FFXIV Healer Strike and the 'How would you fix it?' line

[ForsakenRoe]

Legends have been passed down of a wanderer named Hippokrates, whose name was etched in the annals of history when he stayed at a particular village while travelling. Every day, beasts would attack the village, and those who were able-bodied enough to fight, would take it upon themselves to drive the beasts back, day after day, night after night. But this came at a cost, as no battle is won without injuries, and in some cases, fatalities. The next day, having seen the constant struggle these people had to endure just to live for one more day, Hippokrates took it upon himself to walk to the local fresh springs, to draw drinking water for the village in place of the villagers, and to gather a herb that grew nearby that the villagers used in their cooking and their poultices alike. Despite their protestations, that 'a guest should not burden themselves with such menial tasks', Hippokrates set off, accompanied by some of the more able villagers who volunteered to defend their guest from beastkin attacks, and to help carry the water back.

Sure enough, while filling up the containers with fresh water, it was not long before slavering beasts set upon the party, and the villagers scrambled to defend their seemingly defenceless guest. Hippokrates, meanwhile, seemed completely unconcerned with the beasts attacking, and instead carried on drawing water from the spring. After a seemingly short battle, the villagers hurriedly looked around, to make sure no more beastkin were lurking, and to check their guest was still alive. To their surprise, not only was Hippokrates completely unharmed, seemingly unfazed by all the commotion, but all of the water containers were already full and ready for transportation back to the village.

It was only upon returning to the village, with the carcasses of the slain beasts in tow, and fresh water from the springs in hand, that the truth of that day was revealed, what events had transpired. Discussing the bizarre events of the day, the villagers could not make sense of what had happened. They should have died, the beasts were too many. The villagers could tell 'something' was helping them in their fight, but from their position within the battle, the dust and the noise, they couldn't tell what. One that fought in the battle made mention of 'faint whooshing sounds, as if a dagger was thrown so fast it cannot be seen', and others noted the peculiar marks left on the corpses of the beasts that were slain, unlike anything ever seen. Burn marks covered the corpses in strange patterns, some in vertical lines, some horizontal, and many in very small circles, as if some manner of Fire magic had been focused into a point.

Answers would have eluded the village to this day, had a strange happenstance not occurred: A youth of the village had snuck out to follow the party on their journey, hoping to see the combat prowess of the elders firsthand, that he might learn some techniques from watching. But the youngling saw a lot more than martial prowess that day. The boy was adamant in his recollection of the battle, it was Hippokrates that turned the tide, and it was Hippokrates that caused those strange burn marks with his weapon. Somehow, without moving, without looking, while still filling water containers, Hippokrates was attacking, defending, supporting the villagers. At first, most refused to believe the young lad, thinking it a child's overactive imagination, until one elder stood and simply said 'I believe him. I took a claw to the gut, and I can still feel the ache. But look.' And when the elder revealed his stomach, there was no wound, just a fading turquoise glow over a roughly claw-shaped part of the man's abdomen, barely visible even in the dark of the night. So, the elders bade the young lad continue his recollection, seemingly convinced that there was more to the tale than first suspected.

The young boy told his tale, of 'silver swords flying through the air', of the 'swords shooting lines of light from their tips at the beasts', and of those same swords 'drawing circles of light around people and making walls of light'. The next day, as Hippokrates was thanking the villagers for their hospitality, making ready to leave and continue his journey, the young boy asked him 'Did it really happen? Can you make swords fly and shoot light, without even looking at them?' Hippokrates simply smiled, and a Noulith floated up out of his travelling knapsack, then another, and another, until all four were circling him in synchronized patterns.

He explained he had been working on the creation a new discipline of Magic, one able to forgo lengthy incantations in favour of immediate response to the ever-shifting state of the battle. His goal was to create a discipline that was able to balance both healing and protecting allies, with a powerful onslaught of attack magics to debilitate the enemy and keep them on the defensive, further reducing the risk of allies being harmed. He explained how his 'silver swords', the Nouliths, are controlled by the user's aether fluctuations, and that with practice, the user could control the Nouliths without moving their own body, as if they were simply another limb. He explained how they function as a focus for the user's aether, to amplify healing magics via specific formations. And finally, he explained the concept of Kardia, of how the Nouliths could re-absorb a portion of the aether used for attack magics and divert it as a healing effect to an ally. How he was working on creating new formations, with that battle being the perfect situation for him to test a formation he had tentatively named 'PanKardia', a temporary Kardia Augmentation that, instead of diverting healing to only one ally, dispersed the healing aether to all allies nearby.

