indulgence which only works with two spells, neither of which you generally want to be casting. It can be used as an emergency backup for AOE healing, but if you get to the point you need it and have expended all your other AOE tools, you’re probably in a really bad situation where everything has gone wrong anyway. Krasis is Protraction for SCH in a way that it can make bigger shields, but unlike SCH which has Deployment Tactics, SGE does not, and Krasis is only for single targets. In practice, it can boost a clutch healing stream (several GCDs) on a single target, but we already have Soteria for the tank, Hypokardia for spot healing boosts to a party member, and Zoe to boost healing for a target anyway. As such, Krasis is generally going to be redundant vs all those other tools, and you’d go through those other tools first with higher priority anyway since they allow you to maintain rotational uptime while healing through dealing damage.

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Actions Retained, but removed as separate buttons:

Pneuma – Now takes the place of Dosis when ready like Scorch does to Jolt 2 for RDM and is a core part of the single target rotation as the finisher.

Toxicon – Now takes the place of Dyskrasia when ready like Scorch does to Impact for RDM and is a core part of the AOE rotation as the finisher.

The -chole effects above folded into other abilities.

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Action Conclusion:

The single target damage rotation is now a ROTATION.

The AOE damage rotation is not also a rotation, albeit a short one consisting of 2 buttons and 4 abilities.

The total number of buttons (including Role Actions) for one’s hotbar would be 26:

Eukrasia, Dosis, Stegnos, Ugros, Dyskrasia, Rhizomata, Kardia, Hypokardia, Hyperkardia, Soteria, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Zoe, Pepsis, Haima, Holos, Panhaima, Krasis, Egeiro, Icarus, Repose, Esuna, Lucid Dreaming, Swiftcast, Surecast, and Rescue.

Eukrasia adds the additional abilities for Dosis (Eu Dosis), Stegnos (Sestos), Ugros (Kruo), Dyskrasia (Eu Dyskrasia), Diagnosis (Eu Diagnosis), and Prognosis (Eu Prognosis). Additionally, Pneuma takes the place of Dosis and Toxicon takes the place of Dyskrasia.

Collectively, this generates a tremendously good hotbar economy (e.g. controller players, rejoice!), and makes Eukrasia a button you’ll press frequently in your rotation, rather than the current case of using it once per 30 seconds to refresh your Eu Dosis DoT and otherwise not touching it except maybe during downtime application of Eukrasian Diagnosis. The one extra button of Eukrasia is granting us an additional 6 abilities on our hotbar unlike the current game’s 3, and 4 of those (Eu Dosis, Sestos, Kruo for single target and Eu Dyskrasia for AOE) are common use parts of the player’s rotation.

Changing Eukrasia to include spell speed will prevent the devaluation of the spell speed stat for SGE. Additionally, allowing Diagnosis to substitute in for Dosis/Dyskrasia actually gives the button a reason to be on your bars outside of leveling dungeons or downtime application of the Eukrasian Diagnsosis shield, and allows spot healing for a relatively minimal DPS loss and no disruption to your rotation in cases of needing a minor spot heal but either wanting to save Hypokardia or it being on CD, effectively allowing it to function as Durochole does today at a relatively minor DPS loss. It also might make the SGE themselves slightly less likely to die in situations they must use it due to the self-heal functionality, which also gives the Kardia self-buff a purpose.

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NOTE ALSO: Again, we COULD add some kind of buff spell here (since we have the hotbar space) akin to Chain Strat to facilitate that whole “every healer needs a damage buff” thing if the Devs decide they want to go that route and give WHM and SGE one.

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Overall:

I’m not sure if people will like or hate this. But it might at least generate some interesting discussion. People have been talking about SGE as a healer that should heal primarily by doing damage, and these changes would allow that. Further, ditching the Addersgall system would make it more distinct and less prone to being accused of being a SCH clone, and ditching Addersting in favor of the combo system grants it a more meaningful rotation, both in single target and AOE, that isn’t based on DPS loss or downtime only shield application.

It still has ample movement tools, and instead of coming up with entirely new systems, flexes the class’s existing systems (Eukrasia and Kardia) to greater effect, making them more core to the Job’s gameplay and identity rather than underutilized additions that seem destined for more but falter before reaching their potential.

The Job also has a futureproof setup here, as the combo could in theory be extended or future CDs grant alterations to it (like RDM’s), and there are ample openings in the hotbar now for additional abilities to be added without overwhelming the player’s hotbar with button bloat.

