Part Lore, Part Gameplay Question: Why Sage & not Green Mage? Balancing the 4th slot

[NYCLouisGamer]

As far as FF lore, the Sage was often the ultimate DPS upgrade for your mage class. Both good healing and good damage magic, but the focus was damage. And it was healing magic, rather than shields.

On the other hand, the Green Mage is all about barriers and buffs and (lesser) heals. I have always loved how FF has Black, White, Red & Blue Mages. It is natural that I want to see Green added to the mix!

There are 3 healers currently and 3 types of heals: direct heals, shields & regen. But Sage would add a 4th healer.

How about AST, WHM & SAG(?) each have 1 specialty that they do consistently and do well?

Then have Scholar be something extraordinary. High risk, high skill, high reward. SCH could do all 3 things and do them better than the specialists! But they could only do them on a limited basis and there would be significant cooldowns. It would absolutely be about tactical decisions made on-the-fly. No way for SCH to spam an ability if things go tits up. Either Scholars will be godly or instant-death, depending on who is using them. Also, the SCH pet would now be directly controllable again and Eos and Selene would be quite different in abilities.

I have dreams but I think this one would be tons of fun!

[Enkidoh]

Sage is an old Job from FFIII and IV, and given the other FFIV references shown with EW's teaser trailer, it's clear this is what Yoshi was aiming for by having it as the new healer. Green Mage on the other hand, is pretty much unique to the Ivalice games and essentially just takes buffing spells from Black, White and Time Magic anyway, so is thematically redundant.

And as far as barrier spells go, we've actually lost long-term barriers, ala Protect, in favour os momentary buffs so Green Mage is even more superflorous I'm sorry to say.

[ItMe]

The "Sage" we are getting doesnt look like it'll be anything like any other Sage in FF history.
It seems like they just wanted a Sharlayan themed healer.
If they had added Green Mage I imagine, like with this version of Sage, it would still have the flying nodes and little connecting it to the class it's "based on" beyond the name.

[Raikai]

The "Sage" we are getting doesnt look like it'll be anything like any other Sage in FF history.
It seems like they just wanted a Sharlayan themed healer.
If they had added Green Mage I imagine, like with this version of Sage, it would still have the flying nodes and little connecting it to the class it's "based on" beyond the name.

My thoughts exactly.

I really dislike the name Sage, though, simply because it just doesn't fit a lot of the presented aesthetic. Sage to me screams old wizard like the sages Tellah (ff4) or Strago (ff6).

The only thing in common is literally just the name. I wish they actually came up with an unique job name, like they did with Gunbreaker.

[Iscah]

I also feel like the name doesn't fit the look of the class.

It seems like they just wanted a Sharlayan themed healer.

Ironically we already have a heavily Sharlayan-linked healing class. To the point that I'm expecting we'll re-encounter a certain villain if we go there.

[ItMe]

Ironically we already have a heavily Sharlayan-linked healing class. To the point that I'm expecting we'll re-encounter a certain villain if we go there.

I know, right? It's kinda confusing lol.
And I am hoping to meet them > : )

[Wawachume]

Ironically we already have a heavily Sharlayan-linked healing class. To the point that I'm expecting we'll re-encounter a certain villain if we go there.

Now I'm wondering whether he still has the ability to manipulate time.

[Iscah]

Now I'm wondering whether he still has the ability to manipulate time.

He still has it in the AST quests, so yes.

Honestly it makes more sense now that players don't have access to time-manipulation skills. It's advanced magic and a sign of how powerful he is compared to us, and the other characters seem amazed at the sheer thought of it. It doesn't work so well when we've been casting Time Dilation or whatever it was for several levels by that point.

[Semirhage]

Oh boy, a "Scholar should be the best healer" thread. Lemme settle in with some snacks.

[Wawachume]

I think I might have liked green mage better myself. (It's worth noting that this is my first FF game, though.) Just because with the way sage looks in the video, it seems like we're going to end up with both the shield healers having a high-tech theme and both the regen healers having a low-tech theme. I'd have rather played a low-tech-themed shield healer.

I wouldn't like high-stakes scholar, though. Having a job that's built to be as stressful as possible to create excitement doesn't appeal to me.