At last, it was time for Hippokrates to leave and continue his journey across the land, but the young boy had one more thing to say. 'Thank you for everything, Mister Hippokrates! Please take some of this medicine, to help any travellers that look like they need help!' Hippokrates smiled at the boy, and asked 'This is made with the same herb that was used to season the meat from last night's meal, yes? Quite a versatile plant... What did you say it was called?' The boy smiled back and said...

'The elders say it's called Sage!'



In this design, I intend to capture the essence of that story, the idea of a master Sage player being able to heal their allies and deal damage to their enemies, without ever having to stop to cast a dedicated healing spell. By enhancing and expanding the Kardia system, and adding new actions to further modify how Kardia functions, my hope is to create a design wherein the 'skill ceiling' for the class is not necessarily in the damage rotation, but in trying to maximize your healing efficiency, between Kardia, Addersgall and your default Abilities (OGCDs).

In practice, the gameplay of Sage would be more fast paced. The Sage would accomplish this by having many opportunities to 'weave' Abilities (OGCDs) between attacks, vastly increasing the APM of the job. In a sense, it could be considered the 'Gunbreaker' of the Healer Role. Additionally, due to several design decisions (such as basic attacks costing no MP), there is plenty of room for Spell Speed to be a very strong secondary stat choice for the Job, increasing the speed even further and allowing the player to build and spend their 'burst phase' gauge even more often.

GAUGE CHANGES

Before we get into actions, it's important to note the changes to the gauge.



The two bars in the center represent Addersgall and Toxikosis. Addersgall, represented by a 0-100 gauge, fills up automatically by 1 per second. This allows for the accumulation of 4 uses of Addersgall moves, compared to the current 3. The lower, purple gauge, is Toxikosis, the 'side effects' of applying your medical knowledge. It is also a 0-100 gauge, and it fills by 1 each time you heal via Kardia, and an additional 4 when a Kardia Augment stack is consumed (Soteria, Zoe, Krasis, Pankardia). You also generate 5 Toxikosis each time you use Eukrasia or Pepsis. 50 Toxikosis can be vented by using Toxikon, allowing the SGE to freely use Neuralgia and Myasthenia, without consuming stacks of either. Because of the bonus potency gained by alternating the two, Toxikon provides a similar gameplay to RPR's Enshroud (Cross/Void Reaping), or MCH's Hypercharge (Gauss Round/Ricochet). Consuming Toxikon stacks additionally increases your Addersgall by 4 per stack consumed. Finally, at level 70, the SGE will be able to use Pneuma, which deals more damage than Myasthenia or Neuralgia, but fully vents all remaining Toxikon stacks. As such, the SGE will want to use Pneuma last, after having already consumed all four Toxikon stacks.

The five meters at the top represent the current available stacks of, from left to right, Soteria, Krasis, Toxikon, Zoe, and Pankardia (as the letters imply). By adding these elements to the job gauge, it helps alleviate the strain on the 'buff cap', reducing the chance of running into issues wherein certain status effects cannot be applied correctly (looking at you, Hello World). Lastly, the blue diamond in the center shows if Eukrasia is active or not.

In this example picture, at a glance we can see that we have:
2 stacks of Soteria
1 stack of Krasis
1 stack of Toxikon
3 stacks of Zoe
2 stacks of Pankardia
75 Addersgall
25 Toxikosis
Eukrasia is active

SAGE ACTIONS

Level 1: Dosis, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 150.

Level 2: Diagnosis, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 400

Level 4: Kardia, 1s, Ability
Applies Kardion to target.
Kardion effect: Restores HP whenever the SGE lands an attack.
Cure Potency: 150
Additional Effect: Increases Toxikosis by 1 when Kardion heals

Level 10: Prognosis, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Restores HP of self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 300

Level 12: Egeiro, 8s, Cost: 2400 MP, Spell
Resurrects target to a weakened state.

Level 20: Physis, 60s, Ability
Restores HP over time to self and nearby allies.
Regen Potency: 100
Duration: 15s

Level 26: Phlegma, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 40s Recharge, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage to target, and all enemies near it, with a potency of 350 for the first target and 30% less for remaining targets.
Maximum Charges: 2
Recharge time is unaffected by status effects or gear attributes.

