The Problem with Healer Feedback, and requested changes

[ForsakenRoe]

I think for Sage (well, every healer, but Sage in this example) the issue is a massive disconnect between the identity pitched to us and how it actually plays. Look at this (screenshotted from a Larryzaur vid hence the quality)



This is the Reaper slide, explaining a quick 'ooh get hyped this is what it does' overview of the class's design and identity. Does it wield a scythe for 'dynamic close quarters combat'? Well, 'dynamic' can be debated, but I'd say there's a certain fluidity to the expert use of Hell's Regress to dodge an AOE, followed by the teleport to get back in and keep uptime, so yeh I'd say it's 'dynamic'. Does it call upon an avatar to aid in combat? Yes, every time you get 50 Red Gauge you can summon the boi to hit the enemy. Can you offer your body and become a host for the avatar? Yes, it's the burst window and it makes you very fast, giving you the feeling you're getting a power increase from the fusion.

Contrast this with the Sage slide, which looks like this:



So the first point is fair, you heal and barrier allies in battle, that's its role. 'Uses aether to manipulate Nouliths in battle' is just a description of 'it uses floaty gundam thingys as a weapon', but I suppose RPR had 'uses a scythe' so I'll let it slide. The main point of contention I have is the 3rd point. 'Able to temporarily augment their own magic abilities'. Let's break this down, in the way I interpret it vs how it plays in game. Of course, other people may interpret this differently and therefore come to a different conclusion, but this is my reading of it and thereby an explanation of 'why I think Sage really didn't hit the mark' identitywise.

There's two main parts to it, 'temporarily' and 'augment magic abilities'. When I read 'temporarily', I think of either a duration, or a number of times (with stacks of a buff, eg Bunshin). I don't think 'the next ability, and only for one single cast'. As it stands, Eukrasia might as well be called Sage Arts or Bile Arts or whatever, because that's what it is really: a button you press before your actual button, to modify it's function in some way. Consider this, if we were to replace Diagnosis and Prognosis with their Eukrasian equivalents (and deleted the basic forms), and replaced Eukrasia with Eukrasian Dosis (so the DOT is a standalone button, not accessed via Eukrasia), what changes? In my view, absolutely nothing. We're already avoiding Diagnosis and Prognosis like the plague (heh doctor pun), so it'd just make the class have hotbars the same as every other healer, one nuke and one DOT. In this sense, Eukrasia kinda... doesn't do much new designwise, it's less a gameplay thing and more a 'how can we save hotbar space' kinda thing. Then there's Zoe, which augments your next heal by 50%. Which you only ever want to use on either E.Prognosis for 'bigger shields but still not as big as SCH lmao' or Pneuma because 900 potency on a 'barrier healer' seems like a good idea for the pure/barrier split.

And the other half of the issue is 'augments magic abilities'. Okay so we've seen Eukrasia, which 'augments' the heal spells by making them...heal less, but adds a shield on top? Why not have the heal stay the same, and have the shield be a 'additional effect: adds a shield equal to a heal of X potency' type of deal? Would SGE really be super duper broken strong if E.Prognosis healed for 300 like regular Prognosis does, and adds a 'shield equal to 320p heal' on top, or even just 'additional effect: shields for 100% of the amount healed'? Not to mention Dosis, which changes from 'does damage' to 'does damage but over 30s'. Did I miss something, is Eukrasia Greek for 'delays the useful part of the ability so you get it's full use in like 30 seconds'? Zoe's just...there, Pneuma fodder 95% of the time, and 'scuffed Deployment Tactics' the other 5%. There's very little versatility to the skill, because like a lot of skills in this game still for some reason, it only affects GCDs. Can't have it affecting Holos, that'd be too strong right? A 450p heal and 450p shield, at the cost of 2 cooldowns? Well, actually no that seems pretty fair to me, all things considered.

They get some points, barely, for Soteria and Krasis. Soteria amping the next four Kardia transfers is good, this is the kind of thing I expected when I read the presentation. It's 'temporarily' is indeed temporary, only affecting four shots, but it's more than 'the next one attack'. Krasis is barely scraping by, as it doesn't 'augment your magic abilities' per se, rather it 'augments how well the target receives everyone's healing abilities' but that sounds too picky so I'll let it slide. And with a 10sec duration, it too is a better match with my mental image of 'temporary'. So four augment skills, and out of them only two of them feel (to me) like a proper 'temporary augment' rather than a Dark Arts. Why are there not more variety in augments, and why don't they all have durations? Why not make a playstyle based around juggling these augments VS letting them drop off because of the resource cost to maintain them? I remember seeing someone made a spreadsheet for a healer based on crystals and elements (was around 5.3 so I assume a certain Catboy influenced the idea) but each of the elements had an augmenting effect, like Fire making the Potency stronger, Water converting it to a HOT or DOT, Levin making a swiftcast effect, etc. How about something similar using the four humours, instead of 'SCH without the fairy jank'?

Sorry if people are a fan of Sage, heck I like the aesthetic and the weapons, and use it for reclears if I have to go Barrier Boi in PF. But it's such a missed opportunity in so many ways. I thought I wouldn't be able to come up with any ideas to spice up it's design on account of it being 'too new'. I'm also super bad with creativity (I went to uni to learn how to program games, designing them was other people's job). Despite this, I made three ideas for Sage to liven up it's rotation, all of them fairly different from one another in gameplay feel (I think). If there's one thing I'll give credit for, it's that Sage is such a copypaste of SCH right now that they can take it in any direction and it'd be fine for it's identity, because atm it's not got one. It's a real blank canvas waiting to be painted on. Question is, are SE going to keep painting in 'White Mage White' and leave the blank canvas looking blank, or will they add other colors to it to make it look like something more than one of those kooky modern art exhibits