Sage, the newest healer in Final Fantasy XIV, is very different from many other healer jobs in the game: doing damage actually heals party members. The class isn’t the easiest to master, but with a few tips, players can both maximize their damage and keep their party members healed up.
Sage has three main damage dealers, a damage-over-time, a single-target skill, and an AoE skill. As with any other DoT, make sure that it’s always applied to your enemy. Other than that, players will need to use their skills to adjust to the situation and keep their friends alive.
Players looking to pick up Sage should go in with the knowledge that this class of healer is more similar to Scholar, which deals more with mitigating damage than straight healing, than White Mage or Astrologian, which have more direct healing and fewer mitigation skills.
The Sage opener
Although the Sage rotation isn’t the greatest in terms of ease, the opener is pretty simple. Make sure that you’ve casted Kardia on the main tank and apply shields just before the encounter begins, which will give you stacks of Addersting if they break. Players should have Grade 7 Tinctures of Mind that they pop three seconds before pull, and then follow the rotation listed below.
- Dosis III (started 1.5 seconds before the pull)
- Eukrasian Diosis III
- Dosis III
- Dosis III
- Phlegma III
- Phlegma III
- Dosis III
The Sage rotation
This is the part where Sage gets a little difficult. The rotation relies heavily on players doing as much damage as possible since their damage equates to healing for other party members. Players should always be casting and keeping their Global Cooldowns (GCDs) on cooldown.
Healing and DPS are tied together for the Sage class. The tank that Kardia is applied to will receive healing that is determined by the Sage’s DPS output. Only skills that do damage will trigger the Kardia effect.
Try to control your party’s damage ahead of time by applying shields instead of providing straight healing with your Addersgall. Keeping your Addersgall stacks for when you really need them can be essential in keeping the party alive. Players will get Addersgall every 20 seconds and it caps at three stacks.
Once you get comfortable by shielding your players, it comes down to managing your Addersgall stacks and using your oGCDs to maintain the party. Using skills like Haima, which creates additional barriers for the party when there is tons of damage coming in, or Physis, which is the regen skill for Sage, will help healers keep players alive.
Balancing direct healing and barriers is the key to becoming a good Sage. Players who are able to anticipate damage will fare better than those who rely more on direct healing. Because there are only three stacks of Addersgall that proc skills that have direct healing, it can be a snowball situation, and the party could wipe.
Practice with some Trusts or with a trusted group of friends if you’re unsure of your ability while playing Sage. The class is viable in all content including all difficult end-game content like Extreme Trials and Savage raids, so players who are interested in the class and are able to master it should be able to heal through all end-game content.