Level 30: Eukrasia, Instant, 1s Recast, Cost: 500 MP, Spell
Augments the effect of certain actions, by adding additional effects.
Dosis is augmented into Eukrasian Dosis.
Diagnosis is augmented into Eukrasian Diagnosis.
Prognosis is augmented into Eukrasian Prognosis.
Phlegma is augmented into Eukrasian Phlegma.
Does not share a Recast Timer with other actions.
Upon execution, this action's Recast Timer will be applied to all other spells.
Grants 5 Toxikosis upon execution.

NOTE: Eukrasian variations of a spell are equal to the base form, plus a bonus effect. Thus, if Eukrasia is used accidentally, the player does not need to remove the status, as the base spell's potency is still present. Potency values are adjusted to reflect this.

Level 30: Eukrasian Diagnosis, Instant, 1.5s Recast, Spell
Restores target's HP and applies a barrier equal to 100% of the HP healed.
Cure potency: 400
Additional Effect: If this spell critically heals the target, additionally applies Differential Diagnosis,
a barrier equal to 100% of the HP recovered.
This action replaces Diagnosis while Eukrasia is active.

Level 30: Eukrasian Prognosis, Instant, 1.5s Recast, Spell
Restores target's HP, and applies a barrier equal to 75% of the HP recovered.
Cure Potency: 300
This action replaces Prognosis while Eukrasia is active.

Level 30: Eukrasian Dosis, Instant, 1.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 150.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
DOT Potency: 25
Duration: 30s
This action replaces Dosis while Eukrasia is active.
NOTE: Same total damage as current, but more is frontloaded to make the base cast equal to regular Dosis (in case of misclicks)

Level 30: Eukrasian Phlegma, Instant, 1.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage to target and all enemies near it with a potency of 350, and 30% less for remaining targets.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
DOT Potency: 25
Duration: 15s
Shares charges with Phlegma.
Maximum charges: 2

NOTE: this DOT is the same as Eukrasian Dosis, this is a way to apply the DOT in AOE (and not via 'Eukrasian Dyskrasia', since the two terms are an oxymoron). The damage of E.Phlegma's initial hit is reduced on secondary targets, but the DOT effect is not reduced. In a burst window, ideally you'd use one E.Phlegma and one Phlegma (or two, if you have a Phlegmatic charge banked). The animation for this is the one used in Endwalker for 'Toxikon' (the one Alphinaud uses in the trailer)

Level 32: Neuralgia, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 20s Recharge, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage in a line in front of you, with a potency of 170 to the first target, and 50% less to secondary targets.
Additional Effect: Inflicts Neuralgia
Neuralgia Effect: Reduces the autoattack damage of the enemy by 3%, or 5% if Myasthenia is present upon execution. Neuralgia overwrites Myasthenia.
Duration: 20s
Recharge Timer is not affected by status effects or gear attributes.
Maximum Charges: 2

Level 35: Soteria, 5s, Cost: 1500 MP, Ability
Grants 4 stacks of Soteria to the job gauge.
Soteria effect: Increases the healing effect of Kardion by 50% of the damage dealt by the attack that triggers Kardion.
Additional Effect: Increases Toxikosis by 4 when a stack is consumed

Level 38: Myasthenia, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 20s Recharge, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage in a cone in front of you, with a potency of 170 to the first target, and 50% less to secondary targets.
Additional Effect: Inflicts Myasthenia
Myasthenia Effect: Reduces the autoattack damage of the enemy by 3%, or 5% if Neuralgia is present upon execution. Myasthenia overwrites Neuralgia.
Duration: 20s
Recharge Timer is not affected by status effects or gear attributes.
Maximum Charges: 2
NOTE: Myasthenia (weakness of muscle) and Neuralgia (nerve pain) overwrite one another, but upon doing so, empower the effect of each other.
Additionally, they grant a small potency bonus (from level 62 onwards) when overwriting the opposite debuff. As such, alternating between the two is preferable.

Level 40: Icarus, 45s, Ability
Rush to a targetted enemy's or party member's location.
Unable to cast if bound.

Level 42: Toxikon, 5s, Cost: 50 Toxikosis Gauge, Ability
Grants 4 stacks of Toxikon to the job gauge.
Toxikon Effect: Allows for the execution of Neuralgia and Myasthenia without requiring a Charge.
Additionally, the Recast timer is set to 1.5s when Neuralgia or Myasthenia consume a Toxikon stack.
Additional Effect: Grants 4 Addersgall per stack consumed
NOTE: Because of the potency bonus when Neuralgia overwrites Myasthenia or vice versa (from the trait learned at level 62), alternating the two (ala RPR) during Toxikon is preferable.

Level 45: Druochole, 1s, Cost: 25 Addersgall, Ability
Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 600
Additional Effect: Restores 500 MP
NOTE: Addersgall/Addersting gauge changes are listed in the Gauge section, later on.

Level 46: Dyskrasia, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 160 to all nearby enemies.
NOTE: this really ought to be named something else, so as not to conflict with Eukrasia

Level 50: Kerachole, 30s, Cost: 25 Addersgall, Ability
Shields nearby allies, causing them to take 10% less damage.
Effect cannot be stacked with Taurochole.
Duration: 15s
Additional Effect: Restores 500 MP

Level 52: Ixochole, 30s, Cost: 25 Addersgall, Ability
Restores HP of self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 400
Additional Effect: Restores 500 MP

Level 54: Krasis, 5s, Cost: 1500 MP, Ability
Applies 4 stacks of Krasis to the job gauge.
Krasis effect: Reduces cast time of spells by 3s
Additional Effect: Increases Toxikosis by 4 when a stack is consumed
NOTE: Krasis level vastly lowered, and reworked to open up much easier access to 'doubleweaving'

Level 56: Zoe, 5s, Cost: 1500 MP, Ability
Grants 4 stacks of Zoe to the job gauge.
Zoe Effect: Additionally applies a barrier to Kardion target, equal to 25% of the healing delivered. Up to 4 applications of the barrier may stack, with successive applications adding to the barrier's strength. Does not stack with Eukrasian Diagnosis or Eukrasian Prognosis.
Additional Effect: Increases Toxikosis by 4 when a stack is consumed
NOTE: This allows a player to apply barriers without interrupting damage, if there's enough time to. Eukrasian Diagnosis/Prognosis remain as the easily-accessible 'I need barriers, now' solution, if there's not enough time to prepare a Zoe Barrier.

Level 58: Pepsis, 5s, Cost: 500 MP, Ability
Dispels Eukrasian Diagnosis, Eukrasian Prognosis, and Second Opinion from self and nearby allies, healing based on the buff that was dispelled.
Eukrasian Diagnosis Potency: 400
Eukrasian Prognosis Potency: 300
Second Opinion Potency: 250
Grants 5 Toxikosis upon execution.
NOTE: Second Opinion, learned via a trait at level 68, is a new buff left behind for 6s after E.Diagnosis, E.Prognosis or Zoe breaks. This allows Pepsis to be quickly used right after damage is taken, as a sort of 'GNB Continuation' off of the enemy's attack rather than our own

Level 60: Physis 2, 60s, Ability
Restores HP over time to self and nearby allies.
Additional Effect: Increases HP recovered by healing actions by 10%
Regen Potency: 130
Duration: 15s
NOTE: the two effects are bundled into the same buff, to alleviate pressure on the buff cap. Because of this, the duration of the HP recovery effect is increased from 10s to 15s.

Level 62: Taurochole, 45s CD, Cost: 25 Addersgall, Ability
Restores target's HP, and applies Taurochole.
Cure Potency: 750
Taurochole effect: Reduces damage taken by 10%
Effect cannot be stacked with Kerachole.
Additional Effect: Restores 500 MP

Level 66: Pankardia, 5s, Cost: 1500 MP, Ability
Applies 4 stacks of Pankardia to the job gauge, and 4 stacks of Pankardion to all nearby allies.
Pankardia effect: Transfers all effects granted by Kardion to all allies affected by Pankardion, with potencies equal to 50% of the original effect
Additional Effect: Increases Toxikosis by 4 when a stack is consumed

Level 68: Haima, 120s, Ability
Creates a stacking barrier effect on target. Once a layer of barrier is broken, another layer replaces it. A total of 6 layers are applied.
Barrier potency per layer: 300
Duration: 15s
If any layers remain upon duration expiration, a healing effect is applied.
Cure potency per remaining layer: 150

Level 70: Pneuma, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Deals unaspected damage in a straight line before you with a potency of 400 for the first enemy, and 50% less for remaining enemies.
Upon execution, all remaining Toxikon stacks are removed.
Additional Effect: Increases Addersgall by 4, and by an additional 4 per Toxikosis stack remaining at time of execution (if any)
NOTE: Toxikon turns into Pneuma when used, after learning the 'Pneumatic Diffusion' trait.
Pneuma's damage and healing components are separate actions, so Pneuma's cool animation isn't 'wasted' on 'damage neutral heal'.

