Rework sage

[ty_taurus]

In Final Fantasy's history, it doesn't surprise me that sage was a job that ultimately didn't stick and was pruned out of the series' future works. It failed at establishing any sort of strong identity for itself unlike other mages because its only identity was being an amalgamation of all the rest. This is also problematic from a design standpoint as it effectively invalidates every other magic job in the game. Why carry only summoning magic when you can just carry every type of magic? Sage's limitations were at best a slap on the wrist by comparison to the shear power and versatility it provides on a 4-man party.

While there is something to be said about FFXIV's SGE not needing to use the title of a former job, I also can't be bothered by that either because the job that was lost was based on repetitive identity already. I would really hate to see the techno mage aesthetic get thrown in the garbage in exchange for a garage sale of animations stolen from BLM, SMN, and WHM.

That said, I'm also quite frustrated with how the SGE we do have only looks impressive and exciting, but it's gameplay utterly fails at delivering upon the new identity that it was marketed as. It doesn't feel like a combat healer any more than the other three healers do. It has the same DPS loop, Kardia offers no actual interactions or engagement, and most of its healing tools are just cut-and-paste copies taken from SCH.

I would like to see SGE get a mild rework to actually bring it in line with what the job was explained to be: an offensive healer who excels at high personal damage. SGE should be the healer that feels like a DPS in the same way that GNB is the tank that feels like a DPS. It should be somewhat complex and have elements that are difficult to optimize. It's explained as being one of the most challenging disciplines of magic to learn, yet is one of the easiest jobs in the game. I want it to have a legitimate caster rotation that can get in the way of your healing if you aren't careful in the same way that GNB can struggle with boss positioning while it's going through its burst. I want the other healers to each maintain some form of valuable utility like SCH's combat sprint and better raise potential--things that feel like equal trade-offs with raw damage--while SGE gets none of that and is simply the BLM of healers whose selfish DPS is several steps above the other healers.

Ironically, this would also potentially capture some of the original sage spirit, as having a high damage output is reflective of BLM, and is a healer like WHM.

[Semirhage]

is simply the BLM of healers whose selfish DPS is several steps above the other healers.

Which is further insult to injury for WHM, whose identity is now "zero utility, but is still outdamaged by the other zero-utility healer, because lol get rek'd WHM your only identity is mediocrity".

[ty_taurus]

Which is further insult to injury for WHM, whose identity is now "zero utility, but is still outdamaged by the other zero-utility healer, because lol get rek'd WHM your only identity is mediocrity".

WHM is meant to be a part of that "the other healers who have utility worth the exchange of offense." I've said many many times the entire healing role needs an overhaul which does include WHM. I only bring up SGE here because it's a SGE conversation.

I just don't feel like I need to explain the nuance of every change I want to see for every healer every time.

EDIT: To expand on this, I've mentioned before that I like the idea of WHM having the ability to instant cast multiple raises back-to-back at reduced MP costs, which is quite a handy form of utility. My raid group would certainly appreciate having that and we do have a WHM, for example. Yes it's very prog-focused utility, but most players are not speed clearers. Even having cleared P7S multiple times, our group still fucks up Famine's Harvest from time-to-time, where being able to get 2-4 people up really fast would save the need of healer LB3.

I also think, seeing as Determination has been buffed recently, that WHM could appreciate a party Det buff. It may not be as powerful as flat damage or crit, but WHM can stay ahead of AST and SCH in personal damage, gain some offensive support with a Det buff, and Det also increases healing output slightly which falls in line with WHM's identity as a nifty bonus.

If debuffs ever actually become a thing that happens, I think a party esuna cooldown fits WHM better than with SCH, and SCH's Expedient is already such a powerful piece of utility. That of course means esuna needs to be something that is helpful.

[Mithron]

Which is further insult to injury for WHM, whose identity is now "zero utility, but is still outdamaged by the other zero-utility healer, because lol get rek'd WHM your only identity is mediocrity".

WHM's identity has always been baby ez mode healer for those who don't want to play real, better, serious healer jobs :^)

/endFireMageGag

[Allegor]

WHM's identity has always been baby ez mode healer for those who don't want to play but still get rewarded :^)

FTFY
/10 char

[Rithy255]

In general I'd agree with a "sage rework" but I would keep a lot about current sage (general feel and gameplay is fine), my main issues with sage is in general it's just Scholar that looks different and doesn't bring the speed buff, in general Sage just suffers from copying, In general both healers are very similar to each other and could both use some general adjustments, but I believe all healers could generally.

WHM's identity has always been baby ez mode healer for those who don't want to play real, better, serious healer jobs :^)

/endFireMageGag

Even though this is a joke (I think?) I see people argue that white mage should be the pickup and play healer, which mind you isn't a bad thing. I do want more for White mage in general they need to get earth and wind spells back, they should get procs and some more DPS buttons in general (most healers should get a little more), I think white mage generally gets called the "easy healer" but sage and scholar aren't exactly that much harder from white mage, In general I think it's just a problem with how healers don't really feel fun enough right now. Ideally healers should both about "healing" and "damage", I think its way more fun to optimise when you should do damage vs when you should heal, even in normal content (Think of your average dungeon) recently the healing requirements aren't just there.

It feels like Supports (tanks/healers) generally are getting less and less complexity and more similar with each expansion. I believe we should be focusing on making what support jobs offer more unique and strong, I love how scholar brings a speed boost, It's a great ability, but then sage doesn't really bring anything other then a personal gap closer? (like it woulda been interesting if you gave sage something more impactful), I like how warrior gets a unique 30% CD, how PLD gets two raid wides (even if both of them should generally be less annoying to use), ect. I like differences between the Jobs in general kits, but right now Support all feel pretty similar, with exception to Astro's feeling pretty busy and different (but was a lot more intresting in SHB) and PLD's (until 6.3). I dunno in general it feels like every job is becoming the "ez" job, theirs no real interesting differences between a lot of them, the ones that do feel different are just going to be reworked, I feel like they really need to rework a lot of Jobs to just feel exciting and different, while I understand balancing should be important the main issue is that it shouldn't cost identity of a job

[fulminating]

I actually disagree quite a bit with your first paragraph: raising healing requirements only raises the minimum acceptable competence for healers. This is completely antithetical to the rest of the dev team’s actions and presumed vision for combat. Abyssos has increased the skill floor demanded from healers and has compounded issues sown in shadowbringers (ie no one wanting to heal). That said, removing healer dps from the enrages will also lead to issues because groups with healing only healers will inherently be less desirable that those who can dps and keep everyone up.

At the end of the day despite being highly similar, sage doesn’t have chain stratagem or recitation or deployment tactics. It’s not unusable, but really that’s damning with faint praise.

I put together a gearset for summoner physick maximising the mind available. It was still not very impressive it must be said.

[Allegor]

I certainly would welcome more healing needed, but with the way the game is structured, they might as well give RDM an aoe heal and call it the 5th healer

[Naoki34]

SGE is just perfect, just learn to play.

[Nizzi]

SGE is just perfect, just learn to play.

SGE is hot garbage lmao