Starting Sage

[Jeeqbit]

Soteria is rouse and Kardia was actually an old thing that some schs did where they marcoed where whenever they casted broil, the fairy would heal party based on their position in the party list.

Well now from my perspective, these heal potency buffs like Soteria or Zoe are replacing things like the single target regen Scholar has, or Recitation. This is a list I made a while ago.

Kardia/Summon Eos
Eukrasia and Pepsis/Emergency Tactics
Dosis/Broil
Eukrasian Dosis/Bio
Diagnosis/Physic
Eukrasian Diagnosis/Adloquium
Prognosis/Emergency Tactics+Succor
Eukrasian Prognosis/Succor
Ergeiro/Resurrection
Physis/Whispering Dawn+Fey Illumination
Phlegma/Energy Drain
Druochole/Lustrate
Dyskrasia/Art of War
Kerachole/Sacred Soil
Ixochole/Indomitable
Taurochole/Excogitation
Haima/Summon Seraph
Panhaima/Consolation
Rhizomata/Aetherflow
Krasis/Protraction
Pneuma/Dissipation
Holos/Fey Blessing
Zoe/Recitation
Soteria/Aetherpact

[Gemina]

Panhaima is basically Seraph.

No, it's not. Panhaima works in reverse to Consolation. With Consolation, players get the direct healing up front before any damage is received. With Panhaima, the direct healing comes from whatever stacks remain after the damage has taken place. Because of this, even though both abilities are used to mitigate damage, when they are used is different. In order for a SCH to get the full potency from Consolation, they need to wait until the group receives the initial AoE attack. For SGE, they need to execute Panhaima before any damage is received.

This isn't going to make a whole lot of difference in casual content, but in situations where incoming damage has a significant threat level, maximizing the available potency these abilities give helps alleviate some of the pressure from it.

[Gemina]

Soteria is rouse and Kardia was actually an old thing that some schs did where they marcoed where whenever they casted broil, the fairy would heal party based on their position in the party list.

Rouse and macroing Embrace are in the past. Kardia is still SGEs answer to Embrace from SCH's fairy but Eos will cast Embrace regardless of what the SCH is doing, even during downtime when the boss is not targetable. SCH's can still increase the potency of Embrace by using Fey Illumination or Protraction, but each of those skills also has mitigation attached to them as well, which is received by the target/party members regardless if the SCH is dealing damage or not. These are apple and orange comparisons at best.

[AnotherPerson]

Even with having played SCH since HW, there was still a bit of a learning curve. While I could recognize which skills mirrored SCH's and place them in a similar crossbar setup, I could not do that with all of them. They have plenty of skills that are unique to them such as Toxicon, Kardia/Soteria, Phelgma, Pneuma, Icarus, Eukrasia, Haima/Panhaima. None of these skills are things SCH can do. In order to get a hold of the job, I had to recognize that SGE is still a healer, and it is really helpful to set up your healing abilities in a similar manner as a healer you are already used to playing.

For example, you do have SCH leveled so I would place Druochole in the same place you have Lustrate; Kerachole in the same place you have Sacred Soil; Ixochole in the same place you have Indom; Physis in the same place you have Whispering Dawn, etc.

There are certain skills SCH and SGE doesn't share, such as aetherflow and Icarus. I just swap unique skills there based on how frequent or ease-of-access the placement of the keybind is relative to my other skills.
Depending on how far your DPS keybinds and early game heal keybinds are, you can just swap them based on missing hotbar space. I keep my GCD skills all relatively close to each other and capstone skills all in the same location, basically keybinds are located on how often I need them and press them. So even though the loadout isn't 100% identical, the core playstyle can be more or less the same, resulting in a very similar keybind mapping. The differences and nuances of skills only affect the order and timing you press the keybinds.