Level 72: Dosis 2, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 280.

Level 72: Eukrasian Dosis 2, Instant, 1.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 280.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
Potency: 30
Duration: 30s

Level 72: Phlegma 2, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 40s Recharge, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage to target, and all enemies near it, with a potency of 450 for the first target and 30% less for remaining targets.
Maximum Charges: 2
Recharge time is unaffected by status effects or gear attributes.

Level 74: Rhizomata, 90s, Ability
Negates the MP cost of the next Kardia Augment, and grants 25 Addersgall.

Level 76: Holos, 120s, Ability
Restores HP of self and nearby allies, and applies a barrier equal to the HP restored.
Cure Potency: 300
Barrier Duration: 30s
Additional Effect: Reduces damage taken by self and nearby allies by 10%.
Effect Duration: 20s

Level 80: Panhaima, 120s, Ability
Creates a stacking barrier effect on self and nearby allies.
Once a layer of barrier is broken, another layer replaces it. A total of 6 layers are applied.
Barrier potency per layer: 200
Duration: 15s
If any layers remain upon duration expiration, a healing effect is applied.
Cure potency per remaining layer: 100

Level 82: Dosis 3, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 300.

Level 82: Eukrasian Dosis 3, Instant, 1.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 300.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
Potency: 40
Duration: 30s

Level 82: Dyskrasia 2, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 160 to all nearby enemies.

Level 86: Phlegma 3, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 40s Recharge, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage to target, and all enemies near it, with a potency of 500 for the first target and 30% less for remaining targets.
Maximum Charges: 2
Recharge time is unaffected by status effects or gear attributes.

Level 90: Soma, 120s, Ability
Restores HP of self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 900
NOTE: The heal is equal to the potency of Zoe-Pneuma, due to the reworking of Zoe.

Level 92: Psyche, 30s, Ability
Deals unaspected damage to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 300 for the first enemy, and 50% less for all remaining enemies.
Additional Effect: Triggers an instance of Kardia healing on your Kardion target.
This Kardia instance does not consume, nor benefit from, Soteria, Zoe, Krasis or PanKardia. Additionally, this Kardia instance does not generate Toxikosis.

Level 100: Philosophia, 120s, Ability
Instantly grants 4 stacks of Soteria, Krasis, Pankardia and Zoe to the Job Gauge.
Additionally, grants 4 stacks of Philosophia.
Philosophia Effect: Increases the next spell's healing magic potency by 20%. If the spell triggers Kardia, then that instance of Kardia healing is increased by 20%.
Philosophia Effect Duration: 20s

TRAITS

Level 20: Maim and Mend
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 10%

Level 40: Maim and Mend II
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 30%

Level 42: Toxikosis
Enables the accumulation of Toxikosis in the Toxikosis Gauge. Toxikosis can be spent on Toxikon, allows for free execution of Neuralgia and Myasthenia.
Toxikosis is generated via healing with Kardia, or by consuming stacks of Kardia Augments.

Level 45: Addersgall
Enables the accumulation of Addersgall in the Addersgall Gauge. Addersgall can be spent on several healing and mitigation actions.
Addersgall is generated automatically over time, or by consuming stacks of Toxikosis.

Level 54: Somanoutic Oath
Upgrades the potency of Dosis to 240, Eukrasian Dosis to 240, Phlegma to 400, and Eukrasian Phlegma to 400.
Upgrades the potency of Neuralgia and Myasthenia to 260.

Level 58: Phlegmatic Protection
Upon Eukrasian Diagnosis barrier on target, or Eukrasian Prognosis barrier on self, being fully consumed, grants Phlegmatic to self.
Phlegmatic Effect: Allows the use of Phlegma or Eukrasian Phlegma, without consuming a charge. Phlegmatic is consumed before Charges.
Duration: 40s

Level 60: Physis Mastery
Upgrades Physis to Physis 2.

