I'm bored when I heal because I need more complex DPS rotations

[ty_taurus]

^unless I’m misinterpreting you that’s exactly what I said

If you have a scenario when the alternative is just dropping a cast then toxicon is DPS neutral

My mistake then. I read "Spending a GCD Casting Nothing" weirdly.

[ty_taurus]

regarding AST- well technically correct if are counting keystrokes, otherwise "Draw & Play" aren't useful in and of themselves so I wouldn't add in 'draw and play" for AST. In addition, Minor Arcana is subject to RNG (only Lord of Crowns is a DPS skill) , and Astrodyne is also subject to RNG.

Okay, I went back and edited that because someone is likely going to correct me and say 'well, yes- but you're going to play a card", which is quite correct.

The thing that I try to factor in when I consider how many tools do each Healer actually have for their offensive gameplay, I try to think with the mindset of "what tools are you always going to press regardless of the situation?" For example, regardless of whether you get Lord of Crowns or Lady of Crowns during Minor Arcana, you are still going to use it every minute on cooldown. Maybe you try to save the Lady to heal with in some circumstances, but you're trying to use that on cooldown. Similarly, card plays and Astrodyne are things you want to use as often as possible, though in those examples there's more emphasis on using them during burst windows when possible. But even that judgement I use doesn't perfectly describe every situation.

For example, do we count Draw and Play as separate since they're different actions? I listed them as "Draw & Play" because I personally consider them to be the same action, just one continuous action over 2 weaves rather than a single button press. There's also an argument for considering Afflatus Solace/Rapture since you have to use them in order to get Afflatus Misery. I definitely wouldn't count them as two different actions in the way that Presence of Mind and Dia are different, but I can see an argument for considering them as one extra part of your gameplay. Because what I care about are aspects of your gameplay that are always relevant, regardless of whether you're soloing the MSQ, in group content going smoothly, or in group content going horribly.

As Roe mentioned, I ignored Toxikon because it's a disgrace, and Ruin II because it's basically worthless. But I would've considered ARR Ruin II as a noteworthy action to reference. If they had kept that consistent for Scholar, or in other words Broil IV and Ruin II would look like this:

Broil IV: 295 potency, 400 MP cost, 2 second cast time
Ruin II: 295 potency, 800 MP cost, instant cast

I would consider Ruin II separately, because even though the DPS is the same, there's a lot of opportunities to take advantage of Ruin II in all forms of content. While you certainly could have situations in which you aren't casting it, because it offers a lot of flexibility and choice, I think that holds value for Scholar's gameplay. Sadly it's been gutted repeatedly for no good god damn reason, so alas, it got ignored from my list.

But yeah, TLDR, I was counting actions that you can depend on using as often as they allow, generally. There are some actions that are debatable I think, but Sage loses to all three other healers regardless.

[AnotherPerson]

As Roe mentioned, I ignored Toxikon because it's a disgrace, and Ruin II because it's basically worthless.

Can you imagine in a world where we had Toxikon I and Toxikon II as 2 separate skills in the natural rotation?
Toxikon I can hold up to 3 charges, each charge has the potency equivalent to [Dosis], generates 1 per 20 seconds (same time as your addersgall generation), and adds 1 charge to Toxikon II. No longer generated from shields breaking.
Toxikon II can hold up to 3 charges, each charge = 0.75x Dosis potency, oGCD ability, generates upon shields breaking. Then using Toxikon II expends all charges and triggers Kardia based on the number of charges.

Suddenly E. Prognosis / E. Diagnosis integrates well with Kardia as a healing mechanism, and you get Toxikon I + Toxikon II interaction. Toxikon I becomes both a mobility tool and a tool you use in your rotation flexibly.

The addition of one extra skill gives so much more adaptability with Kardia and highlights the core feature of Sage without overcomplicating the basic flow of the "rotation". Add a couple more DPS skills but styled to also work with Kardia such as "Inner Release Toxikon I" + "Infuriate Phlegma" and it'll be on par to a healer's version of tank dps rotation.

Speaking of which, I just realized if you renamed Infuriate to Dykrasia, you'd literally get WAR's Decimate/Chaotic Cyclone become SGE's Phlegma / Dykrasian Phlegma.

[ForsakenRoe]

Can you imagine in a world where we had Toxikon I and Toxikon II as 2 separate skills in the natural rotation?

I'm onboard with this solely for the fact that it'd mean we get the superior animation (the one they featured in a trailer) back

[ty_taurus]

I'm onboard with this solely for the fact that it'd mean we get the superior animation (the one they featured in a trailer) back

I’m still more interested in the crit healer idea, where Toxikon is OGCD like it is everywhere else in the game. But for that, I would totally be fine reverting to regular Toxikon and repurposing Toxikon II as a different animation, perhaps Paroxysm.

[Jatoi]

We could certainly use a bit more spice, I admit...

[ForsakenRoe]

I’m still more interested in the crit healer idea, where Toxikon is OGCD like it is everywhere else in the game. But for that, I would totally be fine reverting to regular Toxikon and repurposing Toxikon II as a different animation, perhaps Paroxysm.

I've said for a while, I think the best place for Tox 1's animation is actually to replace Phlegma with it, since that's our hardest hit, so it just makes sense to me that the move used in the trailer would be just that, our hardest hit. Phlegma's animation could then be moved over to, idk, Eukrasian Phlegma, which could have whatever effect the devs decide is a good one for it. I'd personally go for 'applies DOT in AOE' but maybe there's something else it could do

[ty_taurus]

I've said for a while, I think the best place for Tox 1's animation is actually to replace Phlegma with it, since that's our hardest hit, so it just makes sense to me that the move used in the trailer would be just that, our hardest hit. Phlegma's animation could then be moved over to, idk, Eukrasian Phlegma, which could have whatever effect the devs decide is a good one for it. I'd personally go for 'applies DOT in AOE' but maybe there's something else it could do

Eh, I do like Toxikon’s animation, but I don’t really think it holds the impact to be a heavy hit. The way it looks makes much more sense for a fast hit rather than a strong one. That said I certainly wouldn’t say no to an animation that held more impact, but followed the same concept of bombarding the enemy with shots. And I do really like phlegma’s animation.

I’ve talked about reworking Pneuma into a DPS action that enables a heal for you to use later to allow it to comfortably be bused no a much shorter cooldown. I had it enabling a DPS neutral cast of your GCD Panhaima basically. I would like to see Soma be added, which is the “body” to Pneuma's “spirit”, and I set it up to also be an AOE that is more frequent and enables a free use of regular GCD Haima. I could see an animation like that used for Soma.

[Colt47]

Endwalker feels like it is / was a bad expansion for the game in general. It's not the same kind of bad as Stormblood but it has a lot of issues with how it is handling content and pushing certain content that really wasn't built to support the kind of people playing the game.

[Mithron]

Endwalker feels like it is / was a bad expansion for the game in general. It's not the same kind of bad as Stormblood but it has a lot of issues with how it is handling content and pushing certain content that really wasn't built to support the kind of people playing the game.

It's built for high turn over rate of new players who buy skip potions, get bored after a couple of months of subs then leave. It's not built for long term players