SCH Physick/Adloquium -> SGE Eukrasia (Replace one of the two as SGE uses Eukrasia + Diagnosis to get SCH Adloquium and Eukrasia + Dosis to get SCH Bio).
SCH Ruin II -> SGE Toxikon (Same key function. You use this as minimally as possible because Broil / Dosis has a weave slot and it's a DPS loss to use outside of strict movement. Generally, SGE only needs 3 at optimal settings and rarely touch this skill otherwise.)
SCH Summon Selene/Eos -> SGE Kardia (Slight different activation, but mostly same functional use case - you basically only use it once on the tank/starting duty and very rarely need to press it again in most scenarios for general usage other than tank swapping).
SCH Bio -> SGE Phlegma (SGE don't have a separate DoT, so you can place Phlegma here to keep your DPS keybinds roughly the same).
SCH Summon Seraph/Consolation -> SGE Panhaima (Equivalent effective healing potency, slightly different optimal use cases as SGE works better on multi-hit and SCH on bigger hits but functionally the same capstone. Works functionally the same in dungeons.)
SCH Aetherpact -> SGE Haima/Soteria (Equivalent capstone, but SGE frontloads all Haima shields before turning into healing while Aetherpact is a slower stream of healing that can be interrupted -- so you just use Aetherpact earlier than Haima for mobs and Haima earlier than Aetherpact for boss mechanics. Alternatively, you can put Soteria here for a better simplicity to treating your Kardia as buffed Fairy Healing, but Soteria is honestly really weak. At most, you'll treat it as a mini Aetherpact.)
SCH Deployment Tactics -> SGE has nothing for this, so free hotbar slot to move some keybinds around. I moved Haima here so I can shield people easier.
SCH Emergency Tactics -> SGE Pepsis (Reverse shield break to heal vs turn shield into heal, same general use case - the order is just swapped)
SCH Protraction -> SGE Krasis (Same usage for single target modification effect)
SCH Lustrate -> SGE Durochole (Same effect, 1 to 1 mapping)
SCH Indomitability -> SGE Ixochole (Same effect, 1 to 1 mapping)
SCH Sacred Soil -> SGE Kerachole (Same effect with slightly different placement, but 1 to 1 mapping in resource)
SCH Excogitation -> SGE Taurochole (Only difference in aetherflow vs addersgall resource, but still does healing at same lv unlock, so you can map it 1 to 1)
SCH Recitation -> SGE Rizomata (Grants/Enables additional resource effect at same level unlock, can be mapped 1 to 1 on hotbar)
SCH Whispering Dawn -> SGE Physis (AoE Regen at same lv unlock)
SCH Fey Blessing -> SGE Holos (AoE heal at same lv unlock for keybind mapping, but SGE has a much stronger effect as it provides a bigger shield/mitigation)
SCH Aetherflow -> SGE has no equivalent. Put whatever unique skill or move around some keybinds to better suit your playstyle.
SCH Expedient -> SGE has no equivalent. The mitigation went into Holos. Put whatever unique skill or move around some keybinds to better suit your playstyle. I put Pneuma here because they're both capstones with long cd.
SCH Fey Illumination -> SGE has no equivalent because the healing buff went into Physis II. Put whatever unique skill or move around some keybinds to better suit your playstyle. I put Zoe because Zoe can be used to flexibly buff shields or Pneuma heals.
SCH Pet Place -> SGE has no equivalent. Put whatever unique skill or move around some keybinds to better suit your playstyle.
SCH Pet Heel -> SGE has no equivalent. Put whatever unique skill or move around some keybinds to better suit your playstyle.

[SailorCeti]

I started playing FF XIV right before Endwalker released. Since then, I've finished the MSQ as well as spent a lot of time levelling up various jobs. Right now, not counting DoH classes, I've got five jobs at 90 (Dragoon, Black Mage, White Mage, Bard, and Paladin) and four others getting close (Ninja, Dark Knight, Summoner, Scholar). All of these jobs start at a relatively low level, which means that by the time I get into 70 and higher content, I've had plenty of practice at the foundational spells/skills of each job. I'm certainly no master of any of them but I at least know what I'm doing.

So, this weekend I decided to give Sage a shot, which of course starts out at 70. I got the job unlocked, reviewed the descriptions of all of the skills, did some extra research on Youtube, and got my hotbars set up in a manner which I thought would work for me. With all that done, I started the initial job quest where I have to escort an NPC through a small instance and keep her healed while she tanks some bad guys.

It... did not go well. That poor NPC never had a chance.

Nothing wrong with the class design or anything like that, but starting in at 70 with no prior experience just didn't work for me. No matter how much I read about how the class skills are intended to operate, it was just too overwhelming. I have to learn by doing, not by reading or watching. So what I'm doing now is going back and doing some early sub-30 instances to get comfortable with the foundational mechanics and then work my way up, as if I was starting at Level 1. It'll take a bit to get up to where I am comfortable doing higher-level content but there's no way I'd even consider doing any groups with other players until I know at least mostly what I'm doing.

I know that Sage has been around for a bit now and I am wondering if folks starting it have had the issues I've had. I know my method isn't going to work for everyone but I know it's going to work for me.

I'm in the same boat. I learn best by using things as I get them, one or two at a time. My mush-brain can't handle getting everything at once. I'll return to Sage one day, but not any time soon.

[kaynide]

This is gonna sound dumb, but one of the biggest things for me to get used to was having a mindset of always having Eukrasia on. At least until are comfortable enough without it on and can sneak in some Diosis dps. Worst case will probably be able to use your AoE dps..but even then just throw a shield on someone then spam dps away. Or poison the target.

The big gimmick of Eukrasia is the ability to move and cast at the same time, with some forethought needed to “get it ready” beforehand.

Your base healing should use the addergall stones if at all possible. Really you should only really using the hard-cast heals when everything else is out, and hard-casting diosis when you know you’re good not to heal/shield for a bit.

[Iscah]

With all that done, I started the initial job quest where I have to escort an NPC through a small instance and keep her healed while she tanks some bad guys.

It... did not go well. That poor NPC never had a chance.

The introductory battle seems quite overtuned to me – it's harder than most of the dungeon healing you'll go on to do afterwards (or instead if you went away frustrated by it) and it put me off the job for a while.

One thing that you do need to do – and the NPCs prompt you but it might get overlooked in the chaos – is that in the second stage of the fight you need to target Loifa (the sage) first and defeat him before you attack Mahaud (the thaumaturge), otherwise he will heal her and your effort will be wasted, dragging out the fight for longer.

You may also want to come back and try again once you've got stronger gear.

[Mithron]

I know that Sage has been around for a bit now and I am wondering if folks starting it have had the issues I've had. I know my method isn't going to work for everyone but I know it's going to work for me.

SGE has a high skill floor but a low skill cap. It's hard to learn but easy to master. It's the "WHM" version of SCH, so brain dead easy once you "get" it. You play SCH for hard mode, you play SGE for EZ mode. So the two EZ mode healers are WHM and SGE once you reach an adequate level of understanding. Which is exactly why I love WHM and SGE. AST was fun in HW/SB, but the reworked AST made it a lot less fun. AST is still pretty easy too comparatively, but requires more effort than WHM or SGE.

As SCH, the early levels are quite easy because Eos takes care of a lot for you. Which is why SGE has a higher skill floor than SCH. But at optimal levels, I find SCH to be much harder than SGE.

[SailorCeti]

I started playing FF XIV right before Endwalker released. Since then, I've finished the MSQ as well as spent a lot of time levelling up various jobs. Right now, not counting DoH classes, I've got five jobs at 90 (Dragoon, Black Mage, White Mage, Bard, and Paladin) and four others getting close (Ninja, Dark Knight, Summoner, Scholar). All of these jobs start at a relatively low level, which means that by the time I get into 70 and higher content, I've had plenty of practice at the foundational spells/skills of each job. I'm certainly no master of any of them but I at least know what I'm doing.

Alright, after reading this and replying earlier, I revisited the job and came up with a plan that is working for me. Considering you and I learn best a little at a time, adding new abilities as we go, I think it'll work for you too.

1) Take everything off your main bars.
2) Put on all abilities up to level 15. This should be:
- Kardia (grants target Kardion, persistent)
- Dosis (damage plus heals Kardion bearer)
- Diagnosis (single target heal)
- Prognosis (aoe heal)
- Egeiro (res)
3) Use "Duty Support" and run Sashtasha. It's like Duty Finder, but with AI party members so you can control pulls.
4) Do every dungeon in Duty Support, in order, adding new abilities as you get them.
5) When you're able to do the Grimlyt Dark dungeon in Duty finder, you're caught up and ready for the escort job quest.

Notes: I put Dosis on bar one, button one. I put Diagnosis and Prognosis on bar two, separated by a blank slot so I could visually see the break between single target and aoe heals. Likewise, I skipped another slot and placed Egeiro. Kardio is a set and forget thing, so I placed it on bar one, slot twelve. As you determine it's time to add a new ability, adjust your bars accordingly, but try to keep things organized. For example, all single target heals in one block, all aoe heals in another, buffs in another, etc.

I hope this helps!

[Tahbitha]

Alright, after reading this and replying earlier, I revisited the job and came up with a plan that is working for me. Considering you and I learn best a little at a time, adding new abilities as we go, I think it'll work for you too.

1) Take everything off your main bars.
2) Put on all abilities up to level 15. This should be:
- Kardia (grants target Kardion, persistent)
- Dosis (damage plus heals Kardion bearer)
- Diagnosis (single target heal)
- Prognosis (aoe heal)
- Egeiro (res)
3) Use "Duty Support" and run Sashtasha. It's like Duty Finder, but with AI party members so you can control pulls.
4) Do every dungeon in Duty Support, in order, adding new abilities as you get them.
5) When you're able to do the Grimlyt Dark dungeon in Duty finder, you're caught up and ready for the escort job quest.

Notes: I put Dosis on bar one, button one. I put Diagnosis and Prognosis on bar two, separated by a blank slot so I could visually see the break between single target and aoe heals. Likewise, I skipped another slot and placed Egeiro. Kardio is a set and forget thing, so I placed it on bar one, slot twelve. As you determine it's time to add a new ability, adjust your bars accordingly, but try to keep things organized. For example, all single target heals in one block, all aoe heals in another, buffs in another, etc.

I hope this helps!

Thank you! This is the way.