Level 62: Neuralgia & Myasthenia Mastery
Grants Neuralgia and Myasthenia an additional effect.
When consuming Myasthenia by applying Neuralgia, Neuralgia's potency is increased by 10.
When consuming Neuralgia by applying Myasthenia, Myasthenia's potency is increased by 10.

Level 64: Somanoutic Oath 2
Upgrades the potency of Dosis to 260 and Eukrasian Dosis to 260.
Upgrades the potency of Neuralgia and Myasthenia to 280.

Level 68: Second Opinion
When a Barrier effect from Eukrasian Diagnosis, Eukrasian Prognosis or Zoe is fully consumed, it is replaced by Second Opinion for 6s. Pepsis can be used to consume Second Opinion to heal the recipient of the buff.

Level 70: Pneumatic Diffusion
Increases the healing potency of Kardia to 170.
Additionally, allows the execution of Pneuma after executing Toxikon.

Level 72: Offensive Mastery
Upgrades Dosis to Dosis II, Phlegma to Phlegma II, and Eukrasian Dosis to Eukrasian Dosis II.
Additionally, increases the potency of Eukrasian Phlegma to 450, and the damage over time of Eukrasian Phlegma to 30.
Additionally, increases the potency of Neuralgia and Myasthenia to 300.

Level 78: Enhanced Kerachole
Kerachole applies Second Opinion to all allies affected for 15s.
Pepsis heals for 400p when consuming this Second Opinion buff.

Level 82: Offensive Mastery 2
Upgrades Dosis II to Dosis III, Eukrasian Dosis II to Eukrasian Dosis III and Dyskrasia to Dyskrasia II.
Additionally, increases the potency of Neuralgia and Myasthenia to 320.

Level 85: Wisdom of Asclepius
Increases the healing potency of Diagnosis to 450 and the base heal of Kardia to 200.
Increases the healing potency of Eukrasian Diagnosis to 450.
Increases the barrier potency of Eukrasian Diagnosis to 120% the amount healed, and Eukrasian Prognosis to 110% the amount healed.
NOTE: Current EW values have E.Diag barrier potency at 540p and E.Prog at 320p. By using these percentages, we can have the Eukrasian versions
of these heals heal for the same as their base counterparts, and have the barriers be equal strength to the EW values.

Level 86: Phlegma Mastery
Upgrades Phlegma II to Phlegma III.
Additionally, increases the potency of Eukrasian Phlegma to 500, and the damage over time of Eukrasian Phlegma to 40.

Level 92: Feedback Cycle
Consuming a stack of Toxikon restores 100MP.
Casting Pneuma restores 100MP.

Level 94: Somanoutic Mastery
Increases the potency of Dosis III to 310, Eukrasian Dosis III to 310, and Pneuma to 420.
Additionally, increases the potency of Neuralgia and Myasthenia to 330.

Level 96: Precise Prognosis
Upgrades Eukrasian Prognosis to apply a barrier equal to 120% the HP recovered.
NOTE: This is a potency equal to what DT's 'Eukrasian Prognosis II' applies, but with a different name than 'Eukrasian Prognosis II' because that sounds a little silly to me.
It also lets Eukrasian Prognosis II's animation be re-used elsewhere (eg, for the new Soma perhaps)

Level 98: Physis Amplification
Increases the Healing Over Time effect of Physis 2 to 150p.
NOTE: The 'HP restoration increased by 10%' effect's duration being increased to match the HOT is already baked into Physis 2 from Level 60 in this design.

SIDE NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR

The main goal of the design is to allow for a master of the Job to be able to heal through an encounter, even very difficult ones such as Savage or perhaps even Ultimate, with as little interruption to their damage output as possible. If SGE is the 'can heal by doing damage' healer, then I want that to be at the forefront of the gameplay. Being able to heal by dealing damage, and using Augment Abilities to modify Kardia's behaviour to fulfill the requirements of the fight.

