During the press tour Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, MeinMMO author Irina was able to try out the new job Sage. Here are her impressions.
This is the Sage: For centuries, the nation of Sharlayan has gathered the knowledge of the world and carefully guarded it to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. However, they have also gained new insights and conducted research. One of the results of this development is the Sage.
Trained at the famous Academy of Sharlayan, they are powerful allies in battle due to their expertise in magic and medicine, healing the wounds of their comrades and protecting them from attacks.
However, they can also deal damage themselves, as their floating Nouliths allow them to cast attack spells.
The Sage will be playable for all owners of the expansion with the release of Endwalker on November 23. You can watch the gameplay video of the Sage here:
About the Author
MeinMMO author Irina Moritz has been playing Final Fantasy XIV since day one and has already spent over 800 days of gameplay there. She is an active raider who has mastered the high-end game content of the MMORPG for years. She also enjoys theorycrafting and likes to delve into the various systems of the game. Currently, she is expanding her airship and submarine empire in her one-man guild to take over the markets of Eorzea.
For healers who also want to deal damage
This article and the described gameplay experience are based on a version of FFXIV: Endwalker that is still in development. The finished version may therefore contain changes.
This is how the Sage feels: I have to admit that I was surprised at how much fun I had testing the Sage. I’m actually not a healer; healing past trials was the peak of my experience until now. However, I immediately got the hang of the job.
I particularly enjoyed the cool interaction between healing and damage from the Sage. It is stronger with this job than with any other healer, leading to a pleasant skill flow during the dungeon run in the Tower of Zot that we completed.
First, I placed Kardia on my tank, then a Eukrasia shield, and then calmly dealt damage while my tank was healed automatically. Once the shield was broken, I unleashed a Toxikon and applied a new shield. It felt really good.
In the video below, you can watch how I play as a Sage through the new dungeon. Without my own keybindings and with a ping of 200, it was definitely an exciting adventure.
There is certainly no shortage of “Oh-Shit” abilities for the Sage, especially thanks to the Addersgall resource, which requires no preparation time.
My only concern while healing was actually the MP. As a spoiled white mage, who normally never lacks MP, I experienced a nasty surprise with the Sage at first (can surely be seen in the video). However, true healers definitely pay better attention to their MP than I do, so they shouldn’t have any issues with the Sage’s MP.
However, I think that players who do not want to deal any damage as a healer will have less fun with the Sage. It feels like half of its skill repertoire encourages you to deal damage in order to maximize the job’s potential.
This is how the Sage plays
These are the skills: The Sage is the second shield healer in FFXIV. Although he has enough direct healing skills, his abilities tend more towards mitigating damage through shields. In a full group, he shares the healer spot with the Scholar, who is also a shield healer.
At the core of the Sage’s gameplay is the special ability Eukrasia, as well as the two resources Addersgall and Addersting.
Eukrasia has the function of modifying other skills and changing their effects. When you use the skill, it alters:
- The single-target heal Diagnosis to a weaker heal + shield
- The AoE heal Prognosis to a weaker heal + shield
- The attack Dosis to a DoT
As a Sage, you are quite flexible and can heal the tank first with a normal Diagnosis heal and then apply a shield with an Eukrasia Diagnosis to mitigate a tank buster.
The two shields from Diagnosis and Prognosis also have a special effect. When they are destroyed by damage taken, they grant the Sage a stack of the aforementioned Addersting. This resource is needed to use the strong damage spell Toxikon.
The second resource, Addersgall, is intended for healing and support abilities. It is automatically charged over time and can hold a maximum of 3 charges.
Addersgall enables the use of instant skills with names ending in “-chole” that can also reduce damage taken, for example. It is a simple system where 1 point of Addersgall is required for each skill.
Finally, the Sage has the ability Kardia. It is cast on a party member and remains until the Sage cancels it (similar to the dancer’s partner). Each time the Sage now deals damage to enemies, the party member with Kardia heals a certain amount of HP.
The strength of the healing depends on the damage spells and is at 170 points Cure Potency for all. So when you deal damage in battle, it automatically provides your Kardia party member with a small “healing over time” effect.
Aside from that, the Sage obviously has the usual skills for resurrection and buffs that enhance his healing, as is the case with other healers.
Also keep in mind that the values and descriptions may change in the final version of Endwalker.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t select a German language version while testing because the localization of the abilities was not yet complete. So if you have any questions about specific skills or descriptions, feel free to ask them in the comments.
What do you think about the Sage? Do you like the skills or are you not interested in such a “damage healer”? Let us know in the comments.
Everything about the second new job Reaper can be found here:
