Actual Footage of FFXIV Healer Gamplay

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Its a deliberate choise. The moment sage does significantly more dps than other healers. It will become the base healer for all savages unless sage gets such low healing it simply isnt capable of doing even the basic healing requirements.

Its very unhealthy for balance if sage would do significantly more damage.

Honestly, I don't get where Sage got the "DPS Healer" label from in the first place.

When I read the initial explanation how SGE plays I thought "SCH but Disciple Priest kind of", which indirectly means healing from doing damage. I believe this and "doing the most damage" is what many seemed to have mixed up and now we are somehow looking at SGE in disgust for not being the "DPS of healers" some may have envisioned.

[Absurdity]

Honestly, I don't get where Sage got the "DPS Healer" label from in the first place.

When I read the initial explanation how SGE plays I thought "SCH but Disciple Priest kind of", which indirectly means healing from doing damage. I believe this and "doing the most damage" is what many seemed to have mixed up and now we are somehow looking at SGE in disgust for not being the "DPS of healers" some may have envisioned.

Let's be honest, the people who were expecting "SCH but discipline priest" are also looking at it in disgust, because it certainly isn't that either.

[Rilifane]

Let's be honest, the people who were expecting "SCH but discipline priest" are also looking at it in disgust, because it certainly isn't that either.

Even mentioning it in the same sentence as Disc Priest is an insult to Disc.
SGE has one dot, one filler spam like every healer and Phlegma. Rest is either dps neutral healing (Pneuma) or dps neutral movement (Toxikon). Nothing else. That's it. That's your "dps healer".
They failed with SGE in both departments: it's starting to fall further and further behind in dps while also having the same boring, barebone rotation every healer has; even less than some other healers and the only thing that heals through dps is your fire-and-forget Kardia.
That's a far cry from what even the most pessimistic people hoped for.

The QoL and overall flow is good, no complains there. But labelling is a dps healer is wrong no matter how you interpreted their statement.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Let's be honest, the people who were expecting "SCH but discipline priest" are also looking at it in disgust, because it certainly isn't that either.

Touché. You are spot on.

To be honest, I think it would be interesting if Scholar and Sage played to their strengths with their mechanics.

Scholar could feel infinitely more interesting if we had more buffs to use "Deployment Tactics" on. You know - like "Eye for an Eye" used to be. Like, why not spread Protraction, spread Excogitation, etc? Of course with a mix of "if spead: lower effectiveness to x%" and a lower cooldown + multiple charges on Deployment Tactics.

Similar, Sage should play to their unique mechanic Kardia somehow, though I admit I don't know enough about what I would add nor do I know enough about Disciple Priest to give a sophisticated suggestion. Feel free to give me insight how Disc Priest worked btw, I'd love to know!

[ForteNightshade]

Honestly, I don't get where Sage got the "DPS Healer" label from in the first place.

From Yoshida himself, unfortunately.

People ran with it the moment he made that claim despite Sage being no different than any of the other healers in terms of DPS. Now I suspect Yoshida meant it heals by DPSing (i.e. Kardia) but c'est la vie. I do find it hilariously ironic the "DPS healer" has the lowest DPS output. It really goes to show how poorly balance Endwalker has been.

[Liam_Harper]

From Yoshida himself, unfortunately.

People ran with it the moment he made that claim despite Sage being no different than any of the other healers in terms of DPS. Now I suspect Yoshida meant it heals by DPSing (i.e. Kardia) but c'est la vie.

Sadly when discussing feedback on more engaging healer dps coming up to Endwalker launch, he basically told us to go play Sage if that's what we wanted. So he genuinely believed Sage was engaging healer dps. He's that out of touch.

[Beddict]

Honestly, I don't get where Sage got the "DPS Healer" label from in the first place.

When I read the initial explanation how SGE plays I thought "SCH but Disciple Priest kind of", which indirectly means healing from doing damage. I believe this and "doing the most damage" is what many seemed to have mixed up and now we are somehow looking at SGE in disgust for not being the "DPS of healers" some may have envisioned.

From the group interview with /r/ffxiv subreddit mods and MrHappy:

Mrhappy1227: Healers in Final Fantasy XIV often discuss how often they are casting DPS spells despite being healers. Often nicknaming jobs like White Mage a “Glare Mage” as an example. The Media Tour build has some new healing skills that also have damage components to them. Has the team taken any feedback from the players on improving interactivity with the healers? Whether that be more interesting DPS skills or more prominent healing requirements.

Yoshida: So I totally understand that those healers that have a very high player skill level and they’ve really mastered their jobs go into these different raids or battles and when they do have some downtime between their heals they do cast more offensive spells. Some of them desire to have more technical aspects of it so they are more active and I totally understand that sentiment. But of course the basis of a healer is to heal so I think the development team and I have this thinking of getting that sense of exhilaration from doing really good heal work.

That being said I don’t think we would do any sort of dramatic addition of offensive skills moving forward. By having these offensive abilities some players, like new healers, might feel pressured like “oh do I have to have good DPS while I’m healing?” or some players might be aggressive like “oh hey you have an offensive skill in your kit, why don’t you use it?” and I don’t think that’s optimal either.

But of course we do have the new job, Sage, which will allow for this unique gameplay where if you land an attack it heals at the same time. Or if there’s like a particular barrier ability that you cast and once that’s depleted it increases the resource which could lead to an attack which is very unique. I think players would be interested in trying that out for sure.

So yeah, there's one source. People want DPS options on Healers? Try SGE with it's totally unique gameplay and heavy focus on attacking because it's so unique, guys.

[AmiableApkallu]

From the group interview with /r/ffxiv subreddit mods and MrHappy:

...

So yeah, there's one source. People want DPS options on Healers? Try SGE with it's totally unique gameplay and heavy focus on attacking because it's so unique, guys.

That quote, read in its totality, gives no basis to draw the conclusion that SGE was intended to have a "heavy focus on attacking." The job has a couple mechanics, that's it, and they're technically unique amongst the healers. (They're not unique if you include tanks in the comparison, but the topic is healers.)

If anything, the "dramatic addition of offensive skills" that everyone wants was essentially taken off the table.