To alleviate 'skill floor' concerns, I made the decision to make only the Augments cost MP. For a player who does not want to, or does not feel confident in using the Augments and relying on Kardia so much, they can still cast the 'regular spells' (Diagnosis, Prognosis, Dosis, etc.), and they will all cost zero MP. Additionally, the MP cost of attack spells, and any Eukrasian variants of spells (attack or healing), are also zero MP cost. The MP cost for applying barriers (eg with Eukrasian Prognosis) is on the use of Eukrasia. Additionally, to alleviate accidental 'misclicks' of Eukrasia, the base form of the spell will have it's potency reflected in the Eukrasian variant. For example (at max level), where current Endwalker gameplay has Prognosis at 300p, and Eukrasian Prognosis at 100p, with 320% barrier, this design instead sets Eukrasian Prognosis at 300p, and 120% barrier, meaning that if a player misclicks Eukrasia, Eukrasian Prognosis will still heal the same amount of 'actual HP' as Prognosis. The only thing 'lost' is the MP cost for Eukrasia.

I set the MP cost of the Augments (Soteria, Krasis, Zoe, Pankardia) at 1500 MP, just as an example value. I don't know what would be a good value, what would be balanced, etc, as the idea of having a healer that doesn't spend MP on its basic attacks is not something we've seen in FFXIV before. However, I think it'd be quite interesting if the MP restoration from within the healer kits was strong enough, and MP economy sturdy enough, that we could remove Lucid Dreaming as an action, since it's a button we just 'press once per minute, every minute' without much thought. We currently generate 3850MP per Lucid Dreaming use, and 4000MP from passive MP regen (and that's before factoring in Piety's effect), and 2100MP from Addersgall spending. There's a lot of MP coming in per minute, and so the expenditure rate needs to take that into consideration

Toxikon was reworked, due to the current design of Toxikon being, effectively, 'Ruin 2 with extra steps'. With this, there is much more interplay within the kit, and Toxikon's current use case of 'allows the player to weave/move' is instead covered by Krasis. Neuralgia and Myasthenia serve to break up the 'Dosis Spam', and additionally help to slightly mitigate Autoattack damage on the Tank (while also triggering Kardia healing, to sustain the Tank). Toxikon, however, allows for rapid execution of these two skills, ideally alternated for the bonus potency, in a gameplay similar to Reaper's Enshroud (complete with a cast time finisher, for a big final hit). However, since the Pneuma is a stronger action than Dosis, it could prove to be advantageous to use it to empower a Zoe-based shield, adding potential depth to the decision on 'when' to utilize a Toxikon window. Assuming 3 Toxikon windows are used per 2min, this would actually reduce Dosis, the 'filler', to being the 3rd most used attack in our rotation, instead of the 'most used and it isn't even close' position it currently holds.

The 'barrier break' interaction that allowed us to accumulate Toxikon in the live game, I do find somewhat interesting as a mechanic, and so it remains, but now grants 'Phlegmatic', allowing the player to use one use of Phlegma without consuming a Charge. This is still a damage loss in single target (2x310 = 620, one Phlegma is 500), but less so compared to the current Toxikon. Additionally, it might be a damage gain to put that extra Phlegma into raid buffs, depending on your party's composition, for an additional factor for optimization-minded players to consider and optimize around. This Phlegmatic buff could also be spent on Eukrasian Phlegma, which would additionally apply the Eukrasian Dosis DOT for 15s, thereby further reducing the Barrier application's impact on your damage output, provided that you aren't overwriting the DOT's duration. If my quick, late night maths isn't too far off, swapping your rotation from using Eukrasian Dosis to apply the DOT, to 'using Eukrasian Phlegma to apply the DOT for 2min, using 5 Barriers in those 2min to get the 8 total Phlegma charges to do so', would be an overall loss of 600p for those entire 2 minutes.

Pankardia is added as a skill, to nobody's surprise. It was also announced in the Dawntrail Job Actions Live Letter, to nobody's surprise. Of course, it's almost a given that it'd be added, since it just makes perfect sense to add to round out the kit. Where SE's version will likely come has been given a large Cooldown of 180 seconds, I'd prefer to allow the player to have ready access to it, and instead gate its use behind a resource. In this case, MP. By allowing the player almost constant access to the skill in this way, it becomes much more feasible for the player to handle more of the required healing via just Kardia, especially in content like Roulettes, which would serve to reinforce the identity of the Job and make its gameplay feel different from its peer, Scholar. And for higher-skilled players doing lower-skill-level content (eg a Savage raider doing EX roulette to cap their tomestones for the week), 'Can I heal this EX roulette using Kardia and Kardia Augments as my only source of healing?' could be an interesting self-imposed challenge to attempt.