So, now that I’ve rambled on for what seems like hours, the ball’s in your court, dear internet friends, enemies, and frienemies:

What do you think?

Are there changes you would make?

Do you think this isn’t perfect but is heading in the right direction?

Do you think it’s hot garbage that would be even worse than the current iteration?

What do you think? (Please be gentle… XD)

[Irenia]

As a concept, I probably would not play it but would be happy that it is in the game.

It took me awhile to figure out the basic loop because I was trying to translate it as button presses so I kept going back up to cross reference it, haha.

If I'm reading everything right, this sage has two three-step combos, with the third step being Eukrasia'd second step, which also needs the second step buff from the opposite combo on top of following after its own second step...? So 1 2 1 3 x3 1 3 1 2 x2 1(finisher).

Yeah, it is a good thing that Rhizomata exists on this particular build; the buffs being on a strict timer when played well is... awkward, and I wonder how strong the primary buffs should be, given that they both are a "Regen" and a buff to use in response to mechanics.

Besides that everything is fine, though I wonder about aesthetics. Particularly the aesthetics of the rotation. You mentioned the four humors, but it never feels like you are building up to it? It is probably a nitpick for a theoretical class that I'm not sure I'll gel with, so that that with a grain of salt.

One thing I would love to see; what is the level 50 toolkit? The essentials of the essentials. Even though this job starts at 70, an early level that feels good is still important.

[Atmaweapon510]

Combo actions don't exist on anything that has a cast time. Playing RDM with any latency is a nightmare because you don't actually get dual cast until you finish a spell, causing it sometime fail to apply until after you start your next spell.

Also a strict rotation is incredibly unhealthy for a role that has to be able to react to incoming damage at any time. The proposed changes will see SGE either OP or in a state like Disc priests in WoW where they are actually underpowered in a lot of cases, dealing less potential damage than other healers for the same healing and a lot of work since they don't have the choice to prioritize damage over healing.

[Renathras]

As a concept, I probably would not play it but would be happy that it is in the game.

Valid points. And yes, that would be the general rotational flow, was exactly my idea with Rhizomata, and also the idea behind the oGCDs (Holos and Panhaima in particular for mitigation outside of Kruo, Hyperkardia for AOE healing, and several tools for spot healing with Eukrasian Dosis for additional single target mitigation; all of these as backups for when your rotation DOESN'T have you where you need to be and you ALSO have Rhizomata on CD)

It's mainly just a concept because I constantly see people requesting a healer with a more involved damage rotation and the sentiment SGE should be dealing damage in an interesting rotation and generating healing that way, but no one ever REALLY says how they see that actually working other than them wanting something that isn't just Dosis-spam with EuDosis once every 30 seconds.

So I thought I'd actually try a hypothetical build out to see what that could look like and how it could work.

Combo actions don't exist on anything that has a cast time.

Is this a hardcoded part of the game's systems, or just a "in existence so far" thing? That is, is it something that the game CAN do but doesn't, or is it something the game can't do at all?

Playing RDM with any latency is a nightmare because you don't actually get dual cast until you finish a spell, causing it sometime fail to apply until after you start your next spell.

Yeah, I've noticed that before. Sucks having to stop a cast just to then re-hit the same button for the instant but having that 0.5-1.0 sec dead-time because latency didn't pop Dualcast when you needed it to.

Also a strict rotation is incredibly unhealthy for a role that has to be able to react to incoming damage at any time.

Which is why I kept the general oGCD kit (Holos and Panhaima in particular) as well as added Hyperkardia and changed the effect of Rhizomata to be akin to MNK's Formless Fist, allowing this SGE to access any tool in its rotation at any point it needs to if it needs to react to an unforeseen situation. It also still retains Zoe and Pepsis along with Eukrasian Prognosis, so it has those backup tools if even these other oGCDs are all on CD.

Not to mention "at any time" damage doesn't happen with FFXIV's current encounter design, and CURRENT game SGE is based on pre-planning and "controlling" encounters. SGE as we have it in-game right now is the weakest healer when things go wrong or in fights that haven't been mapped out for this same reason. So this wouldn't be much of a change from SGE as it is in-game right now, in practice. In fact, I retain most of the same tools as it has now. ALL of them, technically, though some of them I split and baked into other tools.


