Quote Originally Posted by Mikey_R View Post
This is the crux of your argument. You don't like the design, therefore it isn't original. But how is it not? Sage hasn't really appeared in many FF games and between FF3/4 having one direction and the Tactics Advanced/A2 going a different direction, there is no reason FF14 cannot have their own spin on it. One of the main features of Sages are people that are wise, which is exactly what FF14 healers are. Wise in the healing arts and they have designed the Nouliths to focus their magic to help them achieve that goal, as stated by the Sage info from the Endwalkers promo website [https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/endwa..._6_0/job_sage].
Again, please stop misquoting me. I said I don't think the design is good (and explain why it doesn't come together for me), and that I don't see it as a clearly better alternative to existing archetypes. Reducing it to "you don't like it" and "therefore it isn't original" is massively over-simplifying.

I also think it is unfair to judge a job based on, what is essentially, nothing. So far IIRC we have seen, single target heal, 2 shields, AoE heal, single target damage and AoE damage. We don't know what else they have in their kit, what resource do they have and how does it affect how the job plays etc. With the media tour mid September, we should know more.
As a healing job, I think it is absolutely fair to judge a job on whether what we have seen feels like a healer, or if it feels like it fleshes out the world-building/fantasy well. If it makes you feel better though, I spent most of last evening digesting the idea of Sage and I seem to be approaching indifference in the same vein as Reaper.

Though I am pretty sure that what is still sticking for me is the nouliths themselves, or at least their design. Laser-swords. I mean yeah you can come up with analogues in medical technology, but should jobs have to stretch that far to explain themselves? The design is either esoteric on a level that makes Sage several leagues deeper than any other job in the game, or is the shallowest job in the game amounting to spectacle and pew-pew lasers.