Soteria/Krasis/Zoe have all had their effects changed, to better suit the 'Kardia Augment' direction of the class design. The instances where Zoe would be used on something other than Pneuma were few and far between, and so the heal potency of Soma (replacing Pneuma as the 'big burst of healing' Level 90 move) matches the Zoe-boosted value of the Zoe-Pneuma combo we currently make use of. The healing up of Krasis, in my experience, was additionally very... situational, mainly finding itself applied to the MT in conjunction with Soteria, to double-boost Kardia. The new Krasis grants SGE a massive boost to mobility, and also allows for faster recovery from deaths via Egeiro, as it reduces the cast time of Egeiro to 5s. At least, as long as you have the MP spare.

The rationale behind 'Eukrasian Phlegma' is simply 'Eukrasian Dyskrasia sounds stupid'. The two words refer to the opposite of one another, and so the term 'Eukrasian Dyskrasia' is something of an oxymoron, it's contradicting itself. Eukrasian Phlegma gives us a reason to see the Toxikon animation, the one displayed front and center in the Endwalker trailer, once again. The potency is the same as a regular Phlegma (so misclicking Eukrasia does not have as much negative effect on the player), and at max level, has the same DOT tick potency as Eukrasian Dosis would. As such, ideally you would want to use Eukrasian Phlegma inside the 2min window to refresh the DOT and simultaneously deal burst damage via Phlegma's strong on-hit potency, and the player would be free to choose to either use their second charge on a regular Phlegma to conserve MP (as using Eukrasia to apply the DOT via Eukrasian Dosis gives a 30s Duration, rather than the 15s via Eukrasian Phlemga), or to use it on Eukrasian Phlegma again 15s later, to refresh the DOT once more, snapshotting the buffs of the 2min window for its duration.

Due to the changes to the gauges, Rhizomata is changed to instantly grant 25 Addersgall. This is functionally identical to the current gameplay, as 25 is enough for one use of any -Chole action. Additionally, it negates the MP cost of the next MP spender, which makes using it, and the Addersgall spender it provides, all the more relevant to your MP economy.

Lastly, Pepsis. Rather than deleting it entirely (and it was tempting), I've instead created Second Opinion: a buff that is left behind after a barrier from Eukrasian Diagnosis, Eukrasian Prognosis, or the Augment effect of Zoe, are fully consumed. Pepsis can be used in the same fashion as the live game, consuming barriers to heal, but it can also consume Second Opinion. I believe that being able to hit Pepsis right after a raidwide attack hits the party, to immediately respond to the damage and start healing allies back up, would feel very fun and add massively to the engagement of the Job. This gameplay technically already exists in the live game, as you can hit Pepsis right before a raidwide attack hits, which will 'snapshot' the barriers being active on the party and use the healing effect on the party, but because of... animation delay? Server unresponsiveness? Whatever it is, this narrow window means that Pepsis doesn't actually consume the barriers, the raidwide attack does, but Pepsis still activates after the raidwide as if the barriers were consumed, letting you get both the protection of the barrier, and the Pepsis healing. Second Opinion would simply extend that already-existing window, turning it from the pseudo-exploit grey-area it currently sits in, into an actual gameplay mechnanic we can reliably utilize.

All in all, I believe that this SGE would be very fast paced, easy to learn and hard to master, with players able to easily and instantly dip back into using a GCD healing spell to cover barrier requirements if they don't feel confident in preparing the barrier via Kardia. Juggling resources in a cycle, Addersgall spending feeds MP, MP feeds Toxikosis generation, and Toxikosis spending feeds Addersgall, means that the player would always have resources for something available. And with 'spend MP to get damage via Toxikosis', it might turn out that Piety is a stat that contributes an unexpected amount of extra damage to the rotation. Couple that with Spell Speed allowing for faster attacks (and therefore faster Toxikosis generation), and maybe a Piety/SpellSpeed stat build could unseat Critical Hit from its 'undisputedly the best and nothing comes close' throne?

Thank you for reading. If there are any typos, please mention them.

To Square Enix, should someone from SE see this post: I give full permission for parts or all of this design to be taken and used for 8.0 or beyond, I do not ask for any credit.