Character

First, a bit of context

Shortly after the release of Endwalker, I wrote a couple of quick beginner's tips on how best to use Sage on the FFXIV Subreddit. Prioritising oGCD heal abilities weaved between attacks instead of spamming GCD heal spells, letting regens (including Kardia) do their work... You know, the usual Healer 101, to alleviate the effects of entering duty finder as an instant level 70 healer with no prior experience. First I made a concise text post, followed by a nice visual resource that just so happened to contradict their popular "Sage healing rotation" nonsense. The Reddit crowd decided to argue and even harass via direct message, claiming Sage should maximise DPS by keeping Eukrasian Diagnosis's shield up to charge Addersting for Toxikon. Maybe it's the mobility of Eukrasia, blinding them to the opportunity cost of straight Dosis or Dyskrasia?

Edit: added the apparently controversial math.

Think of White Mage's equally mobile Afflatus Solace or Rapture. Using 3 of them charges Afflatus Misery, which does 4x the damage of Glare (WHM). That means it's damage neutral after considering all four casts (0+0+0+4 = 1+1+1+1). With Sage's Eukrasian Diagnosis, using 1 likewise charges Toxikon, but Toxikon only does 1x the damage of Dosis (SGE). That means Toxikon actually cuts DPS in half after considering both casts (0+1 < 1+1). Alternatively, think of it this way: Shield-Toxikon does the same damage as Shield-Dosis, which is half as much as Dosis-Dosis. Similar math for Dyskrasia-Dyskrasia, except Toxikon is a bit more than half in that case.

Of course, the Reddit crowd just had to deny everything. Their harassment via direct message got so bad that I deleted my account. Then, I took a step back, and came to a realisation that nearly made me quit the game. Square had just released a healer that's functionally identical to my main Scholar—but with Scholar’s much-needed usability improvements—while Scholar itself was the only job in the game that saw zero change for the entire expansion. Sure, the new Expedient (SCH) may be useful, and could be a party invulnerability for all I care, but even that wouldn't change how Sage is still just a bootleg Scholar.

That's right, a functionally identical bootleg, down to each individual ability.





The mind-blowing truth

Not sure why, but the English-speaking community can't seem to wrap their heads around this simple truth: Sage is just a Scholar reskin with artificial differences draped over an absolutely identical kit. Did that sound controversial to you too? The basic GCD spells are identical, the core Addersgall (SGE) and Aetherflow (SCH) mechanics and their oGCD abilities are likewise identical, and the rest of the kits are again identical minus the Faerie+Seraph management. Meanwhile Astrologian, White Mage, and Scholar are all fundamentally different from each other, with only a very loose parallel between their Essential Dignity (AST), Benediction (WHM), and Excogitation (SCH). As for the Sage-exclusive mechanic of a GCD shield that charges an attack, any decent Sage would never even use GCD shields outside of pre-pull. The whole "attack healer" thing only really refers to Kardia (SGE), which is functionally identical to Embrace (SCH)—on the condition of actually attacking, instead of spamming shields. See the irony?

Considering how the only tangible difference between these two academically themed jobs is their aesthetic, we might as well imagine what could have been: nouliths as an additional off-weapon used in tandem with book and Faerie, with Sage being the job advancement for a Scholar class that's entirely separate from a linear Arcanist-Summoner. Really, why couldn't Square take a healthier route like this wishful example, instead of completely sidelining Scholar for a concurrent Scholar 2.0? Unlike the past concern that Dancer would outshine Bard, we're talking the exact same job with the exact same kit, with only minor ease-of-use adjustments.

But see, "decent Sage" is precisely the detail through which I eventually arrived at closure.





The answer

Last night, I ran The Copied Factory as Scholar, co-healing with a fellow Scholar who also knew how to maximise our incredibly flexible oGCD toolkit to maintain 100% damage uptime. I complimented him, mentioning how long it had been since I'd encountered another healer who didn't just spam GCD heals whenever anyone took damage. The rest of our party was inexperienced, and ate a lot of mechanics, yet we still managed near 100% uptime of offensive GCDs even after including Raises. But how is any of this Scholar stuff relevant?

