Quote Originally Posted by Supersnow845 View Post
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Since you insist on adding a new topic to the mix before we've resolved the current one, I can easily address that as well. In fact, you've already helped to do so.

You said that "skills were added to SCH’s kit over time to fulfill particular niches". Well, when creating a new healer, they needed to make sure that their skills could meet the same requirements as Scholar. in fact, as Rein pointed out, they had to add the mit to Holos because it was needed. It's important to be able to clear any content with either option as your shield healer (or throwing the shield/pure healer dichotomy to the wind and grabbing whichever two healers you want). But they also had to make sure that the healers are balanced to each other. There is overlap in the skillset because of the combination of encounter design and ensuring content is equally playable by all classes. There's even overlap between all 4 healers. I mean really, how different is Aetherflow from Astral and Umbral draw? It has a 1-minute cooldown, you get 20% of mana regened, and it charges the use of skills. Lady of Crowns has the same heal as Indomitability. If you look, you'll see the similarities between healers everywhere.

Now, as I've said, they could have tried to design Sage from the ground up, but ultimately, you'd still end up with a lot of similarities because of the reasons above. You'd still be working with weaker options that you can use more often and stronger options that you can use less often. You'd still have a resource gauge of some kind, because all jobs have them. You'd probably still see similarities in shield/mit/heal potencies/cooldown lenghts so that things could stay balanced. But instead of reinventing the wheel, they chose to utilize a base resource system that they knew worked, and gave it it's own identity from there. And frankly, Kardia being a DPS-based heal, having access to both pure and hybrid GCD heals swapped by using Eukrasia, a mobility system fueled by GCD shields being used (in sharp contrast to the standard lower potency instant cast that other casters get), a base oGCD toolset/mana economy system that focuses on using gauge skills rather than filling the gauge, as well as unique skills like Haima and Panhaima are all a really strong start. Additionally, the additional damage options on Sage are charge/CD based, rather than gauge based, and Sage focuses more on raw damage as opposed to the SCH crit buff. Sage is more mobile, even with additions to Scholar mobility, but Scholar can combine different elements in unique ways to create some truly overpowered effects. Could there be more differentiation? Certainly! But I do think Sage already has a strong identity apart from Scholar. Also, Sage doesn't rely on a fairy to do a significant amount of the healing. Sage just does it all with their own skills. No fae assistance required.