I'm also not sure there's any way to address the community desire - healer with more involved damage kit - that DOESN'T result in this problem.

The proposed changes will see SGE either OP or in a state like Disc priests in WoW where they are actually underpowered in a lot of cases, dealing less potential damage than other healers for the same healing and a lot of work since they don't have the choice to prioritize damage over healing.

This isn't even entirely true here, though. The Diagnosis change specifically allows them to prioritize damage or healing, and their GCD heals still exist.

Anyway, good discussion.

[AmiableApkallu]

Overall Objective: To retool Sage to realize the class fantasy of “healing by dealing damage competently”.

I think I'm going to argue that that is not actually the class's fantasy. It's the players' fantasy.

Outside of the Lv.70(?) job quest, Kardia gets no screen time. The signature move for a Sage doing "their thing" is shielding, e.g., (Pan)Haima: It's in the Endwalker benchmark. It's in the job quests' cutscenes. It's Alphinaud's dramatic move. It's the dramatic move in the capstone role quest for Endwalker. It's in keeping with the alleged split between pure and shield healers, and it's in keeping with the job's current design.

Setting aside that quibble, I suggest having the courage of your convictions: Double down on the "healing by damage" concept by removing what you've grouped as GCD heals, and the oGCD heals and healing buffs. Keep Haima and Panhamia (for some vestige of the actual class fantasy), and plain Diagnosis (to have something outside of combat).

I mean, if keeping the old abilities is your answer to

the core rotation can’t be lined up against healing/mitigation needs of mechanics

then you haven't accomplished "healing by damage" in an interesting way because you're relying on the old heals to do the actual, necessary healing; your damage buttons aren't good enough to realize the vision.

The total cycle is 12 abilities. 12 x 2.5 = 30 seconds for a full loop, meaning this comfortably meshes with all 30, 60, and 120 second buff/burst cycles.

So, what's the burst phase here, then?

[Renathras]

...

Keep in mind, it is a draft. It something like this were to be implemented, it would likely involve some tweaks for balance and incorporating feelback from testers.

What is the core mechanic of SGE right now? It's not Haima. Haima gets screentime because it's visually striking. The core mechanic is arguably Addersgall, but as people have remarked, that's just Aetherflow with a different name and slightly different (but overall identical) regeneration system. SCH and SGE both generate 3 per minute, and each have a long-ish CD to generate more (SGE 1 for free, SCH 3 for the cost of losing Eos and pet abilities for the duration), with the abilities even being carbon copies other than Excogitation/Taurochole (Sacred Soil/Kerachole, Lustrate/Druchole, and Indominability/Ixochole are effectively carbon copies). You're right about the Job's current design, but that's the problem, isn't it? SGE's current design is to take SCH, remove Eos, and try to make it seem different when it's really not.

While Kardia isn't dramatic enough to be shown in videos and has been described as a glorified and slightly smarter Eos, it is also something that SGE has which IS distinct from the other healers. It's the only healer that deals damage to the enemy resulting in healing to allies as part of its standard rotation and several of its non-standard (CD or condition locked) attack spells. Under the current system, that healing is relatively minor, but that's part of why current SGE isn't where it should be.

As to the "courage of your convictions": I've been healing in MMOs since ~2007, MUDs since the late 90s, and RPGs since the early 90s. I recognize that not everything goes to plan, and so backup tools are necessary for when that happens. MOSTLY I addressed this with the Kardia system adding Hypokardia and Hyperkardia. In fact, those MAY be enough. But note that this rework has SGE with a mere 26 buttons total. Which is small vs most Jobs. Cutting out several more abilities just to "double down" seems kinda silly. Every healer has GCD heals for leveling dungeons, if nothing else, so it makes no sense to strip them anyway.

"then you haven't accomplished": Hardly. WHM still has Cure 1 and Medica 1. You never use them, but they're still there.

"burst phase": Probably using Rhizo to get a leg up into your rotation early (like how SCH's use Dissipation for more Energy Drains in the first buff window) and for later phases, timing your Eukrasia Dosis to fall in buff windows as well. Rhizo can be leveraged for damage as the SGE player gets more familiar with the fight and has planned out their other CDs to more effectively deal with mechanic timings, allowing a higher skill ceiling and skill expression as a SGE gets better and masters a given fight. Which is what the community is asking for in healers all the time, isn't it?