Addersting's net DPS loss aside, I'm sure we're all aware how 99% of Sages also spam Eukrasian Prognosis (SGE) like the typical Succor (SCH) spammer. Sometimes it's for a bigger heal with Pepsis (SGE), which is functionally identical to Emergency Tactics (SCH), but even that is hardly ever necessary with the rest of their incredibly flexible oGCD toolkit at their disposal: the core Druchole and Ixochole (SGE) are again exact copies of Lustrate and Indomitability (SCH), while Kerachole (SGE) is just Sacred Soil (SCH) without the ground limitation. A good Sage or Scholar can easily manage large dungeon pulls or solo-heal raids with just these core Addersgall (SGE) or Aetherflow (SCH) abilities, peppered with their other functionally identical oGCD abilities as necessary. Scholar in particular can even use Aetherflow (SCH) charges on Energy Drain (SCH) for damage instead of healing, all while still keeping any decent tank's health well above 50% unless deliberately allowing Excogitation (SCH) to trigger—meaning Scholar is actually more of an "attack healer" than Sage, lol. More importantly though, now that we've established yet again how Sage is just a carbon copy of Scholar, we know that Succor (SCH) spamming and Eukrasian Prognosis (SGE) spamming are the exact same behaviour.

Simply put, when used properly, Sage and Scholar are actually the exact same "pure oGCD healer" with the exact same oGCD abilities, whose likewise identical GCD shields are as seldom used as Clemency (PLD) outside of pre-pull. Yet, considering how the two are functionally identical, the fact that GCD shield spamming has always been common on Scholar means the same must also be true of Sage. If I had to name a culprit, it's the "shield healer" misnomer making people think shield uptime is a thing. As for the Reddit crowd, well... If they want to be bad and stay bad, let them.





Except I'm still quitting

For the record, while I've seen Sage played consistently with Scholar-like optimisation, I myself refuse to even unlock it. The fact remains that, instead of giving Scholar any de-clunking changes for Endwalker, these changes were incorporated into some unoriginal Scholar reskin with artificial differences (such as gradual "Aetherflow" for identical abilities) while Scholar got nothing. What's worse, this "new" healer's single-target shield is hard-coded such that Scholars cannot apply theirs on top no matter what, even if the Sage's only has 1 HP left. In every sense, Scholar was literally gutted in favour of an identical but flashier version of itself. As a teacher, I had hoped to take it in stride by being useful to anyone interested in this duplicate of my main job, but I guess the Reddit crowd was beyond help.

What I want isn't a Scholar rework like our book-wielding DPS counterparts, but rather for Sage to not just be a slightly easier clone of Scholar. The job is fine, otherwise Square wouldn't simply "make" an exact copy that only looks different. Kind of unlikely that they would immediately rework this lazy copy after just "making" it though, meaning Scholar will instead be the one to go (and become what Sage should have been in the first place?). Thing is, any post-Sage changes to Scholar would only mean the doppelganger successfully killed and replaced the original. I only chose to stick around after that Reddit mess for the Endwalker story, so maybe this is the End for me too.

Sure, this game has a lot more jobs, and I do enjoy Red Mage and Paladin too, but I liked Scholar enough to play it almost exclusively for 700 hours on the free trial before even subscribing. Explains why I'm so invested in this whole "Scholar 2.0" thing, to the point where the existence of Sage alone is already enough of an eyesore. Honestly though, why is it only the West that refuses to acknowledge how they're essentially the same job with nominal differences? I'd actually considered transfering to a Japan server months ago for an unrelated reason (hint: many "Japanese" things are only relevant overseas, often excessively so), but now I've lost hope for this game altogether.


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TL;DR: Sage is ultimately just a Scholar reskin, complete with its telltale GCD shield spammers. And after factoring in Sage's ease of use over Scholar, as well as Sage’s absolute shield priority over Scholar, there's no question as to why Scholar was the only job in the entire game that saw zero change for Endwalker. As a dedicated Scholar main, I quit.



PS: Is the influx of Sages the reason why everyone's suddenly spamming chat with annoying Raise macros, often featuring <se.#>? Fairly sure the Raise buff and that new longcast target indicator exist for a reason, giving the spam no more value than a kid going "look mom, I'm helping!"