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.

[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.

[ItMe]

it seems like we're going to end up with both the shield healers having a high-tech theme

I don't follow...
In what way is SCH "high-tech?"
Smacking someone with a book is about as low tech as I can imagine.

[Wawachume]

I mean the spell animations siddenly got an Allagan theme in Shadowbringers. Particularly broil and biolysis.

[NobleWinter]

The animations for Adlo and Succor were always more "digital" in nature in comparison to the flowery brush strokes of WHM in terms of visuals. Chain Strategem and Biolysis really push the Matrix Digital vibe. It seems that Scholar is an awkward mixture of nerdy book reading strategists, fantastical fairy companion, and futuristic tech savy. Im always a little confused by just what the design inspiration is. Fey Blessing is very cute with a robust burst of butterflies while Indomitability is very lean on animation with clean lines and little fan fare. You never really know what you're going to get with Scholar abilities besides lots of green for the healing bits.

[Wawachume]

Aldo and succor don't seem as bad to me---they basically just have a bunch of hexagons, and hexagons are common in nature. If I squint I can view those animations as part of the old "biological" theme of arcanists, which is like...midway between high and low tech, I guess.

[Seraphor]

Green Mage is already part of SCH's identity, just like AST involves Time Mage.